So much happens every day here I can barely keep up with writing about it on this blog. Every spare minute I am either on this uploading pictures, learning Arabic, or napping. My Arabic is coming along really well, I can communicate with the older people at Tata Huda's "university" and my English-speaking friends are always pleasantly surprised when I produce the most random Arabic words that Jiries and his mother have taught me (like the other day when I just happened to know that "blood" is "dem").
Constructing sentences isn't easy, but I suppose it never is when you are learning another language, but I love Arabic! I love listening to it, speaking it, how the writing is all phoenetic, and especially how patient everyone has been teaching me.Since at this point I am a few days behind I will try leave out unimportant details until I catch up. After the Old City of Bethlehem the other day Jiries dropped me off at a family party celebrating one baby's first teeth. It was supposed to be all women but the father of the baby came along and eventually his brothers showed up as well. We ate a special Lebanese recipe that Middle Eastern women specifically make for their babies so that their teeth will be strong. The party was for the baby, so naturally we ate what the baby has to eat (?)... it wasn't bad but it made my stomach hurt. It was like minty oatmeal. The little baby girl was painfully adorable though, which made it a little more bearable.
I don't see any teeth...
Sara (in the picture with her grandmother), the baby who the party was for, is the daughter of Lina, who is the daughter of Amal (both names spelled wrong perhaps?), who is one of Jiries' sisters. We all met at Lina's house then walked to a nearby park. From the park you can see the new giant cemetary on the hill that the FCCOL sponsored when it was first being built. Before the church contributed financially, Jiries said it was an empty junkyard of a cemetary, but the money allowed for it to clean up to the point that people started sending their deceased family members there (preventing settlers from wanting the land) and it started making a small profit.
It is a perfect example of how international generosity and cooperation has helped the struggling Palestinian economy. Donations from the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme have also helped purchase air conditioning for the Sunday School classrooms in the basement of the Greek Orthodox church I go to with Jiries and Tata Huda. We will be going down into the basement soon and I will put up pictures of the happy children in air conditioning! Between the cemetary, the Sunday School AC, and sending students to the University of Bethlehem, the FCCOL has had an invaluable impact on the community of Beit Sahour, and I am proud to represent the church while I am here. Yesterday- Tata Huda's university, home, long long nap, family bbq (as always). Jiries' youngest sister, Niveen, and her two kids are staying here with us this week.
Today- around midday we drove through the "Valley of Fire" into the desert to a monastary. I have really nice pictures but I am very tired and will put them up tomorrow. It was beautiful!!!
On the way home from the desert we drove up to Mount Herodium, which King Herod's palace is supposedly inside of (because it is an empty volcano). We got to go up pretty far by car, but unfortunately there was Israeli construction all over it so our movement was restricted.
You can see Mt. Herodium from almsot anywhere in the West Bank, particularly from the kitchen window here where I am living. Driving through the desert we could also see the Dead Sea in the distance and Jordan even farther. Later Jiries and I traveled into Jerusalem (it only took 25 minutes to get through the checkpoint this time, same ordeal as last time but shorter line of cars) and met with two Israeli girls who refused to join the Israeli military and were both jailed and disowned by their parents for doing so. One of them (Maya, who we met on the TOL Journey) is attending undergrad school at Columbia in NYC starting this fall. She will be taking the train to Old Lyme to be meeting us for the TOL Conference, and Sahar will be flying from Tel Aviv. They will each be speaking about their lives and experience, they each have fascinating and upsetting stories. I wrote down almost everything Maya said the first time we met her a few months ago, and tomorrow I will include more information about who she is and what she does to get by and work towards peace (at barely 20 years old).
Tomorrow Jiries and I are going to spend most of the day packaging Palestinian-produced olive oil canisters so they can be shipped to the US and sold at the FCCOL. All the money goes towards the Bridges of Hope program in which about a dozen Palestinian kids are sponsored to go to the US and spend a couple weeks with a host family in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and experience life outside of the occupation. I would love to write more about it but I can barely keep my eyes open. More tomorrow ( fe Arabie= caymahn bohkrah). I apologize for any glaring typos, ana tahbahnay (I am tired), goodnight!
Earlier today: more pictures!!
The Church of the Nativity (where Jesus was born)
This underpass, Koose El Zara, is the main entrance into old Bethlehem. As the story goes, when King Herod found out that baby Jesus had been born he sent soliders in to kill all the newborn boys in Bethlehem, but when they tried to enter the town these arch walls closed in on them.
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