IN STEREO

My dad and I work on this land. At the end of the story, it’s for the family, you know. We bought this land from a guy who went to Chile. He had a new life. His family left, so who’s going to take care of the land? Who for? The land here is not very expensive, because nobody knows what’s going to happen next. [But] what happens to us will happen to everyone who has land over here. It’s not going to come on me alone. So, as they say in Arabic, ‘put your heads together, and stay together’. If you’re going to sit at home and wait, you’ll be waiting a long time. A lot of people find gold in this town. They dig under the floor, under the houses. They thought it was the land of the gods, so they gave it as an offering. Or they hid it to keep it. And so many wars happened here, you know. When people went to fight in the war, they brought the gold with them. When they died, it stayed over here.

Many people find it when they start building. They found some gold at the church, crosses and stuff. They put it inside the church. I mean, we hear a lot of stories. But the story I told you, this is a true story about Beit Jala. When people had gold, they just hid it in Al-Makhrour. Then when they went back looking for it, they couldn’t find it anywhere, with these trees. “Ah, we put it here! No… we put it there.” And I know they didn’t find it until this day. It gives you motivation, like you have to take care of the land [because] maybe you’re going to find some, haha. I told you before, when you work here, you feel you did something, you know. Really, I did something. I just want to finish what I started. – Issa M.