Bedouin Lunch

We had a fantastic last day. We visited the Tombs of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Sacred to Jews, Muslims, and Christians who agree that Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob are all buried here. The monument for the tomb of Abraham, the good father of all 3 religions is bordered by a Mosque on one side and a Synogogue on the other. We were allowed to enter and view the monuments from both directions (after a lot of security on both sides). After 3 weeks in this country we are so happy to find that there is a place that all 3 religions are in agreement.

We ate lunch sitting on the floor of the family tent with a large extended Bedouin Family that believes they also descended from Abraham, and still live life as Abraham and his family did wandering in the desert. The meal was unleavened bread, chicken, rice with saffron, chicken and vegetable soup, coffee and tea and coca-cola. We were served first and ate with our hands as they do, then the men and male children ate what we left. The women and girls were in another tent and never sat with us to eat. The bread was cooked on top of a clay oven in the adjacent tent. Laurel tried to help with the cooking but burned her fingers and lots of smoke burned her eyes. Lots and lots of children, baby goats, dogs, cat and donkey added to the atmosphere. The 73 year old Patriarch of this family had two wives and at first said 8 sons, when pressed by our guide added there were also 13 daughters. He was very warm and loving to his children, and the whole family was very friendly to us. We played some clapping games and pantomines with the children and once they got used to us many more came running to play. They had TV, but have to run it with the battery from their car. We arrived at their home from the East, and custom is that they have to let us stay 3 days in their tent (lucky for them we all have flights tonight).

Then we ended the day with a visit to a Pioneer Jewish Family. Ardie Geldman, a religious Jewish man, was from Chicago originally and came to Israel, married and stayed. He prefers not to be called a "Settler" as he feels this is his rightful homeland. His home is in Efrat on land that was not deeded to anyone, but is in Area C. The neighborhood or town of lovely homes, shops, schools, etc. was circled by fence, barbed wire and lots of security.

Palestinians have area A, Israel has Area B and C we had previously been told by our Palestinian guide were tribal lands. In fact once a large truck blocked the road and we sat waiting, our guide and driver having a very animated conversation about it. I asked why they couldn't just call the police (they have cell phones) and have the police ask the driver to move the truck, and they said there are no police in Area C! If we get in a disagreement the leaders of the tribes would have to meet and settle it, and there would be a lot of trouble. This is a very confusing place, eventually the truck driver moved without anyone doing anything.

The last few days meeting the Palestinians has been a wonderful experience, they are very friendly and outgoing in contrast to the Israeli who seem more reserved.

Bethlaham

Sat 20th

Palestine explanation from our guide on the 3 areas---
A- Palestinian Authority land
B- Israeli Jewish land
C- occupied territory- no control by either

1st stop- Mar Saba, an orthodox monastery where no women are allowed in but there is a beautiful view of it from the outside, hanging on a cliff with water flowing below. The Kidron Valley below srtetches to the Dead Sea. St. Saba was from Capadoccia, Turkey, a land with similar caves such as we see here in the mt.

Coffee break in the home of our driver. Tea and cookies, then strong Turkish coffee. Lots of family in houses all around, 9 in his house, 40 in his brother's house next door. We meet lots of kids but not his wife.

Shepards' fields is next and the (new) Church of the Nativity - we walk around the ruins with mosaic floors.

Next we drive to Bethlaham which means the House of Bread. We see the 8 meter tall concrete separation wall all around that restricts Palestinians movement into the rest of Israel.

We walked down Manger square through the markets to get to St. Catherine's Church and on into the (original) Church of the Nativity , 5th C., built by Helena over the grotto where Jesus was born. A Greek Orthodox Service is going on at this time. We have to duck through a very short door that was lowered to prevent people riding thru the door on their camels. The main hall has big marble pillars, mosaics on the walls sooted by incence, and lantens hanging all around. The old floor is uncovered in the middle to view the ancient mosaics. We lined up to enter the grotto of Nativity along with a group of young muslim girls who are cutting in line but later were very nice to help me pass them and a group of boys to get to our group. We see an alter with a silver star which we all touch and photograph and then more stairs down to 2 alters below. Took about 45 minutes to accomplish but worth it.

We drive to our hotel, a 100 year old Palace converted with a new addition, lovely but a little confusing.

Bethany

Friday 19th

Started in Jericho on cable care up Mt. of Temptation and hiked up to Monestary of the Temptations. 180 steps up the cliff, mom did well. Monestary is hanging on cliff, went inside and mom finally got the old Monk to pose for photo after small donation. Besides the main sanctuary there were 2 chapels, one up, one down. The weather is clear and cool and we can see Mts. of Jordon across the landscape. Down we canme and thru a giftshop- got some camel skin sandles.

