update on settlements in west bank

more on the story i wrote about last night- jewish settlers in the west bank and those who support the settlement movement are currently protesting outside israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's house. netanyahu is caught in the awkward place of attempting to curb his own citizens' fierce determination to expand the settlements in the west bank and thus comply with international law, or not.

i'm fairly convinced that were this anywhere else in the world, or between any other people groups, the entire situation would have been squashed long ago and both sides would be in some way forced to comply with international law. just my two cents.


for further reading:  here's an article on what it's like to live as a palestinian in the occupied territories near jewish settlements (even if you just skim it, do it!), here's an article on a palestinian family expelled from their home in east jerusalem to make room for settlers, and here's one on the broader (though incredibly convoluted) issues of borders and settlements.

promise i will post photos and more thoughts over these next few days.

things i'm still thinking about: israel's collective memory, eid al- adha, the "security fence" around bethlehem and the entire west bank, housing demolitions, friends across the world and humanizing the other.

love, love.

jerusalem = love.

ok. seriously, a lot going on. in favor of a coherent, attempt at eloquent here are my thoughts, reactions and feelings to the things we've been seeing and experiencing this past week.

jerusalem: i will never, ever grow tired of hearing the call to prayer echo across the skies. shabbat. ultra-orthodox, neo-orthodox, un-orthodox bow, pray and sing at the western wall while the call to prayer fills the sky above, from al-aqsa and across the city. jews in kippa, in shtreimel, in long coats with tassels and earlocks, underneath 'allahu akbar' from minaret to minaret. the yeshiva students in their stereotypical american clothes put their arms around each other's shoulders and dance and jump in circles, celebrating the shabbat shalom. pilgrims of all 3 faiths pressing down the streets, the settlers with their tambourines and intense sense of divine right, despite the riff between the secular and the sacred... incense and hymns in harmony and genuine, prayers for the peace of this city, this country from the heart. cats, cats, cats.

galilee: peaceful waters, tiny chapels, beautiful rolling hills. a reminder that our Lord, too, was human, walked these roads. sailed this sea. the mount of beattitudes: blessed are the peacemakers, even here, in this place. especially here, in this place.

golan heights: lush, fertile, scarred by anti-tank trenches and old army bunkers and not-so-distant memories of a war over territory. climbing a military mountain to see (almost) all the way to damascus, to lebanon, to majdal shams and the UN's control over these borders...

nazareth: sleepy, despite all the racket. church of the ascension: bells. gorgeous mosaics of mary surrounding her stone house, carols. more bells. big, white christmas-y lights above the streets to usher in the coming of eid.

there are a few things that i really love about this place. i mean, there are a lot of things i enjoy, but i love, love waking up to intermittent church bells and the call to prayer. i love the smell of shwarma (most of the time), of incense in old, old churches.

we've talked with combatants for peace, with abouna elias chacour, with andy david and ophir yarden, with jonathan kaplan and michael honigstein.
we've been to yad vashem, to the church of ascension in nazareth, to mount herzl. to the arab quarter, the jewish quarter, the christian quarter. we've been to tel aviv and to jaffa (love!). the western wall, the church of the holy sepulcher/ resurrection, the ruins of herod's temple.

i still can't believe this group of college kids gave up their lunch money to share this experience with me. i'm so, so thankful- for all that i'm being challenged with and exposed to, for being able to learn more of j's context, and for being able to share in this with each of them!

yad vashem. mt hertzl... not really sure what to say, just thought i should say something.

old city jerusalem

after a brief stint in frankfurt, germany with my dear, random friend bekah (apfelwein, bratwurst and saurkraut, altstadt frankfurt and yes, frankensteinplatz), i've finally arrived in jerusalem. it's good to be back- especially as i didn't expect being able to return so soon. i still can't believe these MESPers brought me here!

we're staying in the austrian hospice on the via dolorosa- it's funny to me that everyone around me is still speaking german though i switched countries. :)

all for now- mostly just wanted to let the 2 people who read this know that i've arrived safely and i'm so happy to be here!

israeli politics tomorrow. and lastly, no more long distance engagements.

engagement photos!

in the past 4 weeks...

i have eaten chicken curry, prawn curry, mutton curry, veg curry in india, mangoes, fuul, tamiyya, roz bi-leben, shwarma in egypt, falafels and nutella pancakes and thai food and pizza with wine and kosher bagels in israel.

i have been to the wailing wall, and seen the apartheid wall.

i have hugged kids and cried and laughed and sang, swam in the mediterranean and the bay of bengal. i have listened to conversations in arabic, telugu, hebrew, yiddish.

i have walked the old city, coptic cairo, hyderabad. i listened to hymns at the church of the holy sepulcher, sang songs at church in an orphanage, visited a museum of art from the coptic church. i have been to a church of expats in a suburb of cairo.

