Anne's Blog

One Week and We'll be Home!

It is hard to believe that a week from today, we will be on a plane on our way home.  We have been showing the apartment to future renters, planning for our stuff to be shipped home, scheduling final inspections, and doing things and seeing people "for the last time."  It has been a great experience being here, and I am also just about ready to come home, get back to my family and friends, and get ready to return to my job teaching next year.  

Israel is an amazing country, and there is so much more than we see on the news!  Yes, just this weekend there were rockets fired into Israel from Gaza and a retaliation by Israel, and a Jewish Israeli citizen was fatally shot at the Western Wall in Jerusalem by a security guard who thought the man was a Palestinian terrorist.  The scary part is - we were in Jerusalem on that same day and would have been near the Western Wall if we'd had more time! But - there are so many more positive things going on here that we never see on the news!  Some things you might not know about Israel:

- It has the highest percentage of immigrants per population in the world, from many countries.  

- Military service is mandatory for young adults, and Israel is the only country in the world with a military service requirement for women.

 

- Hebrew is one of the official languages in Israel.  It was a dead language, not spoken for centuries, and is the only language to be revived into a national language in world history.

 - It has more orchestras per capita than any other country in the world.

- It has the largest number of start-up companies per capita in the world.

- Israeli's, per capita, are the world's largest consumers of fruits and vegetables.  And nearly everything is grown fresh here, so the fruits and veggies are amazing.

- The Mount of Olives in Jerusalem is the oldest cemetery in continual use in the world.

-60% of the land mass of Israel is the Negev Desert.

- Life expectancy is among the highest in the world, at 81.6 years.

- Its the only democratic  country in the Middle East, and one of the few to allow freedom of worship for all faiths.

- The health care system is amazing.  Israel is a leader in research and developing new treatments.  All citizens have access to health care, and the national health plan has been in effect for more than 50 years.  All Israeli's are required to purchase health care, but costs are reasonable (a family told us $30 - 50 per month), and everyone has a choice of plans.  Plans are required to provide a core set of benefits, and can't exclude people for pre-existing conditions.  Everyone we have spoken to here is happy with the quality and availability of services, and also satisfied with the cost.

Here's a quote from the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu - 

"And by the way, a piece of news, Israel is the one country in which everyone is pro-American, opposition and coalition alike. And I represent the entire people of Israel who say, 'Thank you, America.' And we're friends of America, and we're the only reliable allies of America in the Middle East." -- Benjamin Netanyahu

We have found this to be true, everyone here seems to like America.  Many people have told us that their dream is to visit the United States, and most Israeli's keep up on what is going on in the news in the US.  A couple of people have mentioned that Israel "wants to be the 51st state."  

Israel is so much more than I realized when I arrived here, and more than the violence we see on the news.  Are you surprised at any of these things?   

Our 28th Anniversary

Last weekend, Don and I celebrated 28 years of marriage.  On Friday, we went to a zoo and safari park near Tel Aviv.  It is huge - 250 acres, and similar to the African Savannah.  Here you can see how close it is to the city:

The animals roam freely in herds, and as we drove through, we saw zebras, rhinos, hippos, several kinds of antelope, and one ostrich who really wanted to get to know Don better.

In the middle of the safari park, there is a zoo.  We rented a golf cart and had a great time driving through.

Danni enjoyed seeing this tortoise, who was laying on its lunch,

and elephants, giraffes, tigers, and also this wildcat which is native to Israel.

Isn't it cute?  So fluffy!  But I don't think we want to meet up with one of these in the wild.

Then after the zoo, we continued through the safari park and drove through the lion enclosure.

We all had a great day there!  Then on Saturday, we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Haifa, Fattoush.  It is at the base of the Bahai Gardens which are all lit up at night, and they have a beautiful outdoor patio.  I had one of my favorite meals here -  lamb kebabs, spiced ground lamb cooked on cinnamon sticks.

And of course we had hummus, so Don decided that the 28th anniversary is the Hummus anniversary.  :)   Then we shared an amazing coconut cake, which they brought out with a huge sparkler sort of thing:

It was an anniversary that we won't forget!  

We are wrapping up our time here, and will be home in 3 weeks.  I think 6 months has been about the right length of time to be away - we will miss lots of things about Israel (the weather, the beach...) but we are looking forward to coming home and seeing our family and friends.

