The Land of Living Stones

An update is long overdue—I have my computer now! By an amazing coincidence, I found out from my Palestinian friend and souvenir shop owner Majdi that someone was coming from Pennsylvania to Bethlehem. When I asked “from where?” he handed me the card of my former Bible professor who now works for CURE international in Lemoyne. Even more impressive, my sister was able to bring it to college with her (no extra trip needed) and hand it over right on campus. So it took no money nor any additional carbon output to get it here : ) Impressive! Yet, I have not really had luck with internet—at work I’ve not succeeded in connecting and at home the wireless has been down for quite a while so it’s not clear if that will be fixed.

 

The MCC administrator Bassem got married last Saturday and the whole office was invited to join in on the festivities. The Church of the Ascension on the grounds of Augusta Victoria Hospital, Jerusalem was the site of the ceremony, it a gorgeous building with elaborate and fantastic paintings on the high ceilings depicting the Ascension of Jesus and other Bible stories. The decorations were very classy and I think the service was very nice, though I couldn’t gather too much from the Arabic. In many ways it compared to the weddings we have in the States, with a processional, an exchange of vows and rings, and a recessional. The couple also took communion. Afterwards we chilled out across the street at the home of the MCC workers there, because it was several hours until the dinner reception which took place in Bethlehem. Bassem’s bride Nora is from Nazareth, so this was a bit of a trek for her family.

 

At the hall, we ate appetizers at the MCC table while awaiting the newlyweds who were off taking pictures. They finally arrived to an indoor entrance with sparklers, inaugurating a session of wild dancing, starring them of course. Their friends lifted them on their shoulders for an amusing scene—it looked like the couple was not too keen on the in air acrobatics. Most everyone was very well dressed—it’s interesting to note that all sorts of attire were evident for the women, from skimpy clubbing outfits to ball gowns and though this was a Christian wedding, many of their Muslim friends celebrated with them, some veiled. It was so fun to dance with everyone—especially the MCCers some of whom have great moves

 

The dancing stopped for the main course, and then Bassem cut the cake—with a sword. No smashing it into each other’s face unfortunately. Their first slow dance was accompanied by fog and fake snow being blown around. The last part of the night (that we stayed for anyway) involved a women’s dance where the females processed in, in the dark with lit candles in hand and dance with the bride—a good photo opp too apparently. Then the men processed in with staffs and fezzes on their heads to do some sort of masculine dancing and hoopla. All in all, a great time. Now Bassem and Nora are honeymooning in Thailand.

 

This Saturday I went to the annual Olive Harvest Festival in Bethlehem’s Manger Square where there were many booths set up for various groups. Mostly handicrafts and local food were on display, but there were some student performances and things as well. Apparently this is a good year for the olives (I believe that every other year has a high yield) and they were selling the first batch of newly pressed oil. Yum! I had a tasty falafel from the best place in town and wandered through the back streets that I haven’t explored yet, finding the market. I was still too timid to engage the clothes vendors though I am in need of some new items (my things seem to wear out so fast!) but hopefully in the coming days I’ll gain courage in shopping here.

 

Meanwhile, fall/winter has hit the area with lots of rain and cold. The high today is supposed to be about 60 degrees Fahrenheit but I think we might not even get there. And there’s no central heating in most (our) houses and offices, so we’re going to have to acquire some gas and/or area-heaters shortly so we don’t freeze our tails off. Though, last winter I lived with a thermostat at 50 so I’m not complaining.

 

If you care to write, my address again is:

Kimberly MacVaugh

PO Box 19208

Jerusalem Israel 91191

It’s hard to imagine a more fitting setting for a first-time olive harvester than the very Mount of Olives. I even know it in Arabic: Jabal iz Zeitoun. Actually there aren’t too many olive trees still in the area–it probably wouldn’t get that name today. But up at Augusta Victoria Hospital, home to the Lutheran World Federation offices in Jerusalem, from which MCC rents an office, there are over 800 olive trees belonging to LWF which are harvested every year to make Olive Oil which is sold in a fundraiser for the hospital. the Mustasfa (not to brag about my Arabic again…wink) provides care for Palestinian children and adults who have limited resources and they turn no one away. The Lutherans do great things here in the Holy Land. I cannot afford to send home 10 bottles, as is the base amount, but if you are interested in purchasing some of this fundraising oil (in pretty glass bottles) let me know and I can help you.

So on October 11th, friends gathered to kick off the six week season of olive picking by arriving at the LWF grove ready to take down those olives, like yours truly who hadn’t a clue what the process might involve. It’s actually pretty simple: get the olives down gently and collect them minus branches and stones. We used hand rakes and tarps to increase our efficiency, basically combing the branches so the little olives would plunk onto the tarps and then we could lift them en masse into burlap sacks. Simple doesn’t mean easy. It is quite a labor intensive process and the branches are a lot like tangled hair without conditioner that you’re going through with a nit comb. Also, olives are really quite heavy when collected. With my friends from church and other places the time was quite fun though, hours of work with plenty of hilarious interludes. At the end of the day we had a celebratory picnic with tasty Palestinian dishes.

I must say that our experience was substantially more pleasant than it will be for many Palestinians whose olive trees are on the wrong side of the wall or in “closed military zones” or near settlements, who will have a terrible time negotiating permissions, attacks, and other obstacles to collecting their harvest. It takes a long time–we got through maybe 30 trees of 800 in one day–and this season is filled with tension and sometimes hardship as people attempt to sustain themselves with the livelihood of olives. Many internationals go out and help with Palestinian olive harvest efforts and there has already been some serious violence in certain areas. Pray that everyone who is harvesting will be able to safely do so and that crops will be plentiful to aid this hard economic time.

Pictures soon!