Shelly's Blog-June 23rd

Please excuse any errors in spelling and punctuation...we have discovered that these computers are really tempermental and freeze at the slightest provocation. (Although it's sooooo hard to silence my inner teacher and not edit everything.)


We're about half way through our trip and already we have a lifetime of memories. The kids are currently outside playing soccer with new friends and the "adults" (using that term very loosely) are in the air conditioned bomb shelter/computer room. We are having a down day after several traveling and doing days.


We skipped the showers this morning and put on our splattered and dusty workclothes from a couple of days ago. I despise being dirty and wearing dirty stuff as my family will attest, but once you start in with the work, which actually feels like play because of the good natured folks in our group, you totally forget that you are grimy and utterly digusting. CAL OSHA would have a field day here. No safety regulations or expectations. We were commenting earlier that there would be no way to do work as we are in the states...it's refreshing and eye opening. The highlight for the guys today, I think, was to fling asst'd bags of trash from the 6th floor targeting the oil can below while precariously holding onto a pole of dubious stability. The bags would explode upon impact sending tile schrapnel to the far corners of the fenced off area. We got into a rhythm - shorts and talls, corner folks and those good at brush work. I got to be a "tall" today....roller on an extension pole! I will be a painter yet.

After we cleaned up and had lunch,we hiked over to the original church of Abuna...the one in which he locked the feuding congregation on Palm Sunday- refusing to let them out until they resolved their differences. If only there were enough Abunas and a big enough church in which to fit the whole of Israel...We sang in the sanctuary- helps to have some awesome voices and people who love to sing. We explored the 3 1/2 stores in Ibillin. I found cacahuates japonais (peanuts that my husband grew up eating as a kid in Mexico) that are interestingly named "American" Crunchy Peanuts. The storekeeper helped us and then we moseyed across the street to the next little storefront that seemed to have less savory snacks and alcohol and more sweets and individual candies. The storekeeper ran across the street after us and popped behind the register of the sweet shop- guess he works both locations.

We are full of ideas of things that need to be done- Lynn, Raymie and I are roommates. We tried to figure out how to solve the Palestinian/Israeli conflict..talked a lot and decided that the biggest impact we could have would be on changing the American perspective through education. We are talking about swamping Oprah with requests for Abuna's book Blood Brothers to become an official Oprah book selection and hopefully to have Father Chacour appear on the show. I'm trying to figure out how we can help to send a group of teachers and students from Ibillin to California to swap ideas, share their stories and maybe to attend a CADA leadership camp so that they can bring ideas back to help build even more leadership capacity within the student body. The solutions are going to have to come from within through the younger more flexible generations and through outside international pressure. South Africa only changed when the rest of the world insisted upon it... and I believe the same will be true with Israel and the States. The complete story of the conflict has to be told- not just a single side.
I'm trying to convince myself that the kitties here are just built more slimly than our cats. If I could, I'd be bringing a few carriers home. Any vets want to travel and do a little cat service project? Bob Barker would have a fit- no spay or neutering here. I have been reminded AGAIN that a blog is supposed to be short..a note, not a book. Apologies to all. Denia- if you actually read to the end, tell Cesar to return my emails. Happy birthdays to mom and dad. night all, Shel