Yalla!

I looked for my new found friend Annalisa to ask for a favor. Not seeing her, I waved to a Franciscan sitting on the porch of their convent smoking a cigar. He waved back, but did not bite on my subtle invitation to ask me if I needed or wanted something. I gave up. As I turned to walk away, a man standing right there asked me if I was an Abuna, that is, a priest. I was certain that it was a “guide” who wanted me to buy some service or another of his. I did not want to run into him. As it turns out, he was the gardener of the property, and he was asking if I needed something. (That is a twist on one of the Easter stories, isn’t it? He really was the gardener.) The long and short of it is that he told me that he would take care of the favor that I was asking. He took me to the place on the edge of their property that overlooks a waterfall into the Sea of Galilee. It was the source of the water of the waterfall. (See a previous post.) He suggested that I take a photo. I did. And then I asked him if he would make movie for me. Well, it took fourteen times for him to get the hang of the use of the iPad to take a video. His big, rough fingers did not know how to “tap” the red icon. He kept pressing it like he was planting an olive tree into the screen. Just when both he and I were ready to call it a nice but unsuccessful try, he got it. And he got it well. He refused to quit. Over the fourteen times I tried to convinced him not to speak during the movie. “Quiet on the set” is not easy to translate in Arabic, as is everything for me, by the way. He couldn’t resist saying, “Yalla,” at the beginning of this video. “Yalla” means, “Go.” I think he was getting into it. It was his version of, “Cameras. Action!” Thanks, Abu George. You gave me a real souvenir to take home with me.