The Children in Jordan - Israel - Palestine

Hanging in a Mosque in Bethlehem

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a succor for children.  I honestly thought that my mother kept having babies for me to take care of.  

He reached out to touch all our hands

The children we met in our journey were just amazing.  

The first one was a our home hosted meal in Amman Jordan.  We sat in the living room and clearly this special young man did not get to visit that room often.  He ran into the room, touching surfaces, with a gleeful smile on his face.  His father, mother and Grandmother tried to corral him but to no avail.

The second special group of young men were in Jerusalem on our FREE day where we just wandered around the Old City.  When we came upon them, they were flipping cards towards a wall.  I think the goal was to have your card be the closest one to the stone wall.  I don't know Hebrew but in my hand gestures I asked them the rules for the game.  One young man then started to show me his deck which were Football cards and he named the teams.  Arsenal I understood.  That is how you entertain yourself in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Another group wanting to try their English in Ceasaria

My most favorite visit was to the Beoudin family in Palestine.  When we arrived we met the Mom/Oma and her 5-6 children and some of their spouses.  There were 11 grandchildren wandering around with the oldest being about 5.  The way each child was taken care of was so tender and loving.  Each Mom held someone else's child and Ama almost always had a grandchild in her arms.  The picture of me is in the courtyard where I sat with twins and another couple of toddlers.  The one twin took my finger and rocked back and forth.  He did not care which finger he held.  The oldest, I think Ama took pictures of everyone around her with my favorite one being the picture of Rodney that took.  She then swiped through them to see the pictures she had taken.  

By far my most intimate experience was in Jericho as we were traveling up to the Mount of Temptations.  Some Muslim young women were taking pictures of us and giggling.  They were all asking the same question "What do you feel being here?".  I hung back when the rest of my group was starting to climb up and stopped to have a better conversation with them.  It turns out they knew their English better than they knew so I talked for about 10 minutes with them.  Here is the selfie of that experience.  I was not used to be such a spectacle.  Because of the media, fewer people are traveling to Palestine so there are a lot less of us to be seen.  

At Temple Rock there was a school group who were being led by a very talented teacher.  They were so engaged and so well behaved.  That session might have been better for me to attend than the adult one that I experienced.  I would love to have this teacher at their age.