Despite his retirement from teaching 8 years ago, the sixteen Muhammad Shenawi “Abu Mounes” - from the town of Kafr Manda, the district of Nazareth, in the north of Palestine - did not retire from roaming and exploring, and he answered Palestine until he preserved its features, villages and nature, and trusted him with his mobile phone lens, and overwhelmed his 68 years of youthful spirit Do not get bored or tired from traveling in summer and winter.
"What God wills, what God wills" .. That is the official opening of all the video clips that Abu Moanes captures, who wandered with wandering and shared his life with those around him, so his wife accompanied arrows in most of his trips, and at other times he accompanied his friends, children, and grandchildren.
Documentation on the communication sites
In addition to the field companionship, Abu Moanes is keen on the virtual companionship in his personal account on Facebook, and his followers share pictures of the places he visits, accompanied by an audio comment within the video clip, or a written comment accompanying the photos, then questions such as "How do we get to the site" , Or "Take us with you next time."
Shinawi accompanied us on one of his trips inside the city of Jerusalem, which he visits weekly, cutting 340 km back and forth, where he means in the early morning to get to know new landmarks in it, until he is authorized for noon and collects a presentation with the afternoon prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque and then returns to his home.
At a slow, balanced pace, Chenawi walks and looks at everything, watches the passions with passion, or courteses the children with happiness with sweets and money again. He tells Al Jazeera Net, "With my roaming, I am not only interested in increasing my educational balance, but also making friends with me everywhere, and inviting them to visit my town."
Jerusalem attracts me
He buys from the newspaper seller next to the Rashidiyya School and exchanges with him the parties to the conversation. He craves cherries and buys them from the vegetable seller near Bab Al-Sahirah after he gets to know him, and confirms his keenness to purchase from Jerusalem merchants to support them.
He goes down his mole a little, sips water and continues, "Despite the large number of my trips and tours, but Jerusalem has a special advantage, and despite the stresses on its visitors, I find safety and tranquility in it. I visited all the Islamic and Christian holy places until I preserved them like my hometown of Kafr Manda."
Shenawi travels with his own simple vehicle, and does not bother to drive long distances, he obtained a driver's license 48 years ago and is accustomed to it, and also provides bus fare at his own expense for those who wish from his town to visit Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque; For long distance and cost price.
Enjoy nature
Shennawi's phone, on holidays and holidays, does not rest from the calls of his friends and relatives who come to him to consult about the best and unique places, and he also organizes small numbers tours to the areas he visited and learns its history.
The Corona pandemic has not diminished the craving for Shinawi's roaming, so he tries to drive to the plains, valleys and pools of water, avoiding the crowds and enjoying the nature he loves. He says, "I wander 4 days a week in different regions, and when I hope and cannot go out for some reason, I go to the plain near my house, even if my grandchildren yearn to be among them."
Most of his tours were devoted to visiting the abandoned villages occupied by the occupation in 1948, he visited the village of Umm Khaled, whose name became "Netanya", the abandoned neighborhoods of Jaffa and transferred to "Tel Aviv", and Umm al-Rashrash which became "Eilat"; Most of the cities that participated in his visits were Acre because of its proximity to his home. He also visited West Bank villages and cities in Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus and Jenin, following the food and art exhibitions there.
Before Shenawi determines his destination, he reads about its history, which is available on the Internet, and if it is an abandoned village who searches for its inhabitants before the catastrophe, and takes it with him to tell him his story on the ground. On that, he says, "I accompanied a resident of Saffuriyya to the Nazareth district, and he showed me his house and the village cemetery. I also went to Naji Al-Ali village and the village of Hattin."
Despite fatigue
The sixty traveler does not deny that he was tired after stressful tours, but he does not repent for a hobby that has spread about himself, enriched his mind and energized his body. It is reported that he slept two days of fatigue after a two-kilometer waterway in Wadi Al-Zeeb in northern Palestine, but he very much wanted to repeat the experiment again.
Shenawi gets the pension, which helps him to manage his life and secure the fuel of his car and the supplies of his rides, and in parallel with all these precedents that he travels in his travels, when we asked him about the most important difficulties, he jokingly said, "When my phone runs out when I am at the height of the journey and the rich scenes, as if I lost a loved one" .