football games, lattes, and terrorist attacks

Shabbat Shalom friends!

I'm sitting on the steps outside, above the garden. The sun has set and its officially Shabbat once again. We just blew out the candles and cleaned up after kabalat shabbat, the traditional Friday night feast. Well, maybe not feast, but it beats rice and mushrooms. I'm happily full of challah bread.
I have a few good stories to tell from the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately I don't have time to go into all of them, or even any in great detail, but I'll tell you about one and maybe give a brief synapses on others and elaborate later.
By far one of my craziest times so far was a football (soccer) game in Jericho. Jericho is in the west bank, but it’s not a hot political or military spot, so we can go there without having to worry. That’s what we thought when we left on bus 72 two weeks ago Monday anyway.
We got to Jericho and were just walking around when we noticed tons of activity and crowds heading down one street. There were also tons of Palestinian Authority just piling out of trucks and lining the streets with their automatic rifles and bamboo sticks. We had been giving a lecture a few weeks earlier on how to be safe in this area by a guy from the US consulate. One thing he said was to go the other direction when you see something going on out of the usual or any mobs. Well we saw both, and we started going the other direction...but our curiosity got the best of us. I've never had to question if a decision I was making would get me shot before. Haha, it all worked out ok though, and I'll probably think twice before doing something like that again. Alright Dad, three times. Long story short we ended up at the Ramalah/Jericho championship football game. I guess the Arabs have a football league throughout Palestine and Jordan (and maybe elsewhere). Jericho, which is a fairly small town, has a surprisingly big stadium. When I got to the stadium and say the chaos, and the ridiculous amount of PA, my friends (Andrew, JE, and Karen) and I quickly had second thoughts. But it was a little too late to back down. The Americans (us) had quickly caught the eye of the head of security. I think it was sort of a big thing to have American's come and they seemed fairly insistent on us watching the game. I wasn't about to disagree with the guys with guns, so we followed the man as he parted the crowds to let us through. The first gate was covered with people, I could just see arms coming through the gate and everyone was pushing, so he turned us around to try a more tame entrance. This is when possible headlines started popping up in my head. The next gate they opened for the five of us. The guy led us to a middle section, between the rowdy Jericho fans and the section for announcers/trophies/media/and political figures. The people seemed pretty interested in us and I quickly noticed we had many eyes on us, seeing how we reacted to different things, like goals, the national anthem (or some anthem of some sort), and other events of the game. The craziest part was the amount of security we had surrounding us. First they had a whole line of security lining the separation between our section of the bleachers and the fans' section. That would have been there anyway, but in front of us we each had about two personal body guards. No joke, we had 6-8 police men lined in front of us. It was some comfort, but I don't really trust the Palestinian Authority. They aren't quite as professional or...legit as I'm used to in armed forces.
The game was sweet. It rained so the field was a disaster, but really exciting. We found a man, well more like he found us, who spoke conversational English (the only one all night). He agreed that it would be a good idea for us to leave at half time, as football games get a little rowdier in the second half and the whole town goes nuts after the game. Plus, even after we got out safely we would have been stuck at the checkpoint for hours probably. He obviously had some type of authority, and I think he's a higher up in Jericho. Everyone just parted a path for us and security let us out. He called us a taxi and brought us to his cafe (more like a hookah bar) to hang out until it got there. He got us tea (and hookah of course), and we hung out. He was very interesting to talk to, and had actually lived in New York for a while. He gave us his number and told us to come back and come to his home. Sweet connection, maybe I'll even get to meet his wife! I have yet to talk to an Arab woman; they don't get out much.
I need to also share about my trip to Ramalah with Kyle, Jodi, and Ben, but maybe I can go into greater detail some other time. They have a sweet cafe called Stars & Bucks. They even rip off the Starbucks logo. Ben said that Starbucks sued them and everything, but what are they going to do about it. I don't think infringement of copy right laws is the biggest concern involving the west bank. They pretty much do what they want. I'll have to get some pictures up on the blog when I get a chance to talk a bit more about Ramalah.
And I'm out of time, but I should mention the current situation here. Trash has been escalating around here. In the last week 120 (or something like that) Palestinians were killed in Gaza. Missiles are being shot back and forth (don’t worry, not anywhere close to reaching Jerusalem). Then last night there was a shooting at a school in west Jerusalem. Eight students (15-26 years old) were killed, and it was the deadliest attack in Jerusalem in many years. We sat on the roof for a while and watched police cars and ambulances drive back and forth over Hebron road for a while then went to bed.
We'll have to just see how things go. Today was the first day we were told not to go into the old city. And the west bank is pretty much off limits now too. Hopefully, it’s just a flare up and things will settle down again soon. Before pointing fingers it’s important to realize both sides are suffering because of this. I find myself in a strange situation, feeling both really angry at and really sad for the people here at the same time. These people could definitely use your prayers. It really seems like the grace of God is the only thing that will get us out of the mess we've created here.