Boys will be Boys + A Free Tour of the Old City

   

Source:  www.gomio.com   
 
                              Source:   www.itraveljerusalem.com 


In Jerusalem, I had heard of these 'free tours' of the Old City.   I thought I would check it out. While going through the unique sections, I would see if there were any major differences in the people that I ran into.    Here is my experience and a little practical feedback about 'free tours' in Jerusalem.


1)   The Free Tour of the Old City was free but had a 'chance to thank your guide with a donation' part at the end.  It sort of leads you to give what might be the equivalent of $10-20 for his time.    (30 shekels or $5 if you're strapped.)   You don't want to be the one giving nothing to this nice guy or gal.   Everyone else there is handing him 50 and 100 shekels.   He did take you around 4 sections of the Old City for 1 and 1/2 hours.  


A little background on certified guides.    In Israel, tour guides have to study for two years through an accredited program before they can be licensed to give tours.   They take it seriously and have tests and coaches and everything.  

In America we brag about famous athletes/movie stars we know.   In Israel, it's tour guides.

          My tour guide showed Ambassador So-and-So around.
            Well, my tour guide showed the President of the United States around!  
               Well, my tour guide helped find the Dead Sea Scrolls and then translated them
                  into 15 languages!



The tour took us through the Arab, Jewish, Christian and Armenian sections of the Old City.   It's very valuable real estate.    Some of these coveted parts of Jerusalem cost $2500 a month in rent to live in.   This ad on Jerusalem Craigslist gives an idea of what one 3-bedroom apartment looks like.    
 

 

₪9000 / 3br - 90ft² - Fully Furnished, Renovated 3 Bedroom Duplex in the Old City for Rent (Old city)

3BR / 2Ba 90ft² furnished apartment
w/d in unit
wheelchair accessible

Just renovated old city duplex apartment with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms available for long term rent,

Fully furnished, located in a prime area in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City.

Large porch which can be used for a Succah.

Long term rent (12 month contract) is 9,000 ILS.

Agent fee 1 months rent + VAT

http://www.yhij.net/property/fully-furnished-renovated-3-bedroom-in-the-old-city/

Please contact Dov at 0547744273 or reply to this ad.

The downside of living in these quarters is....  No, not the ethnic tensions.  Not the lack of green landscaping.   Or parking spots.   No, the downside of living in the Old City, is the out-of-control cat population.  I'm serious.  It is something out of a Dr. Seuss book.    I guess they keep multiplying, and no one wants to kill them.


 
(Source: philipintheholylands.blogspot.com  )


Old City Jerusalem...downside of living in these quarters...oh yes--also, the crush of humanity around you.   Strangers.   Constantly invading your neighborhoods--standing in your walkways, stepping on your front porches, commenting on your exterior.   When I was in the Arab neighborhood, my questions started getting some answers.    I observed a few things.

Source: agingmodernism.wordpress.com )

 

2)  Back on the tour, we were hearing about how, when Muslim Arabs (I specify because there are many Christian Arabs in Israel)  go on Hajj (the Pilgrimage to Mecca) they come back and decorate the outside of their places with colorful paint.   Near us, a 13-year old Arab boy was hanging out.   I asked if he wanted to be in the backdrop of a picture of his own neighborhood.     He sure let me know that was not cool with him.


He waved me off with a hand and from his facial expression and angry words, I was a total dumb foreigner and jerk for thinking of it.    I am just another tourist in a long line of tourists trying to capture a special moment in my once-in-a-lifetime Holy Land trip that he was inconvenienced by.    I could understand his rude attitude and impatience.


I wanted to make an assumption about Arab boys and their manners.    I decided to wait and see how things went in the Jewish Quarter.


We were on our way to see beautiful doorways in the Armenian Section.  On one of the narrow walkways, a 13-year old Jewish boy rudely pushed past me with his bike.  He didn't even look to see if he had jabbed me with his handlebars or offer an 'excuse me.'  


There you have it.   13 year-old boys.   In both cultures, in this same region,  they both had that same snotty, uppity attitude.    They both had that, 'What are these tourists doing here?  This public avenue is my personal bike path/skate park/soccer field/set of stairs.."


I smiled realizing.   I hadn't run into an Arab thing.  Or a Jewish thing.  I had run into a 13 year-old boy kind-of-thing.   Their age was an international explanation for a brusque, rude attitude and devil may care aloofness.


