World Wide Weldens

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Mass at The Church of Notre Dame Saturday July 13, 2013

We went to 6:30pm mass at The Church of Notre Dame. This church is part of a hospital and a hotel. It was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It was a perfect way to end our tour of Israel. A greeter at the church asked Nick to do the second reading and for me to do the petitions. We did and it went well. The church was small and crowed. There were three priests celebrating the mass and they were all from Spain. The small choir consisted of about 20 ladies from the Philippines and they sounded like angels. The acoustics in the small church were wonderful. A very nice celebration of the mass. Where the church is situated just outside the walls of the old city we were only about 300 yards from the place where Jesus was crucified. It was an emotional feeling to be there and we were honored to participate in the mass.

The Dead Sea July 13, 2013

Leaving Jerusalem, headed east you have to go into the West Bank to get to the Dead Sea. The pictures of the shacks are of a Nomadic tribe of goat farmers. They are Muslims. These shacks were barely holding up but some of them have satellite dishes...but no running water!! There is not much for the goats to eat as you can see, so the farmers might be out for over night in order to feed their goats. They move then the level of food options for the goats are depleted. Along the drive which is straight down hill basically you have to pass Jerico. You can see the whole city from the road but we could not go there. Jews are not allowed there. So our driver could not take us there. Very sad. We had to pass through the wall of separation again to get there but by now we had become accustomed to the wall. That in itself is weird. When you get to the spot that says you are at the Dead Sea, there is a Palestine guy there in full custom head gear and robe with a camel. Our guide had been coming here for years so he knows him. He said it was safe to stop and ride the camel. Of course, I wanted the kids to ride the camel and take a great picture of them. They refused. They had a bad camel experience in Namibia and they were not going back to the limousine of the desert. I asked the driver to stop anyway thinking they would give in, they did not. It was up to Charles and me to have this Kodak moment! We did it and I was screaming the whole time! Kathleen took video of it all and if you ever need a "pick me up" come to our house for home movies and make fun of me! Kathleen may have already put this on Youtube! The camel ride ended and we were off to the Dead Sea experience. Well, that is what it was a REAL experience. Hot, hot, hot, really hot. One more place along the way was the Ahava Dead Sea salt products factory. We bought enough products to make us gorgeous and allowed us free admission to a private beach area with a restaurant, changing rooms and showers for the Dead Sea! Wonderful right?? Also, along the way we saw the sign pointing for us to stop at the town where the parable about the Good Samaritan happened. Our guide told us that really nothing was there, so we took a picture of the sign. There was an animal that looks kind of like a goat on steroids that was at the Ahava factory backdoor basically. Our guide was thrilled that they were there, about 6 of them. He said sightings of this animal are rare. There was a bucket of water there..that is why they were there. They were hot too! I have to look at my note to find out the name of the animal.

Date trees, date trees, date trees. They are everywhere and just full of dates right now. The bags you see on the fruit are to keep birds from eating them. They look like an oasis in the desert. Look at the pictures closely. You can see a fence and then some plant growth and some trees. When our driver was young the level of the water was right at the trees. It seems that the water level of the Dead Sea does down one yard in depth with is about 15 feet of beach front. Look how far you have to walk to get down to the water. Well, again, it is all downhill so when you are wet and ready to end the day...it is an uphill climb! Ou guide warned us, do not go under the water..well it is hard to do anyway, do not swallow the water...do NOT let the water get in your eyes. Well, we went to the changing room and met a bunch of nice Europeans that did not bring towels..got it? Kathleen and I had the appropriate wear again...yea! The guys wet in their changing room and we met afterward to trek down to the water. The whole idea of sunscreen and toting towels and the heat...we just headed down for the water and wanted it to be a quick dip. When we got down there if was laughable about the number of people there for the day having a picnic at the Dead Sea! Well there was a sulphur smell not bad but not good either, tons of people sitting elbow to elbow to get some shade under some very inadequate thatchlike umbrellas and all of a sudden we were there. Nick grabbed a plastic chair off the pile of chairs for our stuff and off we went. We put our towels, shoes etc..in the chair and all I wanted was one picture of us at the Dead Sea, but who do you ask? Someone that is covered in mud? Someone that is already soaked in the alt water? All of a sudden Miss Russia appears. She is in a white bikini and wants me to take HER picture doing so sexy poses as if she was in Sports Illustrated Magazine, the swimsuit edition! She was nice and return the favor. Thank you Miss Russia! You cannot drowned in the Dead Sea it is not possible. If you do try which would be an unfortunate mess and sting like crazy, you would pop up. In the world, oceans are 3% salt. In this Sea, which again is really a lake, is 30% salt! You float whether you want to or not. The water is a little bit oily, not sure why