Bird of Paradise and Olive Trees - in our yard!

One of the things we are enjoying about living here is the beautiful flowers that grow in a tropical environment.  It is so different from Iowa!  Earlier in the Spring, I noticed this tree in our park

There were no leaves on the tree, but the branches were covered in these red flowers.  Now the flowers are gone and the green leaves are out.  Does anyone know what kind of tree this is?  The park also has these gorgeous bougainvillea trees

And, this tree is growing in our yard.  Our apartment building has a nice tropical garden area.

Does anyone know what kind of tree it is? I can't tell if those are red blooms or new leaves coming out.

 Next to it is this olive tree

which has olives on it now.

This Bird of Paradise is also in our garden

I don't think I have ever seen one grow this big!  And we have been seeing hummingbirds at this flower:

Again, I don't know what kind of flower it is, but it is beautiful.  One of the neat things about Israel is the variety of climates, so close together.  We have these tropical flowers growing in our yard and neighborhood, and we are 10 minutes from the beach.  In less than a 2 hour drive, we can be in the desert.   

Touring Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee with Nurses

On Saturday, Danni and I went on a tour with a nursing supervisor and a group of nurses from England.  Don didn't join us because he was recovering from having a root canal on Friday - he's feeling better now.  :)  We met at the hospital and our first stop was a picnic breakfast on the way to Nazareth.  Nancy, the supervisor, had packed "a traditional Israeli breakfast" for the whole group, and it included bread, cheese, eggs, hummus, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, yogurt, and some salads.  So much food and it was all great!  

Nazareth is the largest Arab city in Israel, with a population of about 75,000.  We visited the Basilica of the Annunciation, which is one of my favorite churches in the world.  Every surface is beautifully decorated - the front door is carved with scenes from the New Testament,

and the church is built over the home where Mary lived with her parents when the Angel Gabriel came to announce that she would have a child.

This time, I noticed the detail carved in the wood which is over this grotto:

I love these dancing angels!  

Then we went to the Jordan River, where Jesus was baptized.

 All around the site, the passage from Mark describing the baptism is translated into different languages.

We went to Tabgha on the Sea of Galilee, which is the location where Jesus fed the thousands with 5 loaves and 2 fish.  The sanctuary there has original mosaic floors from the Byzantine era, around 300 AD,

and beautiful Alabaster windows which bathe the sanctuary in warm, golden light.

After Tabgha, we visited Capernaum (Kfar Nahum in Hebrew), the home of Peter.  There are ruins there from one of the earliest Christian churches,

along with this reminder that this is a holy site:

We had a lunch of St Peter's Fish (Tilapia) right next to the Sea of Galilee which was great (well, everyone except Danni had fish . . .  she had chicken), and then we headed home.  It was an amazing day, we got to see so much and spend time with some great people.  Danni was impressed that she got to dip her feet into both the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee in the same day.

Nursing at Haifa University

Last week I met with 3 nursing faculty at Haifa University.  I did a Google search to find nursing programs in Haifa, and I found a webpage that listed the nursing faculty – in English!  I emailed the program director, introduced myself, and asked if we could meet.  She set up a meeting for me with their clinical coordinator and the director of international programs, as well as herself.  It was great to meet with the 3 of them! 

They have some nursing students from Norway who are studying abroad here, and the faculty from Norway are visiting this week.  I am invited to the meetings with the visiting faculty because these meetings are all in English.  Yesterday I met them at a large teaching hospital, and today I went out to campus to hear about their mentoring program – similar to our clinical instructors.  I am going back tomorrow morning, and they have asked for weekly meetings for as long as I am here.

I met a nursing supervisor at the hospital, and after talking with her for 10 minutes, she had invited our family to her house for dinner next week and also invited me to come back and job shadow with her when she is house supervisor.  She also invited our family to 2 events for international nurses. I’m looking forward to all of those!

We had a hard time making connections with people the first 3 months we were here.  Everyone is friendly and says “Enjoy your stay,” but the friendliness didn’t extend any further than that. Most people here make social connections through their synagogue, or through their children’s school.  We don’t have either of those.  But now, after meeting some nurses and some people through church, we have been invited to dinner a few times which is great.  On Friday, we are having Shabbat dinner with a family from church, with the traditional lighting of the candles and blessing over the bread and the wine.  Looking forward to it!

