Shepherd Hotel Bethlehem

... allemaal nieuwsgierig om een hoekje, maar al snel gingen bij alle vrouwen de hoofddoeken af en waren we gewoon een paar erg blanke nichtjes op visitie. Nona en ik zaten vol interesse naar de keuken te kijken, waar de 'Breakfast' (avond eten, dat het vasten breekt..) werd voorbereid, dus we werden naar de keuken gestuurd. Daar werden we op een krukje geplant en kregen we een feestmaal voorgezet, terwijl het nog buiten nog licht was en we helemaal geen honger hadden! Vooral ...

... task. It is amazing to stand in the now 5 by 4 metre well after hours of drilling rocks, filling up buckets with rocks, heaving buckets of rocks to the surface and tipping about buckets of rocks.

In addition to this very physical, practical work, Daoud asked me to write a report on the summer camp and make a presentation with the photos to give to the children. I did these with pleasure and from then on was given a variety of different writing tasks such as writing the ...

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Everything you could possibly buy comes thru Israel because it controls all of Palestine's crossings with Jordan and Egypt, and there are no airports. F16s fly over every day, just so no one forgets whose in charge, like you could ever forget anything like that anyway. They took over the place in 1967, the year I graduated high school, now that I am about to retire, you would think it would be time to ...

... by the childrens’ Arabic babble and short conversations with my slowly increasing vocabulary. I definitely find that everyday I understand a little bit more of what’s being said around me. The summercamp, in particular, was great for this.

The children would arrive on a bus at 9am and our day would start by picking them up at the roadblock and walking them back to the farm. We had games in the field from 9-10 then split off into our four groups (which emerged as ...

... get over the idea that I am cheating somehow in being here. What I am cheating is getting any sense of distance or connection with the land and of course, I am cheating the earth and its atmosphere.. It is very much a double edged dilemma, however, as so much of the incredible things that happen in the world could not be possible without flying and now that I am here, I would not ask to be anywhere else.

After an hour or so drive we were dropped off at Demascus gate in East ...

... I thumbed through it, reading the chapters, and then said, "Hmm, this is only the Old Testament." Then we looked at each other and started laughing. I said, "DUH!" ;-) Anyway, we reverently walked in, and went to sit in chairs that are right up against the wall. You're supposed to read the scripture there, then pray there. People also write their prayer requests on little pieces of paper, and stuff them into ...

... off and stop tingling though. Swallowing this One more day with the group, then I'm on my own. I'm starting to feel a little anxiety about that. Being in completely foreign places and not knowing the languages. Except that I won't really be alone. This is intended to be a pilgrimage, and I know God is with me every step of the way. WhileI've stopped and prayed A LOT, I've realized everything about this journey is prayer. Rich, sweet, fruitful prayer.

... merchants. Visit the refugee camps.

I was lucky enough to have had friends to stay with on the West Bank. One of the first things to remember is that they all live in an Occupied Territory. It has been like this since 1967, the year I graduated high school, I will go back this summer 2009 for another visit, now that I have retired. Perhaps some day Palestine will be an independent country, the present administration in DC promises the best chance of ...

... good. Still, I invite my friend and her husband to the restaurant of their choice. They decide on The Legacy Hotel. It is quite good: 5th floor, terrace, view on Mormon University (Hold that thought! Yes, Mormon University, a Mormon faith-based University here in Jerusalem!), on the Mount of Olives and on Mount Scopus. There is a breeze and it is almost cold even though it is the second half of May: desert climate it is! I walk with pain from the car to the ...

... have fountains to do that. Oh course I have about 1,000 pictures of this temple and the surrounding area. Who knows if I'll ever go back up there? J Also I went to the Burnt house. This was that site that I went to the day before and they told me to come back a ½ hour later. Well, I made it back. I found the place, went in and it was cool. It's an actual house (basement of a house) that survived the destruction of the second temple ...