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Goodbye Israel July 14, 2013

Maybe we should have taken some pictures at 2:00am when our driver picked us up at the hotel but nobody in our group was up for that! We left our hotel at 2:00am. We had to drive to Tel Aviv for our flight. It was about an hour and everyone except me slept on the way. Our flight was on time. We had to fly to Frankfurt, Germany, to Houston, then to Birmingham. It was a 25 hour trip home. We would do it again. It was a trip of a lifetime.
Everyone that we told we were going to Israel before we left asked us "why" and "aren't you scared"...the answers: Why wouldn't you want to go see the birthplace of our faith? And are we scared...absolutely not. Even when we first saw the people from the West Bank with automatic weapons. It was shocking, but we never felt scared or threatened in any way. Israel is a place that everyone, regardless of their faith should visit. It for our family was a pilgrimage and I did not realize it until it was over. Our guide Zvika took good care of us and kept us on track so we did not miss anything. He was great.
We did it all. Loved it all. Would do it all over again. Hope that we will.

Shabbat with Orit, Joe, Amit and Adam Friday, July 12, 2013

Well, this is a big thank you note to Joe and Orit. Thank you for one of the most memorable nights of our traveling lives. You have a beautiful family.

Joe was supposed to pick us up at 7:00pm in the lobby of the hotel. We wanted to make sure we were down early and dressed appropriately. We had our bottle of wine in tow and sat and waited in the lobby. 7:00pm came and went and we were getting nervous that the sun was going down and Joe, being an Orthodox Jew would not be able to drive. He got there just a couple of beats past 7:00pm He was adorable. He greeted us and we were about to load up in his car when a siren went off. If you live in the south, you could imagine it to sound much like the tornado warning siren. I looked at Joe and he eased my mind. Of course I thought "air raid" and he said it was a 20 minute warning for all Jews to make sure they knew the sun would be down in 20 minutes and they needed to wrap up their day and get home. Pretty cool! I wish we had that kind of thing in Birmingham for teenagers on Friday nights or in our own home for me when I am getting ready to go somewhere and always seem to be running out the door...it would be handy!
The reason Joe was looking at his watch was he wanted to take us to see the sunset from the other view point of the city. He risked it and took us there. If you would refer back to our trip to The Taj Mahal back in 2007, you can get the sense of what I am about to say. The city of Jerusalem lay at our feet, the sun was being absorbed by all of the white limestone buildings, the hues of pink, red and gold it was the same as in India but more glorious because this was The Holy Land. This was the place where Jesus was crucified, died and was buried and on the third day rose again, this was the place where in the year 70AD the Jews temple was destroyed and the Western Wall is basically all that is left and they hold it to be the holy of holy places for them. This is not a city, it is a magical place that you have to visit. It holds history good and bad. It is a place like none other. This view was majestic and emotional. Thank you Joe.
We arrived at Joe's house and Orit came out to greet us/hug us. We had just enough time to walk to their temple for prayers. We only had a 10 minute walk. The night was falling and we were going to make it, thank God! Not being a Jew, I was really worried we would cause them to be late...we were actually early enough for Joe to show us around a bit and then Kathleen and I went to the women's side of the curtain and the guys the other side. The cantor started and everyone was enjoying the service. It was all in Hebrew but it was lively. At one point the men were dancing and the women were swaying on our side and I think if I had asked one lady if she wanted to dance she would have taken me up on it! She had come in late and asked Kathleen if she was from California! That made us giggle a bit and then another lady came up and sat with us, Sharon. She was lovely. She and her daughter both. She was from London and did her best to keep Kathleen and I up to speed on what was happening. Thank you Sharon.
The prayers lasted about 50 minutes and then we waled home. The streets were full of Jews from other temples walking home as well. The sounds of little kids running, people with open windows preparing their supper, no cars, it was nice. I think this must have been the way Jesus spent the Sabbath. Family, friends, temple, supper...a very nice way to glorify God.
We got back to the house and Joe told some stories and then we headed to the dining table. Their dining table is sunk about two feet below their living room and is basically under a staircase. Very unusual and very brilliant. We had never been in an Orthodox Jewish home. Lots to learn and they were great at explaining. There was a sink with a beautiful basin in the wall at the end of the table. Before we began, everyone had to wash their hands. Joe poured some wine in tiny crystal cups and we all drank when he finished reading from his prayer book. Orit showed us all where to sit and then the food came flowing out from the kitchen delivered by their smiling adorable son, Amit, which means friend in Hebrew. He was aptly named. He and Nick got along great. He is 16 going into his Junior year of high school. He was such a sweet boy and kept hopping up and down all night to help his mom. A good boy!!! We ate and talked for hours. Some of their friends dropped by the meet us as they heard we were here for the night. They asked questions and we tried our best to answer them all. They were all interested in places we had been and they wanted to know what we thought of Israel. They wanted to know if we were ever scared at all. We weren't. We loved it. We would love to have another evening with Joe, Orit and Amit. It was wonderful. We used the cell phone that Zvika gave us to call a taxi at 11:30pm and were back to our hotel before midnight. A great time was had by all!

