Pray-ers for Peace

Wednesday evening, at about 6:30pm, a group of internationals and Palestinians gathered at Oush Ghrab for an ecumenical service. The Army base is actually built next to ruins of a Byzantine church, so it seemed an appropriate location. We knew in advance that the settlers who were trying to establish a settlement on that site would be holding an event that evening, and we thought we might get kicked out early in the night. We decided, however, that some prayer is better than none, and we went ahead with our plans for the service.

The group praying near the end of the evening

When the first settlers arrived, they questioned us and what we were doing there. Some of them told us to leave, that this was land only for Jews, but we continued with the service. Gradually, more and more settlers showed up with more and more equipment. We hadn't realized this was going to be such a big event, but we carried on singing songs, praying, and listening to some heartfelt sermons.

Our group is to the right of this shot

As the evening got later, some of the children of the settler group started to come over to us. Actually, they climbed on the roof of the building next to us. They began to wave their flags in our faces and mock our words and actions. We moved away from them, more toward the center of the site, and made a prayer circle. As a group, we discussed the things that made us thankful and then began to pray for peace. The praying was followed by singing.

Sometime in the middle of our singing, the settlers decided that they did not want us there anymore. A dozen or so kids put themselves in the middle of our group and started chanting nationalist slogans. The soldiers sensed trouble was brewing and lined themselves up between our group and the main group of settlers. Their "efforts" to keep the settlers away from us proved futile, and we were overrun by 100 or so angry settlers who pushed, hit, kicked and prodded us back into a corner. The English speaking settlers (most of them) shouted at us to "go back to Europe" and "get off Jewish land." One man taunted our minister for his belief in Jesus, saying "if he comes back, we'll kill him again."
All the while, we hear a woman screaming Hebrew into the microphone. Later on, a friend translated for us. She was shouting, "push them back! Get them out of here!"

The minister leading our service just ducked a flag pole (right side)

One we were in the corner, the soldiers decided to keep us back, rather than punishing the people who provoked the violence. In fact, both groups simply carried on doing what we were doing, although we spent a good hour searching for lost glasses, backpacks, etc that had been knocked off during the fracas. I was incredibly proud of the group of people I was with that day, as they showed great restraint in the face of insults and violence.

As the settler event came to a close, the men and women rose to pray. In contrast to the disrespect that the settlers showed to us, we grew quiet and prayed along with them.

Lord, we ask that you bring peace to this land.

Life Takes Over

Who knew that running an NGO, having a child, and being unwillingly drafted into a political showdown in the Middle East could be this time-consuming? In order to catch people up on what has been going on (all both of you who still check this blog, thanks mom and Steph) I'd like to fill you in on the above mentioned items: Hiba, Paidia, and the settlers.

Hiba: I'm going to start with her, because I like her the most of the three. I never imagined that I could get so much enjoyment from spending time with someone who never talks to me, only occasionally recognizes me, and constantly pukes on me. I often find myself trying to leave the office early, skip out on social obligations, etc just so I can spend time with Hiba, and she doesn't even know the difference! I know that a lot of parents feel this way about their children, but I really think that she is the most beautiful, strong, and intelligent 3.5 month old that has ever occupied the planet. Seriously, check out these pictures.

Look at that personality! Those beautiful blue eyes! Her smile! Sorry moms and dads of other children, it's been decided . . . mine is the best.

Paidia: We've just completed summer camps, and while this is technically the second summer that we have held camps, this is the first summer that we have done independent summer camps, without going through another organization. Let me tell you, that is very different. The most importance difference was recruiting kids to be a part of camp, which is more work than you might think. Simply getting our name out there for the community to be aware of was more effort than I imagined. But, after all is said and done, we did give about 60 kids the chance to be a part of one of the coolest camps that Palestine has seen. A number of people from here and from the states contributed money to the camp effort, and for that we are very thankful. There are some kids who got to attend camp that would have spent the week waiting for their parents to get home from work if y'all hadn't stepped up. Thank you very, very much.

Settlers: Now this is where this update really gets long. On May 15, a group of right-wing Israeli's descended upon an abandoned army base that directly borders Paidia's Jack Forrest Adventure Gardens. The group's stated purpose was to start a new Jewish settlement on the land, because they wanted to prevent the Palestinians from building a hospital for children with disabilities (the land is under the jurisdiction of the Israeli Army, but is owned by the Municipality of Beit Sahour, the town we live in). A number of Palestinians and internationals (including the Piston family and Paidia employees and volunteers) gathered in the are to see what the Israeli Army would do. After all, there were signs posted on the road leading to the area that inform Israeli citizens that their presence is illegal in the area (since it is a Palestinian town). Eventually, the settlers left that day, but they promised to come back.

Who wouldn't want this guy as a neighbor?

They have come back over a dozen times since that initial foray into our lives, and they show no signs of stopping. They have stated their intentions to start a settlement in a number of right-wing websites and newspapers, and thus far, little has been done to stop them. Each time they come, the settlers spray paint the base with racist and nationalist graffiti, hang some Israeli and right-wing flags, and leave. Each time, we paint over the graffiti with pictures and sometimes silly things, remove the flags, and we leave.

