July 4, 2003

Happy July 4th. Here, it's just another Friday. We spent most of the day resting before receiving visitors and paying visits in the evening.

The young man who is headed to North Park University in Chicago next year stopped by. He currently has a plane ticket, but as yet no American visa and no travel permissions. He's traveling in little over a month, so we hope everything will get smoothed away in time. Palestinians are having a lot of difficulty recently when it comes to traveling. Our friend Taghreed couldn't get to a Women's Conference in Chicago a few months ago, and four of our students and their chaperone are currently hoping their travel permissions will come through in time for them to fly out Sunday morning to Belgium. It's not looking good right now for them.

You never quite get used to the sound and sight of military vehicles.

We were awoken at about 1:30 in the morning by an Israeli helicopter flying low through the valley. And there were two searchlights shining around the town. One vehicle was in the valley below the University, a high-powered search light going back and forth through the olive groves. Another was at the top of the road towards Tubas doing exactly the same thing. The helicopter hovered back and forth just over the mountains to the East. Something was up. Eventually, a bright light like lightning lit up the horizon - no rain thus no lightning these days, however. The helicopter soon disappeared, as did the vehicle on the road towards Tubas. The one near the University slowly made its way into Zababdeh, revealing two young men in a tractor - some kind of undercover unit? Who knows...