Today on
the fourth installment of the miniseries where I answer your questions about
life in the Palestinian Territories, we’re looking at the following reader-submitted
question:
Besides
language what is the biggest difference between there and the US?
If you
missed the earlier posts, you can read about grocery shopping, Muslim-Christian relations, and treatment of women and children by clicking on each
phrase. And now to the topic in question…
It’s hard
to identify the single biggest difference between life in Palestine and life in
the US. Truth be told, it’s probably related to the level of freedom that
people in each place experience, but that’s something I’ll have to share at a
later time. That major difference aside, here are just a few other differences that
I have found to be the most obvious, most jarring, or most distinctive.
Family
Dynamics
As I’ve
mentioned in an earlier post, Palestinian culture, as a subset of Middle
Eastern culture, is more collectivist than individualist, whereas the US is
more individualist. This manifests itself in many ways, but one of the most
significant ways is the value placed on the family—i.e., the extended family,
not just the nuclear family unit. It is not uncommon for multiple generations
of a family to live together, either in the same home or, as in the case of my
husband’s extended family, in a family building made up of different
apartments. (My father-in-law recently built another such building made up of
four apartments, one for each of his children, with he and my mother-in-law
living in the apartment belonging to the youngest son who is still at home; we
will eventually be moving to that building as well.) Because of this family
bond, there are not many nursing homes in Palestine. In most cases, the elderly
are cared for by the younger members of the family. Generally speaking, there
are also greater expectations in Palestine for how often and in what contexts
you see family members.
Smoking
Smoking is
a serious issue in Palestine. It’s difficult to go anywhere without being
exposed to second-hand smoke, sometimes to a great degree. Although it’s
predominantly men (and boys) who smoke cigarettes, both men and women
frequently smoke hookah/shisha. In fact “coffee shops” here are really places
where people gather to smoke. Whereas in the US, smoking in restaurants was
effectively prohibited during my lifetime, non-smoking laws in Palestine for
indoor facilities are not enforced. When we go out to eat, we tend to frequent
the few restaurants that have a separate non-smoking floor or survey the area
and ask to be seated as far away from smoke as possible.
Plumbing
This might
seem to be a silly difference, but it definitely takes adjusting! As in other
places around the world, the plumbing system here cannot handle toilet paper,
so toilet paper has to be thrown in a trash can instead of in the toilet. Because
of this, almost all toilets will also have a bidet sprayer nearby. When we
visit the States, it always takes me a few days to remember to throw toilet
paper in the toilet—and another few days to readjust when we come back to
Palestine!
Weather
Another
major difference—at least for me, having grown up in the Eastern US—is the
pattern of seasons here. While there are technically four distinct seasons, the
year is more clearly broken down into two: dry season and rainy season. Dry
season lasts from approximately May to October. During these months, we
typically see zero rain. Instead, rain comes entirely in the winter (with an occasional
snow in the mountains). So the concept of a warm or hot rain or midsummer thunderstorm
is completely foreign here.
Government
Services
In some
ways, dealing with government bureaucracy is easier in Palestine, and in other
ways it’s more difficult. In the US, there’s typically information online to
help you figure out where to go, what documents you need to present, etc., for
any particular service. In Palestine, the process can often be opaque. But on
the flip side, if you know what you need to do, things happen much more
quickly.
For
example, when our daughter was born, the process to get her American passport
involved booking an appointment at the embassy six months in advance, reading
several government websites to determine what forms and documents we would need
to take with us, going to our appointment on time, then waiting a couple of
weeks for her passport to arrive. For her Palestinian passport, we sent the
needed documents (many fewer than needed for the American one) with someone
else to the appropriate office; then my husband went to sign on our daughter’s
behalf, and twenty minutes later he left with the passport. (It still took some
time for the passport to be registered with Israel so she could actually use
it, but on the Palestinian side, you can see how much quicker things are than
with the States!)
Another
interesting feature of Palestinian life, at least in our city (I’m not sure how
it is in other cities), is that the municipal government offers a discount on
utility fees (sewage, sanitation, etc.) during the first four months of the
year. (Fees are due at the beginning of the year). If paid in January (i.e., on
time) you get a 20% discount. In February, the discount is 15%, in March 10%,
and in April 5%. This incentive (which technically even applies to late
payments, as you can see) is necessary because of another cultural difference…
Sense of
Time
America
runs on productivity and punctuality. Yes, there are still people who show up
late or don’t find motivation in finishing tasks, but speaking of the culture
as a whole, it’s characterized by a keen sense of time, making and keeping to a
schedule, and valuing efficient work. As one example, if people are running
late to a wedding in the States, the wedding still starts on time, and the
people who are late are considered the rude ones for not being punctual and
respecting the families of honor and other guests. In Palestine, it’s the
opposite. Again using weddings as an example, people rarely show up on time, so
weddings rarely start on time, because if they started before certain guests
arrived, the hosts would be the ones considered rude. Of course, this is also
generally speaking; there are people in Palestine who appreciate punctuality,
but on the whole, if you want to start an event at 7:00, you need to tell
people it starts at 6:30 or even 6:00.
