This month in Jerusalem....

Has it been nearly a month since I last posted? I'm afraid so many thoughts have passed through my head, that it's nearly impossible for me to put them all down on one blog.

I'll try to fill y'all in with just some of the stuff.

School and Kids:
My son has been truant for over a week. Ever since I complained to the principal about the coordinator and his teacher, they have been on his case for everything. The last straw was when they tried to kick him out of school (something amiss here? Don't kids WANT to leave school?) and threatened to call the police if he didn't leave within 10 seconds. He was waiting for the class coordinator to hand him the cellphone which she took from him the day before. She wasn't going to. It was the War of the Bulls. Two headstrong people. The kid is stubborn and he didn't want to leave. She calls me up yelling and screaming, in typical Israeli fashion, and then in typically Jewish fashion, complaining that she had to chase my son all around the school (she's about 100 kilos overweight), and that she nearly fell and tripped and broke bones. Now, I wasn't going to let my son get into trouble with the Po-lice and have that woman tell "stories" to the police, if she did end up spraining an ankle. So both Hubby and I decided to have him take a "leave of absence". It's against the law. I know. But what's a mother to do?

Interfaith meetings:

I keep on chugging and wondering why on earth I am doing what I'm doing. It doesn't make any sense when you look at the whole picture. Will 5 Palestinians that come to my house, help change the entire Palestinian outlook on Israelis, Jews and Settlers? And will my town be berift of racism? It's a big fucking task for one person, let me tell you. But after these meetings end, I'm left feeling tired and euphorically giddy with happiness. It's such an intense feeling, that I think that's why I'm doing all this volunteer work, which is taking up a lot of my free time, wherever I can find it. We're planning a bus trip to Haifa - so stay tuned. It should be a fun ride. I keep on telling my kids that THIS will be the chance for us to throw each other into the sea, because we'll be picnicking on the beach. And, of course, this is what most Palestinians and Israelis think the other will do to them, if they only had the chance...

Friends:

Seems all our neighborhood friends happen to be messianic Jews. I don't know why, although our friends tell us "there's a reason." We went to visit some of these friends on Saturday, who were trying to tell me that Moslems don't worship the same God we do, and gave me a whole New and Old Testament song and dance of why they don't. Plus a whole New and Old Testament song and dance of why Jesus is the messiah, and were rather rattled by my sinful and rather scandalous proclamation that, at the moment, I don't believe in anyone being the Messiah. I told them we have to do the work ourselves for a messianic age to come about, which I'm all in favor for, of course. It ties in very nicely with my interfaith peace thing. They gave us a small book called the "New Covenant" which I put on my bookcase next to the Sikh literature I got as a gift in India. A few days later the New Covenant disappeared. I have a feeling my husband had something to do with its disappearance, although when I asked him about it, he insisted it was still there.