(No, I don't think all 13 year old boys in the Jewish, Arab, Christian or Armenian quarters are rude.  There's just something about that age, right?)  


3)  The tour continued with a look at the famous Hurva Synogogue.  This part of the post leads me to another topic deep in my experience and close to my heart.    Many Christians love Israel and its people but Christians know so little about Israel and its people, the Jews.   We share a heritage.  They are the original Olive Branch brethren.  


         Most of what I have gleaned about Israel or Jerusalem, is from some historical novels I loved and read in high school.   They were written by the husband and wife author team: Bodie and Brock Thoene (Tay-nee) and were called The Zion Chronicles.  It was a good read for a high schooler.   There were stunning word pictures and an intriguing subject matter.   Her historical fiction had a palpable impact on me.



Towards the end of the tour, we stopped at The Hurva, the most-famous synagogue in the Jewish Quarter.    In spite of its petal-shaped stained-glass windows, all I could see was Hannah the Cook from Bodie's book, slaving over an industrial-sized kettle, trying to stretch the meager broth of vegetables to feed 1700 Jews trapped in the Old City during the 1948 Siege.


There, (near the current Mamilla Mall) was the Jewish Agency where the plucky American red-head, Ellie, worked as a photo-journalist.    Having to live there because of the war, she set up an anniversary dinner for her husband in a basement room, trying to recreate her honeymoon suite from the King David Hotel; while bombs rocked the building above her.


I looked up at the City Ramparts, and there was Dawid  (David) with his little yarmulke and fluffy white dog, Moshe (Moses).  They were scampering high on top of the walls, running past British guards...finding hidden passageways in the rubble below.   Priceless food stuff had been left behind.   One abandoned bakery had flatbread stacked as high as the ceiling.   Its owner, an Arab, had baked them before he left, in hope that his Jewish friends would find them and hold off starvation.


These were the people I saw and the stories that came back in the places we toured.    Places brought into living and breathing color by these Zion Chronicles.   The experience they painted with their characters in the Holy Land was more real than being in Jerusalem in the present 2010 year.  



Little does the Jewish community realize how Christians in the West have fallen in love with them and their heritage, evoked through these well-penned narratives.



If you want to take a trip to the Holy Land but time or money is in short supply, I would highly recommend this series.    When you do go, Israel will seem even more dear and real to you.  


Thus sums up a free tour of Jerusalem's Old City:  Donate.   And a Tale of Two Boys:   People will be people.     Do you have a cultural exchange experience?    I would love to hear it!

Teisha: Who's that girl?

Source:  http://nehandaradio.com/2012/04/29/bulawayo-beauty-is-crowned-miss-zimbabwe/

I had heard her name around town.    On the lips of stroller-pushing mothers, black-hatted rabbis, animated Arabic young men and Birthright-touring Americans; in jovial colloquy and serious discussion.   I wondered what kind of person would initiate this kind of respect and promote unity across these broad cultural, religious and political lines.


She was probably an artist.   A vocalist who could put to song the struggle of living in the Holy Land with all it's unique wonders and tragedies.   She might be a daughter of Africa but a citizen of Zion.   A Visionary.   She would make Jew and Palestinian alike feel accepted in their shared ancestry and mutual homeland.   She had to be cool, but modest enough not to offend holy men.


A few weeks went by.   I didn't see her face on any billboards.   I didn't hear about her on any show announcements.    Maybe she was out of the country--touring in Europe or something.


It wasn't until I finally asked a friend who was this Teisha?
All my fine imaginations dashed.   I would never meet this inspiring celebrity.

Teisha was the word for the number 'nine' in Hebrew.



Epilogue:  

 What is sooooooo weird, is:

this kind of happened.    MISS ISRAEL 2013 : Yityish  (Etayish) Aynaw

Yityish Aynaw arrived in Israel from Ethiopia when she was 12 years old and admitted it was initially difficult for her to assimilate into Israeli society. Photograph: Avishag Shar Yashuv/EPA

 

 

And her name Yityish, does sound a little like Teish-a.  

 

And I experienced this in 2010~!

 

I wonder if she will be the kind of person I thought she would be and bring the change I thought she would bring. 

