In the meantime, I will be helping lead Sabeel's 4th Young Adult Conference. The conference begins this Tuesday evening, July 21. Twenty-six adults from around the world, including the US, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Palestine will come together for 12 days of learning about the conflict here and especially the concerns of Palestinian Christians. I am looking forward to the opportunity not only to travel around, but to interact with people from different countries and learn how people differ in the ways they learn about this conflict when coming here for the first time.
The past couple of months have found me preparing for the Young Adult Conference, finishing the last Cornerstone I was in charge of putting together, and making arrangements to stay in Palestine longer.
Oh, and I got to go spend time with my sister in Spain for a week. This was a little vacation to rest up before the conference, as well as a trip to renew my visa (something I have to do every three months).
In the past couple of months, I also think that my mindset has changed in regards to being in this place. I stopped thinking of Palestine-Israel as a place that I would be spending a short six month time, to a place that I would live in for at least a year. When I was here for the first few months, I tried to take advantage of every opportunity I could to learn and to engage different things. Now that I am staying here longer, I have stopped seeing as much as I can, to really absorbing "normal" life here. It is hard to explain, but now I feel like I want to really engage with the place I live, rather than seeing as much as I can. I want to learn about the place I live in depth and enjoy what life there has to offer.
There is an advantage to feeling getting to know a place well and having it feel like "home" (at least for a period). There is also a disadvantage to this normality. It means injustices of the occupation, such as checkpoints,
The crowd at Qalandiya checkpoint. Palestinians waited at least 6 hours that morning just to get through and go to work. One man I talked to had been there since 4 hours by the time I got there at 7 am.
the wall, home demolitions, discrimination against Palestinians within the state of Israel, to name a few, also start to feel normal. I fail to be appalled by these injustices any longer. I am again confronted with the idea that becoming accustomed to injustice, allows the occupation to continue and to worsen. Once you get used to certain restrictions, the larger power can tighten restrictions further, with less resistance.
I pray that I will be able to enjoy everyday life here, but still be moved by people's stories and the injustices that happen around me daily. I pray that I can continue to advocate for justice and peace and the equality of all human beings.
No comments:
Post a Comment