i have listened to the soundtrack to king countless times. i have listened to arabic pop, patty griffin, derek webb. this american life. j's lunch song. i've shared an i.pod and a zune for countless hours of travel. i've listened to car horns and calls to prayer and songs in telugu that warm my heart.

i have slept on trains, on planes, on couches, on mattresses on the floor, on buses and in taxis and graciously loaned beds. i have even slept on half a bed on a sleeper train.

all of this, this entire adventure, i shared with the one i'll share the rest of my life with. i'm so incredibly thankful for these past 4 weeks, and to say that i'm looking forward to the future is a gross understatement. God is so good.

on safety and home

back in cairo.
salat and smog.
and this feeling of familiarity, of home.

did i feel safe in israel?

i suppose in all of the conventional ways, yes. i mean, stories of bombings in sbarro and other trendy young hang outs didn't really scare me. it's the kids with guns, the settlers, the explosions in the distance and the uncertainty as to whether they're fireworks or semi-automatic weapons that frighten me.

i never really feared for my own safety, but for the palestinian kids trying to walk to school every day, for the jewish kids who would grow up and join the idf and be socialized to fear, to hate, to defend at any cost that i feared for.

again, i understand why jesus stood here and grieved for this city.

home is relative.

i had every intention of uploading the photos both mata ji and grace took of j and i, but this internet connection isn't much faster than what we were working with in india. :) i promise, i WILL post them here when i get back.

j and i just got back from a few days in israel. i must say, i think i fell in love with jerusalem. it was everything i thought it might be and so much more than i could have imagined or really, could have fathomed. photos and reflections on our trip (and egypt and india) when i return.

for now, though, it's nice to be back in cairo. it's funny, i found myself while in israel saying things like, 'when we get back home.' cairo, in all its craziness and pollution and scary street crossings, does feel familiar. don't get me wrong- i know i'm in some great, very capable hands here and i don't pretend to have any idea how to actually do life here, but the (relative, of course) familiarity is nice.

israel.

jerusalem.

i'm kind of in love.

calls to prayer and church bells, cobblestones and carts and gummis, shoes and shwarma and saints. church hymns at the holy sepulcher. frankincense and falafels and delicious orthodox bagels in the jewish quarter. spices and head scarves and beads and passionfruit slushies. the via dolorosa, the mount of olives, dominis flevit. the dome of the rock. the fortified walls of the old city. delicious nutella pancakes in the cool cavern of the hebron hostel tea room. God speaks in the breezes rustling through the olive trees in the garten of gesthemane. He calls the nations back to Himself in this place, and those who can hear through the hype and unfathomable drama will hear, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the ages."

this place is, in addition, pretty crazy. i'm kind of in hate, too. i struggle to sum up the rest of this in sentences that aren't peppered with expletives. kids, 18 years old, walk around with chips on their shoulders and huge guns slung across their backs, olive green uniforms optional. jewish settlers with their guns and their inflated sense of manifest destiny. ultra orthodox men in black, felt- hatted and ear-locked and four-tassled, bobbing as they recite from the torah at the wailing wall, not daring to ascend the temple mount. muslim women in higab, men in kippas (a fashion statement here), orthodox women in wigs, all somehow manage to live relatively peacefully alongside each other in this place that emanates history and sacredness and a tenuous peace. it's amazing.

it's equally horrifying to me to know what's going on here behind the beautiful cities, the history, the hills dotted with trees and new buildings. to know of the horrible atrocities committed here in the name of national security, of a homeland... i just have no words.

i understand why jesus, on the mount of olives, looked out over this place and wept for it.

egypt, schmeegypt.

tonight, israel schmisrael. :)

sorry i've been a lame blogger. i've actually gone back to an ol' paper and pen journal, and i'll post on our adventures when i get back.

t-minus 11 days

real, post-of-content here. i am so ready to turn in envelope stuffing for navigating my way, jet-lagged and exhausted, through various airports in different parts of the world en route to hyderabad! although, with what the last few weeks leading up to this trip have had in store, i have to admit i'm curious to see what else might happen. :) (we added two travelers and one extended his stay to travel to bapatla with us!)

this weekend i have opted to stay home from a wedding in steamboat springs with my dear mellie furtado because i just have an overwhelming amount of Stuff to Get Done. thus, project "determine which crap i have, which was lost and what i can possibly borrow" will commence...

and, project "run every errand you can think of now because you'll come up with more later." speaking of, thank you lauren, i FINALLY got around to bringing in my camera to have it cleaned. it desperately needed it.

so, as the title suggests: we have 11 days before departing for hyderabad from denver, via london... i cannot wait to see those kids. after everyone else flies home from india, i'll go with j to cairo for a few days, and then israel for a few more. i can't say it enough: i LOVE the adventure my life has become! :)