Sleepless in Jerusalem

I can't sleep. We left Nablus this morning and checked in at the Petra Hotel in Jerusalem. Then we went back through the checkpoints all over again to go to the city of Bethlehem. We found the Church of the Nativity, and then walked around the separation wall taking pictures of the graffiti.

It's strange to be back in Israel. It's cleaner, quieter, no one is shouting "What's your name" at us when we walk down the street. But I keep thinking, do people know what life is like for the Palestinians? Do these tourists go there? How can the Israelis live knowing what's happening to Palestinians? I keep thinking about my friends there, and getting emotional.

At the Church of the Nativity there was a mass and they were singing "Silent Night", which is a beautiful song, but where is "love's pure light" for the Palestinians? They don't "sleep in heavenly peace", they sleep with jets overhead, soldiers at checkpoints, tanks invading at night.

Last night we walked home from dinner with all the Project Hope people. We were giving out thank you notes to people who we had met and were kind to us. We ran into the mother of the young actress in Dave's play. She owns a jewelry shop near our street, and she invited us in. She thanked Dave for all of his work, and told him it meant a lot to her daughter. I was looking at necklaces, and there was one little silver olive tree pendant with Palestine written in Arabic underneath. I asked how much it was, and she told me she was giving it to me. I don't know why, but I started to cry. Sometimes being in Palestine was hard, and I love walking down the street now without young men harrassing me, but so many people were also so nice to us, like that woman.

I can't forget what I learned there. We have more stories to tell, but that will have to wait until we get to our own computers!