This
different conception of time also plays a role in long-term views of schedules.
The church provides a good example. At the churches I was a member of in the
States, the schedule of services, events, trips, etc., was set many months,
sometimes even as much as a year or more, in advance. There were announcements
of what we would be studying in discipleship classes and Sunday school over the
coming weeks; church retreats, choir tours, and mission trips were put on
family calendars months ahead of time, because if they weren’t other things
would take their place. In contrast, in Palestine we sometimes don’t know
week-to-week what we’ll be studying in small group; events (except for
Christmas) are typically announced only days in advance; trips are relatively
last-minute endeavors as well. And if you try to plan or announce things
earlier, it just . . . doesn’t work.
That
honestly has been one of my biggest adjustments to living in Palestine. I am
very much a planner and love to have an idea of what’s coming on the calendar.
But I’ve had to learn to be flexible and ready to have things pop up at a
moment’s notice. Sometimes days end up looking very different than I thought
they would, and I’m learning to let go and find the joy in embracing the last-minute
invitations and welcoming the spontaneous guests.
Medical
Services
Generally
speaking, the quality of medical care here is not inferior to the States as
many people might assume for a third-world region. There are, of course, some
limitations as far as types of specialists available, but the biggest
difference in my experience thus far has come not in quality of care but in
organizational details. For instance, offices don’t always work by appointment.
Whereas in the States, sometimes you have to wait weeks or even months to get
in to a particular doctor’s office or get a certain test run, in Palestine you
can often just show up and be seen the same day after a relatively short wait. Even
those that take appointments usually will schedule them only a few days in
advance or even the same day.
Our primary
care doctor takes walk-ins from 9-10 A.M. every day. My OBGYN went back and
forth from an appointment system to a first-come-first-served system multiple
times during my pregnancy, and we often didn’t know of the change until we
called or showed up for our next visit. Blood work and other lab tests are
always done at separate labs. The labs send the results directly to your phone
via WhatsApp or text, and it’s your responsibility to send them to your doctor.
While this
system of receiving your lab results directly gives you more control over your
health information in one sense, it also means your information is sent over
unsecure channels. Furthermore, if doctors or their staff know your family well,
they often have no qualms about discussing details of your care or test results
with other family members without your knowledge or consent. There is no such
thing as HIPAA in Palestine and often no concern for medical privacy.
Work/School
Week
Because the
national government is Islamic and the occupying government is secular/Jewish,
the weekend in Palestine is Friday (the Muslim holy day) and Saturday (Jewish
Sabbath). So the work/school week is Sunday through Thursday. The one exception
to this is Christian schools. They take Friday and Sunday off and have school
Monday-Thursday and Saturday.
Call of
Prayer
Because
Palestine is a Muslim-majority nation, there is at least one mosque in every
neighborhood. At the top of the mosques’ minarets are loudspeakers that
broadcast the call to prayer five times a day (before dawn, midday, late
afternoon, sunset, and nighttime) and a sermon midday on Fridays. If you live
in a region of the States that has tornado sirens, think of how you can hear
them pretty much wherever you are in the city, and that’s how it is with the
call to prayer here. The early-morning calls used to wake me up, but now I
sleep through them most of the time.
Metric
and Celsius
Need I say
more here?
Other
Differences
In addition
to these major differences, there are others worth mentioning:
-
Taxes are included in the price at stores,
restaurants, etc., so what you see is what you pay.
-
You don’t tip wait staff at restaurants, and
you typically don’t have one designated waiter.
-
Unlike the US where drive-thrus are ubiquitous,
there are relatively few of them in Palestine. Our city has less than five that
I know of, some of which are just different locations of the same chain.
-
Whereas homes in America are mostly made of
wood and/or brick, homes here are made of concrete, steel, and stone with tile
floors. Because of this, homes here get much colder inside in the winter and
hotter in the summer.
I hope this
has helped you learn a little bit more about Palestine—and maybe about America
too! Stay tuned for next time when I’ll explore another topic, and, in the
meantime, let me know in the comments if you have a question you’d like me to
answer about life in the Palestinian Territories.
PC: Nadia Basha. Used with permission.
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