Rob's Register

All good things come to an end

2007-07-11T04:33:00.000-07:00

I'm on my way home this evening. A taxi van will pick me up at the house at 5:45pm to take me to the airport just out of Tel Aviv. Then it's a long flight to Hong Hong, a couple of hours wait, and a short flight to Manila. Then it's too late to fly down to Mindanao, so I have to stay the night in Manila with Matigsalug friends before flying to Davao on Friday, arriving about noon.

I probably won't have Internet access for the next few days, so I guess this blog will go quiet for a while. Then I'll try to write an entry from Sinuda at least once a week.

Jonny told me about a tool called Google Reader, which tells you when a site has something new. (And there's probably lots of other tools that use RSS feeds.) It's a great way to monitor a few blogs or other favourite sites from one spot without having to go to each one to see if there is a new entry. (I also use it to monitor my two favourite creation sites and one intelligent design blog.)

My last photo from here is from a couple of weeks ago. It's me standing outside Cave 11 at Qumran -- the area where the Dead Sea Scrolls where found. Cave 11 was one of the three most important caves where a number of scrolls and fragmented were found. (See here for some easy-to-read information and photos of the caves.) The scroll materials were preserved for some 2,000 years because of the extremely dry climate in the Dead Sea valley.

So, bye for now...

Bible Land Museum

2007-07-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

I had another "history" day today at the Bible Land Museum. It has much more to do with ancient cultures than the Bible -- in fact, like many modern institutions, they don't necessarily believe the first several chapters of the Bible.

But it was interesting nevertheless to see many of the types of objects that I taught about in the God's Awesome Book seminar and that I learnt about during my one-week stint as an archaeologist's labourer. Many seals (for making your personal stamp in the wax on the string securing a scroll) and engravings and inscriptions, etc.

I did spend some money in the shop though. I bought some DVDs about Israeli history and culture to use for our translator training program in Sinuda (and I'm sure the family will enjoy watching them as well).

Tonight is my last night here -- I leave Israel late tomorrow evening -- all good things come to an end. Actually, I'm looking forward to getting back now. Even in the museum today, I was envious of some of the parents there with their young children -- there's not really anyone I can hug around here. I'm looking forward to lots of hugs in Sinuda!

I sent a prayer update from here today, and noticed after I had sent it, that I got the day of the week mixed up. Apart from losing track of the days because I don't have to "go to work" etc., it's also confusing when the busy work week starts on Sunday morning. Sunday is definitely the first day of the work week here, and not part of the weekend.

I just looked on the Internet and there's no departure tax from the Tel Aviv airport. Nice!

I didn't get any interesting photos today. But here's one from last week of a "sea level camel". I was on the bus on the main road coming up from the Dead Sea towards Jerusalem. You probably have to zoom in a bit to see the details. Note the barren terrain.

Jogging Jerusalem

2007-07-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

I try to jog when we are at Nasuli but it's nice and flat there. I've been trying to do a 20-40 minute jog here in Jerusalem most days, but it sure uses muscles differently running up and down hills!

It's not the easiest place to jog, because most of the footpaths/sidewalks have cars parked on them. I've discovered that some of the plants/trees are quite prickly if you try to squeeze between the cars and fences. But it's also difficult running on the road, because the cars parked on each side have two wheels on the road, so they streets are already narrow and I don't want to get hit by a passing car on my last couple of days here.

I guess like most places, cars were once fairly rare, then every family got one, and now every family has two or three. Most houses in this suburb don't have parking on their property, although some have built parking areas into the rock (if their house is above the road) or on raised platforms (if their house is below the road). Indeed, the next building project where I'm staying is to do exactly that: build a garage on a platform and change the main house entrance into the second floor, rather than using the front door of the original one-level house on the ground.

However, one place that is nice to jog is in the many back alleys. Some of these are just walkways; some are wide enough to squeeze a car into. But there's no traffic to worry about, and the trees and walls of the houses on the high side provide shade.

Utter depravity

2007-07-09T08:01:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Yad Vashem, the national Holocaust memorial and museum. It's a very professional presentation (located in the prism shaped building hanging out of the mountain) and very sobering. I had only expected to be there for a couple of hours, but ended up getting kicked out at 5pm when it started to close.

Actually, the museum itself is only one of several buildings on the 45 acre park and the whole complex is very interesting. Part of it is dedicated as a memorial to those who lost their lives -- but they only have information on just over 3 million of the 6 million who perished.

Along with the photographs and black and white movie clips and some personal effects of the victims which were recovered, they have excellent written displays. The museum is arranged in chronological order, beginning with Hitler's rise to power after World War I and then the gradually strengthening of the discrimination and then persecution of the Jews and Gypsies and handicapped, through to the extermination camps. But what takes so much time, is listening to the video stories of some of the survivors -- they are very touching.

It's very touching and even embarrassing to see the history unfold in their displays and the way that the average German and Pole, and then the Western nations (including many Christians) refused to help the Jews, even denying them refuge. New Zealand wasn't mentioned, but of course Britain and America were, and also Australia.

It is also ironic that even now, holocaust denial has a hold in some Western universities when one sees the massive documentary evidence that has been preserved. Of course, one expects the Iranian president might deny the holocaust, but what's in it for Western liberals?

The story gets slightly more encouraging towards the end when the Jews actually realized where all their friends and relatives were being shipped -- not to another homeland but to death camps! Once that became known, some groups began to resist and to organize attacks on the Germans although it didn't save many -- too little too late.

The park also has a Path of the Righteous Gentiles, where trees are planted with placards naming the various non-Jews in different European countries who risked their own lives and often the lives of their own families to conceal or help Jews. It took me a while, but I eventually found the name of Corrie ten Boom (although I had expected the whole family to be named -- not just Corrie).

So I didn't get home until almost 6pm. Oh well, there's always tomorrow to learn some Hebrew. Today was a "history" day.

An interesting Shabbat in Yerushalayim

2007-07-08T00:34:00.000-07:00

Or in English: "An interesting Sabbath day in Jerusalem".

