RAP PART 6: 26 MILES TODAY

February 8, 2012

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Dear friends,

After 26 miles of running, the team ended Day 4 safely in Nos Ijbeal, a village of about 350 people. Three miles before their stopping point, a caravan from the community greeted them, singing songs, honking horns, & playing music. A marching band along with employees from Canaan Fair Trade & the Palestinian Fair Trade Association met them in the village with a large reception & homemade food prepared by the family of their host, Khadir.

Only 28 years old, Khadir is the youngest olive farmer working for Canaan Fair Trade, & he has a passion for organic agriculture. “Our village is very small,” Khadir says. “Most young people have left & the farmers that are still here are mostly older folks. I have to help. I profit for sure but my village is also my family.” Read Khadir's full story here. The RAP team has certainly felt the warmth of that family, enjoying fantastic hospitality & generosity along each leg of their journey.

If you’ve missed any of the videos from The People and the Olive, documenting this whole project, be sure to check them out:

1. Ready, Set… Run Across Palestine!
2. At the Starting Line
3. Not So Fast
4. A New Day
5. We’re Just Gonna Run

We’ll have a new video for you tomorrow – the media team is taking a much-needed respite from all the non-stop action.

One of our most exciting partnerships in this project is with Trees for Life, an organization that gives thousands of olive trees to farmers. Trees for Life is deeply invested in the Palestinian fair trade movement, & their work is helping to counteract the dramatic destruction of olive trees in the West Bank by the Israeli occupation army. Since Trees for Life depends solely on grassroots movement abroad, we (& they!) need your support.

Read more about Trees for Life here, & about the scholarship program here. Then please consider making a donation to On the Ground & Run Across Palestine. You can also choose to make an ongoing monthly donation, or donate in the name of your friends or family towards these projects, giving the gift of trees & education. With your support, we can work to provide more trees & scholarships to farming families!

Peace,

Jennifer & the whole On the Ground crew