Number 19 and final selections

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We are now on the hour count down before we leave. Last night we didn't sleep at all. Adri became an uncle for the 19th time. At 2:30 am we had to drive to the hospital as the new baby had arrived. Driving into the city at night is a little crazy as you not only have to go through the checkpoint (very suspiciously at this tie of night), but then there are several Palestinian 'checkpoints' within the city as they too are suspicious. The car we drive has a yellow licence plate (Israeli) because the car was rented in Jerusalem. Palestinian plates are white. Either way, we made it to the hospital to greet the new arrival to the clan. The hospital experience is surreal, especially the maternity ward. Adri calls it a 'production line". There are groups of people staning outside one door, waiting for their loved one to gice birth. No one is allowed to be with her while she delivers - just the doctors and nurses. Once she gives birth, they whell her out, with her baby on her lap, and all the people scramble to see if she is their loved one they are waiting for. About every 5 minutes another one is wheeled out - the 'production line'.

We ended up sleeping in the car for a couple of hours and now we are in Ramallah, having our morning breakfast and coffee. Today we are meeting a couple more people that may be candidates for the Palestinian regional coordinator. We met with a rep from the Canadian consulate yesterday who was really supportive. He gave us some informtion on possible regional funding.

Today we are finalizing our selection. We have already discussed it several times, and have a list of our top picks. Now we will narrow it down to our final selections. What a great group we have!

Tomorrow we leave to Vancouver! Wish us luck in our journey through the airport security. We need to be there 3-4 hours before our flight leaves becuase everyone gets questioned. The lucky ones sometimes get stripped searched. Wahoo, can't wait.

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