Israelis use greetings similar to us like "Good morning" (although they don't have a simple word for afternoon, so the afternoon greeting is quite long). You can also use "Shalom" (roughly "peace") as a greeting at any time of the day, or answering the phone, etc. However, from Friday afternoon onwards, you use the special Sabbath greeting "Shabbat shalom".

Shops start closing down by 3pm on Friday afternoon, and the Sabbath officially begins at sunset. A religious community in the next neighbourhood sing songs (amplified) just before sunset and then blow the shofar (ram's horn) so we heard that from the house. Public buses stop on the Sabbath, but you can still get taxis -- although they might ask a higher price since they know you have less choices for travel.

The family I am staying with would not call themselves very religious. However, they do have a special meal together on Friday evenings -- often the only meal they have together in the week. Donning a yarmulke, the father stood and read the blessing from a laminated sheet. Then a silver goblet of wine was passed around the table to drink from. Then he lifted a beautifully decorated special cloth from the basket of bread, broke off a piece, put some pepper on it and ate it. He then broke off a piece for everyone, peppered it, and passed it to us to eat. Then the special items were cleared away, the rest of the bread was sliced and put on the table, and the normal meal began.

This family does eat "kosher", which of course means no pork or shrimp, etc. It also means not mixing a meat meal with milk products (including cheese or mayonnaise containing milk). Also, Israelis don't seem to have milk in their coffee -- perhaps because they might have coffee after a meat meal??? Fish is not classified as meat, so it's okay to have a cheese sauce on your fish. Chicken is now classified as meat.

More religious Jews have many more regulations which they adhere to. For instance, you cannot light a fire on the Sabbath. So the candles are lit by the mother right at sunset before the Sabbath is announced. (We didn't have any candles in this household though.) In the modern culture, turning on something electric is regarded as using "fire". So if you want to use electric lights (including torches/flashlights), you also have to turn them on before the Sabbath begins. Of course you can't use the gas or electric stove on the Sabbath. Opening the fridge causes the light inside to come on, so if you want to use the fridge, you have to disable/remove the internal light before the Sabbath begins.

Walking by an automatic security light and causing it to come on (e.g., if you are coming home from the Friday night synagogue service) is breaking the Sabbath, although there are exceptions for accidentally failures. But the "kohen" Jew (i.e., of priestly/Aaronic heritage) who told me this, said that he has learnt where the automatic security lights are and crosses the street as he walks home from the synagogue to avoid setting them off.

But the family I am with here don't concern themselves with these things. In fact, they took me for a pleasant drive in the car on Saturday morning. They do attend synagogue, but mostly only on special holidays like at Passover or Yom Kippur.

So Jerusalem is mostly closed on Saturday -- all the way from the little dairy to the restaurants to the huge Jerusalem mall. However, if you would like to eat out, it's popular to go to some of the Arab neighbourhoods and get a nice meal there as their Friday holy day/holiday is already over. But apparently Tel Aviv is much more secular than Jerusalem and has much more open.

Then in Jerusalem, things start to open again after sunset on Saturday evening. In the summer like now, that's after 9pm, but much earlier in the winter. So the socialites go and eat out then or go to the mall to shop or socialize. So from 9:30 or so until midnight or so, Jerusalem comes alive again.

This family ordered pizza for dinner (which we started around 10pm). It's also kosher, so meatless since it has cheese, but tuna pizza is ok. We had it with wine -- they drink it quite a bit -- just a glass with the meal.

Then Sunday morning is busy traffic and everyone's back to school and work. It takes a little bit of getting used to when you've considered Sunday as a rest/church day all your life.

Back in Jerusalem

2007-07-05T23:46:00.000-07:00

I spent yesterday morning in the pit, my final time on the archaeological dig. It was a wonderful week -- I really enjoyed it and I learnt so much -- but even so, I don't think I want to be an archaeologist. It takes a lot of hard work to achieve a little (even if you do use volunteer slaves).

After lunch, it was a quick shower and then buses back to Jerusalem. The first bus went the short trip from the Ginosaur Kibbutz to the city of Tiberias, also on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. Then another bus from there to Jerusalem. It started off not too full, but then filled up very quickly. The military use the public bus system for moving their personnel around the country, so there were a lot of young soldiers on the bus, most of them standing in the aisle.

There was one incident where I wished I knew a bit more Hebrew. One young guy in uniform sat a girl on his knee and the two of them spent the whole two-hour trip flirting. Near the end of the trip, a mother with three young kids sitting opposite them, said something to the girl. This lady had a headscarf so she was most likely a Muslim. Anyway, that started a yelling match across the aisle but unfortunately I couldn't understand what they were saying. Eventually another woman sitting behind me came and calmed things down. (She had also calmed down some other little dispute with a passenger and the driver earlier, so I don't know if she was someone official or what.) Yes, people here are not embarrassed to tell you what they think of you -- almost the complete opposite of the Philippine culture where people often tell you what they think you would like to hear!

I was also surprised at the traffic going into Jerusalem late Thursday afternoon. When I asked about it, they told me that many workers have Friday and Saturday off as their weekend, so many people come into Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon.

I caught another bus from the Jerusalem Central Bus Station to where I'm living, although I had to ask the driver to tell me where to get off because I wasn't completely sure of the area yet. But it's much cheaper taking the bus than a taxi where they refuse to use their meters (just like Manila). By the way, I found an interesting article about transportation in Jerusalem.

So now I'm back here with a family until I leave on Wednesday. I'll focus on my Hebrew language learning for these last few days. I haven't got as far with it as I had hoped, because the study tour and then the dig have been much more intense than I expected with little spare time for language learning or opportunity to practice brief conversations with locals. I'll go the the fruit juice stall again this afternoon to try a brief chat, and also work at home to see if I can get through another page or two of my children's book.

