Last week I
decided to spend a long weekend in Palestine visiting some friends in Bethlehem
and Ramallah. My friend Mona, who’s in my program at Georgetown, is doing an
internship in Bethlehem this summer and living in the bordering town of Beit
Sahour. I thought it would be nice to visit her for a day to catch up and tour
Bethlehem, and then head north to Ramallah to visit my friend and colleague
Darin and meet the rest of the Palestine EFE team. Darin is the PEFE Program
Manager, and we’ve met a few times before at conferences and work retreats and
stuff. I left on Thursday evening right after work to cross the border, and
stayed until Sunday night so that I could work one day from the PEFE office.
The journey into
the West Bank was quite an adventure.
Amman and Bethlehem aren’t that far apart, the drive would probably take
less than two hours if you didn’t have to make the border crossing. However,
the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge crossing between Jordan and Israel is notorious
for having lengthy delays, and I got detained for extra questioning because I
was going to the West Bank and wasn’t particularly well-organized for it,
although this wasn’t completely my own fault. First, the rules and even opening
times of the border crossing seem to be fairly arbitrary – I heard like 4
different versions of their opening hours, even from credible sources like
guidebooks. It seems that they change the rules so often that nobody really
knows. Second, the crossing is fairly chaotic so its difficult to know what’s
happening and where you’re going and what you’re supposed to be doing the whole
time.
My driver picked
me up from work at about 5:30 last Thursday afternoon, and it took about 45
minutes to get from West Amman to the border crossing. Apparently regular cabs
can’t drive the last few kilometers up to the border, so the taxi dropped me
off at the entrance to the road that leads to the border and then I had to take
a different cab for the last few kilometers. The Jordan side of the border
didn’t take too long to get through, probably about 15-20 minutes, but it was
kind of a confusing free-for-all. You have to go to one of the desks, wait for
one of the Jordanian border officials to help you, and then give them your
passport, pay an exit tax, and fill out a piece of paper with your name and
passport information. Then they hold on to your passport and send you over to a
seating area where you have to wait for the bus to the Israeli side of the
border, which is a few kilometers away. I made friends in the waiting area with
several other tourists, including a Canadian couple, another American woman,
and a Czech couple, so that helped to pass the time.
After waiting
about 45 minutes, we were able to get on the bus to the Israeli side of the
border. The bus stopped several times along the way, and at one point turned
around, went halfway back to the Jordan border, then turned around again and
came back to Israel. Love traveling in the Middle East. The Israel side of the
border was pretty crowded and chaotic when I got there, but I also decided it
would be a good idea to travel at night and right before the start of Ramadan
when people are going to visit their families with their whole family of 8 and
all their belongings in tow.
After waiting in
line for quite awhile, we made it up to these windows where they put stickers
on our baggage and we had to put them on conveyer belts to go through the
scanners. I had my purse, a backpack and a tote bag on me, and they made me
give up both my tote bag and my backpack.
I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time and completely forgot to take out
my hotel reservations in Ramallah and notebook where I had written my friend
Mona’s address, etc. I forgot that I didn’t have the info on me anywhere else
and I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t get my luggage back right away. This was a huge mistake.
After going
through a few more checkpoints, I got to the real security check, where they
asked me tons of questions about where I was going, who I was staying with,
etc. Since I didn’t have my hotel reservations
or my friend Mona’s address, I’m sure I looked pretty suspicious. Also, I was only going to the West Bank and
had spent over a month in Jordan. That didn’t help either. So after questioning
me for awhile, they sent me back to the corner to wait, and eventually this
border guard came over and took me back into a hallway where I had to wait for
further questioning. I was getting pretty scared at this point because I wasn’t
sure if I was in trouble or what was going to happen, or how long they would keep
me and if I’d be able to get a cab to Bethlehem or back to Amman or anywhere
after they let me go. All the others who were being held back there (there
about 8 of us) and all my friends who I was frantically texting assured me that
this was fairly normal and that they would eventually let me through, and that
I should be able to get a taxi. That
calmed me down a little bit, but it was still a pretty nerve-wracking
experience.
