Palestinian Basketball

Halloween night I got to do something a bit different then your typical costume party- I got to go to a semi-pro basketball game in Bethlehem! Kaytlin, Ashleigh, Matt and I decided to skip out on our school's costume party/dinner (though, from the photos, it seems we missed out on some crazy funny times) to go see our friend Jarred play in his championship game. Jarred is with a group called Athletes in Action and has been living in Bethlehem and playing in the Palestinian semi-pro league this past year. Before Palestine he played in Russia and is hoping to go play in Australia next year. Jarred takes one class at my school, JUC, which is how we all met.
Kaytlin, Ashleigh, Jarred, Paul (also is with AIA though plays on a different team then Jarred), me, and Matt

It was Bethlehem against Ivda'd (a refugee camp, I was told) for the championship. The crowd was SO loud and intense. Apparently, the game before there was a big fight involving the fans going onto the floor and punching, but we didn't get to experience any of that for our game.

These little guys wanted me to take their picture too! They were fans for the other team and so when I tried to take a few pics of Jarred they would put their hands in front of my camera...very competitive! (-:

At the start of half time I went as close as I could get to the court while still being behind the railing to try to get some good shots. The first two rows that were on the other side of the railing were for the mayors, government people, and the heads of the league. One of the older men saw me taking pics and told me to hop the fence and come sit with him. He ended up being the head of the league and let me sit in the front row the rest of the game. It was awesome! I even got a complementary drink! (which I politely refused three times and then the man just picked one out and gave it to me!)

Jarred is by far the best player on the team and made a lot of points!

We ended up loosing by two point! So disappointing! But Jarred played really well and got some special award (our guess was MVP) but we weren't sure because it was all in Arabic.

Here's a short little movie clip from the game.