Hey guys, I know its been so long since
I last updated and SO MUCH has happened. I think the last time I
updated you guys was before our tour. So tour info: We saw 16
national parks in 10 days, I slept in random hotels ,saw lots of
great stuff, hiked, swum, and laughed. My cold got so bad I got put
on antibiotics. But...I'm better! So on that note... on to the next
part. (sorry I don't have time to type up the whole tour, I'll tell
you when I get back!)
CAUTION: If you are a worrying relative
(*cough* my mom and gramdma) you should read this carefully and do
not worry, but rejoice in that I will be home soon and I am not dead,
and Jesus is taking care of me. On that thought maybe you just
shouldn't read this...just kidding!
SO, I am just going to go on to after
the trip. The last day of our tour we had a farewell dinner. It was
terrible because We had filafal two times in one day so we were all
very grossed out and not hungry. As you might have heard I was sick
the entire tour, and by this time I am starting to get better, but
other people are starting to get sick. Anyways, so we had to get from
the Israel side to the West Bank or Palestine (our city : Beit
Sahour) to get where we are staying. This requires crossing a border.
A very controversial border. Our bus driver was Israeli, and was not
allowed to just drive over the border. So we had to get off the bus,
unload the luggage and supplies. Distribute it evenly. Walk across
the border. And get on another bus. We didn't have a Palestinian bus
until the afternoon before. So as we're crossing the border carrying
all of our luggage, we carefully distributed the boys evenly
throughout the group just in case (which ended up being a really good
idea) and we went through 3 turn styles completely loaded down with
our luggage. The entire trip came up to about 300 yards walking in
the dark through dark buildings and parking lots. The last 50 yards
of our journey was a walkway under an awning with no lights. We
walked (nervously) down this dark hallway. The front of our group
(and our only two adults) had dissappeared and left us at the last
turn style, so we were getting more nervous as we walked. We came out
at a road that dead ended where we were standing. There were 5 men
standing there selling strawberries (of all things at 9 o'clock at
night!). They were whistling and calling at the girls ahead of me.
The girls were dazed and had stopped at the end of the walkway, by
the time we got there we began to push them on, having spotted our
adults and the rest of our group standing by a sketchy bus up the
dimly lit street. We quickly walked toward the bus and dropped our
bags and were ordered onto the bus. The bus had no lights on it. It
looked like the tour bus from hell. There were holes in the seats and
the fabric was torn in places at the ceiling. We weren't sure what
else to do besides sit and process what we had just been through.
Little did we know our journey was just beginning.
After loading all the luggage onto our
sketchy bus and we cranked up to pull away, I noticed that all of the
buildings on our sketchy street were completely deserted, papers were
blowing across the street and only one street light was
working...THIS is physical evidence of political unrest. Of the
oppression of one power, the true life of Palestinians. As our
sketchy bus took us to our apartment/high rise, we were silent,
processing what had just happened and what might lie ahead for us.
We arrived and carried the smaller
luggage the 9 floors to our rooms, and used our light-less elevator
to ship the luggage like big momma up. We arrived and discovered we
had no blankets, were limited on food, water, and electricity, little
did we know HOW limited.
The next morning we woke up and most
of us went through the motions, with the slight change of having to
turn the water off in between bathing and such. By lunch, an
emergency meeting had been called. We were informed that we were more
limited than we had previously thought. We were ALREADY out of water,
and had ALREADY used up more than half of our electricity allowance.
We were told to go as long as possible without a shower and due to
electricity it would be a cold shower. The next day someone came down
with the stomach flu and due to poor diet and showering conditions
the germs seemed to have mutliplied. 4 people have now come down with
the stomach flu, and 12 have the cold. Not only that but, I seem to
be coming down with another cold.
