Almost two weeks ago Friday, I went with a few girls to the shuk, the market, on Jaffa Road. It was about a 25 minute walk, but on the way we found a "shekel store", which would be the equivalent to our dollar stores (except for us everything is a quarter, the exchange rate being 1:4) as well as a place that sells small pastries for a shekel a piece. They were amazingly delicious. When you get to the Shuk, you see tons of people in the wide center in between shops on either side stretching about a quarter of a mile long. There were of course beggars in the middle of the road, but there were so many people, you almost didnt see them. You can probably get anything you could need in the shuk, from food, to clothes, to toiletries, to nic-nacs. And everything there is pretty cheap. I ended up spending only 10 bucks the entire time and bought a couple pastries, some headbands, a blanket, and a floor mat.
On the very first day that I did laundry here, and hung my clothes on the line (you'de be proud mom!) We also had a small taste of the east winds. I was sitting in my room at my desk during the afternoon, and I started to smell what reminded me of the chalk in the air when you clap two erasers together. I went outside and saw that the whole sky looked yellow. These winds, since they come from the east where the wilderness is, are full of sand/dirt, and make everything look foggy, but tinted. Luckily, my clothes were fine. I have a picture or two to illustrate what the air looked like, but it might take me a little while to upload it since the internet is slow with those things.
A lot of the guys here on campus like to play soccer, and I have gotten to do that with them a couple times so far. About 5 minutes from campus there is a hard court surrounded by fence that we play on. At first I was a little disappointed that there isnt a grassy spot, but playing on the court has such a foreign yet homey back-street feeling to it, as if we were young kids again playing in the driveway...
Tuesday, I headed down to Beit Jala (right near Bethlehem) to help with the 10th grade and 7-8th grade Bible classes. Two others from JUC (Jerusalem University College), Mark and Krystal (one of my roommates) and myself led the Bible classes. We had the students do Bible charades, where each group acted out a bible story and the other groups guessed what it was. They were pretty funny with it! I really wish I had a couple of them on video. After school, Krystal and I ran soccer with the 7-8th grade girls. It was the first week we were able to play, because last Tuesday it rained (Praise the Lord, though!) and the dirt field holds puddles of water, so it wasn't feasable. We had 10 girls this week, which is not bad, considering girls arent really ever allowed to play soccer. To my surprise, they listened better than I thought, and probably better than the kids at the EducationWorks day camp this summer. ;-) Of course none of them really know how to play at all, but thats ok we will work on it. They seemed to have fun, and I am having fun getting to know them. oh, and by the way, while we were playing, a shepherd walked by with his flock of sheep and goats. That's when you know you're in the Middle East.
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