More dancing??

There once was a short man named Salen who lived in Beit Sahour during the 1800s. He was married 5 times in a row (not at the same time) but all his wives tragically died from disease. It just so happened that all 5 of the women each left him with a daughter. This was really upsetting for him, because back then sons were valued much more than daughters were, so to take a more proactive approach to this dilemma one day he traveled to Jerusalem to visit the Orthodox patriarch. There he asked for the patriarch's blessing so that he would finally have a son. While he was there he accidently made eye contact with one of the nuns, and for both of them it was love at first sight. She quickly reconsidered her marriage contract with God and ran away with Salen. Together they had one boy, Elias, and one girl, Aziza. Elias was Jiries' grandfather!

A few days ago we went to a big engagement party for someone I don't know that is related to Jiries, which is not suprising because most of the town is related to him. Like I mentioned in my last post, the engagement party is almost as big as the actual wedding. The same room adjacent to the church that I was once in for funeral condolences was now filled with flowers and white wedding decorations. It was a fun and festive occasion.




One of the priests in this picture was in the Democratic Liberation Front (a political party in Palestine) with Jiries' brother Isam. They spent a good deal of time in prison together because Israel jailed them for resistance to the occupation.


Shorok!!! <3



At night we hung out outside, barbequed, listened to music and danced all over the place. Well, Jiries did most of the dancing. He stressed everyone out by balancing a full glass of whiskey on his head while he danced, but he didn't drop it and everyone had a good laugh. It was really fun.








Haha

Ooookay time to get down Jiries





Today I went to Tata Huda's university in the morning. I can't believe it was only a few short hours ago, it seems like days have passed since. I was so tired so I napped in the afternoon, then Jiries jr. and I went to the mentally handicapped home next door where the nuns work (the ones the live in Jiries' apartments). We met with a 25 year old Portugese nun who speaks absolutely no English, and Jiries and I attempted to teach her. It wasn't too bad since Jiries jr. speaks fluent Spanish, and we are going back again tomorrow for another lesson. Her and I will continue even after him and Maureen leave this Saturday. The nun, Hiana (I think that's how you spell it) is really nice and super giggly... maybe I will pick up some Spanish in addition to Arabic, who knows.

After the "lesson", Maureen, Jiries, Jiries, Tata Huda and I went out to dinner at a place in downtown Bethlehem called The Dollar. It was fantastic. We ate these chicken subs that are really popular here- its mostly just chunks of chicken with lots of mayonaise on a toasted roll and sometimes dipped in ketchup. We stopped at the movie store on our way home and then Maureen Jiries and I walked the rest of the way. The movie store here is great- you pick out the movie(s) you want, then they shamelessly burn it for you on the spot and you can keep it forever. They cost 5 shekels each ($1 is about 4 shekels). Needless to say, I have picked up a few movies to bring home (Mom- I got Alice in Wonderland!)... the best part is that they have movies that are still in theaters in the US. I've been thinking about it though, and I don't think my parents would be too happy if I ended up in jail because I got busted at the airport for having zillions of pirated dvds. We will see what happens.