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(February, 2018) Private collection of Gilsie Gilbert Tiwol, Penampang

Blogging from Abu Ghosh, Israel

Monastery and School in the direction of Gaza, view from Saxum House

8 October: Hey y'all. This is me after a couple month's wait again. I feel stupid to report this but I am in a warzone right now. They fired rockets at Ashkelon on Saturday morning; we saw two plumes of black smoke from the distance (and it was a clear view from Saxum House) which lingered the morning. We called off the trip to Jericho and Qumran. Wael the driver had arrived to pick us up. He arrived full of confidence, patted himself in the chest and said "Don't worry, Wael is here". After some minutes he also decided that this was not normal, and turned around the coach to drive back to base. 

Plumes in Ashkelon

Saxum House at Abu Ghosh is to the west of West Jerusalem, far enough to be in its own small town. It is populated with Arabs who have no appetite for war. A monastery dedicated to Mary, Ark of the Covenant, is based here and occupies the top of a large hill in front of the patio; the Muslim locals thus also enjoy the patronage and protection of their own great saint, Maryam bint Imran. Also occupying that hill is "Abu Ghosh Palace Technological School". The hill blocks our view of Gaza, and we only hear the explosions from behind it. 

Activities were cancelled and, after ducking into the air raid shelters a few times, we went into a lull. I quickly discovered that war was boring. This is something I knew from reading and hearing the experience of people who actually went through it. War is long days and weeks and years of waiting, staying put, and keeping up morale; this is true especially for noncombatants. In any case, it cannot hurt to put in prayers for people who live closer to Gaza, and now deal with the more traumatic kind of nonsense daily.

Flights are going through some drama in terms of cancellations and delays. Some of the fellow pilgrims have found their way out, reporting success. Inshallah, I will do so too.

9 October: I am recounting events on Monday while already back at home on Friday. I passed the nights at Saxum house at first nervously, with the solid metal blinds down, and having nightmares about Singapore being attacked with missiles, but by the second night I had become accustomed; I slept like a baby while explosions from Gaza rumbled on distantly behind the hill. On Monday morning 6 of us left the house in a minivan driven by Mr. Naseem Assad from Terra Dei, the tour operator. He sped us on the highway to Ben Gurion Airport at Lod. The landscape went from hilly to flat. The only checkpoint we ran into was just outside of the airport, who let us through without looking at our passports.

The departure hall was about 40% filled. Friends who arrived in the afternoon on the same day sent pictures, showing it already much more crowded. An alarm sounded when I was almost due to board the flight to Istanbul. Everyone in the departure gates went to shelter, but only stayed for a few minutes. Afterwards, everyone went back to business and boarding resumed, which was amazing given how many large families with young children and wailing wives were travelling on that day.

At the same time missiles from Gaza hit Abu Ghosh, killed 3 people, destroyed Ramzan Kadyrov's mosque, and frightened the people still at Saxum House. Joey Villareal and Gabriel Manasigan were in town, finding beer; this was to become the "beer run of their lives".

12 October: The last member of our workshop, Russ Edmundson, has successfully left Israel and is now stranded in Bucharest, but at least he is away from the warzone, like the rest of us.

Our last group photo in Saxum House