Palestine for a bit of a jolly I thought!

Wrong!!

Up early to get breakfast in. It was assumed that there wasn’t much chance of getting any food during the day so stocking up at brekkie was the idea. As it was the middle of Ramadan, there was literally nothing open from a cafe/coffee shop/ restaurant perspective. In Dubai, whilst Ramadan is of course observed, you can still find somewhere to grab a bite to eat or at least a coffee. Not so in Rammala.  For a few months now I have been abiding by the 4 hour body lifestyle which means I usually avoid  ‘Bad or refined’ carbs but a lack of food intake the previous day had lead to a baked potato with dinner. This morning though I tried to just stick with my protein for breakfast and see how far it got me.

I hadn’t really anticipated what was in store for me, or how busy I actually would be. Before I knew it I had had 3 hour long meetings, delivered a 2 hour workshop and then done another 2 hours worth of meetings. The meetings were my reason for being there, taking on a mentoring role, or what is officially called an Entrepreneur in Residence, helping small businesses in Palestine who are part of a US backed incentive scheme to incubate businesses in the area. I was talking online marketing and educating them on another way they could leverage their business. One of the main reasons for agreeing to go was the involvment of Cisco and USAid, as I saw this as two multinational organisations really trying to make a difference in an area that really needs it. In spite of all the internal politics etc, I truly believe that the Bedaya project is a really worthwhile one.

At 5pm we headed back to the hotel, my plan before arriving in Palestine was that this would be gym and chill out time. Wrong again! This was time to attend to all the other things going on in the ‘real world’ 🙂 just after sun down and Scott took us to a nice local place for somethign to eat – the weather in Palestine compared to Dubai was gorgeous. Daytime temp of about 32 and no humidity – awesome. So we sat outside and enjoyed a hearty meal. My no carb plan was firmly out the window and I ordered a pasta dish! Bloody tasty it was too.

After dinner it was back to work before sleep time.  I was slightly worried when I got back to my room and the Iftar celebrations by the pool were in full ‘pounding music’ flow. But after about an hour all was done and a peaceful nights sleep on the most comfortable pillows in the world ensued.