After a lot of
waiting, I went through another round of questioning, and then they called my
friends Mona and Darin to check up on my story, make sure I was staying with
them, etc. Luckily by this time I had gotten in touch with both of them and was
able to get the addresses of where I was staying, etc. Mostly the border guards
just asked me the same questions over and over to see if I changed my story,
and I just tried to stay calm and tell the truth, since I had nothing to hide.
Finally, they gave me an entry card for 3 months inside my passport and told me
I was free to go. At this point I was finally reunited with my luggage, which
was then searched, and led out of the building.
It was after
midnight when I finally got through the border and there weren’t any buses to
Bethlehem left, so I took a taxi all the way there, which was unfortunately
quite expensive. I finally made it to Bethlehem at about 1 am and met up with
Mona. I had a super-late dinner and then collapsed into bed, completely
exhausted from my 7 ½ hour journey to go something like 90 miles.
On Friday, Mona
and I slept in a bit and then headed out for a day touring Bethlehem. We walked
up the big hill from her apartment in Beit Sahour into the Bethlehem city
center, and went to the Church of the Nativity, which is supposedly the spot
where Jesus was born. It’s now divided
into several different Christian churches, including a Greek Orthodox cathedral
and a Roman Catholic church. We started
to walk through it but it was so crowded during the day with tour groups that
we decided to come back later when it was a bit more peaceful.
View of Bethlehem and Beit Sahour
Church of the Nativity
We then walked a
few blocks over to the Milk Grotto Church, which according to legend is the
place where Mary breastfed Jesus while they were fleeing to Egypt. Frankly, they hadn’t fled too far at that
point, because it’s only about 100 yards from the nativity site. But, that’s
the story. The Milk Grotto Church was actually really beautiful and much more
quiet and contemplative than the Church of the Nativity. They have a courtyard
on the roof with a nice garden that we were able to explore.
Milk Grotto Church
After viewing
the churches, we walked all around the back roads of the city and saw the souq
(although it was closed because it was Friday prayer time), Bethlehem
University, and Star Street, which was an ancient pilgrimage route to
Bethlehem. We stopped for lunch at Café Sima, which had good sandwiches and
coffee and cupcakes, and we met up with several of Mona’s friends from work. It
was a nice place to relax after all the walking.
Back roads of Bethlehem
Lunch at Cafe Sima with Mona (next to me) and her friends.
After lunch, we
went to walk around the wall that separates Israel from the West Bank. It was built after the second Intifada in
2002. Although the Israelis argue that
it is for security and that it creates a more distinct border between the two
territories, the Palestinians have labeled it an “apartheid wall” and have a
lot of resentment towards it, saying that the Israelis purposely cut through
communities and neighborhoods when they built it to take as much land as
possible. It’s covered in graffiti on the Palestinian side, some of it more
eloquent than others. While we were walking around the wall, we met a woman
whose house was literally about twenty feet from the wall. She and her family are now forbidden from
going up on their roof or carrying on a lot of other normal activities because
the wall was built so close to them and they could see into Israel. She told us
a lot about her story, and I bought a few souvenirs from her little shop that
she keeps on the ground floor of the house. It was clear that she was out
looking for tourists to come to the shop, but she was nice and I wanted to buy
souvenirs anyways.
In the late
afternoon, Mona and I went back to the Church of the Nativity, which was much
calmer by this time, and walked around the whole church. Then we went back to
Beit Sahour and had dinner at a restaurant called The Tent, which was, as the
name would suggest, in a large tent. It’s a pretty huge place on the top of a
hill that looks over all of Bethlehem, and we had shish kabob and tabbouleh and
smoked argileh, which is the local name for hookah. We stayed there for hours
talking and relaxing and had a really nice night.
Inside The Tent
On Saturday
morning, I took a bus from Bethlehem up to Ramallah, which is about an hour
away. I checked into the hotel where I was staying in Ramallah, the Royal Court
Hotel, and then went across the street for lunch at this little European-style
café called Au Bon Paix. They had an
amazing smoked salmon sandwich and cappuccino. After lunch, Darin met up with
me at the hotel and showed me around Ramallah.
