Copley Square, Boston, MA  — July 12th

We arrived bright and early and began the process of setting up our sound system, Open Forum tent, cleaning the buses, and doing trash pickup. We can't welcome people into even this sample of our life if it is dirty! Under sunny skies, we began doing traditional Israeli folk dances. Many gathered around us for the next few hours, clapping and smiling as we danced. Then the musicians shifted gears and played Irish and other folk tunes. Soon after this, alas, the predicted rain we had avoided the last few days (as it fell on neighboring cities) caught up with us in Boston.

Even so, we encountered many people, the homeless and the prosperous, and all sorts in between — people like us. At an interesting exhibit at the Boston Public Library called "Perceptions of a New World," Andrew Peter met some people he had seen earlier.  As he was talking to them about our life, they asked, "Are you with the Twelve Nations?"
"Yes, the Twelve Tribes."
"That's interesting. I've been thinking about you because I've known Anak. I was sailing with him on the waters off Maine."
Anak had been learning about sailing tall ships last year on a three-week voyage. It was for the sake of sailing our ship, the Peacemaker Marine I. One day soon, what we do with our buses, we’ll do along the coastlines of this world with our ship, then ships!

A young woman who lives in Rhode Island had seen the article about us in the Providence Journal the day before and drove to Boston to see us. She had actually been a part of us years before in Providence and a friend of Chassidah, Qatan’s wife. She was so happy to find us again, and even talked to her from our bus. What a wonderful outcome from a newspaper article!

The rain served us well as our tents were havens for many passersby. Perhaps the most memorable was Garland who turned out to be an old friend of the bridegroom, Lev Anav. However, we didn't know that until later. He was a black man who stopped under the musicians' tent and, not long after arriving, started to sing to our brothers the old beautiful songs known as Negro spirituals. He was a totally uninhibited, kind person. Eventually, he said he knew someone named Chris from Dorchester. Those of us present didn't think anything of it until Garland said, "He's got really curly hair."
Since Garland is also known as "Bulletman," a mail courier, one of us put it all together that it was our brother Lev Anav who had also run a delivery service in Boston. They told Garland, "He's right over there."
We watched as he went over to greet his friend. As they hugged each other, loud cries of joy were heard.

We met Jim and his wife who have had hopes and dreams about community living for several years now. They stayed and talked for a while. His wife is going to go to school there in Boston and, like her husband, was quite taken aback to meet us.

And there was Reginald, a street person who reminds us of Ebed Melech. He went to the first Woodstock in 1969 and really liked our spirit, staying with us for the rest of the day after finding us. He even joined in on several of our dances. Also, there was Rebecca who wants to visit the Community in Boston this weekend since she's at a crossroads in her life. Andrew had met her at the library, and she came to see us at our buses. Growing up with her hippie father, she had memories of another way of life, and of the alternative energy house her father had built.
Lastly, there was Eric who just kept helping us break down until Kharash asked him what he was doing in Boston. When he said, "Nothing," Kharash invited him down to the Community in Plymouth, and he traveled home with us on Peacemaker II and has been helping since!

More coming soon!!!