 

 

"Natural Parking" - funny Israeli commercial

What to Wear in Israel: All 4 Seasons

What to Wear in Israel?

If you wear something that's a natural material in a neutral color and somehow loosely wraps around you, you've hit the Israeli-Palestine look.

I was in Jerusalem for a winter, a spring and part of a summer.   Most of this info applies to Jeru--a religious city for the most part and one of the most conservative.
     

TO SUMMARIZE:

Winter: COLD  (Warm coat, ski-jacket to mid to long wool coat--think Northwest in US weather) longest possible rain-coat you can find  (gets very windy and cold, windy rain is no fun in any place)
(December-February)

Spring:  Mildly Cold.  Still need a jacket, fleece is great for inside with no heat, always wore a sweater or fleece except in direct sunshine.  Still coldish, not quite warm enough...
(March--mid-May)

Summer:  HOT.  Dripping!!  Lightest cotton shirts you can find!   The loosest, coolest capris.  Cotton skirts and dresses were great! this time of year.   With sandals.  
(Mid May-September)

Autumn:  (I don't know??)  I wasn't there at the time, but either it was super hot still and uncomfortable or it was balmy.  I landed on the last warm day before winter hit in full-force and that day at the airport was heavenly.   But maybe not heavenly if I had to wait outside for two hours or something.
(September/October-November)

So I have a feeling that Autumn is what you wish that Summer felt like.   Nice and hot/warm but not gross humid.

This means:  Capris and t-shirts/tanks with scarves.

-Life is a little different if you have great accommodations and can choose your climate during the year.   Then, you don't have to be so vigilant  about what to bring so you can survive cold, wet winters and humid, exploding-hot Tel Aviv summers.   (You don't even want to walk outside during Tel Aviv summers--or Galilee summers--for that matter.   If you do, you should reward yourself with an ice cream cone.  So humid!)  If you're from the South or Michigan Lake area (USA), it might not feel so bad. 


COLOR:

 If you want to fit in, wear neutrals--and dark neutrals (black, black and more black--with maybe some white or beige, dark blue or burgundy thrown in) in natural fibers as they are going to make you fit in the most.    A little color here and there fits.   But to look the most authentic and the least like a tourist--wear neutrals.

In summer the palette lightens and brightens up a bit.  

(My Mom went to Israel on a tour 3 years ago and said she was most comfortable when she was wearing this long-sleeved brown cotton shirt with black pants.  All her colored shirts felt too loud.)


MATERIAL:

Try to chose as many natural materials as you can.

If it is a natural material in a neutral color and wraps around you, in a loose way, you've hit the Isreali-Palestine look.

Spring/ Summer:   Cotton, Linen, (polyester if it looks like cotton) and maybe rayon
Winter:  Wool, Jeans, Synthetics for coats are okay.

* Wearing polyester--slinky or stiff, and especially patterned, just makes one stand out as a foreigner.


STYLE:

First, go Modest.   This is the Middle East, right?

• That's like capri's instead of shorts (You don't see anyone really wearing shorts here--except in Tel Aviv by the beach and sometimes by teenage girls) and 
• cover the shoulder 
• Tanks are okay (even spaghetti-strap) but try to cover more often than not unless you're on the beach.   
• A Scarf over the tank top   
• Skirts should at least cover the knee (not too tight)

                 *  Totally watch out for the wind and skirts that blow around.    It is no fun to be walking towards a rabbi when the wind comes down a Jerusalem alley and you are dropping grocery bags in order to restrain a modest calf-length skirt who wants to play Marilyn Monroe.    If you must know, I had a few close calls but I think I walked away unscathed.   But wait, there was that one group of smiling Yeshiva boys....   See what I mean? 

 
CULTURAL STYLES

         There are so many cultures represented, you could wear almost any style and someone would think you belong to some Jewish, Arabian or Christian sub-culture.

• Hippy-dippy

 is super accepted in Israel.    Can't go wrong with alot of flowing skirts and scarves.   Neutrals rule, but putting some color here works best.

 Serious about the scarf thing.   You can take almost any outfit (except maybe a polyester suit/skirt)  and make it look Middle Eastern by adding a scarf.  (But NOT a polyester one.)  The scarf must look like it's made of a natural fiber.  

This is so great too, because it makes you feel at home, among the Arab population   ...if your skirts and shirts are long and not too tight and in more neutral colors.

