Thursday 23 SEP 2004 - Jerusalem As most of you know already, I am doing peace work in Palestine/Israel for the next 8 weeks. I arrived in Tel Aviv yesterday and I'm staying in Jerusalem. The peace work consists of coordinating a penpal exchange between Vermont and Palestinian elementary school children, assisting farmers with olive harvest, and being a currier of greetings between the sister cities of Burlington (Vermont), Bethlehem (Palestine), and Arad (Israel).
Penpal Exchange. About 200 students from Vermont are participating in the program. Grand Isle (grades 5-8), Folsom in South Hero (grades 3-4), and Lawrence Barnes in Burlington (grades 4-5) are participating in the cultural exchange. Aside from exchanging letters, students are learning about Arab and Palestinian culture and making new friends with their Palestinian counterparts. Olive Harvest. The fun part will be harvesting the olives from the trees. Entire villages help out with this special occasion which lasts for about 6 weeks. The not so fun part will be escorting farmers to their fields in order to minimize harassment, violence, etc. from Israeli settlers and soldiers. I'll be sending updates of my trip as time, resources, and circumstances warrant. If you know of anyone who wants to be on this email list, please let me know. A big thanks to all my friends for your support. You give me the courage to do this peace work. Thanks also to S'ra, Hilary, and Vermonters for a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine for preparing me for this trip. I'd be lost without you. >From the Holy Land, Joe _________________________________________________________________ On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/MknplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VTJP/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
