From the Middle East to the Mid-West

+=The post below has been updated, so even if you've read this there's stuff below you may not have read.=+
We pause in the Israel travelogue to announce the end of our journey! We arrived in St. Louis at Covenant Seminary on Thursday evening. We set out Wednesday morning accompanied by our very good college friend Mike (whom we were shocked to realize we've known for half our lives now!) He kept us awake, intellectually stimulated, and cheerful. We were warmly received by our dear friends, and now across the hall neighbors, the Woottons. All our stuff is moved in--it fit!--but not unpacked. We are still working on getting phone and internet access. Our address here is 412A Covenant Lane, St. Louis, MO 63141. We are sobered and concerned by the news of the earthquake in Peru and also grieving the loss of Charlie's uncle two days ago. Thank you for your prayers and support. Classes start in a couple of weeks. We'll be in touch.

A Time To Move

We are on the road to St. Louis, staying over at the Huntington, WV Super 8 Motel, but I thought I'd summarize our trip to Israel with a few stories about my time with our children.

Madeleine is rapidly approaching thirteen, her appetite and wit increasing noticeably. Not only can she eat as much as I can, (which is saying a lot), but she is definitely growing in knowledge, deductive powers, and a desire to contribute to adult conversation. On one particularly scorching day, the five of us were wandering around an unlabeled archeology site, trying to figure out on our own what type of ruins we were stepping on. Attempting to be an active, engaged, home-schooling mother, I was fanning myself in the shade while analyzing the voluminous dried poop pellets scattered at my feet. I thought it surely must be donkey scat because the only vegetation in sight was thistle (out of which the boys were busy constructing shields, spears, and bombs). Elise thought it must be rabbit poop, or maybe seeds? I really thought some smart animal had been enjoying the shade, but told Elise she could try breaking the pellets to find out whether or not they were seeds. Madeleine walked up and immediately pointed out, "Mom, you're standing under an olive tree..." FYI, olive pits look a lot like rabbit poop.

As for Elise, she will attempt to climb anything where she can get three points of contact, whether it's a tree, an aqueduct ruin, or a pole in the airport. Also, she has a natural teaching streak that was very entertaining to observe as she gradually pulled out the stops trying to convince Thomas that he was capable of swimming in the deep end-coaxing, bribing, begging, manipulating, threatening, scolding, even baiting-and-switching.

Like his oldest sister, Paul has been sharpening his powers of observation. Upon encountering a hoopoe, an unusual looking bird with a small, dark "hat," Paul remarked, "I think I just saw a Jewish bird..." A couple of weeks ago, upon our return to the States, listening to me recount the agonies of bargaining in markets where the quoted prices were anything from doubled to quadrupled got the entire family riled up (again). My father and brother tried to comfort us with, "You have to think of it as a game..." Paul's response: "Well, it's not a very fun game. I was standing right behind her the whole time..."

Thomas is definitely the "un-baby" of the family--keeping up on sweaty hikes, sitting through late suppers, snorkeling even after being stung by a sea urchin, climbing through dark places and encountering bats! He did hang back a bit at the pitch black descent down a spiral stone staircase, saying he would go down last with me. I told him this was a good idea since, in case everyone had to turn around and run back up, we would be in front. He gave me the same hesistant look that he had had when we were starting out on an overgrown, shady forest path beside the zoo in Haifa and he asked where we were going (he never has been very gung-ho on hikes through the woods--an unspoken fear of wild animals) . I told him it was where all the animals that had escaped from the zoo lived. He got me back when I asked him what he would like for a souvenir (all the other kids had been asking for stuff throughout the trip and Thomas had yet to ask for much), and he selected an elaborate silver wine service.

In closing, some of the most amazing places we experienced were Masada, the Mount of Olives, Tel Dan, Hezekiah's Tunnel in the City of David, and snorkeling in the Red Sea. Favorite foods--hummus with hyssop and olive oil, schnitzel, falafel, fried cheese sandwiches, and schwarma.

Lastly, to close off our travels I'll ask you this. What would you say if a Tel Aviv airport official attempting to open one of your well-taped boxes before checking it in asked you, "Do you have anything I can use to open this?" I did suppress the urge to smirk, "What? Like a box cutter?" I felt sorry for her as she was trying to cut through the tape with a ballpoint pen and her keys. Apparently, when they tape boxes back up for customers, they use their teeth to cut the tape!

I also want to tell everyone that once you have kids this age traveling with you, you never have to worry about spotting your luggage on the baggage claim carousel again! Thanks so much for reading. We've loved sharing out travels with you and hope you enjoy the photos as well. We'll be posting updates of seminary life from time to time if anyone is interested. Love and misses to all!

