The experience in the Negev desert was one I'll never forget, especially the somber look on the faces of those looking up at the bus as it sped past them in the endless miles of hot sand... It was a long hot bus ride, but I eventually made it back to my flat on the West Bank, just a few miles north of Jerusalem. I didn't really want to leave the people I'd met there, but I needed to relocate in order to be able to fit more activities into each day. I had to cram everything I wanted to do into my short, three month round trip stay in the Middle East. The new location in Gilo made it possible to walk to a lot of the places around Bethlehem. Bus rides take up a lot of your time if you're not close to where you want to go.
I moved from a very nice, relatively new flat on the West Bank, to an upstairs room in the old square stone house which appeared to have been designed for purposes of battle during the Medieval period. There was another male person renting a room down from mine on the same second floor. The family could all speak Hebrew even though none of them were Jewish. I think there were three kids, all of whom attended a Hebrew speaking school. Their mother was originally from Germany and their dad was from the States.
It was really nice having easy access to southern parts of Jerusalem and Bethlehem within minutes from where I was staying. I could see Bethlehem from a balcony just outside the door to my room. The landscape between the house I was in and Bethlehem was filled with rows of olive trees. Just below the balcony was a very large fig tree that kept us supplied with fresh figs. I couldn't have asked for a more picturesque and historical setting to enjoy the three weeks or so that I was there.
I was always coming and going from the house, trying to take in as much of the area as I could. I could comfortably walk to Bethlehem in about twenty minutes. It was exciting to be living in areas that I'd been reading about in the bible, especially near where Jesus was born at Shepard's Field, just a short walk from Bethlehem. What even made it better was that I could walk in and out of places I wanted to go to when ever I wanted, and stay as long as I wanted to stay. I didn't have to follow along with a tour group and go according to a set schedule. I could easily mix in with either Palestinians or Jews comfortably. The tour guides, unfortunately, were not unbiased when it came to describing particular historical settings, and by being alone and able to visit places of business on both sides, it was easier to get an understanding of what was going on.
I took on a couple of projects while living at this location to help pay for my rent. One was making an animal shelter out behind the house, in full view of the olive trees and the northern most part of Bethlehem. Commercial building materials were scarce and so I used odds and ends of scrap material they had. There were several old windows, a couple of old short telephone poles, a couple of pieces of tin siding and some scraps of boards. The shelter was to be used for housing goats, ducks, chickens, and whatever else the owners were eventually planning on having during the colder months. The other major project was to help them get enough wood to burn for for the winter months. The rent was very inexpensive, so I took it upon myself to help out as much as I could with whatever they needed me to help them with. I even helped with the dishes, and took my turn at learning some Hebrew from the younger ones working with me in the kitchen. They were humorously amused at my inability to pronounce some of the Hebrew sounds in the words...
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