January 19, 2001

It seems that Zababdeh has no running water (except for that stored in rooftop tanks) because of a broken water pump. The pump for the town is under Israeli control, and the Israelis have thusfar failed - or refused - to fix it.

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January 9, 2001

Once the shooting stopped, we paused to watch the beautiful moon disappear slowly from view. One of our neighbors said it looked like it was sad for Palestine.

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January 6, 2001

We gathered with a crowd of folks along the road to see what can be seen - sometimes the red lights of Israeli tracer bullets (we think) can be seen disappearing into the hills. Suddenly, we saw one of these lovely red lights headed in the direction of our gathered crowd - thirty feet in the air and to the left (it wouldn't be a field goal), but in our general direction. Everyone scattered - Marthame went one way, Elizabeth another. Five or ten more followed suit afterwards, no one was really sure what was happening.

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January 4, 2001

Unfortunately, the Dead Sea is shrinking at the rate of an inch a year - it's hasty retreat is dramatic. As in most places, this has to do with the appropriation of its natural sources for other uses.

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January 3, 2001

In the office of World Vision stood an Arab priest who had been attacked on the road by settlers on the West Bank. He was told that the damage to his car was not covered because the attack had been by Jews.

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January 1, 2001

We took solace in the fact that it's a big, big city, with no dearth of things to see, and so we became tourists again, doing some shopping (the pleas of desperate shopkeepers are depressing - as we walked the Via Dolorosa, we wondered if the crowd shouted "50% off" to Jesus, too).

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December 29, 2000

The church is the fourth oldest known church in the world, built on the site where Jesus healed ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19) and one thanked him. There is an ancient cave within the church and a hole in the roof where people would deliver food to the lepers who had been quarantined in grottos.

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