• Black and White

If you don't mind being mistaken for a Haredi, this style works very nicely.  It can even make you feel more included if you live near these neighborhoods.    (Modest + black and white clothes and accessories.  --A head wrap if you're really feeling indulgent)

• Casual Sophistication in Dark Colors

Two-words:  Eastern Europeans.   (And East-coast Jews)   They dress nicer.  It's a casual dress-up--like in a retirement community.   Informal, but there's a little elegance to it.   Maybe, one snappy thing per outfit.    Casual pants and shirt, cool earrings.  Casual everything, up-to-the-minute in shoes.   Not too eye-catching, unless  you want to catch some eyes.    Buyer beware.  Especially if you are blonde--and tend to smile.

•  Tourist

You can't go wrong with beige and khaki, walker sandals, hiking boots, athletic gear and REI in a Mediterranean country.   Just wear it with a (natural-fibered) scarf.  :]

My favorite items in Israel:  

Winter:

Black boots - great for winter rain and cold 

Capri Jeans (with black boots) looked like pants without the extra weight in the suitcase.

Fleece sweatshirt zip-up

Patterned sweatshirt in greys and blacks (so I didn't feel so plain)

LOTS of plain-colored Old Navy long-sleeved shirts to be layered

Lots of Tank tops to double-layer under shirts for more warmth

Leggings  (If I wore more tunic shirts--I would have wanted more of these.)

Fleece for pajamas

Long light-weight coat (white) that I bought for $3 at a kibbutz garage sale.  

(Not super warm but great to cover me and hold off the rain.)

Summer:

Light-weight t-shirts that were modest.
         (It was nice to have extra shirts to change into during the hot summer months)

Button up loose cotton shirts with a tank under
         (if it was too sheer)
Tank tops with a  scarf     
         (But I wouldn't do only tank tops only in Jerusalem--especially in the Jewish Quarter--
           or Arab  Quarter for that matter.   Too much attention.)  

Capri leggings with skirts in the summer
          (more cotton-y, less like polyester tights)

Skirts-below knee length--were great!

Totally Recommend/Wished for:  One of those light-weight down jackets.  
                                                       (I now have one, it's awesome!)
 

A great rain/longer jacket with a hood--especially for when you're doing alot of walking and carrying things like groceries or shopping bags.   

I would have brought a MUCH-WARMER jacket.   The Middle East is cold in winter, y'all!    Maybe not at the Dead Sea, but everywhere above that it's like Seattle or Vancouver something.   

Better walking shoes/sandals  

   

(I hardly ever wore the dressy clothes I brought.   Sheer, patterned button-ups, shirts with jewels, winter skirts, red dresses,  a suit jacket, spring-colored polyester dressy shirts, a GAP office button-down...)

 Pretty much lived in my Old Navy wardrobe.   If I had an office job, that would be different.   More dressy, but still basics I think.   

 My black boots and dangly earrings became my dress-up features, making every outfit out of plain shirts and jeans feel a little more snazzy. 

Other Cities:

Tel Aviv:   little less conservative  = more tank tops, some short shorts, more cleavage, more tight pants, bikini's etc. ... but it is by the beach and it's not really a religious city.    So, more like any other city in the US.

 Haifa:   Teens and pre-teens who wore actual shorts (at the mall) in the summer.   Bikini's were the norm on the beach.



 

Jesus in the Galilee: Now Christianity Makes Sense

  

If ever I had respect for Jesus:

   We visited the Mount of Beatitudes in summer and it must have been 101 degrees outside.  With 80 % humidity it was like walking through glitter putty air.   And Jesus Preached on that hill.   IN the SUN.    With no AIR-CON to look forward to.    NOT even a cool evening breeze to Soothe His brow at end of day.

I can't imagine Jesus even walking up that hill, much less preaching for hours on it.   Without completely dissolving into sweat.   (If I can say that respectfully.)

It's the little things He has done for us that sometimes get you.   If he suffered even that for me, so we could be tight, I can suffer for Him, and go through whatever comes my way, right?   'Cause He loves me.   and He's so worth it!   


Galilee is like California.   

Much Greener.   Much Cleaner.   But it has that air that says, Anything's possible! and Just be yourself!    Relax.  

