Encounter with white colombian cows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_L77WvcXcE

Bumpy road trip to reach la Punta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYd-5nulexo

la Punta, getting ready to start our trip to Mina Mocha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uke75wC_b40

Bad speech in Spanish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leApi30clcA

Mule ride in the djungle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u6qqdrxgZs
In order to get to Mina Mocha we had to ride mules through fantastic landscapes which I tried to capture on this small movie. As I am a very bad mule rider I had no control over "la Duchesa" and she thought it was funny to start sprinting every time I decided to film or take a picture. Luckily I managed to hold on to the camera in those moments. Of course the rest of the time I had to yell at her and call her all kind of names for her to even walk...

On "ferry" on the way back from mission

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgO4RbQvVNs
This little movie was made by Viktoria on the "ferry" when we were done with our mission and were on our way back home. Ferry is in quotation marks because what it really is is a flat concrete thing that floats and the only way to cross the Magdalena river with a car. Off course these so-called ferries do not meet any security standard and are always overloaded...Always an adventure to take them. Apparently the Colombian police has started to do control checks while the ferries are crossing to make sure that all the passengers are outside of their vehicules while crossing. This is off course a new rule that I was never informed of and just after Viktoria stopped filming we were told to step outside the car quickly because a police boat was heading our way. Luckily everyone managed to jump out in time and nothing more dramatic happened that day.

Mohammed and Terje playing chess

Mohammed and Terje playing chess at the Faisal hostel in Jerusalem is a classic scene. Everytime we were in Jerusalem Terje insisted on going over to the Faisal to play chess with Mohammed, the young man that helps take care of the place. The Faisal is a good place to hang out from time to time to meet other young internationals and find out what is going on around the Westbank. But the best with Faisal is definitely free internet and fresh mint tee.

TIPH patrolling

As a TIPH observer, I would patrol the city of Hebron 8 hours a day, monitoring the situation and interviewing Palestinian families whenever they were the victims of human rights violations. My preferred patrol area was Tel Rumeida because the families there were exposed to so much violence on a daily basis and needed us to be present there. This earned me the name of "Miss Tel Rumeida" by some of my colleagues.

Cordoba student on her way out from her house

This family lives very close to the Cordoba school and the Israeli settlement which is just in front of the school. Whenever they leave their house they run the risk to get assaulted by Israeli settler kids. This doesn't prevent them from smiling though. I guess that is what impressed me with these schoolgirls. They always find it in their heart to smile and laugh, regardless of the violence they were exposed to by their Israeli neighbours.

Leila and Majd playing chess, Cordoba school

Entrance to a Palestinian house in Hebron

"Gaz the Arabs" is only one of the many disturbing messages that Israeli settlers have sprayed on the doors of palestinian homes. Another one which always made me sick to the stomach said "we will rape you too, fatima".

Cordoba school during the break

Terje at Cordoba school hanging with the girls during the break. He was liked and appreciated by the students and they liked to practice the little English they knew together with him. He on the other hand learned to asked basic questions in Arabic to get to know them better.

Christy walking home Cordoba students in Tel Rumeida

I remember this day so well. I had just arrived to Hebron and Palestine for the first time. Everything looked so scary and new. I was only visiting Terje for a few weeks and still hadn´t started working for TIPH. I went with Terje to the Cordoba girl school and fell in love with the girls straight away. They were all nice to me and wanted to talk to the strange lebanese girl which is "married" to Terry, the swedish guy. After the school day was over we started walking some of the girls home to try to protect them from getting assaulted by israeli settlers or harrassed by israeli soldiers. Before I knew it two of the girls had grabbed both my hands and we were walking hand and hand. It was a strong feeling.

Wall grafiti "Sweden supports Palestine"

This message was scribbled quickly by Terje on part of the wall that surounds most of the Westbank now, or the "security barrier" as the Israeli government likes to call it.

Terje outside of Cordoba school Hebron

During a whole year, Terje hung outside Cordoba girl school in Hebron, filming and documenting human rights violations caused by israeli soldiers and settlers against the young Palestinian girls attending this school and their families living close by. The area is called Tel Rumeida. Terje himself had to protect himself on many occasions from the stones flying in his direction while accompanying the girls to and from school. On a normal school day, the girls, which were between 7 and 16 years old, had to past through one or two israeli checkpoints, have their schoolbags searched and pass in front of an israeli settlement to reach their school. if they were lucky they managed to reach the school without any incidents. Most of the time though they had to run past the settlement to avoid the stones, tomatoes and rotten eggs that are thrown at them by israeli settler kids.