Jet Lag Again 08/10/07

Day Five in the U.S. It's strange but good to be "home." We fell asleep on the airplane saying "shalom" and "toda raba" with shekels in our pockets and woke up at JFK airport where you don't have to hold down the flusher the whole time you're waiting for your stuff to disappear. Red-eye flights--a jolt to the system physically and mentally.

Except for Charlie, who got sick with allergies immediately upon leaving the Richmond airport, we have all been asleep and awake at basically the right times. Whether or not we've been alert and productive while awake is an entirely different matter. "What day is it?" has probably been the most commonly asked question. We're enjoying the comforts of plentiful AC, Mom's cooking, dinner with good friends, meeting the newest nephew, and really looking forward to the whole Tan clan gathering tomorrow. Trying to ignore how fast it will all be over and time to leave again.

We never had a dependable internet connection after the first couple of weeks in Israel and often found that once able to establish one, we needed to focus on planning, researching, bill-paying, etc. rather than communicating. So, we are really behind on email and blog-reading, and some blog-worthy stories have gone by the wayside. Hopefully, the photos will suffice.

Soon: summing up the trip, our favorite sites, how to get through the Tel Aviv airport, and photos from the rest of the trip

The end of an ulpan

Today was the final day of my 6-week Biblical Hebrew ulpan and it was very sad to say goodbye to Kibbutz Tzuba and to my fellow students (and teachers). I've had a great experience here and would highly recommend this school to anyone who really wants to acquire fluency in reading the Hebrew bible. We will spend the next week taking day trips around Israel from Jerusalem then fly back to Richmond on Monday the 6th.

I think one of the strangest things about being here has been how disconnected I have been with everyone back in the US. Being busy usually makes staying in touch difficult but it's been so much harder to stay in touch here with the added stresses of travel and internet problems (my connection is sort of working now). We're all looking forward to getting "home" soon. Shabbat shalom.

We finally have Internet...but now the computer isn't working

I am writing this from an internet kiosk at the hotel across the street from our apt in Jerusalem. I hope to have the problem fixed before I return to the kibbutz for class Monday morning, but for now we still have very limited e-mail access. I thought Peru was supposed to be the third world part of our adventures. Once we're back on I'll get our latest photos posted. Rae and the kids came with my class on our trip to the north (Megido, Jezreel, Sea of Galilee, Hatzor, Dan, Golan Heights, Mt. Gilboa, Bet Shean). Because we're studying Hebrew we visited sites corresponding to our Old Testament readings (Solomon's fortified cities, Naboth's Vineyard, the death of Jezebel, Jeraboam's gold calves, the death of Saul, Gideon). The best thing about the field trips has been how they have impressed the geography of the Bible on my mind. Other than the geography there is really not much to see here from the days of the Judges and Kings of Israel. It is all buried under more than 3000 yrs of Persian, Greek, Roman, Crusader, and Turkish history. This is interesting in itself but not really why we came here.

Internet Connection at the Kibbutz is Still Difficult

We're saying good-bye to Tel Aviv where the kids and I have spent weeks 1,2, and 4. We've had a great time at the beach and the pool as well as seeing a bit of the city: Joppa, playgrounds, architecture, and the Eretz Israel Museum, a fantastic campus of exhibits including outdoor trails, hands-on historical recreations, and great indoor museums...kind of like Jamestown.

We've had terrific food from Argentinian pizza to schnitzel and falafel, and splendid accomodations, thanks to our very generous and hospitable hosts. Along the way, I'm pretty sure we've entertained a few folks as well. Four kids is an unusual sight in any city, whether it's New York, Lima, or Tel Aviv. And with all our chattering in English and antics, we've drawn plenty of stares ("Get up, go, go, this is our stop! Everyone off the bus--now!") As much as the kids miss their cousins and friends, I have to say they've been great companions for each other, sometimes completely losing themselves in their own world, whether it's hide and seek, building sand castles, this-jungle-gym-is-a-pirate-ship, or I'm-driving-this-"taxi"-and-you're-hijacking/fleeing-robbers. I have been able to do some reading and thinking in the meantime.

Week 3 in Haifa was lovely. We saw the splendid Bahai terraced gardens, where I turned the camera over to the girls. We went to the zoo--forgot to bring the camera--and the Museum of Japanese Art--CF card was full and battery low. Sorry. Elijah's cave, impromptu hiking, and the Maritime Museum were also covered. Here we learned how to take the city bus, an important skill we tried out when we returned to Tel Aviv.

We've learned a few things about ourselves and others. For starters, I don't really care for the public beach--everyone running around in their underwear gets old day after day. Also, until this morning, the boys thought that the kibbutz was the "Kibbuts'," someone else's house that we were going to visit, like the Longs' or the Browns'. We've met plenty of friendly, helpful people, seen more than a few loud, public arguments or scoldings, been scolded ourselves by artists and craftsmen who don't want us to watch them work or handle their work even though it's for sale and they're exibiting at a craft show, and been told by cab drivers that the address we're requesting is not an actual residence or not where we live.

