Sunday July 28

Today we took our kids on their first outing of the camp! We hired a mini bus to take us all to the nearby Bedouin camp Jabal Al Baba, funded by the pope. When we arrived at our destination the first thing that grabbed the kids’ attention was the lovely playground and football field. Two things we have missed in Abu Dis so far. As you can imagine it was hard to pull them away from playing! Hanaa took us on a little tour of the area and she pointed out the tents and shacks the Bedouin community live in nowadays. We also got to see some of the livestock that is the main source of income. In the not too far distance you could see (yet another!!) illegal settlement... this settlement is a huge threat to the people living in Jabal Al Baba as they want to demolish the camp to expand the settlement. Remember that settlements are illegal under international law; however they keep on popping up and expanding all over the West Bank... unfortunately we didn’t get to meet any of the locals so we couldn’t ask if we were allowed to take pictures but here are some of the kids having a great day playing!!