Needless to say the professor (a
woman) in charge put her foot down, she said we were going to ration
things, but we sure as heck were not going to die here in the west
bank. So we were allowed hot water for certain times in the day for
washing dishes and for sick people to take a bucket and cup water
conserving shower. The next step was to send away the sick people to
local missionaries houses to get hot water, a warm bed, and rest to
hopefully quell the disease, and not to mention the all time low in
the morale of our group. So the few that were healthy ( or mostly
healthy) like me, got to stay and suffer AND clean—hoping to get
rid of the germs and find order in the chaos. The weekend arrived and
our new professors arrived and the nice lady professor left. We got
nervous, because we weren't sure if these were going to be budget
nazi professors who were going to once again cut away our rations or
if they were going to be merciful.
Palm Sunday was quiet, the new
professors slept most of the day and since Zach and Bri, my buddies,
were sick (with my chest cold—sorry guys) , and the only other girl
left in my room had the stomach flu, so I stayed back from going to a
coffee shop or exploring the city, such a sacrifice considering how
tired I was. We literally played go fish all Palm Sunday, I actually
didn't even know it was palm sunday until that night. That night we
met our new proffesors. GOOD NEWS! They are merciful! They told us
that Moody was going to pay—we were not going to die off. Of course
there were plenty of Apocalyptic, Secret Church, End of the world
jokes made before this decision but at least things were looking up
now. They also instituted some structure. We had previously been
eating variations of Pita for every meal—which was slowly forming a
giant knot in everyone's stomachs. They gave us scheduled meals,
cleaning schedules for the apartments, times for classes (not to
mention they lightened our load—academically ). Basically morale
was on the rise after this meeting. Unfortunately, non of our
germophobe attempts have quelled the spread of disease (meaning the
stomach flu and cold). We are making jokes about it slowly taking
everyone until no one is healthy. I mean come on, even our German is
sick, the Europeans WERE the last to go, however.
On a lighter note, Tuesday afternoon
we got our first tour! We went to Bethlehem which means we walked 2
miles up hill (60 degree incline) and had to send three people back
in a taxi because of a nose bleed and barfing—no joke we are soo
sick. I got to see Manger Square, and the Church of the Nativity, and
the grotto where Jerome translated the Latin Vulgate. It was cool,
but there were only like 10 of us by the time we reached the top of
Bethlehem. We had (SURPRISE!) filafal for dinner and shopped some. I
made a lot of friends. The Palestinian shop keepers are extremely
friendly, and I got some really good deals. Bri and I agreed that it
was because we were cute haha. The proffesors were nice enough to
splurge and get some of us a taxi back to our apartements.
The culture here has been super hard
to get used to. Mostly Muslim Christians which is not what it sounds
like at all. Meaning we have to be careful what we wear. NO
SHORTS/TANK TOPS. And we have to be careful not go anywhere without a
guy. The men here stare you up and down with no self reserve, its
very unnerving.
Ok, so trying to be positive, I am
taking an Independent Study these two weeks on Bethlehem (what an
opportunity right?) so I have no obligations to lectures, I just have
reading. So I took this opportunity to sit in on a class that I will
take my Senior year (why not get ahead?). Its nice to just enjoy a
class and not have to worry about the 12 page paper being assigned or
the reading haha. I am doing well. I take a shower every 3 days. Baby
powder has become our best friend (for greasy hair) and though
morale is still low and people are very moody and sensitive, I think
we might just survive until april 6th! Everyone has
started counting down, of course I am as well but I am also counting
my teen age years away. Next Tuesday is my 20th birthday.
Though I am excited, I am super nervous. I feel like I am on the edge
of the rest of my life, and somehow I feel as though I have to act
differently, or get more serious, or actually consider what my life
is going to look like seriously. As much as it gives me a knot in my
stomach (or is that the pita?) (or the stomach flu?) to think about,
I look back and see how much God has done in my life so far, and
realize how much he must still have in store for me ahead. Pray for
germs to die and iron stomachs for the next ten days as we battle
through sand storms and limited showers (or bucket baths as we have
been calling them). So take a long hot shower, flush your toilet, and
show little ankle for me! Love you guys!
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