vIsItiNg tHe bEdOuIns...

It’s pronounced “BEHD u ihnz”, they are Arab people who traditionally have been nomadic herders in the deserts of the Middle East. There are still approximately 1 million Bedouins, most of them are Muslims and speak some form of the Arabic language.
Ibrahim asked us if we’d like to go with him to visit the Bedouins, and of course we didn’t miss the opportunity…
First we went shopping…well, Ibrahim did, he just told us to wait in the car…suddenly we just see this guys coming with boxes of different food to put in the van…water melons, carrots, tomatoes, onions, bread, water, etc… the van was getting packet and packet, only place for us to seat ☺…in the back there was maybe 20 boxes of cloths that Ibrahim collected from some organization…
He does this once a week…and every week he goes to a different camp…we went on Friday, the Muslim “sabath”, or rest day, but Ibrahim doesn’t seam to care about that so much… “those are just human rules” he said…he sounded like Jesus to me ☺… He said he saves money as if he would buy a pack of cigarettes a day…and with that he buys food for a family of Bedouins every week☺
Everywhere Ibrahim goes he has to feed people, he loves that… even when he was in hospital doing exams, he manage to leave the hospital and set up a table with all sorts of food for the doctors who were examining him ☺ … believe me, I could share so many stories from Ibrahim ☺ He’s just amazing !!! it's hard not to have a good laugh with him :-)

We drove out of Jerusalem, crossed Bethany, and on the way to Jericho, on both sides of the road, we could see different camps where people seam to live…for me it looked pretty much like the gipsy camps we have in Portugal, but here they were in total dry and barren land…
It’s their lifestyle and the way they like to live, but laws and Governments tend to make this lifestyle more and more difficult, so now, their conditions are not so good…
Ibrahim asked the driver to stop in one of these camps and we unloaded the van…the Bedouin family were just watching and Ibrahim started to speak with them…
They were really thankful and hospitable and soon we were around their campfire having a nice cup of strong coffee and after some tea…Ibrahim would make questions to the guy who seamed to be the head of that family, and he would translate everything to us…

It’s really sad that soon they have to leave that place… even though it's “no man’s land” and doesn't seam to have much interest to anyone else…these Bedouins would be happy if they could only stay there, living in tents, having some water, electricity and being able to take their kids to a school...
the land they are on, they had it for one hundred years, but now they don't have any proof they own the land...Government laws...Israelis try to help them giving them new houses, but that's not really the way they want to live...they are helped in some ways by the Government, but they want them to live the way they want...

Ibrahim is sharing their needs with as many people as possible, and he would like to provide electricity, water and school to these people who just want to live life the way they are used to...Ibrahim's heart crys out for these people...
check Ibrahim's web site on this title to know more about it and how you could get involved...


We couldn't stay much as well, but I wish we could have stayed at least for one night :-) maybe other opportunity !!!

We went then to Jericho, just to get to know, and of course, to get more and more food…
for us and for the house ☺


We had to go through a "check point" because Jericho is not Israel but Palestine...
But I 'll share more about that later...