Olive Harvest (Mount of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane)

Today was the the beginning of the Lutheran World Federation olive harvest! I guess I should explain what I have been up to the last week and a half. As a volunteer here my responsibility has been to clear the olive trees of younger, low lying branches. These branches, called suckers, take energy from the olive producing parts of the tree. On some well manicured trees this is not a huge problem but with over 800 trees on the property I, alone, have quite a bit of work in store. So far I have cleared about half of the property but will probably go over the sections I did earlier because I have become more accustomed to how the olive trees are supposed pruned.

The process of harvesting olives is pretty straightforward. After I cleared the brush we were able to lay tarps under the tree. And after that it's all grunt work. There are some specialized rakes that can be used for the taller olives but mostly people use their hands to essentially milk the olive ripe vines. It's pretty tedious work but not incredibly taxing.

Today was the culmination of my prep work. Around 50 vocational training students came this morning to the Mount of Olives to harvest. The boss said that these would be the most unruly group of volunteers and he was right. I had no chance of containing or harnessing their energy with my lack of Arabic. But this didn't stop them talking to me which made the harvest fun. A couple of kids took a liking to me and started to butcher my name by calling me Wararine. It's not an easy name for them to pronounce. At one point a visiting American girl came to try out harvesting. She had been told that it was an experience she needed here in Palestine. She was pretty attractive and the boys flocked to her like moths to light. They had been pretty productive until she showed up. It was too bad for her even though she handled it pretty well but it was hilarious to watch for me. The dogs had caught the scent and the garbled game spitting was on.

At the end of the day we had collected 26 bags of olives, around 800 kilos, which apparently is a lot and a successful day. Good start to the harvest season.

The pictures I have added were taken about a week and a half ago at the Garden of Gethsemane, the valley that Jesus was arrested. This was on Armenian property and Brit had a friend that was volunteering for the weekend so we decided to lend a hand. This was my first time picking olives and it was an easy way to get accustomed because the gardener kept the trees healthy and easily accessible. The garden was situated right next to the Tomb of Mary so there were tourists on the walkway above the whole day. We had a pleasant surprise when the Armenians offered us lunch. It was Armenian pizza and it wasn't half bad. It was a pretty special day in a very special and unique garden that I very thankful for.