Nablus checkpoint - smoking break

May 2006 - my first visit to the Nablus checkpoint. While we were standing there looking at the palestinians queuing at the checkpoint to go to work, a young israeli settler approached the soldiers and complained about our presence there. While the soldiers tried to calm him down, I calmy smoked my cigarett, enjoying the fact that we managed to provoke the settler. The explanation for this is very simple: I had witnessed the likes of this young settler throwing stones at young palestinian girls on their way to school over and over again for a whole year. Needless to say, I felt no sympathy for his type anymore.

Abu Haykal family Tel Rumeida

May 2006 - Terje and Christy went back to Palestine to travel around the westbank and do some more interviews in Hebron for Terje´s documentary. It was in interesting experience to be back in Hebron as a civilian and not having to wear the TIPH uniform. Actually, it felt like a relief. here we are interviewing Feryal and her family about how it felt to have the soldiers in their house the night before. One patrol of 6-8 soldiers had come twice the evening before, forcing everyone to step outside, including the smal children. The soldiers searched the whole house, went through every room, wardrobe and drawer, throwing all the belongings of the family on the floor and before leaving without an explanation. This happens on a regular basis in Tel Rumeida and the palestinian families living there are use to it. But for me it was always a chock to visit these homes the morning after, after the soldiers had been there the night before. The reasons for doing this are unclear. In Palestine the soldiers do not have to explain anything, they are the occupying power.

Breakfast in Santa Rosa

Before starting what turned out to be the toughest trip of my life, we spent the night in Santa Rosa and had breakfast the next day in one of the few decent restaurants. The breakfast menu included a wierd soup that only Viktoria went for, scrambled eggs with tomato and onion and off course arepa, a typical Colombian pancake.

"La Punta" the beginning of a long journey

In order to get to Mina Vieja and Mina Mocha we had to drive for aprox. 2 hours to la Punta and from there rent mules. La Punta is the way you would imagine a bad copy of wild western looking like. All the men hanging in the "bars" drinking beer and looking scary with their mules attached outside.

The way from la Punta to Mina Vieja by mule

Gold mines

The area that we visited is known for its gold mines. The picture shows some of the structure that is used to separate the gold from earth. This was a more elaborate structure. We also saw families digging up the gold with their own hands and using an old fashion colander to separate the gold from the earth.

Sleeping arrangement in Mina Vieja

After 3 hours of riding La Duchesa, the mule I was assigned that day, we arrived to Mina Vieja only to find out that the hostal that we were supposed to stay for the night didn't have any more rooms available. After a lot of discussion we decided to crash in the main room of the hostal which normally served as dining room and entrance. Our security officer felt bad for us and decided to let us sleep in his tent while he borrowed the hamaca. What we didn't anticipate was that the only bar in town was just next door and kept us awake most of the night playing loud vajanato songs.

View on the way to Mina Mocha from Mina Vieja

Christy and Vickan after two hours walking in djungel

When I look at this picture now I can't help but laugh because we look so happy and relaxed which is completely the opposite to what I was feeling then. We had been walking for almost 3 hours and I had nothing left in my water bottle. My legs were so tired that I was tripping on almost everything and both our local guide and Ceasar, the other person walking with us, had to help me over obstacles and watch over me to prevent me from falling and breaking a leg.

Vickan and local guide entering the djungel

Christy on her way to Mina Mocha

Eventhough I am happily smiling on this picture I am already pretty tired and fed up by that point, eventhough we are not even half way to Mina Mocha. When we were told that we had to walk from Mina Vieja to Mina Mocha I imagined a nice walk on a well-defined path. Instead, the first part of the walk was through a muddy path used by the mules and the first thing I did was to get stuck in the mud and fall into it when trying to get my rubber boot out of the mud. After a few seconds of trying and failing to get myself out of there, a local came and pulled me out. I was on the verge of tears and started swearing in swedish to everyone around me. Luckily Viktoria was the only one that could actually understand what I was saying.

Mina Mocha, a small gold mining village

This picture was taken when we arrived to Mina Mocha. While I was taking the picture I heard locals screaming something but ignored it as I was concentrating on taking a nice picture. A few seconds later I realised that everyone was screaming at me and when I looked up I saw a dussin mules loaded with heavy bags heading towards me very quickly. I barely managed to jump on the side and would have been in a pretty bad shape right now if those mules had managed to run me down. I smiled and thanked the locals around me and ,red in the face, I walked quickly away from there with the laughters of the locals ringing in my ears.

Finally in Mina Mocha

After two days of travelling, using car, mules and walking through the djungel we reached Mina Mocha, a small village purched on a hill. I was totally exhausted at that point and could only walk with the help of a stick which made our local guide laugh at me and call me oldie. From Mina Vieja to Mina Mocha we walked for 3 hours through mud, up and down and through a humid djungel. I was proud of myself to have made it, while our local guide looked bored and told us that he had never walked so slowly in his life. He usually makes it in 40 minutes.

Christy's 30th birthday in Lebanon

Viktoria och Paula