Life in Israel --September 23, 2010

I'm still on a learning curve for posting to my blog. Much to my disappointment, I could not find what I wrote yesterday and thought that I had saved it. I wonder if the heat in the computer lab wiped my brain clean as I sweltered in this inner "cave" and somehow did not follow the proper steps. We are into another heat wave in Jerusalem and we are finding it tough but it's great for drying our wash in JUC's garden. It dries very quickly--small delights!

We were surprised yesterday when we heard numerous police sirens and saw helicopters circling overhead. We "heard" that a private security guard who was hired to guard a Jewish settlement in the Silwan area, found himself threatened by some Palestinians so he pulled his gun and killed one of the men. The man was buried in the afternoon and that caused a riot in the Temple Mount area. We are less than a mile from this area and we were advised not to enter the Old City for the afternoon and evening. During my Palestinian Society and Politics class, Dr. Sabella felt things were under control and would not multiply into other actions. I'm finding this class very interesting and understanding better the complex issues facing Israel and the Palestinian Authority. My professor will be taking us to Ramallah, the headquarters for the Palestinian Authority in November. Things look a little differently here than from home.

Finally we connected with our artist friend, Annie. We met her for coffee on Saturday evening after Shabbat. We will be attending her art exhibition at the Lutheran Redeemer Church this Sat. night. She is a very interesting woman but very unhappy. She shared a litany of complaints and may be returning to Belgium after living in Israel for 38 years. She is a secular Jewess and very much into peace and environmental issues and feels persecuted by the ultra-orthodox Jews who live in the Old City. She is friendly and trying to decide whether to move to upper Galilee or to Belgium. Her three sons and families are here. We look forward to further contact with her.

On Sunday we left bright and early for an all-day field trip to the Benjamin Territory that included Jericho with stops at special viewpoints near Michmash, Bethel and Ai plus Gezer later in the day. It is amazing how quickly the terrain changes here. From the Mt. of Olives we headed east near the Wadi Qelt (a canyon) in the Judean Wilderness. Rainfall in Jerusalem is around 24 inches a year and we only have to travel 10 to 12 miles and rainfall drops to only four to five inches in a good year. What a barren wilderness. We climbed (as always) a ridge overlooking the Wadi Qelt and as I looked down I thought to myself, "My goodness, what if I slipped and fell." One had to be very careful. We were very close to the area believed to be where Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. Believe it or not, bedouin shepherds still manage to find something for their goats to eat. At the bottom of the canyon is water and a few trees but for the most part it is truy desolate. One would think no one can live here but they do. We thought we were alone but Dr. Wright said, "The bedouin already know we are here." Of course, he was correct and in just a short time here came a donkey with two men selling their scarves and necklaces. With Dr. Wright's help I decided to buy a white scarf to help protect my arms from the sun. I paid a reasonable amount but the bedouin man kept telling me I was "hurting him."

From there we made our way to New Testament Jericho where Herod kept a winter palace. We saw the remains and nearby was a goat barn and two little children soon came to watch us. We wandered around the site-no shade--and when Dr. Wright was finished speaking this little six year-old girl quietly held out her hand and said, "Baksheesh"? She was barefoot, had on a very dirty t-shirt and what I call sweat pants. She was lovely! Really a sweet little girl. She was surrounded by egg plants that were thrown on the site as fodder for the goats. Larry and I made our way back to the bus as quickly as we could because of the sun. Jericho sometimes sees temps of 120 degrees. It wasn't that hot for us but I am so thankful for a good hat, water, sunscreen and sun glasses!

We later visited OT Jericho and found ourselves at this amazing rest stop that I remembered from years ago except now it is THE place for tourists. Everything there has been enlarged and the owner said they were expecting 20 tourist buses for lunch and planned to serve around 1,000 people. After we saw the amazing results of the archaeological dig, we took our lunch JUC sent with us and enjoyed sitting on one of the roof tops with some slight shade. I longingly looked at the new cable cars that now transport tourists up the hill to the monastery at the Mount of Temptation. We did not go there. As Dr. Wright says, "This is a class, we are not a tourist group."
We do have a lot of fun with the students while we are out and they are always very helpful to us and Dr. Wright shares so much interesting information about the sites we visit, the biblical accounts, and the history. As we drove through the town of Jericho, I could not help but think what a contrast in culture. Everything one needs is there but the way it is displayed, maintained, etc. is unique to this part of the world. We even passed "Bananaland," a water park next to a banana grove.

We drove up and back to Jerusalem passing Michmash, Ai, and Bethel along the way with a short stop to see how the shepherds get water for their goats from a well at Michmash. Right next to this area is a Jewish settlement as this is in the West Bank. We made our way later over to Gezer, a huge archaelogoical site and Dr. Wright had bought some luscious figs for all of us to enjoy. He jokes that his "band-aids" for us are cookies and fruit. He knows just when we need a treat--a man with a great deal of experience with students. Larry and I brought up the rear again as we arrived back in Jerusalem after dark and made our way up the hill to the campus where we found a nice warm supper awaiting us. Amazing how a good hot meal helps our aching bodies.

On Tuesday I walked to Mahane Ben Yehuda with a student who wanted to see all the special purchases that many Jewish families make in preparation for Succoth which began last night. Mahane Ben Yehuda is a huge covered market with lots of little shops--like a souk. There are specific stalls for cheese, nuts, fish, bakery items, vegetables, fruit, etc. It was crowded. People were buying palm branches to make their shelter for Succoth and some families build these on their balconies and eat in them during these five or six days. Some of the students have built a Succah here on JUC's campus and last night some of us set outside and enjoyed the wonderful air and atmosphere as we ate dinner together. It was a long walk on Tuesday and in the heat so I found a vendor who sold freshly squeezed pomegranate juice that was lovely. What a treat!

On Monday morning, I went with Larry's class to the biblical site of Tekoa located in the Palestinian Territory. This was the home town of the prophet Amos. We are getting used to going through checkpoints but I must admit that when we reached Tekoa there was a sign that said No Israeli Citizens, which reminded us of the turnoil here. Israelis cannot enter the Palestiian Territories and Palestinians cannot enter Israel without special permits.
So sad. We had to have a Palestinian guide with us to visit Tekoa and he was a wonderful Christian man who studied at JUC and at Bethlehem Bible College and is now the first Palestinian to be working on his doctorate at Bar Ilan University in Israel. There was a wonderful carob tree on site that we were able to sit under as Larry talked about Amos. The view was fantastic. This is very close to Bethlehem and the olive groves around the site are known as the "best" in the area. The soil is rich. Again, I couldn't help but notice that this area reminds me of how brown Southern California looks at this time of year. Not much rainfall.

Jerusalem continues to attract a variety of people. On the way back to campus after the Tekoa field trip, Larry and I saw two women near the JUC gate so we asked if we could help them. They were looking for Zion Gate so we were able to direct them but in the conversation we discovered they were from Newport Beach, CA--not far from where I grew up in Brea. They were Christians and here on their own for about ten days. When Dr. Wright came up one of them said they were so excited about the Lord's returning. We are too, but don't know when. We wondered if they were here to greet the Lord. We have been reading about so many Christians over the years who cometo Israel to welcome the Lord when he returns to the Mt. of Olives. Some have come because they felt they knew the exact time. I am reading a fascinating book about Horatio and Anna Spafford who founded the American Colony and came to Israel to welcome the Lord and used to go to the Mt of Olives daily with a picnic lunch to meet the Lord. Their story is really rather sad and yet they helped the poor and sick but it appears their group became a cult. The book is American Priestess: The Story of Anna Spafford. It's never dull here!