Nargilah, Hummus and lots and lots of Chicken

[Above is the Shepherd’s Field where the angel is reported to have appeared to the shepherds. This is an area of Beit Sahour – and basically the backyard of where I am staying for the summer]

Last night I ended up hanging out with a small group of students from the states, who are on an Israel Tour this summer, and have been helping out at the Bethlehem Bible College (where I will be studying Arabic) and a large group of Palestinian guys who are all relatives/friends of the family I am staying with. They all live around this neighborhood, and so they wanted to barbecue. And of course, as is custom in Palestinian culture, it was meat, meat and more meat. Someone said that you sum up Palestinian hospitality in two words: “Eat meat.” [sidenote: I never put on the notorious “freshman 15” but I did put on the “seminary beer-gut” and I’ve been instructed by my mother to get rid of it. Now, some people say it’s not too bad, but I was thinking, “Hey, maybe I’ll lose a few this summer.” I jokingly said that to a few people here and they said, “Ha. Good luck. Not with the way they feed you here.” So, we’ll see…]

I’m not going to attempt to try to spell everyone’s name who I learned last night, but at the high point of the evening, there was about 15-20 people sitting around in a circle, eating chicken off the grill, dipping fresh bread into hummus, drinking cola, talking in English and Arabic, laughing, photos being taken and of course, about 5-6 nargilahs in operation (nargilah = sheesha = hookah), many of which were home-made. I was able to get out my sheesha and impress them because it was the biggest.

Three Palestinian guys and myself stayed up till around 2am, hanging out and talking. They all studied in Cairo for their degrees, and now, because they can’t go anywhere other than Beit Sahour/Bethlehem area, they are stuck. One of them has a degree in Spanish translation and he is working at a toy-store and a supermarket. The other one is helping out his dad and he has a degree in German translation. Their options are extremely limited as to what they can do and where they can go.

They asked me what I saw in Jerusalem – I casually said things like “Oh, I walked the Via Dolorosa, saw the Wailing Wall, saw the church where Jesus’ tomb supposedly is…” – not thinking anything of it. And one of them said to me, “You know, I’ve never been there.”

Bethlehem is 8km from East Jerusalem, and he has never been there. They are allowed a one-day pass (one day = 6 hrs) only during the holidays (Christmas and Easter) and even then, they may not be able to get a pass to go visit these Holy sites.

I mentioned my thoughts about passing through The Wall and how it just made me feel sick to my stomach. He said, “Have you ever seen a wall like that…it’s a prison…or…they have walls like that at zoos. It feels like they treat us like animals, just like animals.”

These are the words of young men in their 20s; Palestinians, who, are educated, who can make a huge difference in the world, and who are stuck…and who are surrounded by a wall…

Tagged as: Beit Sahour, Middle East, Palestine