No Problem, I'll Just Take the Bus!

I’m sharing this story because I think it demonstrates some of the challenges of living here, some of the everyday, simple tasks that turn out to be harder than we expected.  The fun part is, we never can predict what will be simple and what won’t.  Part of the frustration here was clearly my own fault – and some was not.  By the time I got home and decided to share what had happened with Don and Danni, I was able to laugh at myself and the whole experience.  I hope you enjoy it too.

Yesterday morning I wanted to go to a women’s Bible study that I heard about at church.  The study was going to be conducted in English and in Russian, and I didn’t think I would know anyone there, so it was a bit of a stretch for me to go.  I need to get out and meet some people so I decided to give it a try.  It was also in a different building that I had never been to, a church ministry here in Haifa.  I had a hand-drawn map from someone at church, and it was near a bus route that I know, so I headed out with plans to take bus #23 to the neighborhood and walk the last couple of blocks…

At the bus stop, a van pulled up with a sign for Route 21 in the window.  It stopped, some people got on and off, then the driver switched the sign to “23.”  I started to get on, and the driver yelled something at me in Hebrew.  I stepped back, then he yelled again and motioned me to get on the van.  An American girl got on and asked to stop at the Baha’i gardens, and I told the driver that was the stop I wanted also.  I ride the bus a lot, and sometimes they use vans to fill in for bus routes.  I have noticed that when it is a van, the driver doesn’t stop at all the stops, they just stop when they know they need to.  It is usually a faster and wilder ride, too.  This was no exception – the driver went speeding past the Bahai Gardens stop, and when he did stop, it was too far to walk back.  The driver turned around and yelled at the girl and I, “Why you didn’t say something sooner?!!”

I knew there was a subway stop nearby, and I would just take the Carmelit subway back up to the top, which was walking distance from my destination.  Now I was getting a little concerned about getting to Bible study on time.  So I bought a subway ticket, went through a security check and got on the subway, only to find out that it was going the wrong direction!  I got on the one headed down the mountain, not up.  Ugh!  I went to get off at the next stop, and I was standing at a door to exit the subway.  There was a button that said “push here to open door.”  I was pushing the button when the passenger outside the door, waiting to get on, pointed me in the opposite direction.  Apparently you can only exit through the opposite side of the subway – no signs or directions to indicate this.  Now I was running late, and feeling really stupid!  I tried to buy another subway ticket to come back up the mountain – and someone yelled at me that the machine is broken… I exited the subway station and came back in to get to a different ticket machine.  I selected English language, ordered my ticket, swiped my credit card, and nothing happened – I had taken too long and the machine timed out.  I tried again, swiped my card, nothing happened.  There was a young woman waiting behind me, in military uniform – she grabbed my credit card out of my hand, turned it around the other way and swiped it for me, then handed it back to me with a gesture like “what is the problem?”  I was about to lose it at this point . . .

I took the subway up and walked to the corner where I was expecting to turn onto Hatishbi Street, where the building is located.  There was no street sign for Hatishbi Street!  I started walking down the street anyway, and walked to the next intersection – still no street sign.  I found a building marked 122, the address I was looking for.  But there was no sign, no marker indicating that this is a church building …  I really didn’t know if I was in the right place.  I looked on the building next door and saw the address engraved on a brick, and I read התשבי which spells Hatishbi in Hebrew!  I was on the right street!  So I walked in and asked for the Bible study, and I found it and was only 15 minutes late.  They were just getting started.  I met some great women, and enjoyed the rest of my morning. 

Danni and I rode the bus back to the same building last night for youth group, and it was much easier.  We got off the bus at the right stop and walked right to the building.  Danni had fun and met some kids her age, including a couple of girls from the US who helped translate Hebrew for her.  Next week we’ll go back and no problem, we’ll just take the bus.  

