June 3rd, 2008
Last night our bus driver in Ramallah was following the other bus of our group in front of us. Both of our trip leaders had already left the group, dropped off at their apartment in Ramallah en route to the hotel that we, the participants, were staying at. Someone mentioned that our bus could hijack us and we wouldn't know 'cause we had no idea where we were. The driver we were following is friends with Hannah and Dunya, our trip leaders, and I trusted him completely, but our driver was random and didn't know where we were going. It made me nervous that we kept talking about Israel and Birthright and Jewish people because we'd been warned to use discretion about to whom and when we revealed our religion. But I decided to ignore it and keep talking about our Israeli soldier friends and how much we loved them. All of a sudden, the car started picking up speed, flying down the hill and passing the bus in front of us. My heart stopped for a minute and I grabbed Erica's hand. I knew we were fine, the driver was just having fun teasing his fellow driver, but what if...? I didn't know I had this mistrust in my body, but when you're thrown into a situation that you've only read about in papers and chewed on in a classroom, the depths of socialization are exposed. I do not know how deep my waters are; I have a gut feeling it will be a while before I hit the bottom of this lake.
1 comment:
Wow Lilly...this is deep.
Being in America affords us so many privileges-- I mean, granted, things can be real rough, and I don't want to take away from the injustices and plagues here-- but being in another country and not knowing what will happen in the next minute, or the next second...all I can say is wow.
I'm glad you wrote this blog! It is really insightful. You are finding out who you are, and what your religion and people were like, and how they are now. I hope to do that someday.
Thanks girl!
Kasey
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