Old Journals from My Life in the Middle East

And now because of the news of the last few days, I cannot continue on the Olympics without commenting on months of travel in the Middle East in 1965.  I am digging out and skimming old journals, memories are triggered while Gaza is suffering.

Mary Sparrow Devins and I were students at the University of Florence in '65 and one day after class we spotted a brochure in the window of a Travel Agency with incredible discounts on the Turkish Maritime Lines.  The discounts for students were the greatest.  So off we went, from Milan, to Naples, to Greece, to Turkey.  We didn't go 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or bunk class.  We went "bunk without food class".  It was great.  Every port had great farmers' markets.  When we got to the hostel across from the blue mosque in we decided that we knew too little about this part of the world.  Therefore I stayed and with the return ticket to Milan in my backpack traveled south with Janet Bailey from Christchurch, New Zealand.  We traveled as far as we could by train then trucks that were transporting oranges became one of our main sources of transportation.

By the time we got to Ramala where a Palestinian family wanted to learn English and took us in, we had many many stories to share about Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.  This family had many stories to share as well.  They told us about the land that was once their family's land for many generations but now a part of Israel.  Although we were young, we knew that they had dignity and yet deep suffering in their past.

Later we left the quite environment in our neighborhood, always difficult to say goodby, and crossed The Mandelbaum Gate into Israel.  Jerusalem was divided then.  Once you passed this gate, there was no returning to the Arab countries.  In Israel we saw so much ammunition, so many tanks and so many women with rifles.  Such an incredible contrast to the peaceful shepherds and small villages we had recently been part of.  We were young and for the first time had fear. Fear of the present.  Fear and wonder about the future.  We were in the middle east only for a matter of months.  Such a small slice of our history and such a long history of their suffering.

Now in December 2008, the great suffering of the people of GAZA is presently in the news.  I continue to think of those good folks who I met and hope and pray for peace.