Walking through the Old City and other areas of Jerusalem (October 3rd)

Everywhere we seem to walk in Jerusalem provides us with an opportunity to learn from what we see, to learn from what we hear, to learn from what we share and to learn from what we feel.

Our walk to experience the Jewish Sukkot festival last night provided us with a unique experience. The opportunity to be walking streets that were filled with Orthodox Jewish families wearing traditional dress and listening and sesome of the last eing groups of men practicing their religion were an experience that we could not expect. At the same time, however, many of us felt uncomfortable and that we were intruding into somebody else’s sacred space.

Today we made use of our last day in Jerusalem to explore the Old City guided by our friend George from Palestine Vision. George led us through the windy streets of the Old City and pointed out some of the sights. For example we stopped to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in what is believed to be the site of some of the last Stations of the Cross.

Along the way we were able to stop and chat with people we met and to listen to their story. People are also very interested to learn from us and how a group as diverse as we are came together and what we are doing. Through this blog we will aim to share some of these conversations as we go.

We are travelling to Bethlehem tonight and are looking forward to a group of Palestinian youth joining us for the next eight days of the program. We hope to learn from their stories, share our own stories and to contribute to the community where we are staying.

Stay tuned for more updates – and keep a look out for our flickr photos too at http://www.flickr.com/photos/oiyp_kaleidoscope_2007/ and Twitter us @oiyp.



Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre