Life and the West Bank

I feel the breeze caressing my skin and blowing my skirt in a peaceful flurry
I hear the church bells ringing, car horns beeping, the neighbor's Israeli music blaring, and the construction workers as they bang and hammer some sort of metal into submission
I see the deep blue sky, not a cloud in sight, holding the bright sun that has yet to descend into night
I smell the air, and the fresh baked bread, with the occasional whiff of garbage wafting up from the streets below
I taste the sweet juicy grapes from a fruit seller on the street, spitting the seeds carelessly into the wind
Here I am, home on my roof top, hanging with Jesus and enjoying the simple life experiences of Jerusalem-All is well

Today was a great day full of all sorts of learning. I went into the West Bank again this morning to visit the city of Beit Jalla. Me and some other classmates were visiting a school we are going to be volunteer teaching at this semester and spent a few hours there checking the place out and learning more about the Palestinians before we headed over to Bethlehem for Arabic class (like 3 minutes away). I learned that everyone in the Jerusalem area has been allotted a certain amount of water as it has not rained since February. The Palestinians in the West Bank get 1/4th the amount of water as the Israelis get per person. The water shortage is terrible over in Palestine. The principle from the school we talked to hasn't had water in his house for 2 weeks and the school just ran out a few days ago. And by "no water" I really mean, NO WATER. When you turn on the faucets- nothing. They have to buy bottles of water from the store and use it for everything, from cooking, to cleaning, to bathing, to drinking! There is an option of getting your water tank specially filled, but it is very expensive and most people can't afford it. It's really not ok. Water seems like it should be a basic human right and shouldn't be held back. But anyway, I'm definitely going to be conserving water from this point forward, and we're gonna be bringing the principle and the kids bottles of water when we go to teach. On a side note, I am SO excited to be able to work with kids for a full day every week! It's gonna be great!