The other day I mentioned I went to a monastery in the desert, and the following is some information about it that I copied from a travel agency website:
"The Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Saba or Saint Saba's Monastery; 14.5 km east of Bethlehem and a further 6 km from St. Theodosius; is considered to be the oldest ongoing inhabited monastery in the Holy Land and one of the oldest inhabited monasteries in the world, founded by Saint Saba of Cappadocia in the year 439.
It represents a way of life unchanged since the time of Constantine. It has 110 cells and sheltered 4000 monks in the 7th century although today it only houses ten monks. Despite the fact that Mar Saba is reputed to have had a long tradition of hospitality to strangers, women have never been allowed to enter. This regulation persists today, so female visitors must be satisfied with a glimpse of the chapel and buildings from a nearby two-story tower on the right entrance, the so-called Women's Tower."
The "Women's Tower"
The monastery
Today Jiries' sister Amal made a lunch for us that was equally as humongous as the one Hanan (Jiries' other sister) made yesterday. Both meals deserve greater detail; yesterday Hanan made about 8 large pizza-shaped pieces of home made bread and covered them in delicious onions and massive pieces of chicken. Today, Amal made zucchini stuffed with rice and meat (what Jiries made last week), lamb, and stuffed grapeleaves. It seems as if the sisters are trying to outdo each other at the expensive of my figure.
After lunch I practiced writing and reading Arabic for a few hours, and then we brought Niveen (Jiries' other sister) home across town. We stayed at their house for a bit drinking coffee and chatting, and we discussed the possibility of going to a barbeque at one of her son's girlfriend's house. This brings me to my next cultural lesson: here, there is really no such thing as girlfriend/boyfriend- you are either friends or you are engaged. Jiries explained this to me- here, young people hang out in large groups of about 20 or 30 and if they find someone they are interested they might get to know them during the group activities. Other than this, it is socially unacceptable to be seen out in public or in pictures alone.
At some point, the guy approaches the girl's parents (with his entire family) and asks if he may propose to their daughter. If they approve and the daughter consents, he returns shortly after (with his entire extended family which brings candies and gifts to celebrate) and officially proposes to her. The weddings are big, elaborate, and the most fun ever. On the way to the ceremony itself, everyone drives together in a procession and honks their car horns all the way there. For all these reasons, it was questionable as to whether or not we would be able to go to Niveen's son's girlfriend's (I mean, special friend) house since they really shouldn't be hanging out much because they are not engaged (but her parents have met his mom, which is a really huge step).
So we didn't go. Instead, Jiries and I were almost ready to call it a night but decided to go out in search of a place to watch the US vs. Ghana football match (soccer game!). We ended up at Ush Gahrib, the place where we were for dinner and dancing after the epic Tree of Life youth squad soccer team versus the Palestinian practically-professional players. Ush Garib (which translates into "The Crow's Nest") is a community center that was built with funding from USAID, but since it is near an Israeli military camp it has a demolition notice on it so the military camp can expand. It is a great family place with outdoor seating in front of a stage where teenage guys sang to entertain the football crowd during half time, and there was argeela (hookah) all around of course. At first it seemed like the crowd was not partial to either team, but towards the end it was apparent they were not really cheering for the US, and we all know how that game ended. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, but it was a great time.
On the way home we stopped at a 24 hour store to pick up a few thing, and the old man behind the register had a pet bird hanging out on the counter. The guy pointed to his bird and said to me, "Best bodyguard in the whole world," then he opened up the cash drawer and told me to try to take some money. I reached my hand in and the bird scuttled across the counter and nipped at my hand! I pulled my hand back laughing and the bird gave me a pretty serious eyeball. Then I got to hold him on my finger, but it took a couple minutes of coaxing since he distrusted me after I tried to take his money.
Tomorrow Jiries and I are going to the Dead Sea then we are meeting Niveen, her kids, and her husband's relatives in Jericho. There will be lots of pictures! The water blog will come soon too, I didn't forget.
Masalam!
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