IN STEREO

As a child, I knew that the old Al-Walaja is our homeland. It had full almond trees and prickly pears, olive trees, peaches, thyme, sage. All of this. I used to go with my mom when I was young, around nine years old, to pick all of these things. We went to pick them and she came here to Bethlehem to sell them. My mom put the prickly pears away from [us], on the donkey I mean. And we went up to the Jewish area to sell them. We knocked on their doors. It was safe, better than these days. This remains in my head ever since I was a young child.

My mom, may she rest in peace, how was her suffering! My mom is the symbol of giving. She used to go to sell and come back, [but] not back home. No, she came back to collect [the harvest] and hid it in the cave for the next day. She didn’t take a rest, may she rest in peace. The difficult situation that a man lives, a woman lives it too. When a man suffers at the checkpoint, he comes and releases all his problems at home, and the woman has to endure it. A bad economic situation, a psychological situation… A bad situation prevails in all family members. – Um Ala’a