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Occupation magazine - Life under occupation

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A Day in the Life
MIFTAH
June 13, 2012

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=24939&CategoryId=13


`My family opened the first Palestinian micro-brewery - Taybeh Brewing Company, in 1993 after the Oslo Agreement. My grandfather encouraged my uncle and father to move back to Palestine and raise us grandchildren in our hometown Taybeh-Ramallah, according to our roots and traditions.

In 2007, after graduation from Hellenic College, Boston MA, I made up my mind and wanted to move back to Taybeh and work at the Brewery to help out in the family business. If you think about it, it is the kind of job where you can drink; not that I do drink beer on the job daily, but you do need to do some tasting if you know what I mean.

It took less than a year for my father to teach me how to brew, and to have him count on me to brew on my own. It was not easy at the beginning since we had to wake up at 4 am to begin brewing to finish before 3 pm. I was not used to it, but I later convinced my father that we can wake up at five and start brewing and still be able to finish by around 4 pm. It still is early but at least we get an extra hour of sleep! Although it is tiring to work from 5 am to finally leave the brewery at 4 pm and sometimes at 5 pm, I still enjoy it. It is a nice feeling to see how many people enjoy the beer my father and I brew.

Sometimes the days are long. Cleaning, brewing, giving tours, bottling or visiting customers, but the advantage is that each day brings something new and new people to meet, be they tourists coming to take a tour of the brewery or customers coming in to enjoy a fresh glass of beer. Because of the occupation and security checkpoints as Palestinians we are not allowed to enter Israel and go to the beach or enjoy the night life in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem so the only city to go to to have a good time is Ramallah, thankfully its only 25 minutes away from Taybeh and Ramallah is becoming a liberal city where the nightlife is growing and fun. So in order to have a good time whether its partying or just hanging out at a coffee shop or bar is Ramallah.

It is an exciting business, not only do you meet new people, but we get to participate in exhibitions and events around the world and learn new things. Working at the Brewery has taught me many things, whether how to brew beer or just working in Palestine in general. It is a daily struggle for Palestinian businesses to succeed and do business but I have high hopes to accomplish future plans of expansion locally and globally and succeeding. I love what I do and what my family does which does not only include producing beer but also symbolizes a small Palestinian family business going through all the rough patches; occupation, third Intifada, society and mentally of local and international people and doing our best to continue in doing business no matter what we face.`
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