October 28, 2002

A delegation of British diplomats stopped by the school today. They're doing some information gathering - how official, we're not sure - and wanted to hear how the situation is affecting the school. Well, the Jenin kids are still absent - curfew for them is still brutally imposed. In many ways, in Zababdeh we've been very blessed over the last two years - but no one's been unaffected by the situation, even in our sleepy little town. This morning, the Israeli army came to arrest two young men living in the village. People are cut off from work, health care, commerce, trade...We can't even do something as simple as paying our phone bill. "Collective punishment" is a phrase one often hears about the situation affecting the Palestinians, and there's no more appropriate description. For the militancy of some the entire population suffers, and suffers greatly. The folks bringing the delegation had called us before coming, asking if there was anything they could bring us. Our request for cheese was fulfiled beyond all expectation; we are now well-stocked with cheeses (both fancy ones and the kinds that melt!), chocolate chip cookies, and other non-Zababdeh delicacies.

Unfortunately, Elizabeth wasn't able to meet with the group. Fortunately, it was for a good reason. She was tapped to accompany the sixth graders on a field trip to nearby Misilye to visit a stonecutting factory. Two years ago, they would've been on their way to Nablus or even into Israel (perhaps to the Sea of Galilee or Haifa) - today, a five minute drive to Misilye is the most that can be done for a field trip. The kids were bouncing off the walls of the bus, so very excited to go anywhere at all.

This large stone will be cut into smaller pieces.

We pulled up into one of several stonecutters' shops which line the road to Misilye. Two friendly men explained to the kids how the get the stones, and demonstrated how the sontecutting machines work, spraying water on the boulder as it is forced against a circular saw. Then the pieces are cut into standard shapes, most of them seemed to be thin rectangles for facing buildings.

A stone mason at work.

One man was sitting amid piles of these small slabs, pounding away with a hammer, chipping different patterns into the stone face. "We have three models," said the man: large sesame, small sesame, and something Elizabeth couldn't understand.

A rousing game of patty cake at the Na’im Khader Center.

After the full tour, we boarded the bus again and went to the nearby Na’im Khader Agricultural Center, where the kids got another tour and then had a small picnic, played a little soccer and a competitive patty-cake game which Elizabeth picked up pretty quickly.

The news is full of Moscow and Chechnya. The perspective of a people under occupation is helpful - as one friend remarked, "If he's willing to use gas on his own people, what must he be doing to the Chechyns?" But another item came across as well (in addition to CNN's wall-to-wall American sniper coverage): the American diplomat assassinated in Jordan. Worrisome to say the least...