Down in the pit

2007-07-03T04:52:00.001-07:00

Today they moved me down into a narrow pit with structures going back to approximately 1,000BC (approx. the time of King David). It was awkward work, carefully uncovering stones and then trying to dig underneath them. Why dig underneath them? Because if a stone is sitting on dirt, it's probably something that just fell down many years ago with the collapse of the city. But if it's sitting on another stone, there's a possibility that it's part of a man-made structure such as a wall as so we shouldn't disturb it. If we find three large stones lined up in a row, we suspect a man-made structure. If there's four in a row, we're getting even more certain.

If you look at the photo, the area where I'm working is down where Steve is standing so you can't see it. But if you look carefully, what you can see is a black layer of burnt barley (behind Steve's back). This layer comes from a later time when this room (built on top of the buried ancient structures) was one of the four chambers of the city gate. Archaeologists always thought these "gate chambers" were used for accommodation of the guards or storage of weapons, but perhaps they were more related to the trading that took place at the gate. Anyway, this barley store was presumably torched by invaders.

The dig here is designed to be an educational experience. The archaeologists are good at teaching us on the site, and back at the kibbutz where we sort and label and photograph the most important finds. Then in the evenings we also have lectures. Because I'm learning so much, I have asked to extend my time here by two more days, which means that I won't get back to Jerusalem until Thursday afternoon.

A different perspective

2007-07-03T04:51:00.000-07:00

My first two weeks here in Israel were on a tour with a Bible-believing guide and especially looking at sites with Biblical connections.

However, on Sunday (which is a working day for most people here in Israel), I had the opportunity to join some of the students (co-diggers) here on a tour of a couple of sites in Jerusalem. It was a great day.

There were two things that made this tour different from what I had done in the first tour: 1/ The tour guide was one of our resident archaeologists who is an Jewish rabbi who is religious, but skeptical of anything miraculous in the Bible, so it was very interesting hearing his comments from a totally different perspective, and 2/ we went (a second time for me) to the Shrine of the Book (where Israel's national treasures -- some of the most ancient version of the Scriptures -- are displayed) and got a personal tour by the curator.

Tonight we had a lecture from the same archaeologist, who is a very interesting guy. It was an introduction to the story of the rediscovery of Bethsaida -- the ancient town from Jesus' time which we have been digging up. For many years, this place which is mentioned several times in the Bible, was thought by a number of scholars to be simply fictitious because it had never been found. Now we're here digging it up. It was an excellent lecture and I learnt a lot.

Anyway, part of his story concerned the account of Jesus walking on the water. He explained that one end of the Sea of Galilee in those days was a shallow swamp, and Jesus was walking on the mounds in the swamp. Peter got out of the boat and did the same, but was a bit slow obeying Jesus' call then stepped off onto a deep part and sunk into the water. I had to laugh at his explanation because the experienced fishermen wouldn't have thought Jesus was a ghost if he was jumping across high patches in a shallow swamp near their home town (that they would have all known very well). Of course, people tend to believe what they want to believe and it takes the Holy Spirit to open people's minds and hearts.

Where's the custard?

2007-06-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

During our tour and during this dig, we have done a lot of eating in hotel dining rooms. There's always a LARGE choice of wonderful salads and also a good choice of meats, etc. along with rice and/or potatoes. There's usually also a reasonable choice of desserts but none of them have tasted extra good. It wasn't until this week that I really understood why.

I knew about "kosher" food and that observant Jews don't eat pork along with certain other animals, and seafoods like shrimp. But I hadn't really realized the impact of the prohibition of mixing meat with milk. This comes from the rabbinic interpretation of the Scripture about not boiling a young goat in its mother's milk (see Exodus 23:19). So the rabbis have specified that milk-based foods should not normally be served along with meaty foods. (I think it might be possible if it's certain that they can never be put onto the same plate.)

Anyway, what it means is that the desserts are all made with milk and cream substitutes, hence they never taste quite as good as the real thing. (Maybe it also explains why non-dairy creamers are popular for coffee???)

It also affects international franchises like MacDonalds. By kosher rules, a cheeseburger cannot be eaten by Jews because it contains meat and milk-based foods together. So apparently there are two kinds of MacDonalds restaurants here in Israel -- the kosher ones and the non-kosher ones -- identifiable by a certificate on the door as you enter. The kosher restaurant CAN sell cheeseburgers, but the cheese will be made from soy, as will the icecream or sundaes and other desserts. All of the supplies will have come from certified kosher food suppliers to be certain that there's no pork fat used for the frenchfries, etc. The non-kosher restaurant will, of course, sell the real thing with genuine cheese and milkshakes and icecream.

On the dig

2007-06-29T23:29:00.000-07:00

I'm living at the Ginosar Kibbutz right on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee (which is really a "lake"). We're just slightly north of the city of Tiberias.

Every morning we crawl out of bed at 5am, dress in our oldest clothes and head out to the bus. By 6am, we're already on the site of ancient Bethsaida -- the hometown of the disciples Peter, Andrew and Philip (see John 1:144) and the place where a blind man was healed with spit (see Mark 8:22-26). It's also the area of the ancient kingdom of Geshur (mentioned several times in the OT) and from where David got his wife Maacah, the mother of Absalom (see 2 Samuel 3:3). We are able to find remnants of of a New Testament era town, and then further down into the hill underneath we find parts of a town from David's time around 1000 B.C.

We collect large and small hand picks, trowels, brushes and piles of plastic buckets from the locked container on site. We use many black buckets for loading with dirt that we carefully dig out, and a red bucket just for our "treasures". Some of these special finds we notice in our digging -- others are found as the buckets of dirt are sifted. We inspect larger rocks to see if they have been specially shaped with tools. If not, they are just discarded.

The most special finds are inscriptions in rocks or scraped onto pottery and coins because coins help a lot with dating what we are finding. Our group has a "coin dance" when a coin is found! The most common finds are pieces of broken pottery. We find these "shards" by the thousands because pottery utensils were used in every household, and the fired clay vessels are virtually indestructible -- that is they are easily shattered, but the broken pieces don't rot or disintegrate. Special pottery finds include rims and handles of vessels which are enough to give the archaeologists a guide to the era in which the vessel was made as the archaeologists have a pretty good feel for the change in fashions in jugs and clay bowls over the centuries. Also, more expensive glazed pottery shards are special treasures.

