December 26, 2000

Time to bid Bethlehem farewell and head back to Zababdeh. All seven of us at breakfast were leaving the hostel empty (normally fully booked for all of the weeks around Christmas). Our travel to Ramallah took several small detours, but nothing hardly worth mentioning - at least compared to what we've been traveling through the last couple of weeks.

Visiting friends in Ramallah.

Word has come today of a new US peace initiative promising 95% of the West Bank to the Palestinians - depending on which 5%, though, this situation could continue into perpetuity with road closures, forbidden zones, travel restrictions, etc. We arrived in Ramallah in time to visit with good friends from Zababdeh and enjoy some Maqlube (by now one of our favorite meals). But because traveling at night is far from intelligent these days, we had to leave quickly to visit our friends in Taybeh.

Our friend Maria takes us on a tour of the Taybeh Brewery.

Taybeh at night.

Elizabeth and I had been in September before the Intifada, and so we visited some of the same sites - the ruins of St. George's Church on the hill (built by Constantine's mother Helen to mark the reception of Jesus by the residents of Ephraim, it's name in Biblical times - John 11:54), Taybeh Beer, the Latin Convent's Jesus-era House of Parables. We also visited with Abuna Daoud, the Greek Orthodox priest of St. George's. He had discovered a fourth-century mosaic there and had built a chapel over it. It was our first time back to Ramallah since the Intifada, and our first chance to see good friends we had only spoken to on the phone over the past few months. Visiting friends and family during Christmas is a traditional Palestinian pastime - this is our particular version of it.