April 17, 2002

Fled. After a couple last-minute visits, we grabbed our morning taxi and headed off, loaded down with the essentials we'd need for the next few months, including our upcoming trips and our summer trip home (we're planning on getting back to Zababdeh at least once, but you never know).

We took the roundabout journey past the University and through several nearby villages before our driver dropped us off in Jalame. Laden with backpacks, bags and sacks, we walked up the road towards the checkpoint, a few military vehicles making up the sparse traffic. We could see the soldiers at the checkpoint wondering what this strange sight was. We called out from a distance, "Hi! Good morning!"

"Stop right there." (we did) "Put all of your bags down." (we did) "What are you doing here? Where are you coming from? Where are you going? You - come here with the IDs." (he did) One of the soldiers took our passports and called into whatever HQ is responsible while the other chatted with Marthame. A reservist, the soldier had been called up and had been stationed at the checkpoint recently. He said they didn't know about any foreigners in the area, nor any Christians for that matter. He was quite friendly. They got the OK that we could go ahead and pass through (we've been denied entry, but never exit, so the fact that we now needed permissions was something quite strange), but informed us we wouldn't be allowed back in - at least not in the next few days. Military orders change every few minutes and even within the change of command - so we've noticed, and so we've learned from friends in the army. Then there was a cursory search of all of our bags, accompanied by the somewhat apologetic and now-familiar phrase of "sorry, we have to do this - we're just following orders."

Catching up with copious emails after being off line for a few days.

We arrived at our friends' place in Nazareth and got back on-line for the first time in a few days (158 messages waiting - most of them encouraging, some challenging, a handful nasty). Given the stress of today and yesterday, that was about all we could accomplish. We're not sure when we can return to Zababdeh, but it may be a long time....