Finishing Session #1

This past month has been filled with many eye-opening trips, lectures, conversations, etc … as well as a lot of fun times, good food, and challenging new experiences.

I think one thing I’ve learned is that, no matter what, I’m going to have sort competing-emotions when encountering new people or new experiences here. For example, this last weekend, the group was fortunate enough to go the north to Haifa, Caesarea, and Akko, as well as Nazareth, Tabgha, Capernum, and Tiberias --- but there’s also that lingering feeling in the midst of enjoying these beautiful places, that my host family can’t just up and go visit these places with the ease that I can, given my blue passport. They are glad that I could go and asked about the trip, but a part of me wonders if that is weird for them. I can’t even begin to understand. But I know now that the presence of the Wall constricts not just travel but conversation! “God is everywhere, and so is the Wall” as my boss here says.

Also for this last month, I have been able to volunteer here as well, and the Environmental Education Center. Work in a lot of ways here is about people and not solely about tasks and productivity like in the US. Sometimes it’s better to just talk with co-workers rather than try to stay busy every minute. I love hearing from my boss about why he believes what they are doing is for the good of Palestine and his children. He’s proud of his work and should be. They work to ensure the conservation of the natural resources of Palestine for the betterment of its inhabitants, for today and for the future. And it’s just good to be challenged to become a listener here. This week we went to Ramallah with my boss and most of the time we just listened to him tell stories and explain elements of the occupation to us.

I think one other thing I’ve enjoyed from this first session is how each participant has really come with their own story and unique perspective. It just makes for a well-rounded experience in Palestine, especially following the lectures and documentaries or other things we’ve been learning about the occupation. And it helps to try to see where other people are coming from and what they are hoping to gain from this experience. I really am benefitting from the presence of the group and being challenged in my own thinking.

Before I came to Palestine I had watched the documentary “The Iron Wall” by Mohammed Alatar, and this past month was able to watch it again at an AIC (Alternative Information Center) event as well as hear from the director himself. That was a treat, though the documentary itself is quite sobering.

Just the other day I re-read the December 2007 National Geographic cover article about Bethlehem, and it’s interesting how different it reads after having lived here for a bit. Michael Finkel (National Geographic) writes about Bethlehem, “The city, at the scrabbly hem of the Judaean desert, is built over several broad, flat-topped hills, stingy with vegetation. The older homes are made of pale yellow stone, wedged along steep, narrow streets. A couple of battered taxis ply the roads, drivers heavy on the horns. At an outdoor stall, lamb meat rotates on a spit, dripping fat. Men sit on plastic chairs and sip from small glasses of thick Arabic coffee. There's an odor of uncollected garbage. As you work your way up the hill, you can see the scope of the wall and chart its ongoing expansion—a gray snake, segmented by cylindrical guard towers, methodically constricting the city.”

While I know there’s no way I could have described it any better, I know that even that description doesn’t do justice what it feels like to live here and take it all in as you walk down the streets. It really is something you have to experience for yourself. And you may not always have words for it…