If anyone had asked me a year ago if I ever thought I would be in Israel today I would have shook my head, not even hesitating to think about the question. Funny how things change because here I am (!) in the birthplace Christ.
I have a fleece blanket draped over me and every other sentence I have to take a break from writing so I can gaze out across the city. It is captivating and constantly draws my eye, its stone walls whisper secrets of the ancient past in my ear. It is 7 PM and the sun has already been down for about three hours, city lights twinkle and a damp cold has set in (thus the fleece blanket…and the two fleeces I am wearing and the gloves and the hat).
Orion sits boldly on the horizon and right below it I can make out the distant shape of mountains, mountains that I have been told are in Jordan. I woke up in Tel Aviv this morning – the business capital of Israel and what the world recognizes as the political capital, ran along the beach and romped in the Mediterranean sea – and now I’m here, in Bethlehem. In a mere hour we drove from one side of the country to the other.
Bethlehem couldn’t be more different from the bustling, thriving Tel Aviv. Steep hills dominate the landscape, stone houses crowd around olive groves, it’s cold and Christmas lights twinkle from every window. The people that live in the West Bank are both Muslim and Christian but they are united under the common banner of being Palestinian. An imposing concrete wall surrounds the city cutting Bethlehem off from Jerusalem and any contact with Israel proper. I can’t imagine what it would be like living in a walled area, cut off from the wider world, especially in such a small place. Israel at its widest point is only 60 miles across.
Tomorrow we launch right into our volunteer work. Seven students are going to be at The Holy Land Trust and the remaining four will be volunteering with a wildlife refuge. I’m not yet sure where I will be going but I’m excited either way. I am really looking forward to interacting with the local people. I feel like there is so much to learn from them. I’m interested to hear their views on the conflict and the possibility of peace. I want to learn as much Arabic a possible and I hope to have the chance to learn more about Islam. We are staying in the Christian quarter of the city but earlier I could hear the call to prayer for the Muslims.
There is so much to experience here, so many things I want to explore and discover, I hardly know where to begin. I feel open to experiencing anything. For example, this morning at a corner market I bought cereal that came in a technicolor box (come to think of it the cereal was technicolor too), complete with bowl, milk and spoon…It was a good one time experience.
I feel like I haven’t even begun to touch on the things I’m thinking about or what I’m doing here. However my fingers are white with cold and I’m afraid I can’t physically keep writing.
Ma’ salama!
-Jess Lewis
No comments:
Post a Comment