Cross Cultural Reflection: The Middle East

Marhaba!

Since I'm getting ready to lose my Internet access tomorrow morning bright and early, here's an update on my trip so far...

Beit Sahour: I really love and enjoy my host family, the Khoury family. They are one of the largest and most prominent families in all of Beit Sahour and Bethlehem. Everywhere I go now, I usually run into someone I can identify as a family member I met somewhere with Umm'Ala or Abu'Ala (Jihad and Salim, respectively). It's really nice to have a home and family, and a washer and dryer. I've become quite spoiled--I did laundry twice during our two week stay!

Hebron: Our trip to Hebron was interesting... I can't say I was dramatically impacted by Abraham's tomb.. However, I suppose it was another prominent check off the list of historically important places. While we were there, the Palestinian locals were beginning their angryrevolt over the Danish comic strip... that has now completely altered tons of Arab towns across the continent. Many people were friendly, after finding out we were not Danish, but a few others were extremely hostile. I barely escaped a boy around ten who saw me, immediately made a terrible grimace, and aimed his heavy, low shopping/produce cart at me, running as fast as possible. I barely, barely, barely jumped out of the way... scary. A few other men yelled at us in Arabic and one threw oranges at me and the girl I was walking with. It was interesting. Hebron itself is bizarre, really. The old, historical, beautiful village is a strange hodgepodge of old and new.. and it has been impacted by Israelis in every way possible, tangibly visible even, when you notice the guards, checkpoints, M16s, and restricted areas. And barbed wire. There's barbed wire everywhere in the Middle East. Most dramatically, in Hebron the Israeli settlers have built on top of the old town of Hebron, and a chain-link fence lines the top of many Palestinian sidewalks and shops. It's strange to walk through pink and purple light, filtering through discarded pita bags, and be rained on by the many little shadows of bottles, cans, papers, rotting fruit...

Arabic lessons: When I first arrived in the Middle East I was immediately frustrated by the huge language barrier... Surprisingly though, I've had a fairly easy time entering into conversation with the locals, and even manage to introduce myself - name, origin, nationality, and reason for studying in the West Bank - all in Arabic. I'm quite proud of my skills. Today, while sitting in the courtyard of Umm Ala's Greek orthodox church, I initiated a conversation with a woman and her son walking through. It was really exciting. It's sometimes difficult to communicate with our instructor, despite his excellent command of English. We often don't know exactly what he's expecting us to answer and he speaks a bit harshly in response. I am sad though, that today was our last lesson. I'm ready to head out to an evening of celebration and goodbyes. I leave this program and this family tomorrow. I hope the next few weeks will hold people as beautiful and encounters as meaningful.

Ma'as Salame,
Brenna