It's Pink oleander and pampus grass.   I could be up at Lake Cachuma.   I felt like I could finally breathe up there.   

I had been living in Jerusalem.    I had to remember, Jerusalem was where Jesus went to die, not where He lived. 

So Jesus, from my humble observations, started his life in a place that exuded FREEDOM.   Nature.   High Vistas.    Out-of-Bounds living.   Simple.   Hopeful Expectations.    Whispers on the wind.      ,,,Legendary... 


When I first came to Israel, I volunteered in the hill country of Judea.   A few months later, I was in the heart of Jerusalem.  

I walked on the streets of the Old City, down the Via Dolorosa and climbed to the top of the Mt. of Olives.  I was searching for an understanding of God.    But it wasn't until we were driving along the shores of the Sea of Galilee that I understood how special Jesus was in the light of His message.


In His day, He was a religious anomaly.    He kept the law but talked about doing only what He saw the Father do.  He upheld the law but also re-defined it's values.    He healed on the Sabbath and forgave adulteress women with a Go and sin no more.     He stood up for the weak and poor--and everyone's favorite--denounced Pharisee hypocrisy.  

Jerusalem is hard white stone and Galilee, bushing brambles and the lush greenery.   I was looked for Jesus' deeper message in the capital--the city of government and religious tradition.   But I found it in the area of his hometown.    The place of his roots.      

Nazareth in the Galilee is an area that reflects Freedom and Life. It's the most poignant backdrop for  an introduction of the New Covenant.    The Covenant that reflects the Love and Forgiveness of Elohim,   The Father.   I can only imagine Jesus's excitement as He saw His Father's plan unfold.

 It would now be meeting God as you walked on the water through wind and waves.    It would be multiplicity of provision--free food!    It would be POWER!   Over sickness and death and Hell and heartache! 

 It has begun.   He must have thought with the future in His eye.    Let's bring it!   

 

My Arab Dentist Adventure: On the way Home...

Part III

Looking deeper into the history and current status of Abu Ghosh, I just found out that it holds the Guinness Book of World Records (2010) for the biggest! plate of hummus.   Another interesting item is, the mayor’s name is Salim Jaber.   Could this be a relative of my Dr. Jaber? Is that why he is so amazing and efficient?  He is related to the mayor?   

Given the Jabers' work ethic, that would be likely.  
If  the Middle East had an ‘Angie’s List’ I would leave a raving review.  

 I also found out that Abu Ghosh is one of the oldest cities in the region. It is closely related to the city of Emmaus and was one of the gate-keeper cities for pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. 

They have one of the oldest and most well-preserved Crusader churches on its hill. It looks like something out of the Acropolis. Across from it, there stands a statue that looks like an angel that can be seen 20 miles away from Jerusalem.

 Upon closer inspection, it is only Mary holding the infant Jesus, but you would never know from that distance.   (If it didn't look like an angel--which all three main religions in the area have in common--it might have been cracked down years ago.)

A Statue on the church of of Mary holding the baby Jesus

The statue from a little further away.

The Statue - from Jerusalem - 20 miles away.
(It's the diagonal white line in the center on the hilltop's horizon-line.
It must be a miracle to be seen  from so far away when it's only 90? ft high.)

The statue belongs to this convent honoring the site where the Ark of the Covenant rested for 20 years before David got to bring it to the temple. I happened upon this place on my way back home from the Abu Ghosh.

Elated at the success of my visit to a foreign dentist and for not being kidnapped on my first walk in an Arab city alone, I decided to explore whatever was in my path. 


On my way up the side of the hill, I practiced my Hebrew, observed a tallit-wearing Hassidic Jew with glasses in shorts and sneakers bring in boxfuls of food into a MOSQUE! ran into one of the natives that I worked with and hit upon the famed temporary resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

This was the hill of the house of Abinadab--the place the Ark stayed for 20 years when the Philistines got so troubled by it but before it went to the household that got all blessed for 3 months by it, when David came dancing it into Jerusalem (and had to leave it there because someone got struck all dead by trying to steady it)

This day--this special day--was also when I came across a sign advertising a certain kibbutz I was keeping an eye out for.  Why was I looking for a this kibbutz, you ask?   


In 1969 when my mother was young and single, she came to volunteer in Israel at a kibbutz as I am doing now.    I just found out I am only 5 miles away from where she had her life-changing Israel encounter.

