Molly spent two very long and cold days in Bethlehem with Encounter, a program that takes Jewish Diaspora leaders to the West Bank to learn about aspects of Palestinian life. While the educational aspect made the trip worthwhile, the touchy-feely aspect was a little difficult to endure. Before we get to the Top 5, here is Molly’s official count of the trip:

Number of times we sang the official “Encounter” niggun: 6
Number of times we were asked to give a “collective head nod” of agreement: 4
Number of times we had a “check-in” to “unpack how we are landing”: 7
Number of times we did official introductions: 6

Here is Molly’s attempt to fit a lot of information into one very small Top 5 list of the first day in Bethlehem:

1. We started out our day with a visit to Hope Flowers School to meet with Ghada Issa Ghabon, the Program Director of the school. Hope Flowers School was started by Ghada’s father, Hussein, who said that “it is better to suffer for peace than to suffer for war.” What I really like about the school is that it doesn’t just promote peace and democracy through the curriculum, but it also provides psychological support and trauma counseling for the kids and their parents. They believe that it’s not enough to just put the kids in a safe environment at school, but you also need to provide the tools to parents to make changes in their homes.

We also spent time coloring with some of the students! See photo of Molly and Mohammed above.

2. After we left the school, we took a bus tour of the Bethlehem area and the Separation Barrier with Leila of Open Bethlehem. This is about when it started hailing, so every time we got off the bus we ended up jumping right back on. That’s pretty much what I remember from that part of the day.

3. Later that day, we went to the Nativity Hotel for lunch, and then we listened to a panel of women Palestinian activists. The three women had such moving personal stories, and even though they could easily turn their hardships into hatred and violence towards Israelis, they are choosing to devote their lives to work towards a peaceful solution.

Rula works in the media for JustVision, and she told a story about how she couldn’t get a birth certificate for her son in East Jerusalem, where he was born, until he was 5. The short story is that it had to do with her husband’s citizenship, and to get the birth certificate she ended up divorcing her husband. The son has never really met his father, and can only communicate with him through the internet and phone.

Sheerin is a religious Muslim woman, who ended up going to Darfur to work with the UN on human rights issues. She wanted to be on the outside of a conflict for once, and she uses her personal experiences in Bethlehem to relate to the Sudanese refugees.

Suzan works with Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans and she shared a story from her childhood about her village that chose to protest non-violently. Basically, her father’s shop and her home were raided and emptied, leaving them with nothing.

4. After several more activities, we went to dinner with our host families at the Tent Restaurant. There was a lot of laughing at our table, half out of hilarity, half out of confusion.

5. At the end of our long day, we went to our host family’s home for the evening. Shifra and I stayed with Abir and Freddy, and their three daughters, Gina, Emilie, and Lena. Freddy’s brother and his mother live in the apartment upstairs, so they also came over for a visit and to share their stories.

In case the house wasn’t full enough, there were also three American guests staying there. Krista and Kristen are two Mennonite Christians studying at a small private Christian college in Virginia. They are studying in Bethlehem for three weeks and then in Jerusalem for two weeks. Kurt, a special education teacher from Iowa, was also there (thanks to couchsurfers.com) and is spending the year traveling around the world.

After playing Phase 10 and Dutch Blitz (a vonderful goot game) with everyone, we finally went to sleep!