Early in the morning, Walid, our great guide, picked us up at the guesthouse. It was really cold in February. We have been a small group of braves, ready to share the beauty of the first sun-rays over Jenin’s mountains.

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Having been introduced to “PROJECT CINEMA JENIN“ by a feature in 3sat’s “Kulturzeit“, my wife Angela and myself decided to spend two weeks working in Jenin during this summer. After visiting Marcus and Annette in Tübingen and after the exchange of lots of mails and phonecalls, our trip started August 4th with our Elal flight from Munich to Tel Aviv, our luggage filled with donations. After the first night in the beautiful “Austrian Hospice“ in Jerusalem’s Arabic Quarter, we met with Annette and 15 boys and girls from “Leibniz-Kolleg“ who also had decided to work as volunteers for CJ. The young folks started a short trip through Israel, so Angela, Annette and myself, we went to Jenin by bus. After a very hot three-hours-trip we were welcomed by Achim and Johannes and introduced to all the friendly Palestinian workers and volunteers. Angela, Annette and myself, we really were the first three people who ever slept in the Guesthouse! The next night, Achim joined us, and some days later the “Leibniz-Kolleg“ volunteers arrived.

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Salam aleikum! Shukran! Affuan! These are familiar words to all of us in the guesthouse. It is sufficient to make people smile in the street and shops, but after a wile, you really want to learn more. So we found out that literally around the corner there is a language school, the Student’s Scientific Society Center SSSC. The other day, we kindly have been invited to talk about our future cooperation, to get to know the teachers, their approach and the location. So Felix – who by the way speaks a fluent Arabic and myself (whom you will rarely see on any photo because I am always taking them), we went to school again…

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In June 2008, Marcus was the surprise guest at „Social Entrepreneurship Forum“ in Potsdam. He showed the trailer of Heart of Jenin and the audience, mainly tough business men, have been deeply moved. So was I. At the following speakers’ dinner, I sat next to him. „This project’s energy is simply incredible. I would love to take part.“ „Welcome“ was his answer.
For the second time, I am here in Jenin now. Sitting in the basement of this old, beautifully renovated guesthouse. I’m enjoying the fresh air and the peace in the middle of this amazing, boiling hot, vivid, dusty city.

And here, in Jenin, I can feel this high energy again. This house is an open system, attracting people from all over the world. They come, they observe, they listen and then they get hooked – everybody ready to participate, contributing with whatever they can. With a brush in their hand to paint a window frame, or a camera to advise the kids how to shoot scenes of their daily life, with a knife to cut the kilos of freshly bought vegetables from the market around the corner to prepare dinner for numerous hungry stomachs, or sitting at one of the laptops, sending mails or working on the layout of an “Cinema Jenin coming soon” advertisement – or just sitting on the terrace till late, a glass of peppermint in one hand and a cigarette in the other, thinking out of the box to find solutions and new ideas or just talking about the daily impressions….

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It is very quiet today. Everybody is preparing for the last day of Ramadan, only brave Abu Mashdi and his son, who survived two headshots and a shot in the leg in the first Infada and, because of that, sometimes talks to the walls, are up on the roof laying floor slabs. So, public holidays from Sept. 18th – 20th, 2009.

In summary we achieved the following over the last days: On half of the guesthouse roof slabs have been laid, the steel construction for the roof pavilion is agreed upon, the roof drainage is prepared, the work on the exemplary movie chairs is on the way (because of those I might have to get myself a prayer mill), the garden of the cinema and the canal are completely cleaned up, the canal covering has been discussed with the structural engineer, the missing glass panels have been installed in the guesthouse and the reception desk was set up.

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Dear friends of quality cinema,
following a short update on the latest developments in Jenin:
I arrived well and it is good to be back here. The first couple of days turned out to be quite exhausting – it felt like living and sleeping in a dusty construction site trailer while herding cats, but since yesterday I am back on top and settled in.
The guesthouse is all tidied up and clean now, the floors are polished and, once again, I feel very comfortable here. We still need to finish little tasks here and there, but we will get that done in between quite well.

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“…when the rice is done, take off the lid, place a large round serving platter over the top of the casserole, and carefully invert in one very quick motion….slowly and carefully lift the casserole. Serve!”

Hello to all friends of Cinema Jenin,
For my first post for the blog I have to write about this summer! Since 2 years we were travelling, Marcus and me, to Jenin, to forward the cinema project. Only with a few friends till then, looking for contracts, companies, material, workshops, cleaning the cinema, meeting our Palestinian friends, mainly children ….but this summer it was amazing! I managed 15 students coming from the Leibniz Kolleg (Studium Generale) in Tübingen to help renovating, creating, living with us in Jenin to support the Cinema, “Coming Soon”! I taught theatre in the Kolleg before, so I asked the students for helping in August, to come to Jenin…. and the more important for me was that they have the opportunity to travel around on both sides, Israel and Palestine, to experience on their own these two countries! Because I know that this is the only way to understand or to discuss this conflict and the special situation around!

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Dear friends,
Here comes a short stroy from our daily life in Jenin. Our architect Johannes and myself, we both came to Jenin end of July and we had hard and eventful days. After one week, Johannes had to prepare his departure for Germany and left a pair of dirty and worn-out trousers. As a sign of his tireless commitment, I had the idea to make a cast statue out of these trousers as a timeless and permanent memory of his work. With the support of Caren, who at the first moment really met me with disbelief, and with a lot of plaster we both made this idea come true.
For our friends from Palestine, the besmearing of an old throuser was something incomprehensible, yet at the very end, when the commemorative plaque has been added to the artwork, it brought a big smile to their faces.

Best regards and a big hug to my friend Johannes.

On my last day I took it quite easy. After a brief discussion about the next steps with Annette, Achim and Fakhri, it was Achim’s and my first lazy day. We went for a strawl in town. The past days have been so full of impressions, waiting, coffee, hard work and fun and last night, the first evening in the guesthouse with real guests, has been excellent. Tonight I will leave through the Jalameh-checkpoint. It’s much faster from there to Tel Aviv and we heard that the Israelis are not so strict anymore. And in case there would ne any trouble, I still have enough time to go back through Ramallah and Jerusalem.

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We had a short night and had to get up early to leave for Ramallah. Together with our air condition engineer we had to coordinate the the positions of the equipment and the pipes with the rest of the of work sections. Finally we made it! The meeting went smoothly and relaxed (compared to what is happening sometimes in Germany…) We were working at two tables in a cafe. One table has been reserved for the wonderful breakfast, like humus with meat, tomatoes with meat, omelettes, mixed pickles, pita with sesame and cheese, and fresh orange juice). Ramalllah has got a much more Western style due to the concentration of foreign organisations and companies. On our way back, we stopped at an oasis, situated around a natural spring, one of the rare places where you can find abundant spring water.
Back in Jenin, we inspected the work progress at the guesthouse, which was still quite poor for now. Tomorrow, together with Fakhri, we will try to motivate the workers to accelerate their efforts for the final spurt.
To finish my day, I sat down to draw the section and to send it to the air condition engineer, as promised. Fakhri, Achim and myself took a little break and then continued to work, exchanging the latest news and working on the budget. In between, Jamal, our lawyer, took us out for a falaffel restaurant to the city. Once again, it has been great to be in this amazing, crowded, bubbly atmosphere.