At 9am, we stop for breakfast: cornflakes and milk, bread and jam, and the ever present tomatoes and cucumbers. It's a wonder that Israelis don't look like tomatoes or cucumbers! I'm not really a cucumber fan, but working in these temperatures, sucking the juice out of a tomato is very refreshing. We work in the mornings (under shade cloths) because it gets up to 44 or 45 degrees C by the afternoon.

Then it's back to the dirt again. Sunscreen and sweat make the fine dust stick so we look pretty grubby. Then suddenly there's a yell -- it's "Popsicle break" time -- a very popular part of the morning. By 12:30 we've packed up again and headed back to the bus. Two of our team are assigned each day to washing the finds and they're also loaded onto the bus.

We go straight to lunch in the workers' dining room at the nearby hotel -- they wouldn't let us in the main restaurant (although we do go there for dinner in the evenings). Then it's a shower and a nap during the hottest part of the day before "pottery reading" time at 5pm. All our finds are sorted and catalogued and carefully photographed along with a precise record of the location of the find. (Every day the depth of each part of the dig is carefully surveyed and plotted on a new map.)

So having this experience, along with watching and talking with the American and Israeli archaeologists is just a fascinating experience. (By law, an Israeli archaeologist has to direct the dig.) I've learnt so much. And I even manage to fit a little Hebrew learning into my spare time, although we are always fighting tiredness.

I can't add any photos yet, because I'm paying by the minute for Internet time here and it's quite expensive. But I'll try to update this entry mid-next week when I'm back in Jerusalem.

Off to the mall

2007-06-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

I walked to a large mall this afternoon to see if there was anywhere good there to chat to people to practice my language skills.

From the house here, it was downhill for about 15 minutes to the bottom of the valley, up hill for about 10 minutes, and then down hundreds of steps to get to the mall in the next valley. Did I already say that Jerusalem's not the place for people with bad knees? (The house I'm living in here started as one storey years ago, then was expanded to two storeys and then later again was expanded to three storeys. The house across the road has four storeys. I saw a house down the road where the machines were chiselling a new basement out of the rock. That's the way houses expand here -- up and down -- not out.)

West Jerusalem here seems to be mostly residential with houses all the way up the hills and hundreds of apartment buildings. All buildings are required to be lined with Jerusalem stone, so the buildings themselves are a pretty colour, but the solar hot water tanks and satellite antennas on the rooves spoil the view.

When you see how the houses are built one above the other on the hills, you realize how it came to be that David came to notice Bathsheba having her bath on her rooftop. Of course, the king's palace would have stood above the other houses.

Anyway, there was nothing for me at the mall. Just hundreds of people all busy doing their own thing. I did see one girl texting on her phone so that was a first here in Israel.

So I went back to my little fruice juice stall, and the aunt of the owner was working in it and she was nice and chatty so I had a good practice time there. It's encouraging to be able to guess more of what people are saying as my vocabulary slowly expands.

I'm off north again tomorrow for the archaeological dig. I bus up mid-morning to arrive early afternoon and won't be back to Jerusalem until next Tuesday. I don't know if I'll have Internet up there, so my blog might go quiet for while -- we'll see.

Informal language learning

2007-06-26T02:49:00.000-07:00

I have completed a beginners' course in Biblical Hebrew so I know a little. But modern Hebrew doesn't always use the same words or grammar, so there's different things to learn. For example, in the Scriptures, usually aDAM or eesh is man and eesSHAH is woman. But here, gaVAR is man -- a new word to me. Fortunately I was able to recognize at least one of the words when I went to the public toilets or I might have been in trouble!

Anyway, I have three levels of attack in learning to speak here. One is memorizing useful words -- I do several hours of that a day. Another is memorizing sentences -- things like "I am learning Hebrew.", "What is your name?" (with different words for asking male or a female), and "Please say that again." Then the third is having brief conversations, something like, "Good morning. I am learning Hebrew. My name is Robert. I am from New Zealand. What is your name? ... How much is the carrot juice? ..." etc. Then the third strategy is that I bought a book for little children (with the vowels printed in it) and I hope to be able to read it in Hebrew before I come home. So I'll get more words to learn out of that too.

One difficulty is that Israelis seem to speak quite fast. Of course, any new language seems too fast to a language learning, but different groups do speak at different rates.

Another difficulty is that it's hard to find someone to practice with who's not busy. In PNG and the Philippines, there were always people available to chat to, because they live outside their homes there, not inside them. But here, if someone's not busy, they're inside their house reading or watching TV or talking on the phone or something. So I go to a food stall and buy a cold drink and sit at a table drinking it slowly, trying to chat to the proprietor or the other customers.

Most road signs are written in three languages: Hebrew, Arabic, and then English. That does make it easier for English tourists, but harder to discipline yourself to read the Hebrew letters instead!

Reading the squiggles

2007-06-26T02:24:00.000-07:00

Of course, your own language doesn't look like squiggles (well, maybe some people's handwriting might), but it's certainly hard learning another language and another alphabet at the same time. In Papua New Guinea and in the Philippines, they mostly use the standard Roman alphabet, so learning to read and write a new script at the same time as learning to speak is a first for me.

I have learnt to read the square letters and even the standard cursive font, although I can only read it much slower. But handwriting -- that's another story. If it's really neat, I can slowly work through the letters to figure out what they are (once I put on my reading glasses and figure out which way is the right way up -- and that's not always obvious to me at first glance), but hurried handwriting might as well be in Arabic or something. Even fancy stylish script on things like the name on a can of Coca Cola takes extra work to read (although of course it's easier if it's something like that where you already know pretty much what it's going to say).

