A Summer Encounter Photo Essay

This is Ghassan, my host brother, and Nicole, my host sister. My new family for the summer has openly welcomed me in from the first day I was here. (As you probably keep hearing, Palestinians are renowned for their hospitality, and with good reason.) I’m really enjoying getting to know them, hearing their stories, experiencing their daily way of life, and learning from them.

My host family are not the only Palestinians I have encountered either; last weekend I went on a hike with two friends from the program, and we were invited in for tea and conversation by a very welcoming and very large Palestinian family in a village we were just passing through. Experiences like these were unexpected by me, but they are also very welcome because they provide a great way of connecting with the culture and fostering appreciation for its people and their ways of living and understanding the world.

Living in Bethlehem is a new experience for me on a few levels. Not only is Palestinian culture far different from my own, but I am not really accustomed to living in a city, being from rural Ohio. Bethlehem is full of interesting things to see—it is a huge tourist destination, after all. There’s something quite interesting to me as a Christian and as a biblical scholar (my minor concentration in school is biblical studies) about living in the city where Christ was actually born about two millennia ago. Walking around the city, you can nonchalantly go get a great 5-shekel falafel and then just visit the Grotto of the Nativity. Of course not everyone who comes for the program considers the biblical significance of this city as one of their reasons for enjoying being here—the program is made up of a very diverse group, religiously, politically, and personally speaking—but to me it just adds to the joy of participating in the program.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of Arabic class or my volunteer placement to share right now—I’m too busy with other things during those times to whip out my camera. Salwa, the teacher for beginners, is a lot of fun to have in the classroom, and I am surprised at how quickly I am picking up some vocabulary, though Arabic is one of the hardest languages to learn.

My volunteer placement is off to a good start as well; I feel so great about getting to work with Palestinian youth this summer, using recreational camp games for instruction about leadership, cooperation, and environmental issues. During my time here, I have really felt pulled to want to help the Palestinian people any way I can. I haven’t considered myself much of an “activist” in the past, but even though I am not facing political giants every day, I think and hope that working with the youth here can definitely make an impact on the future. And even though I haven’t been an activist in the past, being in this area, there are definitely many opportunities to be a witness and advocate for justice and peace, which I am hoping to be.

Signs of problems appear everywhere, and I must admit that at times, hearing the stories of the injustices which take place each day makes things seem rather hopeless to me. The Separation Wall, quite prevalent around Bethlehem, is a crude and ugly reminder of the political conflict. Yet there are also plenty of signs of hope to be found—just the fact that the people around me continue to live their lives in the face of oppression, with great determination, allows me to believe in hope for their situation.

The meetings with guest speakers from the region have been very enlightening and a great contributor to the all-around great PSE experience that I am having. We got to hear the perspective of a member of ICAHD (the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions) and go on a tour in our first week with the program.

On another weekend, we also gained the perspective of a Muslim woman on what it is like to face the infamous settlers in Hebron. The speakers have had many things to share with the group, which people just coming to the region on a Holy Land tour would never hear or understand. In addition, we have also had some “culture nights”; on one occasion we got to hear some traditional lute music and also some Arabic poetry from the poet laureate of Palestine.

The four key factors I mentioned earlier are definitely incredibly important aspects of the PSE program, but to this point I’ve also failed to mention a couple more key factors that I really hadn’t thought about before beginning the program… Yes, I had to let go (though not completely) of all my friends from back home, but I have also made some great new friends with other members of the program. We are all sharing a common experience, which makes it easier to relate and get to know one another, and I have really enjoyed the time with the other participants.

I have a great roommate in my host home from the program, named Tim (don’t let the look on his face fool you—he’s a nice guy), and I also had the opportunity this past weekend to travel to Jordan and experience Petra, which was an amazing time. I have even managed to get involved playing volleyball with some men from Beit Sahour, which has been a lot of fun (and a good way to practice counting in Arabic, keeping score).

This summer really hasn’t been going all that long, but it feels like I have already absorbed so much. This was definitely the right choice for how to spend my summer; I have no doubt about that. I look forward with much anticipation to what other great experiences this summer might hold.

by J.M.S, PSE 2008