Shalom Mikva

I am sitting in an apartment I’m sharing with 2 other Americans and 2 kiwis, which I found out means people from New Zealand. It seemed like a LOT of people on paper, but it’s been so much fun and really a great experience. I’m learning all types of helpful Hebrew and Kiwi phrases. Hebrew....toda – thank you, can – yes, sabbab – cool, tov – good/ok. Kiwi...muppet – dumb ass, spit the dummy – to fly off the handle, clucky – maternal. Very enlightening and helpful travel phrases.

It has been none stop since we arrived. Many many stories to tell. I’ve been terrible about writing things down since about day 2....between the exhaustion and having zero time of my own.

Tonight Laurie and I joined Rooti (no idea how to spell it, but it’s really Ruthy...and if you pronounce it Rudy Noa will act like she has no idea who you are talking about...Rooti is from St. Louis too, but we only met once on the day Noa left and strangely enough was on Laurie’s flight), and Iliat (Noa’s friend since she was 12 who is truly beautiful on the in outside as well as the inside) for her Mikva – a traditional jewish cleansing of the bride. More on that later.

Just an aside on Israeli driving. For any of you who had the life threatening pleasure of having Noa drive you around while she was in the states....multiply that by over 3 million cars...all driving like that. Surprisingly not a lot of honking...everyone just sort of waves and then does something ridiculously dangerous themselves. I liken it to nascar racing, literally, just choose the lane that’s going to get you somewhere quicker...going around a turn? Hug the bottom lane. Rounding one the other way? Shoot to the top. Seriously frightening. I’ve taken a lot of Dramamine since I’ve been here and have never gotten on another plane.

This morning we woke up and headed to Bethlehem. Three bus changes later we were finally on our way...it was almost as if we were trying to lose someone, but really there are just limited groups that go into Bethlehem and they are very disorganized. As we near the checkpoint we hand our passports to the driver...he has been speaking on 2 cell phones the entire time....one in Arabic and the other in Hebrew. Very interesting. He also talks with his hands and at one point is holding nine passports from all over the world OUTside the van window, you should have seen a van load of strangers’ jaws drop until he pulled them back in. You think oh he talks with his hands...or you’re waiting for him to drop them accidentally as another car veers by....or someone on a motorcycle is going to come by grab our passports, sell them and we can’t get out of the country...apparently stolen passports are going for about $50,000 a pop.

At the checkpoint a few bus loads of people arrive and we go to meet our Palestinian guide. Israelis are not allowed to go into Bethlehem, nor are their cars. It was debated and surveyed many times whether or not our whole group would be going to the West Bank on this excursion. There was fighting in Hebron just a few days ago. Trisha and I as the only Catholics felt better about it than the other Jewish members of our little group....Bethlehem in December....couldn’t pass it up. Laurie said she would not speak Hebrew while we were there, which seemed very wise.

We showed our passports again as we entered. We did take some pictures, but then they said it was an Israeli military zone so we were not allowed to. You go past the guard and you walk down this long gated in area, it has bars and barbed wire...and the cement wall we are walking past is filled with graffiti....Trisha has some great pictures from when we left. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Everyone was very quiet...solemn...no matter who side, if any you are on, you cannot ignore the feeling that at any moment something could happen out of nowhere and honestly I couldn’t tell one side from the other at this point. There are 2 vehicles waiting...our guide says...we can take 5 over here. We were a group of 5 so we went. We get into a van that says “johnny’s souvenirs” on the side. The driver offers us a piece of innocent enough looking candy, which I proceed to drop in my bag with a mental note to throw away later. We get separated from the other van load of people and Laurie says...does anyone else think it was a bad idea to go in his van? (with strangers with candy)

Well at this point, what are you going to do? We realize we are not with the other group of people any more. We are now at Johnny’s souvenir store where he just pulls up and drops off a cell phone to another guy (there are 7 million people in Israel and over 8 million cell phone – they talk on them constantly). So this small act of a detour on any other tour would not have been so nerve racking but we had no idea where we were going or who we were with. I’d gotten used to the Israeli accents and really had no problem when they were speaking English....the Arabic accent on the other hand was very very thick and hard to understand, it was like I was trapped in a bad version of some smarmy sultan movie, which did not add to my comfort level. Where are we going? The field of the shepards is where were headed, but we only realized that when we saw the sign and the other part of our group.

You really hate to feel like you can’t trust people, but it’s the reality over there....over here. And everyone has guns (Vadon – you would be right at home)...I was used to it in Israel....the Israeli army member who look like they are twelve years old with their backpack on one shoulder and their semiautomatic weapon on the other. We were on a tour in Jerusalem the other day and they just had them piled up like a big old campfire of weapons. But here in Bethlehem, the men standing around at 10 a.m. on a Monday had guns...big guns...almost every CHILD you saw had a gun....hopefully a toy. But this wasn’t the cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers we played as we were growing up...this was just grooming them for a way of life. A very disturbing picture.

The field of the shepard is where the angel came to them to tell of a baby...Jesus...who was going to be born. They should watch for him...and watch over him.

It was the start of an amazing day. Everyone is going to bed now and the typing seems very loud in this place. It’s a HUGE apartment on what would be considered the Park Avenue of Tel Aviv....we can walk to amazing restaurants (I had falafel today....YUM!!) and shops and tomorrow we are going to see the beach. I had my doubts of staying all together since I didn’t know two of the people, but Julian an old friend of Noa and his girlfriend Hannah – both competitive dancers in New Zealand have been great addition to our troupe of Americans.

More later. Hope all is well in your time zone...I’m 8 hours ahead of St. Louis, so please be kind when I return and have no idea what time it is J

....when I went to post this, all of google was in Hebrew, so hopefully it worked!