So far, we have been unable to discern the intentions of the authorities in the midst of all this. The military that shows up to the site every time the settlers come are basically just there to protect the settlers (even though they are the ones carrying guns anyway) and regularly give us conflicting answers to lie to us outright when we ask them about what they are going to do. The army and the Israeli civil authority continue to say that they are not going to allow the settlement to be built, but that is something that can easily change if the political winds change.

The last encounter we had with settlers was particularly disturbing. Some of us were painting over graffiti from the week before when a group of about 70 teenagers came onto the site, they started shouting at us to leave, that the land was only for Jews, and threw at least one paintbrush and a rock at some people who ignored them and continued to paint. The soldiers watched. Rather than risking confrontation or injury, we decided to abandon our painting project. The group of settlers spent the night at the site, despite the fact that the soldiers present told us the teenagers were not allowed to be there.

A settler shouting at a Paidia volunteer.

If the settlers succeed in establishing a settlement at this location, Paidia's Adventure Gardens, the Municipal park, and the children's hospital that Cure International wants to build here are all finished. Even now, we have noticed fewer families coming to our free climb because they are afraid of settlers and soldiers. I really don't know what will happen next. I wish I could have faith in the Israeli government and army to do the right thing, but I am far from convinced that they will.

God Bless,
Jason

P.S. If you are interested in learning more about the issue of settlements in the West Bank, the links below contain useful information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement

http://www.btselem.org/English/Settlements/

we're still here

so this update is a little overdue. sorry about that. we'll try to post more often now that we have something to post about.

hiba is growing every day. she is now a little over two months. she is a very happy baby - always smiling, hardly ever crying, loves being around people, and in the last few days has become very vocal. it's like she's just discovered she can make loud noises, not just "coos". so cute. we are having tons of fun with her. her latest accomplishments include sleeping through the night (that's actually not so new, thanks to the miracle blanket), holding her head steady when we hold her up up on our shoulders, lifting her head while on her stomach (although she hates tummy time...but if she's laying on jason, she'll hold her head up), saying "gaa" when she's not actually just swallowing spit-up while trying to talk, and yesterday jason heard her say "ba". basically, she's a genius.

other than hiba, our lives are more of the same as ever. i (sarah) go back to work on monday. i'm only working part time and i'll take hiba with me, so it will be interesting to see how that goes. paidia has been pretty busy this summer, between planning for summer camps (which start next month), finishing up the spring programs, trying to keep settlers away, and planning for next fall. we're both taking arabic lessons, which are going well. i realized i need to get serious about learning arabic, because otherwise hiba and jason will be able to talk and plot together without me understanding.

well, that's a brief update on our lives. here are the links to some photo albums of hiba. i hope you enjoy them!

Some more of Hiba

More Hiba

Hiba Michelle

4 days old

today hiba is 4 days old. i think that she is the best baby in the entire world. i guess most new moms probably think that, but i'm pretty sure that i'm right about her.

the last few days have been wonderful. i stayed overnight in the hospital for two nights, which was a good slow start, but i am so glad to be home now. i've been getting plenty of sleep between kathy's help (jason's mom) and hiba's wonderfulness. hiba is so adorable and just sleeps and eats and makes really cute faces. she is not a fan of getting changed, but even then she is easily calmed down and goes back to being pretty chilled out.

hiba's name is an arabic name that means "gift from God". there is a girl who lives at the house of hope who she is named after. i have told big hiba that our baby would have the same name as her and she's very excited. we are going tomorrow to see the kids and people at the house of hope, so i am sure big hiba will be very excited to meet little hiba. michelle is my best friend's middle name. we decided a while ago that we would give our first daughters each other's middle names. she had a girl in november who has my middle name. so that's where her name comes from.

we (me, kathy, and hiba) ventured out of the house yesterday afternoon to visit jason while he was working at the climbing tower. hiba was not so impressed with her first outing - she slept through the entire thing. we got a few dirty looks and "haram"s (which literally means "forbidden", but is used in everyday speech to refer to anything that is bad or people disagree with) because she is so little and out of the house. i'm pretty sure that people here don't take their babies out of the house before they are about a month old, but they definitely wait more than three days. so we were definitely going against cultural norms. luckily, we all survived.

so, life is going and we are loving it. it's still very surreal that we have a child, but it's wonderful.

And so it goes

I am sitting on my sofa as I type this blog. My parents in the next room resting from last night (none of us slept much) and my beautiful daughter in my arms. She is sleeping, which is apparently in her top five favorite activities along with eating, burping, spitting up, and waste elimination. I assume that none of you are all that interested in my words, and you would rather see pictures, so here are a few.

I forgot Hiba's 6th favorite pastime, sticking her tongue out at everything she sees.

Momma, right after we got home with Hiba for the first time.

All three of us together. Hiba's not really down with the whole picture thing yet.

This was in the hospital. She is trying to nurse my finger.

So, we are now parents. I am trying to start Hiba off on the right foot by watching some Spurs highlights and listening to good music (Bob Dylan is playing right now). So far she is not impressed, but I guess we'll have plenty of time to get her pointed in the right direction.