Obama wins!!

Excitement was high here on Wednesday at the crack of dawn. I got up at 4 am to check the election returns on CNN, but the election had not been called at that point. I reset the alarm for 6 am, and turned on the TV just as CNN projected Obama as the winner. A bunch of us gathered to watch his speech from Grant Park. It was a happy happy day! Everyone we met we greeted with "Obama!!" Israelis overwhelmingly voted for McCain (3 t0 1), but Palestinians were overwhelmingly in favor of Obama. We met with Bishop Munib Younan today at Redeemer Lutheran, and he is hopeful that he and Mark Hanson will get a hearing from Obama. President Bush would not meet with them to discuss the situation here.

Tonight is our last night in Jerusalem. Tomorrow morning we will head to the Allenby Bridge to cross back into Jordan. We'll be overnight in Amman before flying back to Chicago on Saturday.

It has been quite a trip. In the last few days we've been in Ramallah where we visited the Lutheran School of Hope; several small villages; and Hebron. In Hebron we ended up in the middle of a demonstration organized by Israelis who want the Old City of Hebron open to both Jews and Palestinians freely (a good thing). We ran into Bob Simon of 60 Minutes who is doing a story on whether peace is possible in the Middle East. The Vice President of the European Union (don't know her name) was also there. Near the end of the demonstration (10 minutes at most) the Israeli military declared it a closed military zone and we had to leave and do a circuitous route back to our bus. Some Jewish settlers were upset that we were walking down the street in front of their houses because we had ONE Palestinian with us (yes, it is totally ridiculous), and we got a military escort out of the area. Cynthia said, "Welcome to Hebron."

In Ramallah we got to meet the Palestinian man, Bashir, whose story is chronicled in the very excellent book by Sandy Tolan called "The Lemon Tree." This was a total highlight for me. If you have not read this book, I recommed it highly. The writing and documentation are incredible, and you learn an awful lot about the history of the conflict here. Bashir spoke to and with us for about 45 minutes. It was a real privilege to meet him.

Yesterday and this morning we were in the Galilee, a touristy area that is so so different from most of the other places we have been. Just the day before we visited with members of several Palestinian families whose homes were demolished by the Israelis just a week ago. They are living in UN tents with no running water, toilets, electricity, etc. These are highly educated people with masters degrees in engineering. We saw where they are living now. It is shameful. The settlements are on the hill just above them with beautiful houses and all the amenities. One 14 year old we met is at the absolute top of his class, and he's living in a tent. Our guide said that if these kids had the same educational opportunities as American kids, we would see absolute genius. I don't doubt it for a minute.

I'll post more once I'm back in the U.S. and will add some pictures. Thanks for following the blog! It has been quite a trip.