Day One: No longer JUST PICTURES

Here we are, boarding the bus outside Ben Gurion airport. It is late afternoon and the sky
is bright blue. At the front of the bus looking back is Lorne, our Canadian tour director. David Wirt is halfway back, finding a seat. Rev Dr. Timothy Hegedus is closer, chatting with someone, and that's MJ and her camera right next to me. Carl O. is in front of me with the green shirt.

This is a shot that fascinated me. It is taked down and through one of the twisty, outdoor passages that were everywhere in this land. Though this is an outdoor stairway, it is within the Bethlehem Lutheran hostel proper and was along the way from our sleeping quarters to the dining area and main building. This is our first day in the Holy Land. We are on the way to breakfast. From bottom to top we have John K. (amazing photographer), Sebastien, Catharine H., Darranne, and Marge K. See how beautiful the stonework is. It was like this everywhere.

In the afternoon of our first day we visited the "Shepherd's field." We were purportedly standing approximately where the shepherds had been during our lecture. The gentleman lecturing is Faraj-el-lati, and we are on the Palestinian side of the wall. Most of his lecture was about the events occuring today in this area.

The hilltop in the first picture used to be covered in a forest. It was a park area in Palestian territory. It is now solid houses, 60% uninhabited. It is a "settlement" which means the Israeli govenment has annexed it for their own purposes. Conversely, one of the houses in the near distance belongs to the lecturer, and he has been threatened that his house will be bulldozed to the ground because he could "fire on" the Israeli houses. At any time, any of the half-dozen families whose land happens to be on the same hillside could suffer the same fate.

The hills here are very steep and rocky, as you can see, and beside modern buildings and power lines, look much like they would have in the shepherds' day. The next picture sits to the previous picture's left. In it, (besides Bishop Pryse, and Virginia and assorted heads) we can see the road the Israelis constructed as part of their land-annexation project. It has a high, barbed wire that runs along the Palestinian side. Military vehicles drive up and down it regularly. It curves around the valley, and up between the settlement and our lecturer's home. It was arbitrarily drawn, and it cut off one family from their olive orchard. They now have no means to support themselves.

Here is our lecturer and his young daughter. This picture, to the left of the previous one, shows the bend in the military road. It shows the way the hillsides have been terraced for easier pasturing and travel, a practice that goes back to ancient times.

We are looking primarily at Palestinian land here. I believe that is Bethlehem in the distance.
After the lecture, we clambered along the rocky path to Faraj and his family's gracious home, where we enjoyed fruit juice and chocolates.

Again moving to the left, we see the old Palestinian road, which is their only permitted route of travel. Palestinians are not allowed on Israeli roads, which are broad and well-paved and modern. They must take old, broken circuitous routes. What would take an Israeli fifteen minutes to drive could easily take a Palestinian two hours.

This is the Pastor in Ramallah, who helps with the school.

We are in the church attached to the school. In some of the pictures of the school yard (Peace in Palestine? entry) you can see the unusually shaped windows and the church tower. This was a lovely church. This pastor described to us the congregation's struggle to survive, and in what ways they continued their Christian outreach of kindness and support to all the old and feeble of Ramallah, no matter what their religion.

The windows' colours were much brighter than they show here, and such a neat shape. The walls were actually a buttery yellow, almost the colour shown, but brighter.


This was just the morning of the first day. We lunched with another lecturer, and then went to the shepherd's field. Our days were FULL.