Ash and Sandstorms

First glimpse of Treasury building through the narrow canyon
While Mt. Readout, about 100 miles southwest of our home in Anchorage, was spewing ash into the upper atmosphere, we were on a bus traveling through a sandstorm in Southern Jordan. If a snowstorm can is a white-out, ash fall-out is a grey-out then a sandstorm is a brown out. Fortunately I wasn’t driving so I didn’t have to cope with the reduced visibility on the road. The sandstorm left my throat feeling very dry, my lips tasted of sand and my eyes had bits of sand in the corners. My skin had a grainy coating. The sandstorm lasted about an hour, but it followed us to Eilat so that we experienced it later again that same night.


We (Chris, Hannah, Noah and myself) had spent the day walking through the carved sandstone of Petra, Jordan. Many people are familiar with Petra from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. While the Treasury building featured in the Indiana Jones movie is the first spectacular carving encountered after the 3 km hike down the narrow winding canyon, it is neither the largest nor the most elaborately carved facade. In Petra the two thousand year-old rock carvings amplify the geographic and geologic features exponentially. The only human-made site I’ve been to that is somewhat similar to Petra is Mesa Verde in Southwestern Colorado. However Petra is larger, older, and more detailed than Mesa Verde.

Treasury Building

Hebrew

We have been traveling across Israel, so it has been some time since I have posted a blog entry. Look for more entries over the next few days...

I am use to students conversing with each other before, after and even during class. The other day ago (the term my son used as a young boy instead of “yesterday”) my students were engaged in conversations where I had no idea what was going on. My students were conversing in Hebrew.

I had knowledge of Hebrew letters from my Bar Mitzvah 38 years ago, however my ability to read Hebrew has declined significantly. Since that time I have picked up a few words from attending Jewish events and religious observances. I worked with the Rosetta Stone program prior to coming to Israel as well as during my first month here. For the past month I have been attending a twice a week Hebrew course, referred to here as an Ulpan. Immersion in Israel has improved my Hebrew, my vocabulary has increased and I have learned to read Hebrew script. Unlike in the United States, script is found on signs, therefore knowledge of script is important.

The morning greeting is Boker Tov (good morning). This created some confusion with Chris when she first heard Hannah using this greeting. Chris had broken her toe a few days prior to coming to Israel. When Hannah said "boker tov!" to the security person Chris thought she was telling the man that her mother had broken her toe.

When we decided to take a road trip I purchased a book of detailed maps of Israel, only available in Hebrew. The maps were helpful, but my reading ability and the speed of the car were not in sync. I’d often be well past a road sign before I was able to sound out the letters and find the corresponding street on the map. This made for slow navigating and several U-turns. All in all we didn’t get terribly lost.

One wrong turn South of Hebron resulted in an hour-long delay at a checkpoint. We were at a roundabout, the checkpoint to the left and the signage was a bit unclear (at least to me). We circled the roundabout and entered the parking area to look at the maps. When we figured out that our road was the one that went through the checkpoint we turned around and stopped at the roadblock. A series of questions ensued, passports were exchanged and we were asked to pull into the parking area. Where are you from? What are you doing in Israel? Where are you headed? Has anyone given you anything to carry? How do you open the hood of the car? (I really don’t know). Where are you headed? What are you doing in Israel? We removed all our bags from the car and carried them into the security office. The bags were x-rayed and we walked through metal detectors. Several soldiers looked through the car as well as a dog. After about an hour we were sent on our way.

At the checkpoint we met a Palestinian man on his way to Be’er Sheva. He offered to lead us to a good Middle Eastern restaurant in the city. A nice meal of humos, pita, and salad followed.

Purim, St. Patrick's Day, and Halloween

Moshav Tal Shachar in the Sorek Valley

There are two English language daily newspapers in Israel, The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz. I typically read The Jerusalem Post, while it is the more conservative newspaper, it has items of local interest. The Friday newspaper is required reading since it contains the events for the coming week as well as feature magazines. The paper isn’t published on Saturdays. Think of the Friday paper as equivalent to the Sunday newspaper in the United States.

In last Friday’s newspaper there was an advertisement for the Blue Hole, a local bar. At the top of the advertisement was the text: “Purim vs. St. Patrick’s Day.” The advertisement then went on to describe events taking place in the bar for these two holidays.

Purim Old City

Purim (the Jewish holiday which “commemorates the miraculous deliverance of the Jews of Persia as told in the Scroll of Esther” from: http://www.csuohio.edu/artgallery/2000-2001/JewishRitualArt/essays/glossary.htm) seems to have morphed into Israel’s version of Halloween. For the past week we have seen children and adults dressed in costumes parading around the city. There is also a custom here where people exchange baskets of edible items (candy, wine, bread – anything as long as there are two items and both are edible). School was open on Sunday (remember the work week here is Sunday through Thursday) for half-a-day so children could attend in costume. Monday through Wednesday schools were closed, on Wednesday the university as well as governmental offices were closed, most businesses appeared to be open.

Purim in the Old City

Purim in Jerusalem

The costumes ranged from store bought – power rangers, superman, batman – to home made – playing cards, Buzz Lightyear, angels. Since there are many people on the street in Jerusalem who dress in ritual or traditional garb, at times I had difficulty discerning whether an individual was celebrating Purim or simply on the way to work. (“Hey, was that guy a monk with a fez or was that someone in a Purim costume?” “Hey, was that a real angel or someone in a Purim costume?”)

Purim in Jerusalem

How many people are in costumes?


You are forgiven

The vendors in the Old City are very smart and will try to entice tourists in any way possible. We were walking up one of the streets, in front of us was a group of American tourists. A vendor hawking post cards said to the tourists, “Obama!” The woman in front of me said, “I didn’t vote for him but…” “You are forgiven!” I said as I walked by without stopping. It seemed like an appropriate comment for the Old City.

Randy at Moshav Tal Shachar in the Sorek Valley