December 18, 2002

Again, Elizabeth woke up feeling yucky and chose to stay at home. Marthame, however, made his way through the rain to school. At the door, Fr. Aktham grabbed him, asking, "Do you have your passport?" The two of them then drove down past the abandoned Israeli camp to what used to be a Palestinian checkpoint on the road to Qabatia. Two Israeli hum-v's were blocking the road - on the other side of this "flying" checkpoint was our Jenin school bus, waiting to pass.

Israeli “flying” checkpoint in the pouring rain.

As we got out of the car, and approached the soldiers, speaking in English, they demanded that Fr. Aktham raise his shirt to show he didn't have any explosives strapped to him. He refused: "I am a priest - comer [the Hebrew word]." The situation was, as a soldier in winter ski mask explained, that they were running a security check on the driver. Once he was cleared, the bus would be allowed to pass. It poured rain as others waited, too - no one was passing the security check.

After fifteen minutes and then half an hour, we checked again. It was the same situation - exams had begun an hour ago, and the bus had been at the checkpoint for another half an hour. All of the bus drivers were already cleared by the military District Coordinating Office to avoid such problems - all for naught, apparently.

One soldier helpfully offered that we could take the children in Fr. Aktham's car, or that one of us could drive the bus. Fr. Aktham protested the unreasonableness of this, which the ski-masked soldier answered with, "Do you think I care? I don't care! He can wait five more hours for all I care!" as he waved his M-16 around.

Five minutes later, our drenched passports were returned and the bus was on its way. We're not sure which is more frustrating: the arbitrary nature of it all, or the fact that you have to kick and scream - as a protected international - to accomplish the simplest of tasks. For Fr. Aktham, that privilege may soon change - the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is having great difficulty renewing the visas of their Jordanian clergy and seminarians.

Teachers adjusted their schedules accordingly, and the Jenin students arrived and began their exams. It's the nearly daily nature of such humiliation and harassment that grinds away at the soul.

Meanwhile, rehearsals continue for the upcoming Christmas pageant. Fr. Aktham and Marthame have been working on an English translation, made somewhat more difficult by the fact that there are many plays on Arabic words and phrases.

Marthame has also been adding sound effects to the show, particularly those related to military activity. Unfortunately, we haven't had to fabricate anything but have merely had to edit together sounds we've recorded over the past two years.