Happy Purim!

Israel celebrated Purim last week. This is the holiday that is commanded at the end of the book of Esther. It is a holiday for dressing up, giving candy to others, and going to parties.

This is where my stick-in-the-mud-iness comes out. Creating a clever costume is stressful and intimidating to me, I'm currently not eating sugar, and parties with a bunch of people in close proximity are exhausting for me. So, I escaped to Abu Ghosh for a couple of days to avoid Tel Aviv's party atmosphere.

I returned to Tel Aviv in time for Shabbat. During the 1.5 hour bus ride from my place to Jaffa I passed many parties and thousands of people in costume. The bus gave me just enough distance from the crushing crowds of party-goers.

Shabbat dinner was lovely! There was subtle costuming but lots of music. We played instruments and sang for around 3 or 4 hours. We taught each other songs and even sang "Favorite Things" from Sound of Music. I liked celebrating Purim like that.

Back in Tanzania?

Since being here in Israel I've often compared the Arab culture to Tanzania. Now that I'm living in an Arab town I'm noticing the similarities even more!

They are warm and inviting. It is hard for me to leave my house without greeting all my neighbors. I might be heading out for a quick errand, but after greetings, invitations to food, trying 5 different salads and 3 kinds of meat, and being introduced to family from Jordan, that errand took nearly 2 hours.

They are perfectly happy for you to butcher their language, because at least you are trying! I have an 11 year-old and a 13 year-old neighbor who came out the other day as I was hanging up laundry. They taught me how to say each of my articles of clothing in Arabic and didn't mind that they had to remind me several times how to say skirt.

You also get invited to weddings even though you just met them the day before and you don't even know the bride and groom!

But here is where I can get into trouble. Israeli Arabs are not Tanzanians. Sometimes I make too many assumptions. A Tanzanian pre-invitation to a wedding is called an 'mchango' card. 'Mchango' means contribution. On this card you are informed of about how much you are expected to give towards the wedding, this is likely in addition to the wedding gift.

So, when I opened this invitation I immediately searched for the amount that I was expected to give, nervous that it would be well beyond my abilities.

With the help of Google translate I realized that no 'mchango' was expected. I was simply being invited to the wedding. This situation didn't cause an offense, thankfully. It was just a good reminder not to make too many assumptions.

I wasn't able to go to that wedding, but I am going to one this weekend!

And Now...

I just finished an intensive 3-week-long crash-course in written Arabic. The course was amazing. The teacher covered more information in 3 weeks than I ever could have hoped for. I can now read and write in Arabic, I can speak in the past tense, a little in the present and future, but my vocabulary is limited to about 200 words.

On top of the course itself the program planned multiple outings for us so that we could get a feel for some of the Palestinian culture. We had an evening of Dabke dancing (traditional Palestinian dancing) and another evening of Oud music.

We were also taken on a day trip to Akko, a city a bit north of Haifa. We ate delicious hummus, visited a beautiful and old mosque, toured some Crusader ruins, and generally wondered around the ancient city.

So, what now? My master's courses don't start until the middle of October. What better way to work on Arabic than to go and live in an Arabic town - Abu Ghosh. I am volunteering at a guest house in exchange for room and board. I'm surrounded by Arabic speakers!!!

I picked up a book that teaches Arabic to keep me focused and motivated. It's a double challenge. It teaches Arabic from Hebrew.

So, here's to getting better at both Arabic and Hebrew in the coming months!

My View

For the last 5 months this has been the view from the house I live in:

It's a beautiful and thought provoking view, for me, especially considering that I will be studying conflict resolution and mediation at Tel Aviv University.

The village on the left is Abu Ghosh, a primarily muslim neighborhood. The village towards the right is Kiriath Jearim, a religious Jewish neighborhood. If you continue along the road that goes from Abu Ghosh to Kiriath Jearim you will come to Yad Hashmona, a neighborhood of Messianic believers (those who believe that Jesus is the promised messiah).

Here, just opposite my porch I can see an example of oft-pitted-against-each-other enemies living in peace.

I've witnessed a lot of interpersonal conflicts in my life. I've seen what happens when many people from different cultures, languages, and beliefs come together (some of it good and some of it bad). I've also lived in a relatively peaceful African country despite its being neighbors with infamously un-peaceful countries.

All of these experiences have made me very interested in what makes for peace and productivity where conflicts are frequent.

Will I bring about world peace? Probably. Having had this view for the past 5 months definitely gives me a leg up.