One driver stuffed the five of us into the back seat and took another passenger in the front and then proceeded to insist that the address and name of the building I requested were not the same place. Which did I want--the address or the named building? I argued a little, since I had already lived at the address and building for two weeks, then settled on the building name when I realized he wasn't going to listen to me. I thought I got him back by paying him the grossly overcharged fare of $10 entirely in coins (over 30 of them--all that I had), but then realized that he got the last word by dropping me off at the mall entrance to my building, refusing to understand that with a large suitcase and four kids with backpacks, I was not headed shopping, but instead wanted the residential entrance to the apartments on the other side of the building.

Well, we'll be at the kibbutz with Charlie for a couple of days this week, joining his class field trip to Galilee for three days and two nights. That's week 5. Week 6 we'll be staying in an apartment in Jerusalem while Charlie has his last week of classes. Then week 7, we'll sightsee together before returning to the States. Sounds like a plan. Or something!

Greetings from Haifa

I've not had internet access for two weeks due to a problem with the network at the kibbutz and Rae hasn't had a computer for the past week in Haifa. Rae and the kids have been in Haifa since last Sunday and this afternoon I'll move them back to Tel Aviv for one more week. They'll then be coming to Kibbutz Tzuba for a few days and will go with me on my class field trip to Galilee. Then they'll be spending the next week or so in an apt in Jerusalem. My Hebrew class is going well and I'm surprised how much Biblical Hebrew overlaps with modern Hebrew. I'm actually able to communicate with people here. I'm still not able to hear much out of my right ear but I'll be seeing an ENT this week in Jerusalem. It looks like I have a growth inside my ear and they need to figure out what exactly it is. I've updated our map a bit for those interested, and I've posted the rest of our June photos and the beginning of our July photos on the left hand side of this blog. Sorry for our lack of email contacts. We'll try to catch up soon.

Week Two In Israel--Homesick??

The second week...ah, internet is down at the kibbutz so Charlie can't post the photos or give you his update. I'll tell you that he is loving his course and learning a lot while trying to figure out why he hasn't been able to hear out of one of his ears ever since we've arrived. Our doctor friend Jason, who is taking the class and rooming with Charlie, thinks that Charlie has a growth in his ear that he only noticed after having shoved an earplug in there for the plane flight, thus packing a bunch of earwax around the growth. Yes, I know, try not to think about it too much--poor Jason, he committed himself to helping Charlie find ear drops for wax removal and ended up digging around in there with a flashlight and crab pick. We are not eating crabs again for a while and are looking for an ENT specialist. We'd appreciate your prayers.

The kids and I have wandered off the beach and out of the pool this week to explore the city a little. At Shalom Tower we enjoyed two gorgeous huge mosaics, one celebrating life in Tel Aviv and the other the history of the city, and learned about the architectural history of Tel Aviv through old photographs, a model of the city, and a documentary subtitled in English (Paul: "I can't read that fast.") The documentary had a lot of old grainy footage from the twenties and thirties. This led to comments like, "Is that lightning?" "Is it raining?" from Thomas and "Why are people walking so fast?" from Elise. We've also been to two parks and found an open air market close by. There are lots of stray cats.

Tuesdays and Thursdays the market also hosts an arts and crafts fair, so today we saw plenty of pottery, jewelry, toys, and other creative and cheerful handcrafts including ostrich egg luminaries and sculptures made from flatware. As much as we were loving the artists' tables, especially watching the blown glass and wire sculpture taking shape before our eyes, the day was hot and humid and all of us were teetering on the brink of dehydration and heat-induced fatigue. I plopped the kids down in the first restaurant that had English on its sign, thankful that it said "pizza," which one of the kids had been rooting for, and took MasterCard, as we had spent all our cash at the market. I was surprised to hear the owner speaking Spanish as she waited on one of the other tables. When she seated us we thanked her in Spanish and proceeded to speak in Spanish with her and her husband. They are from Argentina and used some different words with a different accent, but mostly we understood each other. Madeleine and Elise were delighted to speak Spanish again and listen to the Spanish songs that were in the background. I have been studying Spanish a little bit, and have known that we all miss Peru, but I surprised myself by totally choking up with feelings of longing and sadness as I attempted to order my pizza! The only way I kept the tears back was by realizing that the next table was watching and listening to my bad accent while the owner was straining to understand me. Also, I didn't want to unnerve or embarrass the children, but I could have really wept, especially when Peter Gabriel's "Don't Give Up" came on. (The tears dried when Joan Osborne's "One of Us" came on and one of the kids asked if it might be a Christian praise song.) Is this homesickness? I don't feel scared or uncomfortable about being in Israel, but having Spanish on my tongue just brought on a rush of the good, comforting, and familiar. I certainly don't have a home in Peru, but then I don't have a home anywhere right now.