The „long“ walk

After a great night in our guestfamilies, where we enjoyed the possibility to sleep longer than throughout the last days, and where we had a delicious breakfast and arab lunch we all met again in Talitha Kumi. From there we started our hiking trip to the valley of Battir. We walked through the fantastic nature of Makhroor to learn about fields where the Romans used to grow plants by building irrigation systems and terraces, some of them still existing today. We could finish the hike nearly without any casualties, still the whole group worked togehter to get everyone to the village of Battir. While some of us really enjoyed walking and would have wanted to go far further, others where really happy, that we took the bus back to Talitha Kumi after a short stay in Battir. After a wonderful dinner (as always in Talitha) we ended the day with some fun games in the evening.

Jakob and Bassem

The centre of religions

Because of us having breakfast at 7:30 we had to get up early. After breakfast we drove by public bus to Jerusalem, where we first went to the western wall, there we saw a jewish festivity. Afterwards we went to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on top of the Temple Mount. There we were told, that not only the buildings are mosques, but the whole Mountain is holy and all of the small openair buildings are mosques. The next stationon that day, was also the second station on Jesus´ way to his crucifixtion, so the Church of the Condemnation, here Jesus first picked up the cross an put it on his own shoulders. After that we followed the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In the church are many relics of different christan groups, because of the different groups arguing over responsibilities, they gave the key to a muslim family, which has kept it for generations. After lunch we had free time to go through Jerusalem by ourselfs. In the late afternoon everyone went to his or her guest family. There we spent the night. Some experiences we want to share from that are: a beautiful views of Beit Jala or Jerusalem from rooftops, good food and playing fun games.

Vincent and Louis

Hebron

After our second night at Tabgha we woke up early to have breakfast and pack our stuff. We really enjoyed our time there together and saying goodbye was really hard. Three and a half hours later we arrived in Hebron, where our first stop was a traditional glass factory. Back in the bus we started our citytour, which was interrupted by a short lunch-break. By foot we continued our tour and went to a rooftop, where we had a first glance at shuhada street, a part of the city palestinians are not allowed to enter. We also visited Machpela, the mosque in Hebron and learned a lot about the situation in the city. Hebron is divided in two parts, H1, the palestinian part and H2, the Israeli part. Closed off walls, checkpoints (there are 22 of them) and soldiers are part of the daily life of the inhabitants of Hebron. On top of that they have to deal with the settlers who are basically allowed to do everything without consequences. The presence of the military is very aggrieving. There are around 2000 soldiers for 500 to 800 settlers. Later some of us wanted to take a closer look at the shuhada street while others visited the synagoge. The street once was the heart of the city and now it feels like a ghost street. Before going back to Talitha we made a final stop at the last factory that produces keffiyeh, the traditional palestinian scarf, in Palestine.

Paula, Natalie and Simon