Ismael - Part III

The Swan family was visiting us for a couple weeks in January and we toured around much of the country. One day we drove our rental van up the Mount of Olives to a great lookout point over the Old City, many tourists come to this spot, it’s a beautiful view of the “Holy City.”

At this spot there are also a number of Arab boys and men who are trying to sell things like postcards, a camel ride, or whatever. Can’t blame them, they’re just trying to make some money too. Shortly after getting out of the van, one of these men began trying to sell something to us and in the midst of trying to negotiate a price, to keep it short, he wasn’t exactly complying and some of his comments became quite rude, so we said “forget it.” And chose not to buy anything from him. Then he made a few more unnecessary comments concluding with

“You don’t want to buy anything from us (Arabs) so just go buy stuff from Jews.”

I tried to talk with him and reason with him a little bit, but he wasn’t listening to me, he was upset with us but I didn’t really want to leave it like that. I wanted to try and reconcile. But how do I do that?

So I called Ismael, briefly explained the situation to him and asked him if he would try to talk with this gentleman and try to help us smooth it over a little. So I handed the phone to the “salesman” and he and Ismael talked for a minute, but it was all in Arabic so I have no idea what was said, he handed the phone back to me, said “Ok” and walked away.

Then Ismael tells me, “It’s ok.”

“Thank you Ismael.”

“You are welcome.”

The Swan family and I continued on in our viewing from the Mt. of Olives. Three minutes later, my phone rings. It’s Ismael. My first thought was, he’s probably calling me again just to make sure everything was ok, but…

“Hello Ismael.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m on the Mt. of Olives,” I said.

“I know, I am here, behind the bus, where are you?”

I turned around and walked towards a tour bus to see Ismael in his taxi parked behind it…with his four beautiful kids piled in the back seat. I couldn’t believe it! He came just to make sure that everything was ok, he wanted to have a short face-to-face conversation with the man we were having a bit of a confrontation with…and he wanted to see us and meet the Swan family. Next thing I know, his four kids are climbing out of the backseat, Ismael with a huge smile on his face is shaking hands with the Swan family and invited us all over to his house for some tea.

It's always nice to have a good friend who will get your back on the Mount of Olives.