On July 2 38 of us, mostly members of Temple Sinai in Rochester, NY will be setting off on our journey to israel. Hopefully we can share some of our wonderful experiences with others.
We arrived in Israel just about on time. Sarah slept for at least 6 hours on the plane and I, who am usually great at sleeping on planes, got maybe 2!! Still trying to get my time shifted to Israeli time.
Sarah and I spent the first 2 days visiting my very Orthodox cousin and her family. What an experience! Long skirts and long sleeves and like 90 F !! I don't know how they do it. We had to follow suit or we would have really stuck out like sore thumbs -- and embarrassed the h--l out of them -- since that is how ALL the girls and women dress. Honestly, it was like taking a step back in time to an Eastern European shtetl. Yes, I have pictures. It was, however, really nice to reconnect with my cousin and her husband and kids. Of course there is no touching with the men and boys (over 13) but it always amazes me -- who is such a hugger -- that my cousin Steve manages to convey such warmth and welcome without ever touching me.
We stayed in a bed and breakfast on a moshav (sort of communal farm, although not as "communal" as a kibbutz and I didn't see any farming going on!) near their community. It was also VERY observant. The only disconcerting part was that as we entered I noticed that the whole place was surrounded by a double fence of barbed wire! I checked it out and Steve told me that until maybe 15 years ago (when large scale development began in the area, such as Modi'in) this moshav was the only Jewish community around and so they needed more security. We were, BTW, over the "green line" -- although JUST -- and had to go through a checkpoint coming and going. This was no big deal at all for us since the guards seemed to know my cousins.
We had a quick lunch in Modi'in -- at a bagel shop called, "Holy Bagel" -- I didn't even get the pun until someone pointed it out. The menu was ENTIRELY in Hebrew, so we did a lot of pointing! I did get to try out my very basic Hebrew -- and embarrassed my daughter beyond measure -- by ordering "salat beitzim" -- egg salad. But that was it, I then pointed to the onions and tomatoes, etc. that I wanted on the sandwich!
Sarah and I stripped off our skirts (we had shorts under them) and long sleeves as soon as we were a few hundred yards out of my cousins' community. Then headed down to Be'er Sheva (in the south in the Negev) to see my niece, my sister-in-law and my niece's husband and brand new baby daughter, Lia (not Leah) Sarah. She is too cute for words -- and , of course, that is a completely objective opinion!!
Drove on down to my sister-in-law's home for the night. She lives in Sde Boker which was Ben Gurion's home. No A/C BTW. This takes a bit of getting used to. On the way we passed gazillions of bedouins, camels and sheep. The mixture of cultures and, seemingly, time periods is dazzling. My sister-in-law serves as a mentor teacher for English teachers in a bedouin school and we will go there on Monday for a visit. She has arranged for us to meet with a group of kids Sarah's age. Should be interesting. Of course, my cousin (the one up north) thought we were crazy. Their politics differ just a bit (and that is quite an understatement) from ours and they are literally terrified of any Arabs and make little or no distinction between them.
Well, this AM we are off to Eilat. Finally getting to do our long-awaited diving in the Red Sea. Also plan to do some snorkeling and possibly swimming with dolphins!
After the visit with the bedouins we will go back to my niece's home and get a tour of Ben Gurion University (she is completing her PhD in literature there). Don't think we will get to meet Amos Oz however. He is on faculty in her department but she says she doesn't care for him or his politics! After that we are off to the beach in Ashkelon. Need to go late in the day because of the heat.
Well, for those of you coming to Israel, don't forget your shorts and T-shirts -- you will need them! Can't wait to see you all. We will be at the airport to greet you when you land. Have a safe and enjoyable (as much as possible) trip. We are going to have a BLAST!!!
Well -- the last few days have been extrememly exciting! On Saturday, we went to Eilat. If you think you know what HOT is, you have no clue until you have experienced Eilat in the summer. However, what we were there for we accomplished with flying colors. Sarah and I SCUBA dove in the Red Sea! Absolutely beautiful and breathtaking!! We saw stingrays, moray eels, puffer fish, and all sorts of other gorgeous fish. We have pictures and will share when we return. I can honestly say this experience was all that we had hoped for and more.
