Pilgrimage to Bethlehem

Today I travelled with ICAHD to just outside the village of Wallaje to visit the vegetable market of a man named Abed. The journey was an interesting one: We took one of the Damascus busses to Beit Jala and had to walk the rest of the way to Wallaje; it turned out to be a lot farther than we thought. Forty five minutes and innumerable hilltops later, we arrived at the vegetable market. It was a fairly basic structure surrounded by improvised irrigation systems (I’ve put up pictures on Facebook and Flickr and labeled them appropriately).

The story of Abed is an inspiring one and atypical in many ways of the Palestinian experience. After the 1967 war, he was pushed off his ancestral land and due to his circumstances, forced to live in a refugee camp. However, he decided that he was tired of living as a refugee later made the journey back to his small plot of land against the wishes of the Israeli government. Improving upon a small cave to be his dwelling, he set about reworking the land and with the help of neighbors and an Israeli woman he has been successful.

Unfortunately, Abed and his property stand in the way of future settlement construction and as such demolition orders have been placed on his house. In an effort to encourage him to leave voluntarily, the IDF moved boulders onto the main road, cutting him off from the rest of the town and limiting his freedom of movement. Yet he perseveres and continues to open up his area as a market for the rest of the townspeople’s vegetables.

After visiting the market, I travelled with two others to Bethlehem by foot (with a short cab ride that allowed us to navigate the city) in order to catch a glimpse of the Church of the Nativity and snap some shots of how the wall has affected life in Bethlehem. Having not eaten breakfast or lunch, I proceeded to eat all the vegetables that I had bought earlier. Getting to the church was pretty easy and its beauty did not disappoint but sadly no pictures were allowed. After that, it was getting dark so I decided that it was best to try and find my way back to Jerusalem instead of explore since my travel buddies had different final travel destinations. Luckily an Austrian on the bus was there for that same reason and offered to send them to me, making the whole day a success.

Don’t forget to check out the pictures!

Today was a touristy/exploration day. Two other students and I walked from the HU campus to the old city in order to see the Western Wall and the array of religious buildings. Thanks to the Shabbat, it was pretty quiet throughout the city, allowing us to focus on the sites and not the security of our wallets. Unfortunately, this also meant that we weren’t able to take pictures at the Wall (I guess I’ll just have to go back again).

The two main churches we visited were the Church of the Redeemer and the Church of the Sepulchre. The Redeemer is a 19th century Lutheran church (fairly young compared to its neighbors) and keeping within the traditions of its faith, was filled with little ornamentation, save a small image of Christ above the altar. This church is most well known for its tower that offers a stunning view of all four corners of the old city . The only difficulty is climbing the narrow, winding stairs that don’t offer a lot of head room.

Next door was the Holy Sepulchre, a seventeen century old house of relics maintained by four different Christian sects. We were just passing through and therefore didn’t get a tour, so I will just allow the pictures to speak for themselves (I apologize for some of the blur, a flash wasn’t allowed).

We visited the Wall next, but as I said it was forbidden to use your camera on Shabbat. Nevertheless, it was an ethereal experience to see the structure that has been involved in so much strife between the three Abrahamic faiths (perhaps the greatest irony was that the nearby mosques sounded off the call to prayer just as we arrived).

After returning back to Mount Scopus, I went off by myself to the nearby British Cemetery, dedicated to the British subjects who died in Palestine (I’m not being political, it said Palestine on the monument) and Egypt during the First World War [INSERT PICTURES HERE]. There were crows everywhere, a fitting accent on the mood, or maybe just to ward of the stray cats that roam the rest of the city.

In the future, I'm just going to load pictures to Flickr and just add a hyperlink. Blogger isn't too helpful when it comes to placing images.

Moved In

Moved into my dorm yesterday. I got lucky and was placed into regular student housing. So on top of having a roommate from the same program, I'm also living with two Israeli's and a girl from France.

Overall, everything is pretty good. I'm attempting to get used to the life of an Israeli. In order to save energy in water, we only turn the lights on when absolutely necessary and take quick bursted showers (meaning the water is only on when you are getting wet and washing off the suds). A system of drip irrigation is used not only for crops but also for small gardens.

Also, it is interesting to observe the security measures that are taken all over the city. Most public places (malls, cafes, etc.) hire security personnel to check your bags. One of the rooms in my apartment has a thick "blast" door that acts as a panic room. The blinds on all the windows are made of thick metal as well.

I swear pictures are coming.

First Day

I arrived today in Israel. Thats a nice sentence to put down, especially after all the trouble and uncertainty that accompanied this trip. I've been telling people that I would refrain from getting excited until I was actually here, but now that I am, I need a pinch or something. The hotel I'm staying at has the most amazing view (hopefully I can post pictures soon).

This city is amazing. I don't even know how to begin to describe it. The limestone, the people, the food....

The battery is dying on my computer, so I guess this is all for now.

Here is the view from the hotel:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ohasc.rhodes/HotelStay?authkey=NgDerWh9DWA