All good things come to an end

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.