Hebron

Well, I finally made it to the hospital. I am in my new room listening to call to prayer. My room faces west and I am able to watch the stunning sunsets over the city of Hebron. The strangest thing is that it feels like I never really left.

Yesterday, after a very brief argument over the day of the week in a Tel Aviv bus station, I discovered that it was actually Friday, not Thursday. This meant that the offices of the Red Crescent would be closed, and I would not be able to travel that day. This was actually pretty good news, as it meant that I would have a day in Jerusalem, although I was eager to start my work. At the bus station, I met a guy from Holland, Jaap, who was coming in to volunteer as well. It turned out that he was not only going to Damascus Gate, but he was also planning on staying at the Palm, which was the same place that I was last time.

We actually met due to the extreme rudeness of the Israeli citizenry that I have encountered here. We had been waiting for about 30 minutes in the searing heat for a bus to come. When it finally did, Japp helped me to load our luggage onto the bus while the rest of the people got on. When he started to get on the bus, the driver told us that there was no more room. We had to grab our bags from the bus, which drove away almost the second that our bags hit the pavement. Although this behavior was what I may have expected in America, I was used to the hospitality of the countries that I had been in and was pretty shocked. But it did give me a traveling companion, and we spent the day in Jerusalem together, visiting the tomb of Jesus and watching Shabbat at the Western Wall.

Ack, I am so tired. Will write more later.   But here is a picture of the Seperation Wall for your viewing pleasure.