Getting Crafty in Ramallah

This past week I went with W and AX (not to be confused with A - different wonderful new friend) to visit a sister in the ward who lives in Ramallah. It's not really my story to tell, and so I won't - but this sister is not allowed to leave the West Bank (Ramallah) in order to come to church. The Israeli's have put up a barrier wall around the West Bank and Palestinians on the other side are VERY restricted from moving around within the West Bank and certainly outside of the West Bank. It has destroyed their economy, separated families, denied some people access to Health Services and tacked on up to 3 hours to the commute of those lucky enough to get work passes.

Injustices aside (of which there are many) the three of us rode a bus from the Hebrew U Campus out to Ramallah. Just after getting off the bus in the center of the city we walked through a souk with beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables. We settled on a few delicious mangos and a case of figs - my first time eating figs! We brought our treasures to C's house (the sister who lives in Ramallah) and were immediately fed a delicious variation of sticky bread.

After our treat C lead us into the living room where she had a box of broken China. She said something to the effect "When your kids start breaking your nice things you can either cry about it, or save it for a bird bath!" And so we used the China to piece together a bird bath! What could be more fun? My favorite part was when she pulled out the mallet and started whacking away at big pieces of china. Bits flying everywhere and she not even flinching. "We'll clean it later" she chimed.







We had a ball. After finishing the bird bath she fed us an AMAZING meal of roasted vegetables and palenta and we finished it off with our Mangos and Figs.


Hooray for new friends! (You've seen enough of my mug, I'm the one taking the pic)


It was great to make a new friend, and good for me to see more of what things are really like in at least this portion of the West Bank. I wrote this in my journal on the bus ride home

"There is this idea that the Palestinians can just go somewhere else. That they are pretty much comprised of 5 men with camels and tents and don't really have a place here. Or that the people who are there now just showed up last week to ruin the Israeli's party. I just kept thinking 'These are a people. A people who have lived here for decades (a century in fact). They have lives here and schools and gyms and jobs and government offices and a structured society. People need to let go of their merciless ideologies and look at what is real. Palestinians live here and Israeli's live here. It isn't easy, but it's what real. People who say things about those pesky Palestinians getting in the way of Israel's prosperity need to get on bus #18 and ride out to Ramallah"