Carl's 70th Birthday

Lots of events over the past month, but will focus today on the man of the year!  Carl reached his 70th birthday on July 10th.  Prior to that we had a week long celebration with small events each day to help him get used to the idea--that Yes!  It was a time to celebrate!   By the time his birthday did arrive he was actually quite pleased about being 70.  We had some special time together, just he and I, sight-seeing at Bet Sh'ean and swimming at Gan HaShalosha.  

Next day he selected a bike.  For six months he has walked each morning for exercise and now decided that he wants to fill the wind in his face and see more territory, so the bike is the only way to go.

Next day fixed him special food, and attended Ramzieh niece bride's party.  No men usually attend, but our men were allowed...Merrill Beckstead and Carl were the lone men while all the other men hovered in the background bringing food to be served and enjoying the music from a distance.  It was a very interesting experience.

The following day I hurried to prepare enough cake for a birthday celebration with the branch members after Sabbath meetings later on in the day enough for the Jerusalem Center students when we had a fireside with them at En Gev.  Cake for more than 100!  Whew...

The next day the students from BYU-JC came to help clean the Branch House.  They washed walls, used chemicals to get clue off the floor from the original remodeling, and washed windows.  All this because of Craig Manscill's thoughtful organization.  That helped us get extra prepared for the Sabbath when all 90 of the students came for Sacrament meeting.  

Each day we received well wishes via email and Skype with our family.  In addition, we received a YouTube site for a birthday video from our grandson Matthew and his family.  It made for a great week of love and appreciation for the many blessings we feel and desire to share with others.

  

Jericho with text

Not sure what happened to the text on yesterday's post.  It seems to be a draft problem.  I got the pictures up all at once and ran out of time to put text.  Next day, I tried to edit post but blogger would not allow so here is an explanation of pictures.  I suggest you get 2 different windows up so you can see yesterday and today at same time... that is if you are really curious about the sites and the words together.


Picture #1 is our arriving at Jericho after winding through half-finished road construction supported by the good people of America.  As you may already now Jericho is said to be the oldest, continuously lived in city in the world.  Some say 10,000 years old.  Twelve years ago, Carl and I were able to visit this part of Jericho and were disappointed because it was a pile of rocks with no context.  This time we were happy to signs explaining what we were looking at and we were impressed.  Like the most ancient staircase ever discovered.  A concern is that it won't be around the next time we come? because the site is totally out in the open and the wind seems to be blowing everything away.


Picture #2 What really made the visit memorable was a class of university students from Al Quds University in the city of Abudecs who were visiting the site as well.  I think what interested them first was Margaret--that is before it was made known that Chad was her husband!  They were interested in using their English skills on us.  The young man who talked to us most was a Palestinian who was born in ... US.  Was it Tennessee he said?  Carl asked him about all the students who were smoking:  "Don't they know how bad it is for them?"  His reply, "They know, but they don't care, but I care and I don't smoke.  They are stupid."  He gave us his email and I intend to see if I can decipher the writing enough to send him a note.


Picture #3 and 4  We swam at the most beautiful swimming hole you have ever seen.  It is all natural, rocks, spring, rolling hills, etc.  This is what all those would-be Las Vegas type pools wish they looked like.  The water felt so good because it was such a hot day and we had been in the busy city for two days and we were ready for the water.  The name of the place is Ha Shalosha.


Picture #5  Margaret and Chad are ready to head from Nazareth to Kibbutz Lavi on what is called the "Jesus Trail."  You can get more info on the web:  www.jesustrails.com.  It was a good thing that they are experienced cyclists because the markers along the trail were not that clear and they did a number of retracings, but still made it by the end of the day as we picked them up in Lavi, dirty and tired.--Picture #6


Picture #7 This day their desire was to see WATER! so we headed for the coast off Haifa.  Chad was looking for a surfing spot.  The spots off in the distance are para-gliders attached to surfboards.  It was amazing to see.  However, Chad was looking for an ordinary long-board so we kept wandering down the coast.  Enroute we found a great place for another felafel and chowed down.  Picture 8.


Picture #9 The man and the board at last together... for the moment at least.  The waves beat the daylights out of him, but he was a happy man for having had the experience.


So now you have the rest of the story... at least THAT story.  

Jericho

M & C Arrive

We knew they were going to Spain.  We didn't know they were BIKING across Spain.  Because we hadn't heard about when to expect them other than the initial reservation... I decided to check C's blog!  Aha!  There it was in full color.  They were going on the El Camino De Santiago.  

