DRAFT
Merhaba Friends,
I'm back in the US now: I was in California for a month; and am now back in Boulder; and will go to Durango briefly before heading to the Dreamtime festival (COME to the Cuddle Canopy!). I'll have a month in Colorado before heading back to California for Burningman. After that I'll probably stay in California until I head South to Mexico, Guatemala, and eventually Argentina and Brazil (time for me to learn Spanish and more Tango). The money hasn't run out yet, I'm still in process in a number of areas that traveling seems to help, I'm having fun, and I haven't found a reason to stop, so I'm still on the move!
Leaving Israel
As I was in transit from Egypt to Turkey I had one day back in Jerusalem where I participated in the 'Big Hug' of Jerusalem. This was an attempt by hundreds of people of all ages and religions to circle the old city of Jerusalem and give it a hug, a peaceful act bringing like minded people of that divide region together. There was a lot of media there, I managed to get in some of it spinning my flags:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIm7zf4uOnA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Sdlq0gbAQ&NR=1
Turkish Rainbow: Take 1
I then headed to Turkey to spend a month in the Peace in the Middle East Regional Rainbow gathering. This gathering brought people from Iran, Israel, Europe, and a few from the US together to live communally in the woods together. It was in the high mountains of the south western coast of Turkey, near the town of Bozyazi. It was a beautiful (cold!) spot.
Beautiful but brief for, after only one night there, the Turkish police, the Jandarma, came to kick the hundred or so rainbows already there off of that site (see picture). Scouts for the rainbow had asked officials of the Jandarma months earlier if this site was OK and had never gotten an official response. The official response only came after the gathering had started in the form of a couple dozen troops with automatic weapons saying we had to pack up and leave in 1 hour (after gathering up our passports).
After much discussion and confusion we packed up and headed down the mountain. The Jandarma had hired a bus and truck to carry us back to Bozyazi and the coast but then asked us to pay for this, this didn't go over well.
