December 25, 2001

Christmas morning worship at the Anglican Church.

Christmas morning also means worship. We shared in fellowship and communion with the Anglican church, the smallest of Zababdeh's Christian communities - but faithful and committed. As we sang Christmas hymns together, there were some with familiar tunes, even if the words were new (and in a different language).

These forgotten agricultural paths are what make for roads these days.

After worship, we wished everyone Merry Christmas and began the long and winding road towards Cairo, our Christmas break destination! Because of the blockades now, we were able to stay on paved roads for only ten minutes or so before we turned off into a non-descript field. For the next hour, we turned and traveled on passages meant for tractors to access olive trees in out-of-the-way places. Fortunately, we haven't had rain for a few days, so the roads were passable - even for the eighteen-wheelers forced to contend with them.

We arrived at the border village of Jalame. Even though it's within the West Bank, Israeli traffic is allowed to go there for purpose of trade. There's a large parking lot where trucks exchange goods - even in wartime, commerce continues. We arrived at the border an hour and a half after we left Zababdeh - a new long-distance time record (it should take 15-20 minutes). On the way, we heard on the news that there Israelis and Jordanians were exchanging gunfire nearby. We called to see if the bridge was open - it was.

Jordanian Mansaaf in Khirbet al-Wahadni.

From there, we sped to the Sheikh Hussein Bridge at Beisan/Beit Shean and crossed into Jordan. We could hear the hollow echo of heavy artillery. A taxi took us up, up, up into the hills to the village of Khirbet al-Wahadni, which is half Christian and half Muslim. We have a friend living there who used to teach at the school in Zababdeh. It was a treat to get to visit with him, eat traditional Jordanian Mansaaf, and to look around the village a bit. The view from the village is striking, and on a clear day, our friend says he can see over into our neck of the woods - not into Zababdeh itself, but into villages around it!

The view from Jordan: Palestine in the hazy distance.

We then headed down to Zarqa, Jordan's second city, to visit with other Zababdeh friends (the Palestinian diaspora at least means you always have a place to stay!). Other Zababdehian/Jordanians came to wish Merry Christmas, and our heads spun as they told us who their sisters and cousins and children in Zababdeh were - what Zababdeh needs is a good, web-based family tree! The family with whom we stayed had lost their 23-year-old son this year to cancer, and so the usual holiday visits were accompanied by sadness and condolences.