I can hardly believe I have less than three weeks left here...In some ways, the past two and half months have flown by, and in other ways, I feel like I've been here for much longer....

My heart is starting to tear a little as my thoughts go in different directions...I'm so thrilled to see my family again (and my friends, in January...)...but I can't bear to anticpate the goodbyes.

I spent the night with Rabab and Fadah last night, two girls I've become very close to in my time here. We watched Turkish soap operas on their tiny television, ate sweets that nearly cracked my teeth, and talked and laughed. In the morning, we gathered around the coals to warm ourselves as one aunt made tea and the mother stirred the insha--a hot drink of water, ground barely, and olive oil. This is another world...and I've learned to love it. "You're saharawi, and I'm your mother," their mother said, grinning.

Today, I'm going with my friend Aiza to a celebration--her aunt was granted permission by Morocco to visit for a week from the Occupied Territory. Life in the Occupied zone is not easy--survellience, suppression, and propoganda make it almost unbearable, I'm told. They'd rather live in remote desert camps than under Morocco, my Saharawi friends insist.

Which brings me to my last bit of news for today...you all should join me in following the story of Aminatou Haidar...a courageous Saharawi woman who is enduring outrageous treatment by the Moroccan government--and even more astounding, she was detained and deported on her return from receiving the Civil Courage Prize in the United States of America.

This world is too small, too connected, for such paradoxes and disparities in justice to exist...read her story here, share it, and raise your voice in protest for her and for these beautiful, deserving, long-suffering people.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/091119/sahara-hunger-strike?page=0,0