And something that really surprised me was concerning the vowels. I knew that the locals don't normally write the vowels -- only the consonants in each word. But I assumed (wrongly) that they always know what the correct vowels are -- well they do know how to pronounce the words, but as the Hebrew language has developed over the millenia, there are some vowel points which are different from each other but pronounced pretty much the same. A final-year high-school student I asked, had to check in a dictionary to check which vowels exactly should be written for the word. (Vowels are written mostly below, but also above and inside the consonant letters. The Hebrew Scriptures, books for very small children, and dictionaries have the vowels written in -- virtually nothing else does.) Bt t lst thr r n cptl lttrs t wrry bt!

On cellphones

2007-06-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

It just dawned on me today what's different about cellphones here in Israel: people talk on them. In the Philippines, most people use the mobile phones for texting (i.e., sending SMS messages). It's very popular there (in fact some call the Philippines the texting capital of the world) and I'm amazed at how fast some people's thumbs can work, not to mention their highly specialized vocabulary of abbreviations.

But here in Israel, it seems like every second person walking along has one arm attached to their head and they're busy in a conversation. I think I mentioned in an earlier entry, that our taxi van driver was talking on a radio and gesturing with his hand, also our bus driver did the same at one point talking on his mobile phone. I've seen a motorcycle rider talking on a cellphone while driving with one hand, and today I saw a supermarket operator talking on the phone while using the other hand to scan the groceries for a customer.

But apparently it's an instant 1,000 shekel fine (NZ$300) if you get caught without both hands on the wheel (or more if you happen to get the policeman angry).

It's also unusual seeing the orthodox Jews, in their costumes which seem to come from a bygone era, talking on cellphones -- a strange mix of old and new worlds.

Sifting the rubble

2007-06-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

This morning our group went to a national park to sift rubble that was excavated from the Temple Mount. Basically what happened was that the Moslem caretakers of the Mount illegally excavated part of an area known as Solomon's stables and dumped the rubble in various places inside and outside Jerusalem. However, the Temple Mount contains valuable archaeological artifacts from the first and second (Jewish) temples and then Roman, Christian, and Moslem occupations since then.

So eventually some archaeologists got organized and loaded the rubble on trucks again and took them to a national park. With private sponsorship, they've erected a tent and recruit volunteers to sift the piles of rock and dirt. We washed the rubble on wire sieves and then proceeded to search through it for artifacts. Our group found three ancient coins, an arrowhead, both modern and ancient nails, both modern and Roman glass, ancient mosasic pieces, and many pieces of broken pottery from a range of different periods. The photo shows my roommate, Larry, looking for treasures amongst the small rocks on his sieving tray.

It was a very interesting morning and we all learnt a lot both from the lectures, and also from the actual work and rough dating. After we thought we have finished checking each tray, it was checked again quickly by a more trained person. Then at least two qualified archaeologists will properly date our finds in a future session. The photo shows their display of some of the items previously found-- only small but valuable to archaeologists who have never been allowed to properly dig at the Temple Mount.

On being a pilgrim

2007-06-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

Someone said to me in an email,

I can imagine that even though this is an academic trip, it must still evoke the response of the pilgrim as well: imagine standing in the garden (or near enough) where Jesus himself prayed!

I thought about this quite a bit over several days and again today as our tour leaders asked for reflections about the tour. Actually, this study tour has been so intense there hasn't been a great deal of time for reflection, but in thinking of it as a pilgrimage, maybe I'm just a very unemotional person, but it really hasn't touched me in that way. To walk where Jesus may well have walked has been very interesting, but I can't say that it's increased my faith or inspired devotion because I came to the conclusion many years ago that the Bible is a book of great reliability and that Jesus' teaching represents more than earthly wisdom.

That is not to say that the trip is not inspiring. I think walking through Hezekiah's tunnel (see below) after teaching about it and other Biblical events confirmed by archeology was probably the highlight of my trip. Of course, much more evidence remains of tunnels chiselled through rock than of a man walking on the water.

What I do hope results from this trip is a greater understanding of the terrain and climate where Biblical events occurred along with more understanding of the background events which aren't directly recorded in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Hopefully I can pass on this greater understanding to others in my preaching and teaching and translation of the Scriptures.

My photo for this post is of the Hill of Precipitation beyond modern Bethlehem -- not a place where it rains a lot, but the place where Jesus was likely elbowed to the top of the cliff as the leaders hoped to push him over (Luke 4:28-30). The far side of the cliff is steeper than what this photo shows. In Jewish tradition, the first stage of stoning was to push or throw the offender over a cliff and then to finish them off by stoning them.

Wind like a hair dryer

2007-06-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

I've just gotten back to Jerusalem after a trip up north passing through Samaria and to the Galilee. I've experienced heat and hot winds in Melbourne (40 degrees) but yesterday it was 44 degrees and even though there was a breeze at times, it felt like the wind was coming out of a hairdryer.

But again the accommodation was great and the learning is terrific, although the long, busy days are tiring. It was neat to be able to cross the Sea of Galilee (actually a fresh water lake) by boat.

Places we visited include Caesaria, Nazareth, Caesaria Philippi, Bethsaida and Capernaum which you will recognize from the New Testament. We also visited a number of Old Testament sites including Aphek, Hazor and Dan. So as well as Jesus' territory, we also saw Elijah and Elisha's territory, etc.

I take about 100 photos per day, so must have about 1,000 photos by now. (I just checked: I have 1050 photos, 3.4GB -- but I was asked to bring home lots of photos.) This photo is of a wool spinning demonstration at a reconstructed village in Nazareth -- this is pre-spinning wheel technology -- it uses a spinning bobbin. And then you can see her weaving frame behind her.

The land of rocks and rolls

2007-06-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

Rolling hills covered in rocks. I've never seen so many rocks before. No wonder they make rock walls and rock towers and have rock roads and rock floors -- it's the common material available and you couldn't use many areas of land without removing rocks anyway. Where do these shepherds take their goats to find something to eat?

Floating in the Dead Sea

2007-06-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

The Dead Sea is actually two lakes separated by a short canal. The Jordan River fills the lakes but there is no river flowing out, only evaporation, so the salts concentrate. At 418m below sea level, it's the lowest point on the earth that you can reach by land.

