Two Jerusalems

I'm back in Jerusalem, this time to begin my three months service with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program of the World Council of Churches. My fellow EA from the United States feared I had been deported because it took me two hours to get through passport control at the Tel Aviv airport. Actually it was one hour sitting and waiting, 15 minutes of polite questioning about my current and former trips and contacts in Israel, then 45 minutes more of waiting until they checked out my story and gave me back my passport and three-month visa. It could have been worse; one
EA from Peru spent 5 or 6 hours in Passport Control, answering the same questions multiple times, and was strip searched.

This afternoon one EA in the group that is winding up service took us on a two-hour walk through the two very different Jerusalems. In the Palestinian East Jerusalem, people speak Arabic, women wear head scarves, and the streets are crowded with vendors and smell of spices. In the Jewish West Jerusalem people speak Hebrew, many men cover their heads, and the sidewalks are spacious and less crowded.




We also saw a pedestrian mall with modern sculptures in West Jerusalem.

In the old city, we passed by the EAPPI Jerusalem office in the Christian Quarter.

I now know my placement. I will be staying here in East Jerusalem for the three months with three women (Jenny from England, Jan from Canada, and Eva from Germany) and one man (Olli from Finland). We will find out more about our specific duties this week. There are a total of 31 EAs from 11 countries in my group, most of them under 35 years old. It is a happy, sociable group. I am excited to be here.