 

I couldn't believe I had been living within eye shot of this place.  I had been at Yad Hashmona for three months before I even knew this was here.    On this one day I got to see four major things on my Israeli bucket list.   This memorable day.  When a broken tooth, turned tragedy into triumph, and let me experience going to an Arab Dentist in Israel.

My Arab Dentist Adventure: Dr. Jaber

Part II

 

Twelve sets of eyes greeted me. Most of them were Arabic, but two were fair-skinned representatives and two looked like they were from a hippy establishment.  

All were seated in a clean, quiet, air-conditioned waiting room.   It was modern.   On the far side of the wall was a small aquarium.    If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought I was back in the States.

Trying to find the admitting window was another thing. I walked here and there,  hoping my confusion would raise a little aid.   I finally asked someone, a kibbutznik I would talk to later. She told me to give my name to the wife, who just happened to come out at that moment.


I rushed to her in my eagerness to get on the list, practically knocking her over. I didn't want to get left behind due to a 'misunderstanding'.


It was the only complaint of the auburn-haired, tie-die wearing, yoga teacher.    She was a member of a kibbutz and had taken her children to Dr. Jaber since they were small. 

"First come first serve,"  she said. It meant you could look forward to a 4-hour wait sometimes.   "He is so good. Why couldn't he just include appointments into his system?'

2 hours later - In the Dentist Office Waiting Room

Dr. Jaber’s wife was the main administrator. Silent as the grave and fore-boding in her black burka she glided in and out of the main room with a faint smile. 

I waited for about two hours before my name was called. Seven patients later, I got to go down that mysterious hallway behind the fish tank.    The well put-together waiting room had served its purpose. I was significantly anxious and relaxed before I would go 'under'. 


What came next really made me smile!

When I walked into the dental office, the dentist chair was pink.   The walls were painted a sunny Italian, stucco-yellow and there were pictures of Tuscany hanging here and there.   

Everything was thoroughly modern. A crystal chandelier even rounded-out the ambiance with a window opening to a green yard in the back. 

Pink Dentist Chair with matching rinse bowl

A piece of Italy in his office

Before I knew it, there was the man himself. Dr. Jabar.    (you will just have to imagine a kind, be-speckled man, a little shorter in stature with a 'busy-bee' mode of operandi.   

 I was expecting a much older fellow.    Our banquet hall manager--who already looked 45-50, said this Dr. Jaber was his uncle.   However, this being Muslimland, siblings from 2-4 mothers, could create an assortment of age-levels in brothers and sisters. Nephews and uncles could be similar ages. 

Dr. Jaber's nephew, our banquet hall manager, was one of the hardest working, on-his-toes, on-the-ball, staff members I have ever seen. Always busy, always moving.  It always felt like the  apocalypse was just around the corner.   At only 5’ tall, and muscular, with his "Come, come! Eat, eat!"   he reminded me of an Arabic hospitality bee.

Sufi was one of the most accommodating staff members with which the volunteers would interact. (We only saw Yad Hashmona staff at meals. This made every interaction impacting.   Sometimes good, sometimes bad.   


Sometimes we felt like an imposition—an after-thought. ‘Oh, you need to eat?'   We have to feed the volunteers too?  On top of all our duties, we need to make sure these extras have a hot meal?’ 

I heard from one volunteer, that when the college students (of an IBEX  theology program hosted at Yad Hash) went home, the kitchen pretty much just served hot dogs—with a side of rice.    Not too cool, Y8.    


(To note:   I couldn't really whole-heartedly recommend their volunteer program.    Mainly because, we hardly got to spend any time with native Israeli's.  Secondly, because it seemed like we were an after-thought.) 


 Nobody wants to feel like an after-thought when you're working really hard to bless a place and a nation that you have prayed for so much, spent your own money to get there and live on, workin housekeeping through rain or shine and in winter it is dark and cold as soon as you get off, and nobody seems to care.)  


You work alongside of some of the most amazing people though.  They are from all different countries and backgrounds.   But you wish your host organization knew how this experience would reflect on your experience in Israel.     You want to have only high thoughts towards the country  you are visiting and love everything about it.     