Because the salts are so concentrated, you float very easily, in fact it's hard to get down to touch the bottom when you go out a little way. You can't put your head under because the salts would sting your eyes terribly -- in fact you should always have a bottle of fresh water nearby in case of an accidental splash. Because of the different salts (not just common table salt -- sodium chloride), the water has a very bitter taste -- even just licking your wet finger tastes terrible. The water is also quite oily and so your skin feels somewhat slimy. But the floating sensation is great and very relaxing.

There are many medical centres by the Dead Sea, and people come from all over the world for healing treatments. There are sulfur springs nearby and even this mud is supposedly therapeutic (although not my reason for enjoying it).

There is a lot of industry based around the Dead Sea and a huge conveyor belt carries extracted salts up out of the valley where it is processed further and railed across the country to the ports at the coast.

The Herodium

2007-06-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

King Herod the Great (the Herod who ordered the slaughter of the baby boys around Bethlehem -- see Matthew 2:13-20) built many great buildings including a fortress inside this artificial hill. His tomb has only very recently been found on the side of this hill.

The fortress was a fantastic complex with a big water reservoir (doubled as swimming pool???) and a palace at the bottom of the hill. Herod the Great was a very decadent man and even tried to surpass the buildings of Rome with his works in and around Jerusalem.

Mrs. Encyclopedia

2007-06-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

Our tour guide works for the University of the Holy Land. Dr. Ginger Caessens (shown in the photo giving us a lecture beside a Roman milestone) is only a little lady but she certainly has a head full of information. With a lifelong interest in the three fields of history, geography and Biblical studies, she is able to give us a lot of background of the sites we are seeing. The only word to describe this course is AWESOME.

What you have to remember in this country, is that almost every site has many layers of history. For instance, an early Israelite king might have built a building which was later destroyed, and then a later Israelite king might have built something on or near the same site, then that might have been destroyed by the Babylonians, then Herod the Great might have used the site, and then the Byzantine Christians might have built a church there. So archaeologists might be able to distinguish some, or all, or these various levels of history. (Usually older buildings are also found lower down than the newer ones as demolished buildings fill with dirt and rubble and a new building is built on top several centuries later.)

Concerning famous sites, Dr. Caessens is able to give us a reliability guideline for most of them: authentic, possible, probable, or ridiculous. For example, there are three walled fields in modern Bethlehem that are all supposedly where the shepherds were watching their sheep when the angels spoke to them. All three are apparently possible, but of course, who knows exactly where the shepherds were that night.

We didn't actually stop at any of them because there are three main kinds of tours here: pilgrims, tourists, and academic tours. Pilgrims come to Jerusalem for a personal, spiritual experience -- especially orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics. They are the ones that want to kiss Jesus' tomb or say they walked where Jesus walked. The tourists want to see the famous sights like the breathtaking fortress of Masada. Our tour (which is part of a university course) is an academic tour to help Bible translators understand the history and geography of this part of the world. And not just that, but we've learnt about the various animals, and tomorrow we have a lecture from a botanist about the plants that grow here. So we don't have any particular interest in which actual fields the shepherds were supposedly in, but rather to learn about shepherding in general and how they coped with the situations in the different areas.

A low point on the trip

2007-06-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we crossed into Palestinian territory to visit both the modern and ancient cities of Jericho which are down in a fault valley down by the Jordan River. This is down 250m below sea level so it was a low point on the trip.

Of course, not much remains of the ancient city, but the fact that anything remains from about 2,800 years ago is incredible.

Jericho is a green oasis in a barren, desert area. It was my first time to see date palms. They are very impressive trees which have huge bunches of fruit on them. (Not ready at this time of year unfortunately.)

New Testament Jerusalem

2007-06-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

Again, I'm too tired to write too much today as we were out until after 6pm, and then we have homework to do after dinner which is at 7pm.

Today we focused on Jerusalem in the New Testament times, as distinct from yesterday which was focused on Old Testament times. This first photo is of some very ancient olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane (or else very close to where it was.)

This next photo shows some of the western wall of the Temple Mount built by Herod the Great (well, at least the bottom half of the wall is his original work). Unfortunately, however, photos cannot capture the grandeur and beauty of this place.

Too tired to blog

2007-06-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

Had a wonderful day today walking around outside the walls of the "Old City" looking at the site of the even older City of David. The highlight was walking through Hezekiah's tunnel (See photo and see 2 Kings 20:20-21). However, after all that walking, I'm too tired to write or sort through my 133 photos for the day, so we'll try for tomorrow instead.

Tomorrow we start an hour earlier (8am instead of 9am), but we use a bus for transport instead of legs, so it should be both easier and cooler.

Sugar and spice and all things nice

2007-06-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

I had a free afternoon here in Jerusalem before the rest of the group arrives this evening, so I went for a walk through the markets in the old city. It was absolutely fascinating to see all the things for sale, but what intrigued me most was the bins of spices.

Also, they sell something called dried yoghurt. I'll have to find out if that's something you chew on or what.

I accidentally ended up at the Western Wall, but I'm sure I'll have better photos of that tomorrow when we go there on the first day of our official tour.

Finally, some sweets for those looking for the sugar bit from the title.

The course begins

2007-06-10T02:45:00.000-07:00

Our lecturer from the University of the Holy Land just came to say hello. Dr. Ginger Caessens is a specialist in historical geography, so I imagine she's a very interesting lady. She's certainly well organized -- when I walked into my room today I was stunned to see the four-inch thick folder of notes. There's maps and coloured pencils and schedules and advice about dress for each day and historical overviews and regional overviews. There's a pack for every day trip that you take out of the folder and carry around with you so you know what to look out for and don't have to spend the whole time taking your own notes rather than looking at what you came to see.

