first post

I have been living in Palestine for about two weeks now. I had plans to do a blog before, and now i feel like its a sort of late start but i figured it was worth a shot. My host family here is amazing, they are liberal, fun christians living in beyt sahour, which is a suburb of bethlehem. you basically just walk down a gigantic hill from bethlehem to get here, its a good way to get in shape if you dont want to take a taxi. This is the place where the angels came to the shepards, and up the hill is where jesus was born. My family and my roommate are amazing. I am very happy here despite the effects of the occupation. I feel like everything i have been working for with the middle east and arabic have all been for this point and i have finally found my cause.

We havent had water for the past couple of days, because the israelis shut it off. Israeli settlements have confiscated 99% of the water in the west bank. They use 5 times more, and sell it back to the palestinians at 4 times the price, only turning in on once or twice a week. it is easy to tell the differance between palestinian houses and israeli ones, because the palestinian houses all have water tanks on top to collect as much as they can. this year has been the biggest water shortage since the early 30s, and the israelis run fountains in their neighborhoods and waste water constantly without worry because it will be shut off here first. I have seen the deserts around the settlements, and the lush gardens inside of them. Everything that happens in israel comes at the direct expense of the palestinians.

The first weekend we were here, we went to Jerusalem. we walked all the stations of the cross (which include a few extra here) in the morning, and saw the dome of the rock, and the wailing wall and everything. In the afternoon we met with a group called ICAHD (israeli comittee against house demolition). They took us around to see the situation there, its funny how many places you can go without showing IDs when you have a tour bus. We went to see places where houses had been demolished, which is very regular here. I guess the protocal is that they come, give you half an hour to get your things, arrest you after those 30 mins for being there, demolish your house in front of your children, and then bill you for the costs. It is a very sad thing, especially because many of those places are just left in rubble, they dont even clean it up or do anything with it. Many other homes have been demolished for the creation of the wall, and settlements.

This is just the beginning, i have to get some rest because tomorrow im off to work again with the orphans in the SOS childrens village who turned out to be pretty crazy today haha. Thanks for reading and i will have more up soon.

peace in the middle east,
Allie