Yesterday Jiries and I went to the beach in Israel, about 1 kilometer away from Gaza.
It took us around an hour and a half to get there but it was completely worth it. The water was warm, the sand white, and it didn't become crowded until the late afternoon. The only downside was that the jellyfish were about the size of my head- there is a picture of one in the previous post, but they look a LOT bigger in the water than they do on the sand. 
I've never seen a baby blue jellyfish before, and definitely none that large. Every time I went swimming Jiries said, "Don't get bit by the jellyfish! I would hate to call your mother and tell her the news that you had been eaten by a giant jellyfish in the Mediterranean!"In my previous blog entry I posted a picture of (besides me making a creepy face) a fully clothed Bedouin woman in the sea with her child. The Bedouins are nomadic Arab tribes who have existed, as Jiries puts it, since the beginning of the world. Not all of the tribes are nomadic today, however, and many have established villages that consist of homes made from cement and/or tents. There are around 60 unrecognized Bedouin villages inside of Israel- they are unrecognized because Israel does not acknowledge their inhabitants as citzens of Israel, so they are denied any basic rights, including access to water and electricity. Israel has undertaken a huge project of relocating all of the Bedouins into one area where they can control them, but there has been strong resistance from many of the villages. Consequently, all uncooperative Bedouins have demolition notices on their home. On the Tree of Life Journey we visited a couple unrecognized villages, and one in particular where we saw first hand the remains of a demolished house a woman had once lived in with her mentally disabled sons.
Anyways, the woman in the water with only her eyes showing is a Bedouin woman who lives in Israel. If she did not live in Israel, she wouldn't have been there, because Palestinians from the West Bank and (especially) Gaza are not allowed to cross the barrier unless they have a special work permit, medical reason, or it is Christmas time. Wednesday we are going to get Tata Huda a permit application for medical reasons because she really wants to visit Jerusalem. As I mentioned in another entry, the Christians (not Muslims) are allowed into Jerusalem around Christmas time- Jiries told me yesterday that if you go to Jerusalem then, however, you won't find any Palestinians at church because they are all out shopping.
When they asked what I had done earlier in the day I felt horrible telling my new Palestinian friends I had been at the beach because it's a place that they will never be allowed to go unless something drastically changes. It is mind boggling to think that kids my age here have lived their entire lives under occupation, and they have never seen the country that has only brought them suffering and oppression. The beach was absolutely beautiful, imagine a nice tropical resort area with shops and cafes next to the massive locker rooms for showering and changing. There were even showers every 50 feet on the beach itself coming out of the sand. These showers were conveinent for everyone under the blazing sun, and therefore were in constant use. All I could think about was the water shortage here in Beit Sahour, and how people are so cautious not to waste a drop.
On the way home from the beach we took a different road than we did on the way there and we passed what was once the Palestinian village Beit Jeebreen. It was a large hill with stones from demolished houses scattered here and there, but mostly overgrown. You could hardly tell it was once a village except for all the rows of cactus, which Jiries said used to demarcate property lines. It is really sad that Israel demolished all those homes in the first place, and even more sad that they are not using the land for anything at all.
After the beach we went to another baptism, and drama ensued. I will write about it tomorrow.
Not only does Jiries go to church frequently, he participates as much as possible (he is standing in the back- this message is for any of the TOL members who ever doubted him)
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