It is strange to hear American music at the pool. I am hearing everything through the filter of recent Palestinian music, all raw emotion. 'Hotel California' comes across to me as some plaintive lament.
We leave the resort after more than four hours. The landscape is very hot and dry. A few very mangy looking donkeys and bare hills with a few olive trees. Bethlehem is beautiful. We go into the Church of the Nativity where Greek priests are praying. They are strict about dress but very understanding and kind to the young students. There is a rule that women should cover their heads and men their shoulders. One of our students doesn't have a t-shirt, he is wearing a vest with his arms and shoulders exposed. The priest takes a cloth which is lying on a table and drapes it around the student's shoulders.
After the church, we walk into the old city. Some of the students buy cowboy hats and walk around looking incongruous. The wild east. At about six we get on to our coach and start to head back to Abu Dis. Dr. Abdullah is prevailed upon to sink. He sings Palestinian folk songs unaccompanied except for one of the students playing on tabla. Some of it is improvised, beautiful plaintive meandering melodies. The students join in the choruses.
When we get to the checkpoint, there are now four or five Israeli soldiers. Nadeem, one of the volunteers tells everyone to be silent, because if there is any shouting, abuse, or other 'trouble', that might be an excuse for the bus to be stopped and everything held up for hours. We all want to get back, it has been a burning day. There is a moment of tense silence as the bus goes through the checkpoint, and as it is clear that the bus is not going to be stopped, a huge cheer goes up from the kids. 'We went through your checkpoint! You couldn't stop us! We were not afraid of you!'.
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