Here in the Holy Land

It's olive harvest season in Palestine.  So far, I have been invited to participate in three different harvests. One with the rest of my YAGM cohort on land owned by my host family, one with students from several schools in the Bethlehem area as a part of my volunteer work with the Environmental Education Center, and one with some friends I have made since moving here. It has been a unique and joyous experience. In Palestine, olive harvesting is all done by hand. Tarps are laid around the base of the tree to collect olives as they drop to the ground. Those who are harvesting will stand on the ground and pick olives from the lower branches, climb ladders to pick from the high outer branches, or climb the tree itself to pick from the inner boughs. Others will sit on the tarps and collect the olives in buckets as they fall, separating out leaves and twigs as they go. My favorite thing to do is climb up the tree to reach the inner branches; it is a fun challenge to see how far I can sa...

Hey friends. Last week I published my first newsletter, but I am eager to share some of the ups and downs of my first official week of service here in the West Bank. And there have certainly been both ups and downs. First off, I want to say that no amount of orientation time, no matter how thorough, could have truly prepared me for this experience. And honestly, I wasn't really expecting it to... I knew this year would be hard in ways I wouldn't be able to anticipate. But I am beginning to see the reality that knowing  that something will be hard is very different from  experiencing  how hard it actually is. Before coming here, I knew that I would stand out, that it would be obvious that I was a foreigner in this land. But now I know the feeling of many strangers' eyes on me as I walk the streets I am hoping to soon call home. Before coming, I knew that I didn't speak (much) Arabic... but now I know the feeling of constantly struggling to both understand and be understo...

  MarHaba! Hello! And welcome to my first full newsletter. I am writing this from a cafe in Beit Jala at the end of my second week here in the Holy Land. Orientation has come to an end, and tomorrow I and the rest of my cohort will finally move in with our host families for the year.  For those reading who are not familiar with the Young Adults in Global Mission program, here is a brief overview: YAGM is a program within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that sends out young adults aged 21-29 into different global communities to experience a year of accompaniment with their host communities. We are missionaries, but we are not evangelizing; rather, our focus is on accompanying and building relationships with the communities in which we have been placed. I have been placed with the cohort living in Jerusalem and the West Bank, a place of deep religious, cultural, and geopolitical significance.  The last two weeks of orientation have been so very full: full of new ...

 Pre-Departure, Post-Orientation Hey there! Welcome to my first blog post! I'm glad you could make it. I have never had a blog before, or even really kept a journal, so bear with me as I get the hang of airing out all my thoughts and feelings here on the Internet. It is currently about four days post-orientation and now that I have had some time to recover from the intensity of that week, I am anxiously awaiting the day I fly out to meet my cohort in Washington, DC for our consulate appointment. From there we will all fly together to Tel Aviv and begin our in-country orientation. The whiplash of being at orientation with all the other YAGMs and then suddenly quarantining back at home, alone, after having made all those new connections and budding friendships... has proven tough. But on the other hand, now I am looking forward to re-entry, to see all of them again and hear their stories! Since the end of orientation, I have had a knot of nervous excitement that has invaded my stomac...