Hello Friends and Family,

(Now that includes our friends and family in Ramallah)

Day 9 began with a visit to the Palestine Medical Relief Society where we listened to Doctor Bahia Amra tell us about efforts to help the Palestinian people.  They help 1.4 million people a year.  They have 8 mobile clinics and 9 ambulances.  We will share his talk when we get home.  He described to us the affects the Israeli occupation is having on the Palestinian people. 

Palestinian Medical Relief Society                              Thought some of these signs might interest you

There wasn't enough room on the bus, so Jim sat            Ancient olive tree on the way to Bil'in Village.  They call them Roman trees

in the middle aisle in a plastic chair.  If you saw               because some are 2,000 years old, when the Romans invaded.

the potholes and crazy driving, this wasn't a very

secure position, to say the least.

Next we traveled to Bil'in Village where these villagers have been protesting peacefully for many years.  The Wall is a fence with barbed wire here.  The Wall separates the Palestinians from their olive trees.  The Israelis were building a settlement on Palestinian land near here on the other side of the Wall, which was almost complete, but the peaceful demonstrations halted the work.  Since their olive trees were uprooted, this day there was a march to the checkpoint with adults and children carrying new olive trees to replant.  They were met at the checkpoint and not allowed to cross.

Jim, with the leader of the peaceful demonstrations from the village.              Child with olive tree to plant.

    Home where we saw a presentation.                                             Palestinian man plowing his field to plant okra and zucchini

If you want to know more about this village, you can go to http://www.bilin-village.org/village_en.php     It is very interesting.

We spent our last evening with our guests home.  Some friends from Jerusalem visited that night.  We hope to visit them on Friday in Jerusalem

before we leave on Monday.

This is Sara on the way to ballet class.  We were following her in the car,  because she had been chased by dogs recently and wanted a chaperone.  Sara is playing on the computer with her friend, Jude.  Jude is a common first name here.  It has a little different sound.  That evening we got an Arabic language lesson.  They were trying to teach us that gutteral sound, which we never quite managed.  We were quite amusing to them.  We learned to spell our names in Arabic, how to say "I love you", and "As you wish", which is Jim's favorite saying to me.

Jude's family from Jerusalem.  They visit our host family, because they are not allowed to go to Jerusalem.  Most Palestinian families have never been to Jerusalem or seen a lake or the sea.  Sara and Jude put on a play that they lip-synced to music.  Very fun!!!!

We left our family the next morning with lots of hugs and tears.  We will keep in touch.  They are hoping to come to the States this summer, if they can get permits.  They cannot use the Tel Aviv airport, so they will have to go out through Jordan.  We will pray that it will happen.

I asked Salam what message she wanted to give to us to take back to the States, and she said, "Tell the American people that we are NOT terrorists.  We  are human beings who want to live in peace and dignity."

Bahe'bek is "I love you said to a boy", and Bahe'bak is said to a girl.

We love you all so much,

Mom and Dad, Jim and Jeanne, Mim and Papa