Rumour Mill

It's hard to know what's being said behind your back. Personally I don't care most, if not, all of the time. However, from time to time other people's opinions of you and what you're doing manifest themselves to your front side, so to speak.

Palestinians are, with better reason than most, suspicious of outsiders. I'm sure there are many different stories circulating around me about who I am and what people perceive me to be doing here. The fact that I tend to be vague and unsure myself when faced with these questions probably just encourages creative thinking in this area.

My friend T., having already helped me extensively in the past with my work, posed the question (of what 'exactly' I'm doing here) to me a couple of days ago. Apparently a third party who claimed to know me (although I didn't recognise the name) had said that I was working here and in an Israeli settlement?! It seems the specter of the spy always haunts foreigners here, no matter how long there here for. In fact, I suspect the longer you're here, the longer the shadow grows.

However, just to reaffirm how different behind the back opinion is about me, a young Palestinian-American man, named C. approached my table while I was sat with a friend in a coffee shop, to tell me that his cousin, who was sitting with him on the other side of the cafe, thought I was 'cute'.

Just goes to show: you win some, you lose some!