From the Top

Hello everyone! I’m writing from the living room in my house for the summer in Beit Sahour (part of the Bethlehem “metro-area”). I apologize for it taking so long for me to write an update—I have been incredibly busy with Cross Cultural class (all wrapped up now) and settling in here for the summer. Now I have the incredibly daunting task of trying to give some kind of comprehensive update of how things are going. This seems like pretty much an impossibility though--I have learned, seen, heard, and experienced so much since I have been here (May 6)--there is no way that I could relate everything that I have experienced and thought about. It seems that the only way to really make anyone truly understand what the situation is like over here would be for them to be here themselves (not a bad idea, and I can hook you up if you are interested).

So much of what I've been thinking about is tied up in the history of this place, and because I couldn't even begin to put a dent in it, I will for the most part not even try. There are a couple of books that I would highly recommend though for those of you who are interested in the history (which has everything to do with the current situation): for an almost entirely unbiased perspective, look at Sonia K. Weaver's What is Palestine-Israel?; and for the rarely-heard Palestinian Christian perspective, see Elias Chacour's Blood Brothers. Both of these books were required reading for my Cross Cultural class, which began to completely change my understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict. (Therefore, they are also partially responsible for my being here this summer.) Having heard perspectives on the conflict from numerous people on both sides since arriving here nearly a month ago, I again highly recommend both of these books as a source of learning about this conflict (for those of you who can't visit for yourselves). Well, that's probably enough of an introduction! (At this rate, this post is going to be incredibly long...which it probably needs to be anyway considering the amount of information I'd like to relate to everyone.)

I know that this blog is not about my Cross Cultural Experience class with Bluffton, but I would be remiss not to at least give a brief summary; it is after all the catalyst which brought me here, and it provided me with some invaluable information and experiences. The whole experience began in January, as we began studying the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict back in our Bluffton classroom for the entire semester. Our group of 30 arrived here on May 6, and in a whirlwind 16 days visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Sea of Galilee region, the Dead Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, Jericho, Ramallah, Hebron, and many places along the way. We stayed two nights with Palestinian host families in the Bethlehem area (I am actually staying the entire summer with the same host that I had for those two nights), and engaged numerous guest speakers from many different perspectives: an organization working with intra-Palestinian conflicts, an Israeli settler, a rabbi from Rabbis for Human Rights, members of Christian Peacemaker Teams, the founder of an Israeli organization that works for the Palestinian "right to return" (Zochrot), and a Jewish-Arab community aimed at creating peaceful relationships and inter-cultural education between the two groups (Neve Shalom/ Wahat al Salaam/ Oasis of Peace). We visited more "holy sites" than I could possibly recount, and we also toured a Palestinian refugee camp and stayed in a few kibbutzim. The entire experience was incredibly eye-opening and very affirming that this is where I was supposed to be this summer. Again, I wish I could relate to you the true situation between Israel and Palestine, but with there being just so many factors involved, it is impossible--even if I wrote my own book (which it may appear that I am already doing by the length of this blog), there would still be much to consider. Let me just say that the news media in the United States does not do the situation any kind of justice, and in this conflict, there is little black and white--there are many, many shades of gray. Inevitably I will end up being blatantly political at some point I'm sure--the things I see and experience weigh too heavily on my heart and mind to just remain silent--so please remember to keep an open mind if at some point you might disagree with things I say. (And you can be sure that even though I am emotionally invested in the situation here, I will also make sure to back any statement up with the facts on the ground, to which I just happen to have wonderfully convenient access.)

That's probably enough about those things for now--time for a quick update about the present and next three months. I know it has been unclear about what exactly I will be doing this summer. This was actually because I didn't really know either! I met with my volunteer supervisor yesterday however, and now I have a much clearer picture. I will be working with an organization here named PAIDIA International Development. For the first month that I am here, children will still be in school, so I will not have a great deal of interaction with them, but I will be involved in preparation for the kids' camps that PAIDIA runs through the rest of the summer. Once the kids are out of school however, as I understand it, I will be assisting at their outdoor high ropes course (climbing wall) and other activities. That is about all the information I can give for now--I will have updates once I actually begin the work. (For more information about PAIDIA in general, you can visit their website: http://www.pidev.org/ .)

