Planting flowers against resignation – as a volunteer at the Tent of Nations
The rainy days immediately before my arrival at the Tent of Nations had the positive side effect that it was no longer necessary to water the young trees in the vineyard. After more than two and a half years since my last visit, Daoud, Amal and Daher collected me at Bab Izqak in Bethlehem on December 15 to take me to the Tent of Nations. On the way there, Daoud handed me three sacks of flower bulbs and before I arrived at the Tent of Nations, I already had my first task: the earth was so soft from the rain that now was the perfect time to dig up the many garden areas and plant flowers. So the pickaxe and spade were my faithful companions for the first few days (apart from the six young cats that followed us around all day). The rain had not only ensured that the wet earth formed a second shoe around our work boots, but also that the cisterns were filled with water again. After the long summer, the relief was palpable!
The tasks on the vineyard are varied, even if there is no watering, there is still a lot to do. In addition to digging and weeding, the volunteers take care of the animals every day: ducks, pigeons and chickens have to be fed and mucked out and the dog taken for a walk. For two days, the three of us worked on cutting lavender, sage and thyme bushes and then drying them (to drink in tea). The rest of the time we spent loosening the soil around the trees so that it can absorb the water well in the rainy season and the trees are a little better protected from fire in the summer when there is less grass. Renovation work was also underway in the Chapel Cave during the week, so we helped with the clean-up and were able to inaugurate the chapel shortly after Christmas with a joint Christmas service (in at least four languages!).
While I was at the vineyard, there were between four and six other volunteers there with me and I really enjoyed their company. The meals together, either brought by the women of the Nassar family or prepared by one of us, were full of good conversation, laughter and insiders and the coffee breaks (one week we ate leftover cake from a golden wedding anniversary, then Stroopwafels) were the highlight of each day. We celebrated Christmas with the volunteers, bringing falafel from Bethlehem, homemade baba ganush and mulled wine next to the manger made from simple logs.
In addition to all the Christmas spirit and socializing, you can’t ignore the political reality of all the work and sometimes it’s hard to endure this reality – hearing the digger in the housing estate every day and seeing the limits and challenges the family faces. But in everything the family does, there is an irrepressible hope that shows itself in the big and small things. Even if it’s just bulbs for the garden next to the driveway – just to make it a little nicer.
Martha Linck, Mainz (volunteer at the Tent of Nations from 15 – 27.12.2025)