Up in the hills

2007-06-10T02:26:00.001-07:00

Most cities (like Auckland, Wellington, Manila, Davao) are near an ocean port or beside an important river or highway crossing. However, Jerusalem is stuck up on the hills in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't even have an airport. Yes, it's hard to see why Jerusalem is such an important city unless you understand that the temple (i.e., the presence of God) was here.

The Gloria Hotel is in the Old City, so you have to go through a gate in the city walls to get in. In this case, it's just inside the Jaffa Gate. (Hopefully you know that you can click on any of the photos in this blog to view them in more detail -- then just click on the Back button in your browser to return here.)

I was a bit disappointed to find that there are three of us sharing a room as most of the rest of the group only have two to a room. Hopefully it's a bit cheaper for us??? But at least there's wireless Internet so I can publish this :-) It actually has a bath too (with the shower over it), although I can't imagine taking the time for a good soak unfortunately.

Chatting and Driving

2007-06-10T02:11:00.000-07:00

I went to Jerusalem Sunday morning in a taxi van. The driver spent most of the one-hour trip talking on a little radio while we were travelling at 120kph. The interesting thing was that he was holding the radio in one hand, and was using the other hand to join in the conversation as if the other guy was standing right in front of him. Of course, this meant no hands on the wheel!

Often when men are talking here, they talk very loudly and expressively and if you didn't know, you'd think they were angry at each other. And they're not shy to tell other people what to do: On the bus this morning, one man blocked the aisle a little and a nearby passenger told him off. And then there was a car a bit over the lane at the traffic lights and the taxi driver tooted at her until she moved (yes, it was a woman driver of course ;) and then drove up beside her and proceeded to tell her off through the window.

The taxi driver didn't speak much English so my little Hebrew helped. Not speaking it -- it's not worth speaking it to strangers because they just answer you really fast in Hebrew and then you're totally bamboozled. But being understand many of the common words is very helpful to be able to guess what he's saying, e.g., when the taxi driver said how much the fare was before we left, and then when we arrived at the final stop he said it was the end of the trip.

Of course, it's hard the first time you do anything because you don't know how the system works. But hopefully after a few weeks here, I should get the hang of a few things at least.

Jaffa Beach

2007-06-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

Sabbath noon I went down to the beach which is only ten minutes walk from the hostel. I walked up and down the beach trying to figure out why lots of people were swimming in the sea when there were signs all along the beach saying Swimming is Prohibited.

So I joined the many sunbathers on the brownish, white sand and studied my Hebrew cards for a while. My pack for today even included the Hebrew word for sand by coincidence.

One thing different I noticed was the number of pairs of people playing with bat and ball on the firmer wet sand. The bats were like table tennis bats but bigger and heavier with no rubber or anything on the wood so they were quite noisy when they hit the ball which looked very much like a squash ball although I don't know what it felt like.

After warming up sufficiently, I decided to join the brave ones ignoring the signs and have a swim in the Mediterranean Ocean. I didn't stay in for long, but feeling the strong rip at the bottom I guessed the reason for the signs. A couple that went in just ahead of me went out a bit further and someone came and blew a whistle at them. When I went home after drying out, I took a different exit from the beach and saw a sign: There are no lifeguards here so swimming is prohibited. So I guess you take your life into your own hands if you ignore the warnings. But at least I can now say: I've swum in the Mediterranean!

Beit Immanuel

2007-06-09T05:27:00.000-07:00

This is the Christian hostel that I'm staying at. Staffed mostly by volunteer young people from Europe, it's bed and breakfast for US$40 a night. There are cheaper dormitories, but they were full, so I have a private room with aircon, although I haven't used the aircon much as I am finding the temperature here fairly comfortable.

An ancient building itself, it has a Lutheran church right opposite. A sign at the fence explains that they have both Hebrew and English services on the Sabbath morning and also an English service on Sunday morning.

I really enjoyed the Hebrew service here at the hostel last night. Radio headphone were available with either English or Russian translation, so it was interesting to hear the Hebrew direct and then hear the English translation through the headphones. Pastor David Lazarus spoke very well and it was a lovely service, starting at 6:30pm and finishing around 9 o'clock.

Breakfast this morning consisted of:

Granola or cornflakes with flavoured yoghurt, and/or
Toast with white butter and jam, and/or
Sliced cucumbers and tomatoes and orange with plain yoghurt, sliced cheddar cheese, hard-boiled eggs and canned tuna with cottage cheese, green olives.
Coffee, other hots drinks, or orange juice.

I tried everything (at least twice) since I won't be buying lunch or dinner. My only mistake was forgetting that not all olives have the stone removed, but fortunately I didn't bite it too hard. Yes, I could easily get used to salad foods and cheese and yoghurt and cottage cheese for breakfast!

Old Jaffa

2007-06-09T05:15:00.001-07:00

Friday afternoon I walked all around Old Jaffa -- the ancient part of the city right down on the coast. I saw Simon the Tanner's house and some ancient walls and fortifications.

Lots of history here comes from the time of the Crusades and then through to the Ottomans. It's fascinating to see the stone buildings going all the way up the hill.

Hebrew writing

2007-06-09T05:02:00.000-07:00

It takes a little while to get used to picking up books and opening them from the "back" so you don't look silly always opening books at the end instead of the beginning.

The only time I've seen vowels written has been in books for little children and in the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. Everything else, including all books and newspapers and signs only have the consonants written.

I had never really thought about it with English, but of course as well as printed letters, we have cursive letters, and not only that, we also have many fonts such as serif and sans serif fonts and fancy display fonts. Well, Hebrew has the same. So although I have done most of my learning with the normal printed letters, and even though I spent some time also practising reading cursive letters, I struggle with even recognizing the letters in many logos and decorative signs, even on groceries. On the plane, I was studying the label on the butter (all Kosher), and stared for ages at one letter in the word -- not able to figure it out. Finally I had to ask the hostess what this particular letter was because I had never seen it written in a font like that!

