“Daily Interactions in Bethlehem”
Carlos Lichty
Visiting Israel/Palestine for the first time was a surreal experience. It was my first time leaving the United States, and I didn’t quite know what to expect. I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to interact with so many Palestinians and Israelis, so in this blog post I want to focus on a few of our daily interactions in Bethlehem.
We stayed at the guesthouse at Bethlehem Bible College, where we were immediately met by one of the most hospitable men I have ever met: Michael, the guesthouse manager. He immediately made clear that his goal was to make us as comfortable as possible. At various points in the trip some people from our group got locked out of their rooms, and he would make sure someone came up to help fix the problem as quickly as possible. Every morning we also had an elaborate breakfast that he would help construct. This was the first instance of incredible hospitality that we were met with in Bethlehem, but it would not be the last.
During our three weeks, we had a couple of afternoons to explore the center of Bethlehem, including Star Street and Manger Square. These times turned out to be great opportunities for conversations with various store owners and other locals. There was a particular store owner named Aladdin who was very persistent about us coming into his shop. We started to look at what the shop had to offer and were immediately struck by many beautiful scarves. Aladdin noticed this and started displaying and describing them. He even pulled out a lighter to show that the material was real and wouldn’t burn if you brought a light up to it. This was a tactic that seemed to work wonders on our group as three of us ended up buying scarves that day, including myself. They were very pretty scarves and it also was a great excuse to get something for my parents. Before we left Aladdin seemed frustrated with himself as he said that he should have offered us tea. We all said it was fine but he insisted on it so five minutes later, a friend of his came strutting down the street with a tray full of mint tea (see Sophia’s blog on Sami’s tea!). We all got a cup and this also gave everyone more time to talk with other shop owners and friends that were around. Aladdin told us about his wife and how he had many children as well. This seemed to be a very big point of pride for him and I was very happy to hear more about what life really was like for him on a daily basis. We left the store that day with newfound appreciation for Palestinian culture and with some new favorite tea.
A week later we walked past the same store and Aladdin recognized us immediately and made sure to welcome us back in. I needed to get a haircut that day and Aladdin recommended a place nearby. The barber didn’t know English, so Aladdin kindly translated the kind of cut that I wanted. This felt like a great moment of cultures combining to accomplish a simple task. The barber gave me a great haircut and we were able to communicate some things through hand gestures. The experience of connecting was something that became prominent during the trip. The people we met had varying levels of English ability, and we had almost no Arabic ability, and yet we could find successful ways to communicate. In the end, this trip opened my eyes to Palestinian hospitality, something that they show to complete strangers. It is something that I wish could be brought over to United States culture in more prominent ways.
