Morning - Day 3

Yesterday seemed like a sprint through the some of the New Testament's greatest hits.  Hard to take it all in when surrounded by the array of people, sights and sounds - and information.  This place has so many exposed layers - it's all hanging out there to be experienced if you dare.  It's like a rough cut of an onion - all rock on rock and stone on stone, culture on culture, religion on religion.  The political situation is raw in ways we're not used to and you wonder even when you don't see the very issue in super 20-20 focus, when it will emerge right in your face.  Resources of all kinds are at stake here, in play, in jeopardy  - in real ways that we as Americans don't touch everyday.  Some of us have to go seeking this exposure and knowledge.  I think of the ways we are constantly trying to find ways to immerse students in environmental and sustainability.  Here the immersion is palpable.  

This morning we are getting ready for Meeting for Worship and for our first venture into Ramallah.  I'm still trying to absorb yesterday and all the images - Orthodox Jews at the Wall, and in the streets with their garb, walking by street vendors.  Me trying not to stare and wanting to take snapshots of every one of the men, women and children. They go by too fast. I want to watch and follow them as I step over trash in the market, including an jockey briefs underwear package with the obligatory model pose.  CONTRAST.  

I went with the young women to shop a bit in the old city streets yesterday.  Looking at jewelry we automatically entered into a bartering discourse.  Pressure to buy was intense.  I played mother hen with one of my companions while she was grilled by the shopkeeper about how much she had and how much cash she was willing to spend.  Meanwhile, one shopkeeper, a little older than me, sat quietly on his stool in the street.  He was the one recommended to us by a Friend we met from Oregon yesterday.  I told him I appreciated his approach and kindness while we had shopped in his place.  "Come, sit" he said.  He was calm and kind, and immediately we were speaking about being people first and dealing with others "heart to heart."  I'll never forget Mohammed's face.

Eireyna runs our guest house.  She is a beautiful Egyptian woman in full black head to toe covering.  She has a gorgeous smile, is funny and engaging.  I already wish I had more time to talk with her.  What is her world like?  She teaches middle school children and works here.  She's hoping to expand and add more rooms on the third floor.  She said that so many of her guests are Serbian, seeking God here in the city.   

We had dinner at home of an incoming Guilford student.  Yazin is a lovely young man who seems delighted about his upcoming adventure to Greensboro.  His father Amin started the "Hand to Hand" school.  Their home was lovely, and right on the LINE of the Arab/Jewish neighborhood.

The bells rung loudly this morning.  I wonder what the Lutherans are doing around the corner.  I wish I could go to church there this morning.  I feel my kinship with them suddenly in this strange place.  I expect to feel similarly this morning at Meeting.  

I'm in Jerusalem.  It seemed so vastly foreign and ridiculously far away last week.  But now I'm here and have talked on the phone with Julia, texted Joseph, checked email.  Everything is so much closer now.