But it was nice when I joined a Sabbath evening service with a Messianic congregation to be able to understand many of the songs on the overhead (without vowels). Of course, I have learnt words like God and righteous and truth and sing, so in that context of Christian songs I was able to figure out much of the meaning even though I couldn't quite read the script fast enough to sing until about the third time through each chorus.

First impressions

2007-06-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well Israel looks a like more like an Asian country than a Western country in terms of roads and buildings. I was surprised to see some beggars on the street (including one man asleep on a slab of cardboard) and just in walking around and sitting and watching people, saw several people just throw their little bits of rubbish out onto the roadway.

However, it's not like tropical Manila or green New Zealand in that it's much drier and dustier (and it is summer here of course). But I can see why Israelis and others consider New Zealand so clean and beautiful.

I saw many less beards and traditional Jews than I expected, but as someone said, this isn't Jerusalem. I was amazed at the young people with all the tattoos and body-piercing and provocative dress. Many girls/women here wear much more revealing tops than the mostly conservative Filipinos I am used to seeing (and of course they are much bigger built people here also). I see a lot more women smoking here than I'm used to in the Philippines. I also saw gay men holding hands and others dressed as women. (PS: I just read in the newspaper there was a Gay Parade in Tel Aviv today, so apparently there are a lot of foreign gays here at the moment. The government is busy at the moment passing legislation to prevent the big parade that the gays wanted in Jerusalem.)

Like the Philippines, there are many small stores, often with all the same kinds of store side-by-side in one particular area. Where my hostel is, it's just art store after art store and then walking along a bit further, you hit all the fashion clothing stores.

I walked about 40 minutes to a shopping mall. My backpack was searched going in, but I'm well used to that in the Philippines also. What I did like that I haven't noticed anywhere else in the world, that my entrance was labelled with a number (Gate 7), and then inside the mall were overhead signs that directed you to the various exits so it was easy to find my way back to the same exit so I could figure out how to get home again. (I hate many malls in both the Philippines and New Zealand that I find disorientating inside and then you have to walk around for ages to find which entrance was the one you came in.)

I've seen McDonalds and some other international brands here, but the prices are much higher than in the Philippines. Some eateries have their menus in English and Hebrew -- others don't! The money here is the shekel (actually the New Israeli Shekel or NIS). US$1=4 shekels, NZ$1=3 shekels, 1 shekel=P11 approximately. They also have coins for "cents" but someone I asked couldn't tell me the Hebrew name for it.

People walk faster than Filipinos (it's often not cool to walk fast there) and mostly cross at intersections and mostly obey the crossing lights. So many people are talking on their phones while walking or shopping and I even saw one while driving his motorcycle with one hand--there seem to be perhaps more motorcycles here than in NZ but hardly any compared to the Philippines. Nobody uses umbrellas to keep off the sun here nor do they seem to wear hats.

Everyone drives fast here. I first noticed this on the buses (which are all big automatics -- some are long bendy ones--see photo) that the driver just plants boot (i.e., accelerates rapidly) after leaving the bus stop so you have to hold on tight, quickly gets to high speed and then brakes hard for the next stop. Like NZ, they only stop at bus stops--in the Philippines you can stop the bus almost anywhere. I already observed one accident and three incidents of road rage. They seem to be very impatient drivers here.

International travel

2007-06-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

Three of us travelling together flew out of Manila on PAL for the short (< 2 hrs) trip to Hong Kong. The huge terminal there reminded me very much of Singapore. I expected to see the jungle of high-rise buildings all around outside the terminal windows, but was surprised to see green hills all around behind them!

We were escorted to the El Al transfer desk where we faced individual interviews. They wanted to know why we were going to Israel and what we were going to do there. My interviewer started straight off speaking to me in Hebrew and it's happened to me over and over again since, so I must look like an Israeli. Sometimes it's a bit of a nuisance (because I have to ask them to start over again in English) but it's a great way to get exposure to the language and to demonstrate the couple of sentences that I can speak. :-)

I spent much of the waiting time learning Hebrew and found a guy just sitting (others were reading or playing guitar or talking with friends) and was able to solicit some new questions (like What are you doing?) so that I could start memorizing them. I was very encouraged to be able to pick out some words from Hebrew conversations I overhead.

I wasn't too surprised at boarding time when a security alert popped up. But it seemed to be only that I had packed my camera cable and some batteries in the same plastic bag as my alarm clock so they wanted to check me out on that. They had been through all the checked-in luggage including my toilet bag. I guess they have to be very careful.

The flight seemed very long--twelve hours from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv even though you're only moving through five time zones. We only really understood this later looking at our route on the map displayed in the plane--for political reasons a lot of time is spent flying around in a big circle to avoid countries that presumably don't allow Israeli planes overhead.

I read that the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv had been closed for a while on Wednesday due to interference from a Palestinian pirate radio station but it must have been sorted out by time we arrived Friday morning.

So we landed safely around 3:30am local time, and sat in the airport until it started getting light as we didn't want to travel in the dark without being able to enjoy the view. The two ladies then went on to Jerusalem, while I bussed to Jaffa (right next to Tel Aviv) where I had a great day, but I need some sleep so I'll write about that tomorrow.

Davao -- first day away

2007-06-06T04:08:00.000-07:00

Two bus trips today -- first to Sinuda and then on to Davao City. I dropped in to Sinuda for an hour to pick up a few things at our house and to install Skype on Rose's computer. This gives her a way to see at a glance if the Internet is up there by looking at the Skype icon in her computer "tray", and also makes it easy for us to "chat" with her. I don't think the Internet connection in Sinuda is good enough to actually talk.

Bought a few last minute things here including a headset (in case I can get onto Skype in Israel) and a new watch battery (since my watch had stopped this morning -- glad it was this morning and not tomorrow morning.)

Need to be up early tomorrow and heading out to the taxi by 6am to get to the airport for the 7:45 flight to Manila. Then there's a few hours wait in the airport before the first international flight (to Hong Kong) at 2:55pm.

First time

2007-06-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

Hello,

I'm just learning how to create a blog. If I can work this out, I'll try to update it during my trip if I get Internet access.