There were many kind strangers.     I just don't think that many people knew about our situation.    How alone you can feel when you are in a new place and dependent on someone else for your basic needs--at least in the beginning.   There is alot more to say on this whole topic.    



There was one young Israeli man who lived on the kibbutz that everyone loved!    He was made the new volunteer coordinator sometime later.     He hung out with the volunteers, went to a fellowship in Jerusalem and they all did alot of activities together.  They got to discover Israel through a real Isreali....    A great fit.     Poor guy, I bet every one of the girls is in-love with him by the end of their time there.  


Thus, when ‘Sufi's, ‘Welcome! Welcome!’    filled the air, it was such a relief!    We were there at the right time and there was food to eat.    To be welcomed to dinner.    What a pleasant surprise.   You see, sometimes there was a bar mitzvah or a wedding or a company appreciation dinner going on in the banquet hall where we ate and we would be hurried out or told to come a little later or 'why didn't you come earlier!?'   (Yes, these were some of the crazy things we worked through while vol-ing at Yad Hashmona. (Food was a big one along with visas and volunteer trips, etc. .....)

Friday Brunch in The Banquet Hall of Yad Hashmona
(Their brunch could be on a Come See Israel! advertisement)

ANYWAY.     ...Meanwhile, back in the dentist’s office, what amazed me more than the good fortune of knowing a manager related to a dentist in the Holy Land, was how this relative was the DENTIST VERSION of my favorite banquet manager. Efficient, hospitable, moving in 4 directions at once with total ease, they were mirror images of each other in their respective professions.

One of the first things Dr. Jaber did was welcome me to Israel and ask me if I liked it here. I did.  (Aside from some Yad hash let-down, I was really happy to be in Israel.)  



The Arabic music in the background was soothing. He even would have changed it if I favored another style, but I wanted to breathe in all of this cultural exchange.



He then asked about my tooth. He took a look at my broken molar and within seconds got to work. He could have done the whole job without Novocain, but because of my nerves I must have had some. 

Do we have nitrous oxide outlets in the US?

It couldn't have been 30 minutes later and he was all done.   He had created half a new tooth for the part that had come off.     He even filled in a filling next to it (at no cost!) to match the tooth next to it.    Our conversation gave me a  quick glimpse into life as an Arab-Israeli culture as well.    

 He did all this with complete confidence—not causing me any undo pain or discomfort and gave me an amazing discount as a volunteer.   ( some volunteering has benefits.   :]    )



What a professional. After wishing me well, he was off!  working on the cavities of a patient next door before his chair even stopped spinning.

He must have treated 60 people in one day. No problem. He told me to talk to his wife (when I finished rinsing and spitting)  as she would take care of my bill.


I didn't have that many shekels with me.    I hoped it  would be enough.    After checking with her husband, his secretive-smile secretary and wife handed me a copy of the bill--400 shekels! That is equivalent to $100 American dollars!    An un-heard of price in any country!   


I couldn't believe it!    It was a gift.      Dr. Jaber, the banquet manager’s uncle, had really helped me out.    And the Big Guy had really taken care of me.   It was all the money I had with me too.   An amazing discount for a shekel-strapped volunteer.


I wish I could have hugged him.    As it was, I didn't even get to give him a last thank you.    I had some candy with me so I gave it to his daughter's children sitting in a car outside. 



But you can bet that the next time I am in Israel, I am going to make a special trip to bring him the best delicacy that Portland, Oregon, has to offer. I love Dr. Jaber.   My Arab Dentist.

My view from the dentist chair - His chair (unseen) is still spinning to the right

       A Side Note:

Mid-way through the dental process—probably while waiting for a composite to solidify--he mentioned how the Arabs and Jews in this land were friends.   There is all this media talking about the fighting and the conflicts, but Arabs and Jews have lived together in peace for many years right in the same neighborhoods.    For all the media frenzy about Palestine and Israel, there is so much camaraderie and dwelling together-ness.  



The reality of living in the Middle East is buying your bread from the Jewish guy on the corner when it's Friday, and you're Arab, and going to Farid's coffee shop on Saturday when you're Jewish, celebrating Shabbos, and all the Jewish shops are closed.    Celebrating each other's weddings, grieving at each others' funerals, sharing sorrows and joys--and life in humid weather and high gas prices...   



They are two halves of the same coin. Cousins, brothers. Sons of the same Father.   Abraham.