The first days

Traveling here
The trip here went pretty smooth...There weren't any mishaps or problems with all of my flights. The few interesting things that did happen occurred in my last leg of the trip and when I arrived at Ben-Gurion airport. On my flight from London to Tel Aviv, my seat mates were quite intriguing. At first I had planned on getting more sleep in before arriving, but the woman I sat next to pulled me into a conversation. The woman I was next to was traveling with her son who was on her other side. She only spoke Spanish and I later found out that she was originally from Peru. Since I was seated a little further from her son, I couldn't hear his responses but later figure out that she would only speak in Spanish to him and he always replied in Hebrew. They are Israeli citizens and were returning home. Oddly enough, when we touched ground, this woman then only spoke in Hebrew with her son. For some reason this exchange was interesting to me, perhaps because it reminded me of many families in San Antonio who converse in two languages.

Arriving at the airport, I knew that things could become more complicated. Fortunately, I carried all of my luggage on (which a woman from British airlines said was "very rare, very rare indeed) and went straight to Immigration. The lines were long and it was broken down into Israeli and Foreign citizen lines. Interestingly enough, the Palestinians who return need to have an Israeli passport to return, travel at all. Otherwise I suppose they would have to enter the foreign citizen lines, to return to their own country. Odd. I had no problem with immigration, although I cleverly had my response down. The young woman only asked if this was my first trip to Israel. I replied that it was and she wished me a nice visit while I am here.

This last leg of the trip as well as the airport was my introduction to many of the different groups that live here. Other people who were waiting ahead of me in the Customs line included Europeans, Americans, Israelis. There were also Hassidic Jewish men in their black suits, tall black hats, long beards while talking on their cell phones.

Old City life and the old city cats
We drove from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as I anxiously was ready to leave all airports at that point. We passed by many olive trees, Jewish settlements, and proceeded through our first checkpoint. We are staying at the Hotel Gloria in the Old City in the Christian Quarter, where most of the religious sites are located. The hotel is nice and not very crowded. The weather is very fresh as well. The other quarters in the Old City are the Muslim, Armenian, and Jewish. The old city is surrounded by huge walls and everything is extremely old and incredible. I feel like I've been sent through a time machine. There are also a lot of stray kitty cats everywhere-one looks like my outdoor cat at home. Jabberjaws in Jerusalem?

Jewish neighborhood
At first when I got to the hotel and met up with the group I was feeling the jet lag and ready to fall asleep at dinner. But the hummus and vegetable dishes must have woke me up and I ventured with two of my travel mates, Ronnie and Sahar, to a Jewish neighborhood after dinner. The three of us were quite the trio for many reasons and this trip to the mostly all-Israeli Jewish neighborhood kept me up most of the nap rather than my impeding jet lag. We left the walls of the Old City and entered this other neighborhood. In the Christian quarter where we are staying all of the street signs are in Hebew, English, and Arabic. Once we crossed the street to this other area, it was only in Hebrew. We walked a few blocks and entered another world. This area felt very European with outdoor cafes, Burger King, boutiques, vegetarian restaurants. There were even Jewish punk kids and punk girls who dress what I call "puritan punk", where the girls where long, conservative skirts but at the same time are punk kids. Very odd. While all of this sounds nice and charming, it was unnerving. Almost everyone who passed us by gave Sahar very uncomfortable looks. I only can explain it as this-if Ronnie and I had gone together, we probably wouldn't have gotten any looks, but because Sahar was with us, we were not welcome. It wasn't as if anyone said anything, it was just very thick. And all throughout this area, as we continue to encounter everywhere we go, are military kids (because most of them look like they are 18 or 19) carrying their gigantic guns. I followed Sahar's lead, who continued to walk, not out of stupidity but out of self respect for herself. But in this neighborhood, which was bustling, Sahar was the only "obvious" Palestinian and that wasn't the protocol for the area. We reflected on this experience together, but it was my first eye-opener of what will come this week.

Tour of the Old City
We woke up, refreshed, ate a delicious breakfast of fresh cheeses, vegetables, and eggs. We then went on a tour led by our Tour Guide, Said. We went through all of the different Quarters, including the Syrian area, where we met with a woman who tends to the Syrian Orthodox church which is supposedly the first christian church. We then continued through the maze-like Old City and ended up at the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is beautifully tiled and who I quickly befriended some 8 year old kids. But before we could enter the mosque, we had to wait to be cleared by some Israeli military to enter. Keep in mind this is the 3rd holiest site for Muslims and you need to have special permission to enter. We then visited several more religious sites.

"Atrophy-cutting off blood, cutting off your sense of life"
Later in the afternoon, we went to Augusta Victoria Hospital which is on the top of the Mount of Olives. The Hospital whose services span throughout the West Bank and is ran by Lutherans to assist humanitarian health needs. Unfortunately the Wall that the Israeli government is constructing as well as the many check points located throughout the West Bank have prevented the hospital from serving its clients. Many of its clients, mostly Palestinian refugees who do not receive Israeli national health insurance, can no longer get to the hospital or its subsequent clinics. The hospital has a state of the art cancer center, but the patients and hospital staff are stuck behind a wall or at a check point that they cannot easily get through or at all. So as the Chief Executive Office, Tafiq Nasser said "we are a community hospital but we are cut off from the community." One of the ways that the hospital has challenged this is through perserverance and creativity embodied in a project called "Hope and Health Across the Wall" where they set up an arrangement (which involved pulling in a German dignitary) to have tour buses pick up only children (not their parents) who need things such as kidney operations and take them through 4 designated checkpoints to the hospital. This sounds easier than it really is, but it was a political agreement to get even this to happen. So while we toured the hospital, we passed by the Emergency Room and the Outpatient clinic, but it was empty. Imagine going to your local public hospital to the Emergency Room (University Hospital in San Antonio) and there are no people. There is so much more, but this is just one example.

bureaucracy
One last thing, Tafiq who is an American citizen but also Palestinian, showed us all of the documents he has to carry every day to pass through check points. He has to carry 5 documents. One is his ID Card which is green and written in Hebrew. Second is his Security Card. Third is his permit to work in Israel. Fourth is is permit to travel to Israel proper. Fifth is his document to travel to the West Bank. Three of these documents he has to renew every three months. One document he can renew yearly. The last document he has to renew every month.

We also met with the Lutheran Bishop of Jordan and the Holy Land tonight which was very powerful. To be quite honest, my jet lag is still kicking in and we are constantly on the go. Tomorrow we are going to a Women's Bakery opening in Tulkaram which my friend Sahar helped to raise money for. It will be a very special event and we will go to Qalqilya for a women's peace rally for the International Women's Day. Qalqilya is completely surrounded by the wall with only one exit point. I'll have more to report tomorrow night.

peace, pax, salam, and paz,
shelley