 The blog also revealed the extreme biker had purchased a bike just for this very trip. 

That then becomes this:

And then this:

Pretty amazing, if you ask me.  My next question was: What is M going to ride?

Never fear, he always takes good care of her. 

But that looks like a pretty rough ride (or push) to me!

So now we are waiting to see when they and the bike will arrive.  Where are we going to put that bike.  I think we brought to much of our own luggage.  Oh, dear!  Is it Madrid or is it Barcelona from which they are coming?  4:30, 5:00, 5:30.  I simply have to excuse myself for a few minutes.  Wouldn't you know it!  I missed their arrival.  But they are here and we are happy to see them.  Off we go for two days in Jerusalem!

True, this isn't what you usually expect when you say Jerusalem, but this is one of my favorite views from inside the Jerusalem Center.  We have to go here before we can go there... into the Old City.

This is more like what you would expect, right?  The Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock.

This is our favorite mural in the Old City.  It is in the "cardo"  area.  Recently it was discovered with several columns remaining from the Roman period and this mural was painted to give a feel for what it must have looked like then.  Those shoppers in front look pretty eager, don't you think?

 

The day for Bar Mitzvah's at the Western Wall.  Quite a sight!

 

Our first felafel which became a daily MUST!  Notice the tall guy in the middle of the German contingent enroute to the Greek Orthodox? ritual.  Don't ask me how he got there...

This was a highlight for us all to visit the Tower of David Museum.  It gave an historical view that included all the periods relative to the 20 different sieges on Jerusalem. 

One of my favorite pieces of art in the museum was this painting of what the Second Temple must have looked like.  The staircase has been a recent discovery.  More about this on another entry.

We didn't realize that we could go on the Temple Mount because of tensions always present, but a happy encounter with someone who did know directed us to the spot where we could enter at a time that it was open for the amount of time we had left.  We counted ourselves very fortunate.  

I'd say that was enough for this entry, but it wasn't the end of this day even so....

May into June

A lot of great adventures need to get blogged! So here goes--  

Piano lesson for Marina.  She speaks Spanish, I speak poquito, but somehow we make it through.  We both enjoy the interaction and as usual Carl loves to take pictures.  What is that little black thing on the blouse?  Good grief!  He did it again.... more videotaping when I wasn't aware!

RS Work meeting.  Packets for the Women's Crisis Center.  

Can you believe our good husbands with needle and thread.

Our next opportunity was to go with a local school class to see the ways high school students could support the environment.  Here Moti is demonstrating how barn owls are able to keep down the rodent population by being housed close to an area where pesticides, rodenticides, insecticides have been stopped so that natural predators can take care of need.  Carl, of course, on the camera to record so that it can be used by students to put together data as part of their experience.  We are listening to an instructor on the moshav discussing why rotating groups, using fish ponds, avoiding pesticides, developing new businesses is just good business.

Last day of choir before vacation starts.  I tried to teach "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree."  They love the actions, but oh, those English words.L

This was a record day.  We welcomed another branch and tour group along with our regular attenders.  Every single chair was taken upstairs and down.   

The weekend ended with an invitation to hear the University of Utah Singers perform in a marvelous church with fabulous acoustics.  As our courtship began in the University of Utah A'capella choir, we knew we HAD to attend and we were glad we did.

Next episode:  Arrival of M and C

Filipino Caregivers

Have you heard about the Filipino caregivers? They are found in almost every nation in the world including Israel.  Many of these caregivers are also members who joined the church in the Phillipines.  Because the economy is very depressed in the Phillipines, they needed to go away from their land to earn money. Caregivers have a range of skills, but in general they are those who care 24/7 for elderly people who can no longer take care of themselves and neither can their family. They generally live right in their house with them and only get 1 day in a month off to themselves.  It is very hard job because sometimes the people they care for are grumpy and unhappy because of their problems and take it out on the caregiver.  The money they send back to their families.  A number of them are mothers whose own mothers care for their children while they are away working.  They have to sign a contract for at least 4 years and pay as much $6,000 to an agency who provides some training, airfare, visas and placement for them.  We are not sure how many there are because they just keep popping up.  

