Summer 2006

OK. On July 3, I took off from Midway to Tel Aviv, with a 7-hour layover in Newark. When I landed in Tel Aviv, Na'amah was at the airport to meet me. We took a train and a bus to her apartment, just two blocks away from the Mediterranean. We went swimming twice in the sea. The second time, I got stung (very minorly) by a jellyfish!

Tel Aviv is huge and modern. Lots of fancy hotels ... but also lots of tiny shops and crooked streets that give the city character. Here in the background, you can see Jaffa, the original fortress-city out of which Tel Aviv grew. Jaffa has a long history, dating from its founding by the Canaanites over 3600 years ago. It has since been ruled by ancient Egyptians, Romans, Christians who captured it during the Crusades, Napoleon, and the Ottomans. Not to mention modern Israel.

Our first destination: Jerusalem. The old city is walled in, and everything (including the pavement) is made of stone. Aggressive vendors try to sell you everything from backgammon boards to nargile to soccer balls to magnets. In some ways, it's picturesque, but in others, it's overwhelmingly touristy. Na'amah and I both bought beautiful tapestries pieced together by Bedouins, with amazing beadwork and embroidery. I'll post a picture of mine when I finally get around to hanging it ...

My favorite part of old Yerushalayim (Jerusalem in Hebrew) was the Temple Mount, which we were lucky enough to catch during a rare open period. The area surrounding the Dome of the Rock is like a park, where lots of women were sitting in the shade, watching their children play. At the same time, it's very quiet. The temple itself is beautifully tiled all around the outside. They don't let non-Muslims enter, a policy I understand and respect.

I have more pictures, but you would probably be able to find their equivalent or better by doing a Google image search. In fact, I just did, and here is my favorite. From one Kristine Grumme. She has some very nice images. Looking at them makes me realize that one thing I'd like to work on in my own photography is photographing people. With their permission, of course--though I suppose language barriers can make that somewhat complicated. My book of the month is Guatemala, photography by Jorge Aramburu paired with poetry (in both English and Spanish) by Humberto Ak'abal.

The Dead Sea was the next stop. We passed a horribly hot and mosquito-ridden night in this hut (there's Nami!), but swimming in the salty, salty water the next morning was worth it. You really do feel weightless, and the cool water felt so good on my bug bites! I'm not convinced that the mud is as therapeutic as legend has it, but we pulled some up from the bottom and coated ourselves. There weren't too many people around, which was nice, but everyone who was there was covered in mud!

Nami's sister and brother and Adar, a friend, met up with us in Tel Aviv to drive north to Golan. We hiked through the hills and swam in the rivers and picked (and ate!) Adar's family's pears. It was very beautiful. Na'amah is back in San Francisco now, where she is beginning work on an MD/PhD at UCSF. I'm so proud of you, n-raz, and excited for all the things you will do! She says that things in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are mostly the same, that our friends in Haifa are fine, and even Adar's family in the north are ignoring the war. Pray that they stay safe.

Here's Haifa. A beautiful city, hilly and surrounded by the Mediterranean. Home to a Bahai temple, the holiest Bahai temple ... I don't really understand why the Bahais put it there, though; the shrine houses the remains of one of their prophets, but the guy was Persian and lived and died in Iran as far as I can tell. Also, while Israel has allowed them to use that land to build their temple, they've forbidden Bahais to become Israeli citizens. Gotta preserve that Jewish identity ...

Here's a photo you probably won't find anywhere else. There was a fair in Haifa showcasing Filipino culture, to demonstrate that Filipinos are more than caregivers for the elderly and infirm (jobs that they often hold in Israel, as in the U.S.). So here are some little girls waiting for their turn on stage!

Well, that's it for my Israel post. Again, look at Patrick's blog if you want to know about South America right now! I'll keep working on that part ...