Everyday Life

I was talking to my friend Emily the other day and she said: "I've been reading your blog, but what exactly do you do at Sabeel?" Then I realized that I have never really described what an average day is like for me in Jerusalem.

I work at Sabeel Monday through Friday. Work begins at 9 am and ends between 4 pm and 5 pm. At work, I am involved in two main things. I am putting together the Spring Issue of Cornerstone. Cornerstone is Sabeel's quarterly newletter they send to their Friends of Sabeel in North America, Europe, and Australia. It seeks to be the voice of Palestinian Christians in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The other thing that I am involved in is planning Sabeel's 2009 Young Adult Conference. Right now we are working on publicity and fundraising. In fact, Click here to view the publicity flyer for any young adults who might be interested :)

Evenings are generally free. I get the chance to go on the internet, if I have a good connection, read books, and practice my Arabic. Other events that fill my evenings are occasional lectures, Arabic lessons, and hanging out with friends at the Mount of Olives. Evenings also give me the opportunity to meet up with different people whom others have told me to contact now that I am over here. The first month I lived at the White Sisters Convent. Here, I enjoyed the occasional Rummikub game with a couple of the Sisters who only spoke English and Arabic. It was a chance for me to improve my Arabic, well at least the colors.

On the weekends, I usually try to get out and see something. If I don't have anything to do, I wander around the Old City to see what else I see from markets, to the room of the last supper, to the temple mount, and the pools of Siloam. I also went on an excursion to the Dead Sea and En Gedi with a couple from Hawaii and a priest from Chile who were staying at the White Sisters convent. We saw the oasis at En Gedi, where David apparently hid from Saul. We swam in the Dead Sea and took a mineral mud bath. I have attended a couple of lectures at the Alternative Information Center in Beit Sahour on Saturday evenings, of which the Israeli Refuseniks was one. I will also hang out with some new friends I am making at the Lutheran World Federation either up on the Mount of Olives or at various restaurants throughout the city. I hope to continue to be able to see different places on the weekends, whether they are Biblical sites, tourists sights, or towns and villages in the West Bank.

I have just recently moved to a new place. Last Saturday, I moved in with a lady named Diana. I am renting a room from her and sharing the rest of her house. She is an older lady, with children and grandchildren. She is very nice, but I'm still getting used to living in a new place. The first month was a little stressful, looking for places to live. I am very relieved that now I have a more steady place.