Now for the not quite so pleasant part about Eilat. For those of you joining us on the trip -- and for any others who plan to travel to Israel -- you REALLY must drink fluids continuously! I thought I was doing a pretty good job of that but clearly I wasn't. Saturday night, after the dive and dinner, I started to feel very woozy and nauseous. I actually became just a bit "loose" cognitively. It was pretty scary. Luckily, my sister-in-law figured out what was going on and started to "force feed" me water. Took until about 3 PM the next day to really feel revived. We wound up needing to cancel our plans to swim with the dolphins because I was just too sick. So -- forgive me for being graphic but -- if you are not "peeing" or if you are seeing dark orange when you do, you are in trouble. As my sister-in-law said, "If you feel thirsty, you are already on the way to dehydration!" Lesson learned. I hope by sharing this experience I can help to save some of you from the same kind of misery.
Fully revived by today (Monday) however. This AM we went to visit a Bedouin high school where my sister-in-law serves as a kind of mentor for the English teachers. We spent about 2 hours with a group of about 20 15-16 year-olds and it was fascinating. There was a very wide range of levels of comfort with speaking in "public" with many of the girls being too shy -- at least at first -- to even introduce themselves. Their teacher, Maha, who is a real renegade of a Bedouin (she wears jeans, no head scarf, and is still single at age 35!) explained later that some of the girls are very uncomfortable talking in front of boys. There was a very interesting "game" of musical chairs that took place at the beginning of our time together. We had arranged the chairs in a circle but the problem was that girls and boys are not allowed to sit next to each other! The issue was finally resolved by placing an empty chair with a backpack on it in between the girls and the boys in the circle.
Perhaps the most fascinating part of the morning was how intrigued the kids were about Sarah's adoption. It seems that adoption is almost unheard of in their communities and it was, of course, very clear that Sarah is not my biological child. She was asked questions such as, "What do you know about your 'real' mother?" and "If you could meet your real mother would you want to stay with her or with this mother?" Sarah was unbelievably poised in fielding these questions. She explained the one child per family policy and the Chinese preference for boys and even why (to care for the husband's parents in their old age). Thank heavens she also -- unequivocally -- said that she would want to stay with me since she believes that I am her "real" mother. She explained that she is grateful to the woman who gave birth to her but that she has not taken care of her the way Marc and I have. Can you imagine all of this from a 14 year-old?!!!! One of the more verbal boys commented that of course she would want to stay with the mother who she knows and who loves her. I did add that I really wish it were possible to communicate with her birth mother (a new English term for them) so that I could assure her of Sarah's health, happiness and how much she is loved. BTW, I asked her later if the questions had upset her and she said that they had not because she realized that of course these kids would not have had any experience with this sort of thing. I was truly blown away by her.
This afternoon was a shopping day. Naot sandals for Sarah, some jewelry for each of us, and gifts, gifts, gifts! Tomorrow will be a hanging out at home day with my niece, Shlomit, and I am looking forward to the down time. Had planned to go to the beach at Ashkelon but, apparently, there was a jellyfish incident with someone being stung and so swimming is discouraged right now. Wednesday we will do a bit more sight-seeing around the Sde Boker area: Ben Gurion's "hut" and gravesite, the ancient town of Avdat and Ayn Avdat. Then Thursday we meet up with all the rest of our travel group and we can hardly wait to share more Israeli experiences with all of you!
Hi Liz, I have been logging in every day and looking forward to your updates. Sorry to hear you did not feel well and glad you are back on your feet.
Thanks for sharing all the wonderful stories. I cannot wait to leave on Wednesday. It has been hard to focus because I cannot really believe that this is a dream coming true.
Stay well and I look forward to seeing you in a few days. Keep on blogging!!!
Hi Liz, So good to hear you arrived safely and are experiencing all Israel has to offer. I'm extremely happy for you and jealous that I'm not right there with you. Your daughter sounds amazing. You must be a fantastic mom. Marcia B.
5 comments:
Have a great trip!