I've already mentioned another part of what I am doing here this summer--living with a Palestinian host family in Beit Sahour. The family is made up of Johnny, Manar (parents), and Nicole (7), and Ghassan (3). I also have a roommate for two months--another PSE participant--Tim. We are all still getting to know each other, but I think we're having a really good time doing it. There is always a bit of awkwardness at first when you move into someone else's house who you don't even know (at least I think so), but Palestinian culture is reknowned for being extremely hospitable, and I think we are off to a pretty good start.

Monday through Thursday (starting yesterday), I'll be going into Bethlehem (just a 20 minute brisk walk up a huge hill--or a cheap bus ride) to Bethlehem Bible College for Arabic classes (3 hours per day!) Our teacher moves pretty fast (I know, it's only been one day), so I really hope I can be attentive and pick up on everything. I've taken three years of German and an intense year of Biblical Hebrew, and Arabic is pretty much nothing like either one of these (or English), so that is not exactly helpful. As with any language however, living in immersion, in an actual culture that uses that language, should make the learning quicker, so I am really hopeful that I will gain some proficiency out of this.

The one other aspect of the program is going on informative trips once per week with the rest of the PSEers. This past weekend we went into Jerusalem (which was nothing new to me since I had done a lot of the things on my Cross Cultural trip), but we also went on a tour with ICAHD (the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolition). This tour was very informative and very striking. We visited the Separation Wall, a demolished house, and went drove through East Jerusalem (part of the West Bank), noting the differences between the services provided to West and East Jerusalem. We drove through a settlement as well, which was in the middle of the Judean desert yet had lush grass (some of the only grass I have seen in all the time I have been here), flowers, palm trees, and a prominent water fountain in the middle of it. Water is one of the most contentious issues between Israel and Palestine. (Palestinians often suffer from water shortages when Israel cuts off or limits water to just running on certain days; Palestinian homes all have water tanks on their roofs because they have to store water for these times, and water is always conserved when showering, flushing toilets, and everything else because it is such a valuable resource in this dry climate. This brief mention does not, by the way, even begin to do this issue justice.) Our group will be visiting Hebron--a conflict-riddled city--this weekend, where we will be meeting with Christian Peacemaker Teams (again, something I did on my Cross Cultural, but we will have significantly more time). The group is made up of great people, and we have been getting along very well. It has been very easy to make some new friends, and the people of the group are very interesting because it is actually very diverse--men and women, young and older, U.S. and international, students and graduates, "conservative" and "liberal," and religious and non-religious. Some of us will be here three months and some only one month, but it is a great cohort, and I look forward to enjoying my time with them.

I have faced a couple of problems since I have been here. No, not the problems that a lot of people expect--running into terrorists and all that nonsense. Actually my first problem is due to the fact that my Israeli tourist visa only lasts three months and I got here on May 6 (and was planning on leaving August 14--you do the math). I'm still working on this--it appears that I have a few different options, and I will update everyone when I figure out how I am actually going to solve this. The other problem is that my VISA debit card got eaten by an ATM machine the other day so I was stranded without any shekels. Thankfully people in my group were more than willing to lend me some, and then I got a generous Western Union transfer from Norm and Cathy. For now I am alright, but dealing with VISA to get a new card issued and sent here has been incredibly time-consuming and frustrating. (Kudos to Cathy who has worked so diligently at trying to work it out!) I'm not too worried at this point--sometime they are going to have to figure it out I'm sure, and it is only a small inconvenience compared some of the other things people here face everyday.

Thanks again to everyone who has been supporting me in prayers and in finances! Really, this means an incredible deal to me--I definitely need your support! The outpouring of gifts and notes has just been amazing and just one more very affirming thing that this is what God wanted me to do this summer.

If you have specific questions about how things are going here--for me or for the situation in general--feel free to e-mail me (strjma@bluffton.edu), and I can try to incorporate those things in the blog. (I'm actually much more comfortable answering questions than just trying to pick things that people might want to hear about. If you're reading this, and you're interested in something, let me know so I can address that and keep you interested!)

That's all for now. (I know, you're thinking "That's all? That's quite a bit!" ) I'll update again when some more significant things happen or I get some good questions to answer and I have some time to address them.

Peace