Sierra Hull and her talented band are in the middle of a two week world tour that will take them pretty much around the globe. While they are traveling, Sierra promises to send reports and photos as often as she can. Here’s her third report, this time from Jerusalem.
“Marhaba!” – Hello from Jerusalem!
It’s a long way from Chuuk, our previous location, to Jerusalem. This is the first time to the Middle East for all of us. Talk about a different experience already than what we had in Micronesia. In the words of John, our tour manager, “from the edge of the world, to the center of the world!”
It’s been a really eye opening experience to be here in person as opposed to what I might have envisioned before. We’ve learned a lot about the people here and customs that I was unaware of before coming. In a sense, it’s been a lot to digest and retain in a short amount of time, but completely worth it.
We’ve been very well taken care of. The coffee here is as strong as anyone could possibly want to drink (always served in small portions) – quite delicious though! My favorite thing perhaps is lemonade with mint! I’ve discovered a new love of Falafel and pistachio pastries!
We’re staying within walking distance of the Old City and have been able to get out and explore as well as tour most of the holy sites.
The schools we have visited have been very welcoming and the concerts here have been well received. Though they seem to be somewhat familiar with the instruments we are playing, they have had very little exposure to bluegrass, and they seem to really love it!
We’ve been able to collaborate with a couple students so far. Pictured is a little girl that told us she had “an awesome voice!”, so of course, I had to bring her up for a song! She wanted to do none other than Hey Brother (which all of the students knew!). Such a cool thing to have these Palestinian students know all the words to a song that Dan Tyminski sings! It was a great opportunity to explain to them that Dan is a bluegrass artist! I think they were able to connect with that – another reason bluegrass collaborations outside of the genre are so important and beneficial to the greater good of the music.
Today we head into Dheisheh to play at a refugee camp. I think this is going to be an amazing experience. We are also going to get to tour the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. I’m very excited for that!
Here’s a video created by the US Embassy in Jerusalem to promote her shows there this week.
