July 20, 2001

During the summer, the language program has scheduled events for us in an effort to give us a chance to see the area. Today, one of the Birzeit students arranged for a group of us to go visit his village of Kufr 'Ain. It's a mere 5 kilometers (3 miles) away from Birzeit, but it took us nearly an hour - the normal roads, like most of the West Bank, have either been closed to Palestinians (either by roadblocks or military vehicles) or are too dangerous for them (with settler groups "keeping watch" over "their" roads). Nevertheless, we had to go through an Israeli checkpoint. They stopped our van, picked out one of the two Palestinians in our van, and scrutinized his ID - the look on that Israeli soldier's face was nothing if not pure revulsion and hatred, and gave us all pause. They were baffled by the presence of American and Australian passports, though, and let us through without too much delay.

Our international group hiking through the hills near Kufr ‘Ain.

We arrived to the village and began our hike through the mountains, walking along a path that began high and worked its way along the ridge overlooking the dry river bed. In the winter, after a rainfall, the river flows for a good three days we're told. We can imagine how beautiful it is, with everything green and in bloom - now, it's quite the opposite, with heat and dust being the orders of the day (but beautiful nonetheless).

Sometimes the old ways are still the best ways to get around.

Marthame lends a hand as we boil water for tea.

Someway down the trail, we stopped at one of the springs to drink some fresh spring water (tomorrow will tell how fresh it is), and had to wait while the men in the group decided to make tea. There's something very cultural about it, even in the heat of the summer, that Arabs will drink their tea or coffee. But the truth was that the hot, sweet tea was quite refreshing, even if its preparation involved sitting/standing near a fire. Unfortunately, it meant that we would spend the rest of our hike in the height of the sun's heat (not advisable in summer in Palestine!).

A second stop at a natural spring near the Palestinian village of Kufr ‘Ain.

We stopped again at one of the springs that give the village its name ('Ain means "spring" in Arabic), sharing our drink with a donkey or two, then resting under the shade of the tree to share in some fellowship with locals. One of our student companions shared a song from his native Gaza.

Palestinians come in all shapes and sizes, as our guide’s family demonstrates.

By this time, the sun had grilled us (a useful phrase we've recently learned in Arabic), so we headed to our host's family for some cold cola, hot coffee, and cool grapes from their vines. The welcome was warm and, well, welcoming, as we have come to expect after all of our experiences of Arabic hospitality so far.

Marthame finds some relief beneath the grape arbor.

We then began the arduous side-journeys back to Birzeit, stopped at two checkpoints (as were all Palestinian cars) while settler vehicles were waved through. The soldiers acted very differently upon realizing they were dealing with a car full of internationals, and seemed rather bemused - "What are you doing studying Arabic? At Birzeit?"

We got home to find out that we still have no water...well, to be accurate, little water. We're learning some interesting water conservation techniques.