Priors, settlements, and shawarma.

This past Saturday, as a bit of a "last hurrah" before the semester started, I went back to the west-bank with one of my friends from Hebrew U and an Irish student we met at Oktoberfest. Our first stop was Taybeh, which if you read my last post I noted to be the last Christian town in the west-bank. It's quite a small village, and you can see a few Israeli settlements being built on the surrounding hillsides. It's the town(Aphram) referenced in John 11, where Jesus and his disciples went after Lazarus' resurrection. According to local tradition, when Saladin met the locals during his campaigns, he was impressed by their hospitality thus he named the town Taybeh, which means 'good' in Arabic. 
 There are three denominations represented in Taybeh: Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Greek Orthodox. There is also a ruined Byzantine church that we explored a bit. There were still some remnants of the mosaics, and the baptistery was very well preserved. I found the crypt under a metal door that was unlocked, so obviously we took a look. It was empty, of course.

We were looking for some food, and in the middle of asking some locals where a certain restaurant was, an old man waved us up to a doorway. He asked what language to use, and we had a choice of Italian, French, or Arabic. Fortunately, our Irish fellow could speak French. We quickly realised that this was not the restaurant we were looking for. Hospitality being extended, we couldn't leave. The old man began brewing coffee with a moka-pot for us. We were all confused, until he gave us his business card: he was the Roman Catholic prior of the town. So it made a bit more sense. We stayed for a certain amount of time, and then we went on our way, back to Ramallah.

Guiseppe Spampimato's abode

On the ride back to Ramallah, I saw a few more Israeli settlements, as well as an Israeli garrison. I wonder what it feels like to be occupied. A woman in Taybeh said that they have running water only two days out of the week, unlike the settlements. Not fair at all, I think. In Ramallah, there isn't a whole lot to see. After we picked up some shawarma, we went to Yasser Arafat's tomb. As someone with an affinity for international politics, it gave me a strange feeling. Such a contentious figure, especially in my country, and I waltzed right by a number of Palestinian Authority soldiers and stared at the spot where he is buried. 

We wanted to leave the West Bank before nightfall, but that means we got to the checkpoint during rush hour. This time, it wasn't nearly as smooth. When I presented by passport and sent my items through the x-ray, the border guard tried asking me a question through the heavy glass window. She probably asked five different times, but glass like that isn't meant to be spoken through. I finally got that she was asking me "Do I love--?" I motioned that I couldn't understand the last word. She glanced at the line of Arabs behind me and spoke into a microphone: "Arabic". Now, if I put that together she was saying "Do I love Arabic". In context I suppose she was asking in not so great English whether I loved Arabs. At this point I decided being idealistic at this time wouldn't help me or the injustice of the world, so I smiled and acted like a confused westerner. They finally let me pass after seeing my student visa. I realise that people in such positions ask ridiculous questions to see what sort of reactions they get, but regardless, the blatancy of it all drove me up the wall. Another experience to process and learn from.

Being in such a diplomatically volatile part of the world is making me consider another career path- The Foreign Service or NGO work. I read newspaper articles here about China's relations with the Mid-East, and the USA ending it's support of the current regime in Egypt, and that line of work seems dynamic and a possibility for me. I am immersed in new cultures and ways of thought everyday, and it's made me realize how well I've been made for adapting, learning, and viewing issues through different angles. Being an expat in some form would suit me well, I believe.

Until next time.