You Can't Pay for Help Like This

I love living in a small Arab Christian city. There are lots of perks that come from living in Beit Sahour, even if it is a pain to cross a military checkpoint every day.

One of the best perks of living here (besides the price of chocolate, which is MUCH cheaper here than in Jerusalem!!) is that the people here are seriously so nice. And most of them speak very little English. Nice people + no English = an ideal living situation for me!

I usually get a ride from Beit Sahour to Bethlehem with Sahar, a friend from the branch who lives just a few blocks away. This saves me a lot of time and money every day, and I will be forever in her debt because of that! But the other day Sahar was sick and didn't go to work, so I had to find another way to the checkpoint.

A little after 6:30 am I walked to a central bus/taxi/service station about a block away from my house to find a way to the checkpoint. I had several options: I could take a bus (and then two service taxis; total cost 8.5 shekels, total time maybe 30 min), a taxi (total cost 15 shekels, total time about 8 min), or a service (pronounced ser-veese, a large van that functions as a taxi-bus, total cost (plus a service taxi from the drop-off point to the checkpoint) 6 shekels; total time maybe 15 min). Taking a service was my #1 option, but hundreds pass by each hour in the morning and I didn't want to have to stop each one and ask them where they were going (they don't all go to the same place). Flagging them down and asking them where they are going gets old after about 4 service.

So I did what I always do in this type of situation: I went into the vegetable store right next to the bus/service/taxi stop and asked the store owner if there were service from there to Bab-Alisqaq (where I could then catch a service taxi to the checkpoint). "Yes," he said, motioning for his coworker to walk back out with me. "Show her which service go to Bab-Alisqaq," he said.

I followed the man back outside and was pleasantly startled to see that he started flagging down the service and asking if they were going to Bab-Alisqaq. I could have hugged him! After flagging down 4 or 5 service with no luck, he finally found one going to Bab-Alisqaq. I thanked him and got in and he walked back into the store like it was no big deal, he just made some foreign girl's day. And I thought, "I couldn't pay for help like this, and he just did it to be nice!"

Yep. I love living here.