Looking forward to reading your blog and seeing photos!
Love
Nancy
Hi Everyone,
We arrived in Israel just about on time. Sarah slept for at least 6 hours on the plane and I, who am usually great at sleeping on planes, got maybe 2!! Still trying to get my time shifted to Israeli time.
Sarah and I spent the first 2 days visiting my very Orthodox cousin and her family. What an experience! Long skirts and long sleeves and like 90 F !! I don't know how they do it. We had to follow suit or we would have really stuck out like sore thumbs -- and embarrassed the h--l out of them -- since that is how ALL the girls and women dress. Honestly, it was like taking a step back in time to an Eastern European shtetl. Yes, I have pictures. It was, however, really nice to reconnect with my cousin and her husband and kids. Of course there is no touching with the men and boys (over 13) but it always amazes me -- who is such a hugger -- that my cousin Steve manages to convey such warmth and welcome without ever touching me.
We stayed in a bed and breakfast on a moshav (sort of communal farm, although not as "communal" as a kibbutz and I didn't see any farming going on!) near their community. It was also VERY observant. The only disconcerting part was that as we entered I noticed that the whole place was surrounded by a double fence of barbed wire! I checked it out and Steve told me that until maybe 15 years ago (when large scale development began in the area, such as Modi'in) this moshav was the only Jewish community around and so they needed more security. We were, BTW, over the "green line" -- although JUST -- and had to go through a checkpoint coming and going. This was no big deal at all for us since the guards seemed to know my cousins.
We had a quick lunch in Modi'in -- at a bagel shop called, "Holy Bagel" -- I didn't even get the pun until someone pointed it out. The menu was ENTIRELY in Hebrew, so we did a lot of pointing! I did get to try out my very basic Hebrew -- and embarrassed my daughter beyond measure -- by ordering "salat beitzim" -- egg salad. But that was it, I then pointed to the onions and tomatoes, etc. that I wanted on the sandwich!
Sarah and I stripped off our skirts (we had shorts under them) and long sleeves as soon as we were a few hundred yards out of my cousins' community. Then headed down to Be'er Sheva (in the south in the Negev) to see my niece, my sister-in-law and my niece's husband and brand new baby daughter, Lia (not Leah) Sarah. She is too cute for words -- and , of course, that is a completely objective opinion!!
Drove on down to my sister-in-law's home for the night. She lives in Sde Boker which was Ben Gurion's home. No A/C BTW. This takes a bit of getting used to. On the way we passed gazillions of bedouins, camels and sheep. The mixture of cultures and, seemingly, time periods is dazzling. My sister-in-law serves as a mentor teacher for English teachers in a bedouin school and we will go there on Monday for a visit. She has arranged for us to meet with a group of kids Sarah's age. Should be interesting. Of course, my cousin (the one up north) thought we were crazy. Their politics differ just a bit (and that is quite an understatement) from ours and they are literally terrified of any Arabs and make little or no distinction between them.
Well, this AM we are off to Eilat. Finally getting to do our long-awaited diving in the Red Sea. Also plan to do some snorkeling and possibly swimming with dolphins!
After the visit with the bedouins we will go back to my niece's home and get a tour of Ben Gurion University (she is completing her PhD in literature there). Don't think we will get to meet Amos Oz however. He is on faculty in her department but she says she doesn't care for him or his politics! After that we are off to the beach in Ashkelon. Need to go late in the day because of the heat.
Well, for those of you coming to Israel, don't forget your shorts and T-shirts -- you will need them! Can't wait to see you all. We will be at the airport to greet you when you land. Have a safe and enjoyable (as much as possible) trip. We are going to have a BLAST!!!
Shabbat Shalom,
Liz
Well -- the last few days have been extrememly exciting! On Saturday, we went to Eilat. If you think you know what HOT is, you have no clue until you have experienced Eilat in the summer. However, what we were there for we accomplished with flying colors. Sarah and I SCUBA dove in the Red Sea! Absolutely beautiful and breathtaking!! We saw stingrays, moray eels, puffer fish, and all sorts of other gorgeous fish. We have pictures and will share when we return. I can honestly say this experience was all that we had hoped for and more.