On to Nabimusa, the tomb of Moses. He died on Mt. Nebo in Jordon and got buried in the Jordon valley in Israel. The site now has a mosque and went down steep twisting stairs to the tomb. We could not go to the Monestary of St. George because of washed out road so we hiked up a mt. and looked down Wadi Kelt that was the main caravan route from Jericho to Jeruselum. Forbidden to ride any more camels by Nancy, Laurel took up donkeys and road down the mt. with Joseph and baby Amed leading the way. Our sympathies are beginning to lean towards Palestinians who are treated as second class citezens under Israeli control, only 2 days of water are given to them, you see watertanks on all their houses, roads are bumby and rough compared to Israel proper. As seen by yesterdays incident roadside checkpts are not fun for the Palestinians.

Next stop was Bethany, BetAnya, House of the Sick, where we went to church of Mary and Martha and the tomb of Lazareth, who Jesus rose form the dead. The gift shops were fun too, one more trip to the ATM may be in order. Laurel and fellow travelor Tom practiced with their new Bedowin slingshots throwing rocks, with lessons from the native boys.

On to two orphanages, 1 for boys Jeel Al Amal, and 1 for girls- Lazarith House. We had fun playing hand clapping games with the little boys and they all loved that they could beat me in arm wrestling.
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At the hotel we celebrated Tom's pretend birthday and had cake with our beer in the bar. He was oparticularly enchanted by his surprise party and additionally surprised that it was his birthday. On to the dining room where the birthday song was in Spanish.

Riots in Palestine

Thursday, March 18th

Got up this morning in Jericho and had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel. Jericho= The City of the Moon.
Our first stop was at a sycamor tree where somebody kissed the tax collector many years ago and now it is the congregation point of merchants of local products. We bought some camel bone necklaces here.

Off to the 8th C. Hishoms Palace, an 8th C. archeological excavation and the beginning of Arab architecture. We saw the mosaics on the floors and we picked up some ancient glass and ancient pottery. We chased goats down the street trying to get a picture. We went inside to the small museum where one of the refuges gave us a tour and sold us a book and some postcards. We saw a lot of school kids getting off a bus.

Next we went to Tel Es Sultan in Old Jericho. Cable cars stretch up the mountain but this is for tomorrow. We hiked up the hill and saw the Italians digging in the excavation site. This was the worlds first city and the first tower ever built.

Then we went to the earliest Sinagogue with 5th C. mosaic with black a nd white heart design signifying blood and mourning, a minorah and a palm tree. Three armed guards let us in to the site but they seemed friendly.

Now off to Remallah, on of the four holey cities. We found out what a pain a checkpoint could be. While battling through the traffic going every which way we watched young men with bottles hidden behind their backs heading towards the checkpoint on foot thru the traffic. Off went the bottles- paint bombs, landing on the Palestine army armored vehicles and in return there were shots fired in our direction towards the gang of boys which were tear gas and rubber bullets. Some of the bullets hit our van with a thud but no damage was done and we found it quite excitibng. The tear gas was stinging eyes outside as evidenced by tears flowing and hankerchiefs out but didn't hurt our eyes. I did feel the fumes in my lungs for several hours but not too bad. We were trying to get pictures out the windows but our cameras are too slow and so many trucks in the way. Unfortunately my good camera has stopped working and no repair shops in sight. The refuge camp near here where the boys are coming from is called Kalandia. We are getting a feel for the Palestinean situation here and how desperate they feel with their lives.

Next we stop at the market in Remallah. Our guide questioned whether or not we really wanted to get off the bus in this very crowded, old city, local market but the 9 of us don't want to miss anything. Off we go- it is really crowded with locals and no other tourists anywhere to be seen. People look at us like we are something strange but they say hello and are friendly. We have some interesting local food which we take on the bus.

Yaser Arafat's grave and memorial at the PLO headquarters where he spent 4 years in captivity is next. We are not allowed to photograph the headquarters but can take a picture of the simple grave and 2 armed guards. Our guide was a personal friend and admired him as a simple man who was trying to do good.

Everywhere we have been today we have encountered adolecents, mostly school girls from local schools and from Jeruselum. They were anxious to communicate, friendly, and full of questions for us. They all wipped out their cell phones to take our pictures but many were adament that we not take their pictures. Laurel went on another camel ride- can't miss any opportunity to get on the camel!