Ramallah is a small city but it’s really nice and full of life – I loved
it. We walked around the downtown area, had some ice cream at a famous ice
cream shop (I forgot the name!), and then walked over to the site of the
Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat’s grave. The tomb is guarded 24/7 by
the Palestinian military, and it was interesting to see. We then went over to a museum about Mahmoud
Darwish, who was a famous Palestinian poet and writer who was imprisoned
several times by Israel. While most of the museum exhibits were in Arabic and I
didn’t understand all of them, I did learn a lot about his life and all the
books he wrote in a variety of languages.
Downtown Ramallah
Mahmoud Darwish
Darin and I overlooking Ramallah
At night, Darin
had gotten us both tickets to go to the Mohammed Assaf concert in Jericho. Mohammed Assaf was this year’s winner of Arab
idol, and the first Palestinian ever to win. He is from Gaza and was held up at
the border between Gaza and Egypt for two days before they final let him
through to go to the auditions. Once he
got there, the auditions were closed, so he jumped over the wall into the
building, and eventually got somebody to give him their audition number after
they determined that he had a better chance of making it into the finals than
they did. He ended up going all the way to the finals and winning the whole competition,
and it’s spurred huge celebrations and national pride in Palestine. Anyways,
Darin heard that there would be a great concert in Jericho, so she got tickets
and we went down with a group of her friends to the concert. Unfortunately, the
concert organizers were the most disorganized company imaginable. The concert
was supposed to start at 8 pm, and at that point they had just started building
the stage for the concert. We waited for
over 3 hours, with them telling us regularly that they would need 15 more
minutes, 20 more minutes, and then finally had to head back to Ramallah at
around 11 pm because we were exhausted and had to work the next day. Apparently
he eventually did sing at about 11:15, but by that time a ton of people had
left and most of the audience was cranky and exhausted. I felt kind of bad for
him, because he had been there and ready to sing since 7 pm, but he needs to
fire his organizing company. I felt really bad for Darin, who was so
disappointed not to see the concert and felt horrible that the plans she had
arranged for my visit hadn’t worked out.
On Sunday, I
spent the day at the PEFE office, working from there and meeting the team. I
had only met a couple of them before so it was nice to finally put some faces with
names and meet the whole group. They
were incredibly friendly and welcoming, and they brought in a nice lunch for me
of falafel and hummus and knafeh (shredded dough stuffed with a mild-flavored
cheese, baked, and then drizzled with honey, yum!) for dessert. It was
delicious and I had a really nice time with the team. I hope I’ll get the opportunity to go back
someday.
After work on
Sunday, I went to Darin’s house and met her family, and her mother served us an
early dinner of lamb in a tomato sauce with green beans and rice. It was really delicious. Then I took a taxi back to the border
crossing and headed back into Jordan. The journey back was much less stressful –
the Israelis let you right through after you pay your exit tax, and the
Jordanians didn’t give me any trouble coming back in either. The longest part
was just waiting for the bus from one side to the other. My driver met me on the Jordanian side of the
border and took me back to Amman, and then I went to bed, exhausted from the
long weekend.
This week flew
by, and now I only have two more weeks of work in Amman before my friends and
Aunt come for vacation. I’ll be home in less than a month. Today,I’m
got up early to head down to southern Jordan for a weekend in Wadi Rum. It’s
a protected area in the desert, and I’ve heard from multiple people that it’s
supposed to be one of the most beautiful and amazing places in Jordan. I have a driver who is taking me down, and
then I will be going on a camel tour of the desert and then sleeping overnight
in a Bedouin camp. I’ll have a private
tent and stuff, and there are supposedly bathrooms and showers, so…we’ll see
how this goes. I’m a little nervous
about the camping experience since I’m not known for being an outdoorsy sort of
person, but it’ll be an adventure. I
know that I’d always regret it if I left Jordan without doing this. So, as the Jordanians say, inchallah I’ll
talk to you all next week with amazing photos and great experiences to share!
Love,
Sarah
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