Spencer, who is our resident church member in Israel (1967), is our Relief Society President.  (She is the one second from the left and next to her in white blouse is Nanette, a service volunteer here.)  Spencer has kept in touch with a lot of these dear people by phone because they live all over the state of Israel.  She has been their lifeline through the various Intifadas by calling and helping them find safe havens when the families they worked for were not helping. 

There is a service couple living in the area where a number of Filipinos have rented an apartment where they can come and meet each other whenever they can get time off.  This couple has worked to give the Filipinos an opportunity to have a Sacrament meeting every Saturday evening in this apartment.  Even though the Filipinos are part of the Galilee Branch, it is not possible to attend because of their work schedule and the time it would take for them to get here.  So instead, they are a "group" complete with the priesthood through the service couple.  This weekend the service couple  planned a weekend retreat and we hosted them here in Galilee Branch House.  This is the one day in the month the Filipinos could get off so we called it the 24-Hour Retreat in the Galilee.


The couple arranged for two rental cars so they could drive them here, and we picked up a sister at the Bus Depot in our area.  We then headed for the Branch House where we had a very special Sacrament meeting.  Three of the sisters spoke and the brethren provided the administration of the sacrament.  Following this we had a wonderful dinner that was prepared ahead of time and warmed up quickly.  After cake and ice cream and singing a birthday song for Marissa, we had cleanup and then a fireside by Merrill about the land of Israel and some of the holy sites we would be seeing the next day.  We then all headed for a rest, however, the Filipinos had to talk to each other about their lives which took a good part of the night.  We were rested, but not so sure about them.

We awoke to a breakfast of German Pancakes and fruit and headed for the cars.  Our first stop was the Mt of Beatitudes where Merrill gave a beautiful summary of the Sermon on the Mount.


Our next stop was the Greek Orthodox church with the bright pink domes.  It is a very small church with murals and paintings inside from the top to the bottom.  It has been restored beautifully.  Lovely peacocks roam the grounds and it is a delightful place to get your hands and feet wet in the Sea of Galilee for the first time.  It is also a great place for a picnic because of tables close to the sea with a nice breeze blowing.

The event with the most surprises was the ride on a fishing boat around the harbor.  Some of the Filipinas had never ridden a boat before and of course someone had to get sick, right?  Right!  It surprised her most of all.  She was glad it was a short ride.  We talked about all the different scripture stories about boats and water and even sang, "Master the Tempest is Raging."  Michael shared the history of the various places around the sea and some current news about the sea itself. 




The 2,000 year old boat was the next stop.  What a fabulous story.  Fishermen who had long predicted that the sea would bring them a great gift finally were rewarded with just such a find.  The drought had lowered the water level sufficiently to reveal a rib of a boat and it looked like a very old boat.  They started digging the mud away from the rib and found it was connected to more ribs and called in the experts.  They came from all over  the world.  Within 11 days they dug it out, covered it with polyprophelene? and floated it out to a launch where it would be taken to a lab for preservation.  After 9 years of a chemical bath, the old water within the timbers were replaced by a waxy finish that would preserve it for a good long time.  It is beautifully displaced in a museum close to the sea with wonderful diagrams about the 12 different woods used in its construction.

Mom on the Mind

  

It has been 17 years since my Mom passed away on a beautiful May day in 1993.  We are having a beautiful May day here in Israel.  The jacaranda tree is full of gorgeous lavender blooms.  

The Yellow Blossom tree, is really putting out the foliage after we pruned it within an inch of its life. Bougainvillea are hanging heavy not to mention the hibiscus of red, salmon and yellow. All of this triggers memories of the gardens my Mom created with a lot of help from Dad.  

She was amazing enough to write we children a letter as her life was coming to an end and left it with one of her niece caregivers to give to us when she passed.  She didn't pass away until some time later.  After a year or so later this niece who had since married and moved away was unpacking boxes and found the letter which Mom had written for us and sent it off to us.  When I received it, I was very grateful that it had been found and delivered.  I remember being overcome with the generosity of Mom's spirit.  She didn't recall the times when she felt left alone or not sufficiently uplifted by us.  Instead she gave appreciation for all the good that she had had.  As I read it, it was clear that she appreciated the love she had felt from family and friends and their patience with the toll that arthritis had taken from her life and theirs.  I do not have the letter with me here in Israel, but when I return home I hope I can find it in my own "boxes" of my life's journey and savor the words and example and have the wisdom to do the same for my own loved ones.  Here are a few pictures from her life which I am drawing from a random file on my computer.