July 11, 2001

We've been practicing our Arabic in class by beginning each section with informal conversation (what did you do yesterday, how was the concert, where is your family from). Our professor today talked about his background. His grandfather had been a Melkite priest in the Nazareth area, in the village (now part of Nazareth's sprawl) of Jaffa (not to be confused with the village of the same name next to Tel Aviv). His father was an Arabic teacher, and first taught in Jaffa before teaching in - you guessed it - Zababdeh! In 1946, the family finished a new house in Nazareth. In 1947, the Latin Patriarchate sent him to the Christian village of Taybeh (near Ramallah) for a one-year teaching assignment. He and his family moved down there, the war broke out, and they found themselves on the opposite side of the Green Line (the 1967 Armistice Line between Israel and Jordan) from their house. Officially, our professor and his family are Palestinians - not Arab Israelis, and so the house isn't theirs anymore. It's the stories like this that tend to depress you and make you realize how some arbitrary things - like armistice lines - affect everyday people's lives.

It’s encouraging when our writings get shared further afield.

We made our vocabulary flashcards and headed back to the Latin Convent in Birzeit - they have built a patio restaurant overlooking the valley, where you can get a nice meal, a cup of coffee, or smoke an argileh. In the Latin Convent!? It's a perfect place to study, and it has provided a place for Muslims and Christians alike to gather. We also got word today that our piece on Iraq, “Tongues of Fire”, has been published on-line by the Episcopal magazine The Witness.