What to do with a free, rainy day in Ramallah

  The City Inn, is in a part of Ramallah I'm not familiar with, not that I am familiar with much, but I do want to find that bakery and  the pouring rain is a good excuse to loose a few hours in the Turkish bath. .

Turkish Bath Ramallah

Tel: +972/ (0)2 -022408281

Email: turkishbathpalestine@gmail.com

My room at The City Inn.............

( Do not judge me by the poka dot bag I had to buy in Seattle when the Lufthansa attendant told me they have a 8 kg limit on carry on bags.  After seeing the other passengers when boarding, I think this is a selective policy)

  I wake up Kevin, I mean he has had 2-3 hours of sleep by now, that's enough , right? We had at typical breakfast of humus, pita, cucumbers, tomato, hard bolied egg, and some good coffee.  Kevin has a few cups.  We are off to the PCRF office to deliver baked goods, say "hello" and check in. Noura and Randa are there, friendly as always and very helpful with every request. , Such as, "I need to get some spices for my friends and family so they will continue to cook food for me", Oh, I mean as gifts! (you foodies know who you are) Noura takes us to a spice store, as the outdoor markets are all covered up because it is pouring, again.   (Portland?)  I get lots of spices including 2 bags of Saffron for about $5 US, look....

   Deema Sosebee  joins us at the bath. It is an hour and a half of hot steam, body scrub, massage, hot steam again, hot marble, cold dunk, shower followed by fresh carrot juice. And they are having an Easter special, $23, lovelyness. Perfect way to easy your body and brain into a new time zone 10 hours from you own.
  It has actually stopped pouring now.  Steve Sosebee picks us up and we are off to meet the pediatric cardiac group from Chicago for dinner in the old city of Jerusalem.
  It's actually a nice time to walk in the old city, I think the rain has washed a few tourists away and the setting sun from the restaurant gives a nice view.  The food is delicious like always and the company great. I'm excited to leave for Gaza in the am and help John who was doing great surgeries today.  Right about the time we were at the baths, sorry about that John.

Arrival

After 17 plus hours of flying, holding, lay overing, line waiting, I arrived in Tel Aviv and found our trusty cab driver (can't remember his name now...Arab, lives in Jerusalem, 5 kids, has Israeli and Palestinian driver license) holding the PCRF sign at 4pm Thurs.  I'm then informed that Kevin has missed his connection in Frankfurt and won't be in until 3am. Ouch. Doesn't make my journey sound so bad after all.
  I am staying at the City Inn in Ramallah.  Kevin and I will go to Gaza City Sunday.  The border crossings are closed until then for the Jewish Sabbat....5pm on Fridays until 5ish on Saturdays. Transportation can be tricky because of the different religions holy days (Muslim's, Friday), and the driver's ability to go through check points due to their residency and what license they hold.  
   So the good news is, we get a free day in Ramallah where there is a great bakery that has buttery, bite sized, chocolate croissants for a shekel, 25 cents, and I know where the spice market, and Turkish bath is.
  Foggy, need more sleep.

The Players

Dr. John Gazak, pediatric urologist extraordinaire!



World famous anesthesiologist, Dr. Kevin Healy. "Have laryngoscope will travel"

And yours truly T Bubb RN, pre-op, PACU, post-op, mischief maker.

This is our fourth trip together to Palestine.  First, Ramallah in March, 2009.  Hebron, Feb., 2010, and Nablus, Oct., 2010.

Links and stuff

More info on Gaza,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_strip

The NGO that is hosting us, Palestinians Children's Relief Fund,

http://www.pcrf.net/

These are some of the procedures the pediatric urologist surgeon will be doing,

hypospadias and chordee repairs, ureteral reimplant, and some kidney surgeries.

Background Info

Gaza Strip قطاع غزة Qiṭāʿ Ġazzah
Largest city		Gaza
Organized		September 13, 1993 Oslo accords
-	Signed	PA took partial control in May 1994; full control in September 2005; Hamas control since 2007 (Israel retains control of airspace, non-Egyptian land borders and offshore maritime access while Egypt controls its land border portion)
Area
-	Total	360 km2 (169th) 139 sq mi
Population
-	July 2011[1] estimate	1,657,155 people[1]
-	Density	4,118/km2 (6th1) 10,665/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2009 est estimate
-	Total	$770 million (160th1)
-	Per capita	$3,100 (175th1)
Currency		Egyptian Pound (de facto) Israeli new sheqel (ILS)
Time zone		(UTC+2)
-	Summer (DST)	(UTC+3)