(Before I continue, one brief note…if you are a person I might text normally, I have not been able the send or receive texts for the last 24-36 hours. Don’t worry, I’m OK…just can’t see or send texts.)
Also, to protect the family’s privacy, I changed their names and am not including pictures and identifying details.
OK! This was a wonderful add-on that became available for us to do through the tour company and our guide. There are families in Bethlehem who opened their homes to us to share a meal and a conversation about their lives. We were taken by bus from the hotel for about a 30 minute drive into the area of Bethlehem. We had to cross the wall between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and make sure we had our passports along in case of questions. (We ended up not needing to produce them). The bus took us to a parking lot with people ready to pick us up and take us to their homes for supper. Evan and I were picked up by a man named George, a grandfather and father. He spoke some broken English, but we were able to communicate a little. None of us speak Hebrew, so we were at the mercy of them speaking English.
When we arrived at George’s home, his wife was there making a meal for us. She spoke no English at all, but speaks the language of love through food! She made us an amazing meal of chicken with herbs and a rice dish with peas and carrots. We also had yogurt and a sort of slaw/salsa mixture made from tomatoes, cucumbers, green onion, and a fresh herb like maybe parsley. My finicky eater, Evan, loved the chicken, and even tried some herbal tea after supper. I had some Arabian coffee, very yummy. For dessert we had a wafer with chocolate, like the inside of a KitKat bar. They thanked us for the gifts we brought for them, candy for the kids, spices, and a sampler of Jack Daniels Whiskey.
Their daughter-in-law Mary was there as well, with 2 of her sons, and she spoke fluent English. We learned that she was a physical therapist, just like one in our group! So the two of them “talked shop” a little bit. We found out that Mary wanted to be a midwife before she went to college, but her father said no; he thought she would not want to have children after seeing childbirth and would never marry, so he refused to let her take this path. The way she told the story was funny! I also learned that therapist’s like me don’t really have work in this part of the world. It’s not something that is done. It was fascinating to hear Mary speak of their culture and lifestyles.
So she chose from the ~dozen fields that were offered inside the West Bank area, because to study outside of the wall is not allowed unless they completely leave. The government will not allow them to leave for study or even medical care outside of the wall unless it is something that needs a specialist that isn’t available inside. So she chose physical therapy for her path, and enjoys the work she does. There are definitely difficulties with this area, particularly for Christians, as the number of them is dwindling here. Mary said that there are only around 37,000 Christians inside the wall now, around 1% of the population. They are leaving because of the difficult circumstances for Christians in this area. The majority of the population is Muslim.
Mary’s younger brother returned home from work while we were there and brought us some crosses made of olive wood for a gift. He runs a laser cutter at work so is an olive wood craftsman. As we finished our meal, we hugged and squeezed back into George’s car. Such a pleasant meal was had by all, and so wonderful to meet Christians in this part of the world. Really, a highlight of the trip, for completely different reasons!