House Calls to a Street Cat, and a Photography Class

Danni has been feeding the street cats here, and one of her favorite cats disappeared for a few days last week.  On Thursday we saw Scarlet (named that because of the scar on her face), weak, limping on a hurt leg and bleeding from a few cuts.  We walked to the corner store and bought her some cat food, and Danni has been checking on her at least 3 times a day since then.  On Friday, Danni called me to say that Scarlet was weaker and Danni was really worried about her.  Danni wanted to take her to the vet, but the office was closed for the weekend.  Could I come take a look?  I took up a bowl of water, and we made sure Scarlet had food and water and was settled into a good spot to rest and to heal.

Scarlet is doing much better now!  Danni has taken really good care of her.

I started an online class today to go with this book on photography as a contemplative practice:

http://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Heart-Photography-Christian-Contemplative/dp/1933495545/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367259242&sr=8-1&keywords=eyes+of+the+heart

This is one of my favorite authors, and I am looking forward to the online class.  It continues for 7 weeks, and it will help me to get out with my camera, get better with using the camera, and find images that illustrate our stay here.  More information on the class here if anyone is interested in joining me:

http://abbeyofthearts.com/classes/online-classes/eyes-of-the-heart-photography-as-a-christian-contemplative-practice-2/

On Thursday I am meeting with 3 nursing faculty from the University of Haifa.  I am excited to meet them and tour the nursing department!  I hope to be able to visit a clinical site at a hospital before we leave.  It will be great to have some nursing connections here and to stay in touch once I am back in the US!

Worship - with Shofar, Singing and Dancing

This weekend we found a church!  We went to worship with a Messianic Jewish congregation, which is a branch of Judaism that believes Jesus is the Messiah.  

It felt a lot like our worship at home at the Vineyard church.  Worship is on Saturday mornings, because Sunday is a work day here, and worship lasted about 2 and a half hours (okay that's not like our church at home :)  The call to worship included blowing the shofar, or ram's horn, and praise music with dancing, banners and streamers.   It was a celebration!   

The worship songs were mostly sung in Hebrew, with English and Russian translations on the screens.  The message was in English, with a Hebrew translator and headphones to translate into Russian, so it was a diverse group.  The congregation runs a food and clothing bank, a women's shelter and a drug treatment program also, all great ministries.  We felt welcome, and met some nice people who are interested in getting together to socialize - which will be great.  It feels good to have a church home while we are here!

Remembrance Day and Independence Day

We had a good trip back to the US and are settled in here in Haifa for the second half of our stay.  This week Israel celebrated 2 holidays. Yom Hazikaron, the Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day, began Sunday at sundown with a one-minute siren blast.  Everything stops during this siren - traffic stops, everyone stops what they are doing and stands in silence.  Nearly everyone here has lost a loved one in military service or terrorist attacks, and so Remembrance Day is an important holiday.  There was a memorial service on Monday afternoon in the park across the street from our apartment:

Then Monday at Sundown, the Remembrance Day holiday ended and the Independence Day celebration began!  Israel is celebrating 65 years of independence, and there was a huge festival on the main street just 3 blocks from our house.  They closed off the street and put up a huge stage for live bands, with 3 additional jumbo-tron screens.

 There were vendors selling inflatable mallets, clubs and axes with the Israeli flag

along with vendors selling street food and beer.

Overall, some things were just like the way we celebrate Independence Day in the US (they even had fireworks!) and some things were completely unfamiliar.  The live music ranged from traditional Israeli folk music, to old American pop music (The Age of Aquarius) sung in Hebrew, to an Israeli rapper that the crowd loved.  The street was packed with people of all ages, and it was fun to be a part of the celebration.

I had a great birthday this year! We went to the Druze village of Daliat al Carmel, visited several art galleries and had Druze bread, made by a local woman at a streetside stand, for lunch. It is a huge, thin bread similar to a tortilla, spread with soft cheese and herbs. Yum! And then we went to Acco for dinner. Acco is about 45 minutes north of Haifa, right on the coast, and it was a major port during the crusades, around 1000 AD. We ate at Uri Buri, and this is me with the owner, Uri. Buri means seafood, and we had the best, freshest seafood dinner I can remember! Started with salmon sashimi with wasabi sorbet, seafood soup in coconut milk broth, mediterranean shrimp, scallops and calamari. And then a cold kiwi soup for dessert. Danni even liked it! She hadn't heard of Calamari, and I told her it was "seafood" shaped like onion rings. Then after she ate some, I told her it was squid . . .