July 12, 2003

Fr. Fadi meeting with one of the Ramallah parish youth.

We left Ibillin around eight to arrive in Nazareth for a full day of grading. We pulled up to Fr. Hatem's home before nine, and he and Marthame got down to translating the papers and final exams of Marthame's Church History class at Mar Elias Theological School. Meanwhile, Elizabeth relaxed (out of the sun) with the rest of the family. We shared lunch together with the extended family, a delicious Syrian version of stuffed squash (koosa mahshi, a regular favorite of ours) with extra yogurt sauce and pine nuts. Delicious. After fresh fruit, ice cream, and coffee, we had to be off to get the rental car back before it turned into a pumpkin.

We took the Jordan Valley road, a much faster route than the roads that run past Tel Aviv which often clogged with traffic. After returning the car in Beit Hanina, a town swallowed into annexed East Jerusalem, we took a shared taxi to Qalandia checkpoint and then again on the other side, into Ramallah.

We went straight to the St. Andrew's Anglican Church to see Fr. Fadi, born and raised in Zababdeh, and brother of Fr. Firas, our good friend and Zababdeh's Melkite priest. After a nice visit, he dropped us off at Ramallah's Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, where we caught another documentary film, this one about life in Bethlehem (A Number Zero). Made as a final project in graduate school in England, the film won the Royal Television Society award for best foreign documentary. It mostly showed life through the perspective of a local barber and his clientele. Again, it was a powerful vision of daily life, with humor and frustration shining through.

After the film, we joined Fr. Fadi for supper at Angelo's, a long-standing New York-style pizza restaurant - not 100%NY (or New Haven), but very good nonetheless. Fr. Fadi dropped us off at our evening's accommodations, the guest house at the Evangelical School at the edge of Ramallah where we were welcomed by one of the Sisters.

Fr. Fadi had invited Marthame to preach in the morning, so now it's time to do some prep.