Saturday, August 4, 2007

The Last Days

No, I am not refferring to another "Left Behind" book, but rather to my last 5 days in Palestine. I am not sure what to think about it. In general I am really ready to be home and really miss my friends and family, but at the same time I really love it here. I really have been here for a while and everything here feels so normal now.

I am afraid of the transition back, too. For one, it is likely that I will have a hard time leaving the Israeli airport. I will get out eventually, but since I have spent time with Palestinians I will most likely get the royal treatment: long questioning, extensive luggage check, threats, etc. I'll get out eventually for sure, but it won't be fun. (Please pray that they won't give me any problems with my camera and computer. Often they say they need to search/check them and then you never get them back. Please pray also for wisdom in aswering their questions and for courage in general). Beyond this, I know that my transition back to the US will be difficult. I have a lot of unprocessed experiences, such as the death of my close friend and everything I have experienced here, that I think will come bursting out once I am back in the US. Please pray for my emotional strength and health once returning, as well as good processing of my time in general. (If any of you have some good "processing" suggestions, please pass them on!).

These last days will be spent wrapping up the last details as well as saying goodbyes. One of my friends from Wheaton (Colin) will be coming up to visit me from Egypt on Sunday and will stay two nights. It will be great to see him and to get to show him some of my life here. Wed. night i will head to jerusalem, where I will spend the night in a hostel. The next morning, bright and early (4ish) I will take a taxi to the airport and be off. Oh boy, here I go again....

Once I get back and catch my breath I will write up some sort of overall summary/conclusions of my trip.

مبرك وسلام (blessings and peace)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jonathan -

I just met Nate and he told me you are just finishing up after doing the full three month program ... the full monty! He also told me about your blog. Interesting.

I am reminded that you were interested in photos from Nazareth. If that is so, let me know and I can email the pix to you.

BTW in case you are interested you can take Neshers servis from East Jerusalem to the airport. It takes longer but cost is way less than taxi - 20 NIS. Their phone number is 6253233. Lonely Planet recommends arriving at airport 1.5 hours before departure. But maybe your flight is too early. Good luck with departure and great flight home.

Cheers
Rick
rsterling@ssl.berkeley.edu
www.rickinpalestine.blogspot.com