October 18, 2002

Setting up ladders to reach higher into the olive trees.

While we were gone last weekend, we missed the school's three-day olive harvest weekend that comes once a year. However, people harvest their olives all month, and into November, so all was not lost. Plus, many people didn't go to the olives last weekend because it was extremely hot. Usually families go out together, and make something of a working picnic out of it, but last weekend was no picnic weather. Unfortunately, Elizabeth wouldn't be able to join olive picking today either, as she slept in to nurse a cold.

However, Marthame went out with Fr. Thomas and his family for the harvest. Since last year's crop was so poor, it was the first time either of us had been in two years. Those members of Zababdeh families who are not in school or are not working wage-jobs spend the better part of a month collecting the precious fruit. The rest join them before and after and on days off.

The olive harvest is a whole family enterprise.

Friday morning, as Fr. Thomas was leading prayers in Tubas, the rest of his family went out to their land to harvest the forty-three trees that are their share of family land. They are also building a house on the land which they hope to inhabit sometime next year. There is a certain rhythm to picking - one tree, then morning coffee, then another, then breakfast, then another, tea, then another, and lunch.

Tanks had come to the edge of Zababdeh last night, and as we picked, we could hear them grinding away up the hill. The situation is never far away, as if the constant sound of news on the radio wasn't enough of a reminder. Other villages have had to deal with harrassment of Israeli settlers - or outright olive theft - as they try to harvest. The situation in one village got so bad with nightly masked raids and beatings that they picked up and moved to other villages. It makes one thankful to be here.

Fr. Thomas, after leading Friday liturgy, joins us in the harvest.

In the early afternoon, Fr. Thomas joined us. He changed from his priestly garments to that of a farmer, and joined in with the rest, climbing the trees like a mountain goat and chanting hymns. As if to provide counterpoint, the news gave way to Britney Spears briefly. The outside world comes strutting into this Palestinian paradise.