The place that God calls you is the place
where your deep gladness and
the world’s deep hunger meet.
– Frederick Buechner

Our first morning in Bethlehem – we are staying at a very lovely large hotel. But I miss our guest house. It was much cozier and quieter. We were almost the only game in town before but here we are part of a cast of thousands (or at least a couple of hundred!)
After a nice buffet breakfast, onto our wonderful bus. A few words about that – we have a lovely regular coach bus so with only 20 of us the quarters are spacious indeed. We even have wifi on the bus and USB ports! Pretty spiffy. Our driver is a wizard. Those of you have been here know how incredibly narrow city streets are – built for donkeys and carts. Now there are cars parked on the sides but he gets us through! Sometimes it has literally been inches on each side but no scrapes yet.
Our first spot was a favorite for me as we visited a small town, principally to see their issues being right on the security fence. However, the two main spots we visited were two schools. Yeah! It was Saturday so no students but still fun to see. A staff person took as around but a number of village men joined along! Very fun and noisy. We were first shown the girls’ school and climbed up to the roof. From there we could see the fence and soldiers patrolling. They were keeping an eye on us as we were a large gathering and permits are required for group meetings of more than 10. Up on the roof we also saw tear gas canisters that have been shot at the school. Our organization has built a wall around the school for protection. Next we walked across to the boys’ school but girls attend here for 11th and 12th. The schools look quite nice and reasonably well supplied and class loads are about the same as in the U.S.
At the boys’ school, a couple of teachers and a students’ parliament met with us. That was great! The students were democratically elected from their classes and the group included both boys and girls. Some of the boys seemed quite young, but they had no fear in speaking up. One spokesperson told us about the election process and then about the issues which they present to the village and our organization. For example, they would like a garden space behind the school – a place of peace and beauty so that will start soon. When asked what their hopes are, one young boy said, “We just want to have a beautiful childhood and be safe.” As we left, the girls hung back a little but when we came over, they really wanted to engage so we chatted a little and did some pictures. I would love to be their teacher!
Then we walked over to a community center for lunch. The local council’s wives had fixed us lunch – so good. Most meals start out with pita bread, hummus, olives, baba ghanoush, other spreads, salads and more. Then out came the rice and chicken. It was excellent! One man got there a little bit late with his dish so he was really hawking it! We had been planning to go out to lunch so we asked these folks if we could pay for lunch. They were reluctant to take any money but then agreed but told us they would use it to paint the school – one of the students’ requests.
Back on the bus to drive through the rolling countryside. It is very hilly here but almost feels mountainous as it is all stone. I’m not sure how they ever farm! But it is a beautiful landscape and all that stone is used to build pretty much all the buildings – sandy stone blocks everywhere.
Another drive took us to a little village which is one single extended family of about 600 members. Here we got to see the issue of the Jewish settlements and their impact on the Palestinians. There is a settlement quite close to the village and at the time it was built, access to an historic well was blocked.
Tensions between the villagers and the settlers occasionally escalated into violence. Finally the villagers decided to protest the situation every Friday so have been doing that for the past few years. They start down the road toward the well, including women and children. The hope was that with women and children, the military would be less likely to use violence. But the military is only trained to combat violent protests so that is how this treated. The villagers are met with tear gas, rubber bullets and occasional live ammunition. Water cannons may be directed at them and their homes, filled with what is called skunk water due to its smell.
We visited with this family who are leaders in the movement. The wife spoke for them. She had just recently been shot in the foot so had that bandaged. She described all the above and then showed us a difficult video showing footage from some of the protests. I think this was put together to shock so some of the most violent incidents were shown. But it was hard viewing and included a child being taken away and a death.
A 9 year old little niece talked to us and we were told she writes about life there and it goes out online. The home was quite nice and there were computers and the usual appliances and all. Their struggles are with the unequal treatment they receive – ie the settlers always have water while the village has it cut off periodically. And the Palestinians still consider the surrounding land as theirs which was illegally taken from them.
I left there reeling a bit. I feel great sympathy for their plight and want to see justice and change. But I also felt like I’d been emotionally played a little and am still struggling with that. What is really true? It is complicated as we have been told over and over.
We left and drove a while to a much less traumatic site – Jacob’s well. The real thing! Of course it is covered by a church today but it was a beautiful serene site after all the turmoil of the day. Very welcome. At all of these holy sites, we read scripture and get some brief context. It is perfect. We each had a little sip of water and then left for our drive back to Bethlehem. A quick stop for a favorite local dessert and coffee and back on the road. This was a longest driving day but compared to some African days – piece of cake! Good roads, plush bus. No complaints! It was later so we had dinner at the hotel. Again it was a buffet so we could go at our own pace and choose our own amount. We have been given such large servings at many places. The food is excellent but one can only eat so much! I hate to waste it.
Off to write and then bed.

Before I left on this trip, I was pretty sure it would be quite different than any other. That is so proving to be the case! I feel bombarded with all this information and then the accompanying emotions. Good conversations have grown out of this, but it is frustrating not to be able to come to some conclusions! The challenge will be to stay willing to stay in the conflict that currently has no answers. #pray4peace