This week could have been the best week I have had of all my time here in Jerusalem. On Wednesday Tamarra wanted to go explore the Palestinian neighborhoods right next to the Jerusalem Center and meet the kids. So a small group of us, Tamarra and I along with 3 guys went and made our first stop at a balcony of kids who were just playing and eating candy. We tried practicing our pathetic Arabic on them and they basically laughed at us. haha...two little girls invited us onto their porch and Tamarra and I went and played clapping games with them. They kept pulling out candy from all over the place and feeding it to us. Then we decided to move on and see who else we could meet around the corner. There were a lot of kids out playing ball on the street. We ended up meeting a girl named Shu Shu who is 14 years old and she is such a sweetheart. She invited us into her home, so we went with the guys of course(don't worry Mom) and we sat in their living room and talked as much as we could(there is a definite language barrier). They actually have a nice home in comparison to the surrounding homes. Still, it is completely different and opens my eyes to how incredibly lucky I am to live where I do. Still it was a home, and if felt so good to be in a home! The Mother is so sweet and it turns out she is trying to learn English along with her daughter Shu Shu who is studying English in school right now. So really it was great for all of us. We are trying to work on our arabic and they are trying to work on their English! Anyways, Shu Shu took us into her room after a while and painted our nails...she is so cute. I think she really misses having her sister around who is now married. In Shu Shu's room she writes all over her walls. There are quotes on her walls like, " Love like war, easy to start, possible to end" and "Don't hate 4 ever LOVE" Pretty interesting huh!
It turns out a couple of students one of which is the cousin of Jeff who was with us became really good friends with this family about a year ago. The mother just seemed so grateful we had found her. She invited us to dinner on Friday night. So after we went to the Suk(Jewish) on Friday (in the pouring rain I might add) we went to their house for dinner. We didn't really know what to expect but she said she had good cooking! When we arrived the Mother told us that she had been having ear and tooth problems and was in the hospital that morning so she wasn't able to cook a lot for us. We made sure she knew we were just grateful to be in her home and to spend time with them, we didn't need food. Still she and Shu Shu went on to bring the food out into the living room on the coffee table little by little and it was most definitely a full on meal...Tamarra said I guess Mothers are the same all over the world. This woman had been in the hospital all morning and still prepared this wonderful meal. It was a large platter of Chicken and rice along with pita and dips. She also made these lemon drinks which were really strong but really good. Shu Shu has two brothers that remind me very much of Connor...little trouble-makers haha! They were pretty cute and had fun showing us all their magic tricks.
After we ate Shu Shu took me into her room and wanted to curl my hair. So she sat me down and she sure curled me hair haha...it was fun. It totally reminded me of how much I loved to do Holly's hair. I miss you Holly!!! Anyways, then I braided her hair in french braids and she LOVED it. We had so much fun...I feel like i've made a new friend and I hope it will stay like that. We are going to try and go shopping in the Old City with Shu Shu one of these days. When we left the home after dinner, the Mother expressed as best she could how much she wanted us to come and visit her whenever we walk by. I plan on visiting often and continuing to develop the friendship we've begun with these sweet people.
Each time I left these people's home I was so incredibly happy. It was so great to interact with the people we have been told to be so careful around and to see the good that lies within so many of the homes here in Israel. These people have so much good in them and a lot of them simply want peace and love more than anything in the world. The differences in culture, just in gatherings for meals was so interesting to me. I LOVE it:) The guys we were with mentioned afterwards how they felt a little bit like they were on a mission again. I think that experience opened my eyes to how incredible a mission would be. To be able to bring the Gospel, to people like Shu Shu and her family would be unbelievable. The experiences I've had this past week have truly been a highlight...unforgettable.
So I did a lot more stuff this week but that was all I wanted to write about haha...
This is me holding a 1000 year old book in the Khalidi Library in the Old City WOW!!
Me after hiking/wading through Hezekiah's tunnel...so much fun! It was pretty funny though when we got to the end there were these two Jewish Men having a ritual bath and they were in their underwear haha:) Some of the leaders were unhappy about that, I thought it was pretty funny.
This was at our Cedar dinner we had the other night...I think we spent 4 hours at that table. Good times, and good food...I was so so so full at the end of that!
No comments:
Post a Comment