The Kindness of Strangers

The sweat is dripping down my back and my right side is starting to hurt from forgetting to switch the shovel to my left hand. Out in Beit Sahour the weather is calm, dark, and overcast. I imagine everyone but me is praying for rain. Sarah, Patrick, and I are begrudgingly rebuilding the tire wall we had nearly finished the week before - devious kids, a rouge car, a sheep stampede perhaps? This is the part about building a leadership center that isn't fun. The high ropes course is done, the compost toilets are waiting for the cement to dry, so we are building a wall. Stuffing tires with rocks, empty plastic bottles, doll fragments, anything we can find. A long process of shoveling, packing, testing for empty pockets, packing again, testing again.
I'm aimlessly pushing a pile of dirt back and forth on the pavement, waiting for the next holler of, "more dirt!", thinking more about how my hands hurt or how cold I am, than the kids this is being built for. In my exhausted and apathetic state I look up and find myself standing in front of a grinning Palestinian fellow. He's smiling ear to ear and confidently walking around our small group. Inspecting. Admiring.
"Where are you from? What are you doing?" he asks. Direct questions, yes. But completely sincere. I explain we are from various places in the states, working in Palestine at various organizations - all lending a hand on the side to build the center.
"Very good! Very good! Ahlan wasahalan!" Welcome! he proclaims, as he clasps my hands, looking me directly in the eye. Before I know what's happening, He's opening his van doors and haphazardly carting a large bucket our way. I miss what he says and hear, "I want to give you olive oil". There is nothing better than locally pressed olive oil. My mouth begins to water. To my shock and horror, he lifts the lid from the bucket to expose 3 gallons of olives. No oil. How do I avert the inevitable situation to come? I have already expressed my delight in his gift, there's no way to back out now. He ladles out a handful of olives and by the universal gesture meaning "please take one", pushes it my way.
I tense up, my mouth goes dry, I can't do this. I have never liked olives. Not one kind has graced my pallet and been deemed acceptable to swallow. With the few seconds I have, I decipher the smallest and least harmful fruit. With a smile that would fool hollywood directors, I pop it in my mouth and begin chewing. Staying just long enough for him to see the delight in my face, I turn and walk towards the shed where I know I can squirm in disgust in solitude.
walking back, I look up at sarah and say, "it wasn't that bad"

The story of my first olive.