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Jericho fieldtrip and workshop
On Sunday 22nd of March 2009,
the AEI Open-Windows held a fieldtrip and
workshop in Jericho for several members of its
groups:
·
Kids
·
High
school
·
University
·
Post
graduates
·
Women's
·
Parents groups
This interreligious cultural activity
coincides with several occasions:
1)
Lent
(fasting period )
2)
Cultural Tourism project training for youth and
women.
3)
Youth
management training team – practicum.(both high
schoolers and university students )
4)
The
number of people involved in the trip was 110
persons from AEI different social, religious,
cultural and educational backgrounds of
Bethlehem villages, camps and towns. The journey
started at 7am with members of the youth
management training team taking their tasks nd
responsibilities as decided upon in previous
preparatory and planning meetings. Christians
and Muslims prayers and verses from the Bible
and Quran were pronounced. On the way to
Jericho the trainees from the cultural tourism
project presented and introduced the different
historical and cultural places and they also
narrated stories related to these sites.
Participants learnt and enjoyed seeing
beautiful scenes from our country much as the
Shepherds field in Beitsahour, St. Thedosius
Monastery of the early desert fathers (Abydiyyah
village ), Chan al 'ahmar (the red inn) , the
place of the good Samaritan parable in the
Gospel).
On the way to Jericho we visited Nabi
Musa a historical place. They heard about its
importance for Muslims. When we reached Jericho
the oldest city in the world participants met
with Fr. Faisal Hijazin – Parish Priest of the
Roman Catholic Church – who welcomed us and
blessed the AEI peace work. Then Father Hijazin
gave us a presentation about monastic life and
early desert fathers in Jericho and Jerusalem
and Bethlehem areas such as mar Saba, St Chretun
, St Eftimus , St George etc .
After the lecture some Christians
attended the Latin Church Sunday mass, others
went to attend the Greek Orthodox Sunday mass
and the Muslims went to pray at the Jericho
Mosque.
During the Sunday service two members of
AEI participated in reading wishes and prayers
for peace in Palestine and the world.
The participants then headed towards the
Banana Land Resort where lunch, was taken.
During lunch time which lasted more then three
hours, the trainees from the Cultural Tourism
project had performed a lot of cultural tourism
shows such as folkloric dances, trills, songs ,
Zajel , Magana, some story and dream
performances related to the monastic and desert
life. Boys and girls from the Youth Management
Team had carried out their discipline
coordination, presentation and facilitation
tasks in a very proper way.
A Christian Muslim Living Together
encounter was also held in which two women, one
Christian: Mrs. Antoinette Kesenovitch and the
other Muslim: Mrs. Maysara Al-Mathbouh , spoke
about fasting from Christian and Muslim
perspectives.
The two speakers read stories and quotes
from the Bible (Old and New Testaments) and
Quran about fasting in the three Holy Books.
At the end of the afternoon, there was a
free time to Old Jericho and the suq or market,
where women enjoyed shopping, cheap Jericho
vegetables and fruits. As for the youth they had
enjoyed a typical bike ride for 1 hour.
After leaving Jericho we spent some time
in visiting a Christian historical site called
Deir Hijla (a greek orthodox monument for an
early desert fathers named St.Gerasimus. A woman
narrated the story of the place as part of her
cultural tourism training session performance.
During our stay at Deir Hijla Monastery
garden both youth and women groups of the
Cultural Tourism project performed wonderful
modern as well as typical Palestinian folkloric
dances and songs. Luckily our performance was
highly enriched because of the presence of a
modern singer from Nazareth named Michael Najm,
who happened to be visiting the place. Later in
the evening and after a lot of fun,
entertainment, joy, skills and knowledge
acquisition.we headed back to Bethlehem, ending
the journey safely and happily.
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