Jericho

We are up early to move on to the Palestinian Territory. Our Israeli guide left last night and a mystery bus picked us up and drove us to a gas station, he speaks no English and we hope we are going to the right place... next to another gas station... many cell phone calls... OK... new bus driver shows up and our guide Tony introduces himself. We were all a little nervous with all the news reports of the unrest and protests in Jeruselum the day before but we are in good hands now. We feel like we have entered a new world, not the same Israel we just were in yesterday- much poorer area, roads are all bumpy and potholed, garbage all around, but people we meet on the streets and market are all so very friendly- much more open .. they all go out of their way to say "hello' and "welcome", they all smile.

Our first stop was Nablus. There are 1st C. ruins of Sumarians on the top of Mt. Qaseen. Now the stories start that don't agree with those we just have heard in Israel... here is another rock where Abraham alsto sacrificed Isaac, etc. The most interesting thing was a visit to the Samarian garizim museum. The Rabbi or High priest- we can't remember--was most gracious telling- actually enlightening us about the (good) samarians who now number only 600- the sacrafice site is next door where every year for passover an auspicious number of sheep are sacrificed and eatten. He was really cool and let us take his pictures while he talked. I think the number 3048 is the number of years they have been on this mountain where Jesus came and washed the Sumarian ladies' feet. This priest is working hard to help promote peace in the region- the Sumaritans are in a unique position as they are allies with both sides.

Our next stop was Sebastian, a Roman, Herodian, Bisantene site. There was an amphatheater, temple remains, house walls and a chirch all intermingled with olive trees and feilds of yellow and white flowers with a few red enenome intermersed. The photo above shows me on the stairs to John the Babtist's jail cell underground.

Before going on th Jericho we stopped to check out the market in Nablus. Lovely friendly people selling food, clothing and all local needs including a few sheep heads. We went to a local baker and ate som aunafa- sweet cheese with wheet topping- sounds bad but was really very good. The guide bought us all some sort of seedy stuff to take home with us to dip bread in- good also.

NExt was a stop at the Greek Orthodox church- JAcobs' Well. The well is in the grotto under the alter. No photos allowed except for Laurel who was allowed a shot by the priest. We also met an old monk who painted the entire interior in Giottoesque style. It was lovely and we all went and told him so after viewing it.

On over country roads, 2 lane highway which is the main north- south artery and dirt roads under constructions with US funds. We are finally in Jericho without incident. All 4 checkpaints waived us thru but we could see cars lined up forever going the other way. Apparently you can never plan the status of the checkpaints. Had a nice glass of beer with guide, driver and freinds and then group dinner in hotel.

Bedwen visit

Tues, 16th
We leave the Dead Sea- the Desert Storm has subsided and we can see across for the first time. As we climb up the 1200 ft to sea level we stop to look down into the desert mts and can see the wadi (canyon) far below where we had lunch yesterday on our jeep ride. We cross the northe edge of the Negev desert. Bedwen settlements on bothe sides of the road and we look for shepards out with thier sheep. We stop at a Bedwen school - Laguiya-and see a class and hear from the principal and one of the teachers. The kids sing a song for us and take turns asking us questions in English. These Arab speakers learn both English and Hebrew at school. Hebrew is essential for communicating with their jewish neighbors. It is still fairly new that this group has been required to attend school at all- we see the project that the US has sponsored which teaches them about modern industries and see pictures of places they have visited. They are also learning photography and we see photos they have taken of each other.

Next we go to a Bedwen women's rights group to hear a talk from the founder of this organization. She is a very brave woman and it is very interesting to hear how she and her sister started this group and systematically figured out how to encourage women to attend and more importantly to let the men allow it. Many of these women were not allowed to leave their homes, they are bought by their husband and viewed as possessions. This group is working against odds to change that attitude through education of children, especially girls and meetings and lectures for women. So far they are having difficulty getting men to participate but are doing well at getting men to allow their wives to attend due to focusing on the needs of the children and also through helping the women learn embroidery and creating a market for their work. We bought some of their beatifully embroidered products and then we sat in a Bedwen tent on mats to eat a traditional meal they had prepared for us.

Took the bus to Tel Aviv where we had a fairwell dinner and said good-bye to our guide Chava, busdriver haumudi, and fellow travelers Daisy and Donna. 9 of us will travel on to Palestine territory. We will meet our new guide Tony at a checkpoint between Jeruselum and Jericho. The weather has cooled from113 yesterday to about 70 today with a cool breeze from the Mediteranean.

News of the day from our guide- new law now allos a Jewish person to marry a non-jewish person in Israel- not allowed before- they had to get married ouside the country.