Baka and Sharaf, they made me coffee. Up to now I had refused everyone who had offered to gave me a lift or show me the sites. But I couldn't refuse these two. They had shouted a warning to me as I was walking along a path. They may have had other reasons to get my attention but hey, I can't refuse young people when they're being good. They want me to come back to their house where they will make me coffee, I ask if their parents will be home, hoping they will. The answer I'm given is unconvincing but we walk on. Baka says that he has lived in America for six years, I ask whereabouts and he says Pennsylvania. I've met a few Palestinians who have lived in America, but I'm not sure which America it really is and wether or not it's real. We arrive at their house, or to the yard outside their half-built half-falling down house and a young girl comes across the street carrying a baby. In this way Sharaf and Baka introduce me to their extended family. This is the best Jerusalem tour ever. I ask Sharaf if his parents are here just as Baka comes across the street carrying a tray with coffee. We walk up the outside steps of a house and sit on the balcony-come outdoor sitting room. They just want to be hosts, and they're very funny. They're keen to know if the coffee is good. So I find out that dad is working driving a taxi and mum is selling in the market and I realise I shouldn't stay around for very long. But I appreciate that these kids are looking after themselves, and also looking after me. Sharaf is keen to show me something outside the house and I follow him back down the steps, wondering what'll come next. He leads me through a few passage ways past building materials and piles of rubbish. He wants me to go down some more steps at the bottom of a low cliff, it all looks dodgy and I wonder if I'm about to be entombed. He goes down the steps urging me to follow him. Ok, so what am I about to find I think, is it stolen goods or just a pile of junk. At the bottom of the steps is an iron gate and I can hear running water. So I think he's brought me on a sewer tour, except that through the locked gate Sharaf points to a sign which reads HEZEKIAH'S TUNNEL. I read the rest of the sign and realise that Sharaf has brought me to a significant place. Through the gloom I can see a tunnel cut into the rock with clear water bubbling up into it. The tunnel is straight sided and high enough to stand up in. Sharaf is showing me the Gihon spring at the end of the Siloam Tunnel. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siloam_tunnel. I ponder on the madness of the situation. I'm stood amongst a pile of junk and rubbish in someone's back yard, looking at a 2500 year old biblical spring of fresh water, quite a tour : )
|
AuthorCommunity Priest at St Barnabas Church on the Moss Rose Estate, in Macclesfield Archives
September 2015
Categories |