The West Bank

Pictures! (click here)

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I have a friend in Ramallah, who I have been keeping in touch with via email for about 3 years now. I have gotten to know her and her family quite well. I have always wanted to see the Holy Land, the land of the Crusades, Jesus, the castles, the history... wow to think of all that history! I just dislike tours and the cost is so much for just sitting in a bus, so when my friends invited me to stay there I was so excited. I worked out the details, got tickets at a discount online and got a date set. I had offered to pay for my lodging and I guess it was sort of an insult. To keep things like that from happening again I picked up a few books to get an idea of the culture. Also, I crammed on a few othere subjects.. The Bible as History, The Holy Land as Jesus Knew It, the Crusades, a few books about the Israeli/Palestine conflict and a book on Arabic (this book, when I tried a few words out on my friend was actually more Egyptian... in fact I understand there are several different types of Arabic, it seems to be quite a complex language. There is traditional, standard and Egyptian. Fortunately my friend is an translator/interpretor (in fact she taught me a few english words I didn't know!), but I would like to make an effort to learn a few words. As far as clothing, I asked my friend what every one was wearing, I planned on wearing shorts and a tank top, but I guess the dress is long pants and nice shirts. I wanted to make sure and bring some nice gifts for everyone, so I mailed them out ahead of time.... some Boetji's mustard (famous in this area) some honey from my hives, and perhaps some homemade wine. My friend and her family are Christians, Catholic to be exact (actually a minority there, Islam is the majority

The West Bank!, "your going to the West Bank? If your going to go somewhere I think you should go to a psychiatrist!" I remember telling Dan P. at work sitting at the table in the morning. Actually I have come across many different opinions of my trip there, mostly a "wow" or "is it safe?" Actually, I am very comfortable with it, I think the only thing that worries me is the mechanical integrity of the planes, whether it is from Moline to Chicago or Moline to Tel Aviv. I wish I wasn't so mechanically minded, I am sure that while other passengers are reading and watching the movie, I will be thinking of how fast the fans spin, what happens if a goose flies in the engine, what if a cotter pin comes out, what if a bolt is not torqued right.. hmmmmmm. But as far as anything else I am really not worried, anymore than perhaps being in Chicago or Hollywood.

My friend asked me, what I would like to see, wow, how do you answer that? So after a bit of thinking I just wrote back and said, I wouldn't mind seeing the Dead Sea and some form of agriculture thing (being a farmer)... other than that, I will let you decide what I should see. What they have planned is a visit to an olive farm, a visit to the gates of Jerusalem, where the Bediouns sell their livestock at market, lots of places and sights in Jerusalem, Jericho, the Dead Sea and a variety of other places as time allows. All of this is tentative, depending of course upon check points, the current situation and the ability to travel.

My Itinerary:
Stephanie from AAA travel got me really decent pricing on tickets, I leave September 19th from the Moline Airport in the evening, fly to Chicago, then on to Frankfort (I have a 9 hour layover) then on to Tel Aviv arriving at 3:50 in the morning of the 21st! (I brought a few books to read). I am not really sure how this time zone/warp thing works, but I think it is 3:50 sept 21st middle east time, which would be 7:50 pm on the 20th Central Time (8 hours ahead of us) I had thought about taking a little trip into the town of Frankfort Germany during that 9 hour layover, but wow I sure would not want to miss my plane.

Day 1
The first Day

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