Now for the not quite so pleasant part about Eilat. For those of you joining us on the trip -- and for any others who plan to travel to Israel -- you REALLY must drink fluids continuously! I thought I was doing a pretty good job of that but clearly I wasn't. Saturday night, after the dive and dinner, I started to feel very woozy and nauseous. I actually became just a bit "loose" cognitively. It was pretty scary. Luckily, my sister-in-law figured out what was going on and started to "force feed" me water. Took until about 3 PM the next day to really feel revived. We wound up needing to cancel our plans to swim with the dolphins because I was just too sick. So -- forgive me for being graphic but -- if you are not "peeing" or if you are seeing dark orange when you do, you are in trouble. As my sister-in-law said, "If you feel thirsty, you are already on the way to dehydration!" Lesson learned. I hope by sharing this experience I can help to save some of you from the same kind of misery.
Fully revived by today (Monday) however. This AM we went to visit a Bedouin high school where my sister-in-law serves as a kind of mentor for the English teachers. We spent about 2 hours with a group of about 20 15-16 year-olds and it was fascinating. There was a very wide range of levels of comfort with speaking in "public" with many of the girls being too shy -- at least at first -- to even introduce themselves. Their teacher, Maha, who is a real renegade of a Bedouin (she wears jeans, no head scarf, and is still single at age 35!) explained later that some of the girls are very uncomfortable talking in front of boys. There was a very interesting "game" of musical chairs that took place at the beginning of our time together. We had arranged the chairs in a circle but the problem was that girls and boys are not allowed to sit next to each other! The issue was finally resolved by placing an empty chair with a backpack on it in between the girls and the boys in the circle.
Perhaps the most fascinating part of the morning was how intrigued the kids were about Sarah's adoption. It seems that adoption is almost unheard of in their communities and it was, of course, very clear that Sarah is not my biological child. She was asked questions such as, "What do you know about your 'real' mother?" and "If you could meet your real mother would you want to stay with her or with this mother?" Sarah was unbelievably poised in fielding these questions. She explained the one child per family policy and the Chinese preference for boys and even why (to care for the husband's parents in their old age). Thank heavens she also -- unequivocally -- said that she would want to stay with me since she believes that I am her "real" mother. She explained that she is grateful to the woman who gave birth to her but that she has not taken care of her the way Marc and I have. Can you imagine all of this from a 14 year-old?!!!! One of the more verbal boys commented that of course she would want to stay with the mother who she knows and who loves her. I did add that I really wish it were possible to communicate with her birth mother (a new English term for them) so that I could assure her of Sarah's health, happiness and how much she is loved. BTW, I asked her later if the questions had upset her and she said that they had not because she realized that of course these kids would not have had any experience with this sort of thing. I was truly blown away by her.
This afternoon was a shopping day. Naot sandals for Sarah, some jewelry for each of us, and gifts, gifts, gifts! Tomorrow will be a hanging out at home day with my niece, Shlomit, and I am looking forward to the down time. Had planned to go to the beach at Ashkelon but, apparently, there was a jellyfish incident with someone being stung and so swimming is discouraged right now. Wednesday we will do a bit more sight-seeing around the Sde Boker area: Ben Gurion's "hut" and gravesite, the ancient town of Avdat and Ayn Avdat. Then Thursday we meet up with all the rest of our travel group and we can hardly wait to share more Israeli experiences with all of you!
Be well and have a safe flight,
Liz
Hi Liz,
I have been logging in every day and looking forward to your updates. Sorry to hear you did not feel well and glad you are back on your feet.
Thanks for sharing all the wonderful stories. I cannot wait to leave on Wednesday. It has been hard to focus because I cannot really believe that this is a dream coming true.
Stay well and I look forward to seeing you in a few days. Keep on blogging!!!
Hi Liz,
So good to hear you arrived safely and are experiencing all Israel has to offer. I'm extremely happy for you and jealous that I'm not right there with you. Your daughter sounds amazing. You must be a fantastic mom.
Marcia B.
Post a Comment