A wedding!

We're in Bethlehem (for a few days for initial training) and got to go to a wedding in the afternoon. The groom is the cousin of a man who has a coffee cart at the Bethlehem checkpoint (so the EAs have gotten to know Ameen and he invited the group to the wedding). First, we were late (oops!) and everyone had already feasted (including us - we'd eaten with the other Bethlehem team members). But, they brought us food anyway: a drink of buffalo milk, butter and spices; roasted lamb shank and rice. And, of course the ubiquitous coffee!

After visiting Ameen's house and meeting his family, three of us (the women in the group) went to the new couple's house where the women were celebrating and dancing. Each time a new woman came, she was to dance for the bride and then move back and join the clapping crowd. (Of course, I didn't know that at first!)

The groom was very happy and proud that he was married -- he wanted to show us the master bedroom with its new furniture, including the view across the way which included the Dead Sea and the near Jordanian hills.


Tu'qua, the setting for the wedding, is a Palestinian village that has a Jewish settlement nearby. Because of the topography, you cannot really see the settlement from the village. Instead, we were looking out over the valley across fields, trees, and houses.

The other very interesting place we visited is called Tent of Nations www.tentofnations.org. It is located on the land of a Palestinian family on a beautiful hillside with a fantastic view of the hill country on three sides, but officials and the army are trying to chase (force?) the family off of their land. In response, the family has filed a lawsuit with the Israeli court with documents to prove that the land has been in the family for generations. The suit is still pending, and the family maintains a constant presence with the help of international people. brothers Dauod and Daher are committed to peaceful and non-violent interactions and to Palestine. They, along with Dauod's wife Jihan run a summer camp for children (many are from one of the refugee camps in Bethlehem) and welcome international volunteers/visitors for two weeks in the summer. This spring they will also be hosting a Women's Week with women from a nearby village. I'm hoping to participate at least one day of this conference/workshop.

Dauod is a fascinating man to talk with and listen to -- he is quite passionate -- but the most interesting story he told us was of a boy (about 13 years old) who was at the summer camp who covered his eyes when he was on site. The boy said that the view was too far; he'd never seen anything that far off and it hurt his eyes. In other words, he was only familiar with the view inside the refugee camp and in the city of Bethlehem; he'd never had the opportunity to be on or see the view from the farm land and space outside the city. This experience of seeing hills and valleys and all that one can see from the Tent of Nations site was beyond anything he could comprehend. Yet, here was the chance to open his eyes, his mind and his heart to the land and his part of it.

Hope, indeed.