Let's go to the market! Friday, July 12, 2013

Friday at the market is nuts. Especially when it gets to be late in the afternoon. The people selling their goods start to mark things to half price because they know that everyone is about to shut down for Shabbat and head home. This was a mob scene. Everyone was there for a reason, either to get their much needed bread for their Shabbat dinner, Kosher of course, a basket of figs, dates, some sort of meat??, cheese and lots of it and free samples, fish, spices by the moundful, wine...yes, wine. That was the reson we were there. We wanted to buy Joe and Orit, our hosts for Shabbat dinner a nice bottle of wine. Our driver dropped us off in what was like Times Square gone Kosher minus any skyscrapers...just the massive amounts of people. Whoever thought that bringing a baby stroller here was a good idea...lots of people! Crazy me... I thought I could handle crowds. We have been in plenty of hot smelly fish markets around the world but this place was different. The free samples?? I don't know but the old ladies pulling shopping carts over your feet to try to get to their next destination for some tomatoes...oh my goodness. And...it went in all directions. It was a perfect spot to film a Jason Bourne movie because you could lose someone in there in a matter of seconds. We chose to walk down an area that had some overhead shade, much needed at the end of our touring day. We walked 30 feet straight tunred left, walked 40 feet turned right and all I could hear from Kathleen and Nick was "Mom, we are never going to find a place that sells wine in here"...then like an angel from the Lord was sent telling us to go right and there it was! A wine and cheese shop. We managed to squeeze into the stall and over the cries in many languages of people sampling cheese we were able to get the attention of one of the shop owners. We told him what we wanted and he sold us a $180 S bottle of wine. Not dollars, Israeli money about a $50 dollar bottle of red wine from a local winery, sounded good to us so we paid and then tried to enjoy the market for other treasures. Then, I came out of the fog...we were hot, being mauled by other people that knew what they were doing and all of a sudden reality set in...we wanted back in our air-conditioned van! Our guide, Zvika had given us an Israeli cell phone to use to call him for emergency purposes while we were in Israel. We considered this an emergency and used it! He had JUST found a parking spot, if this let's you understand the crazy parking situation there. He told us we were the first people he's taken there that found what they wanted and wanted to get out of there so fast. I did not know if that was good or bad. It was good for us because we had what we wanted, had a good day and were ready to go back to the hotel and prepare for our first ever Shabbat dinner in Israel. Actually, we had been to a Shabbat dinner in Atlanta in February so we kind of knew what to expect, we thought!