I've Been Through the Desert on a ...Camel named Bob Marley?

We are thrilled to welcome home Frank, Megan, and Carrie from their week-long wanderings in the wilderness.  They started out in two buses heading for sand dunes near Kibbutz Keturah. There are no photos of the sand dunes, because the sand was so fine that it ruins cameras.  The dunes were really steep, but the students and kids ran up and down them digging in with bare feet, some burying themselves and rolling in sand.  Then everyone separated and had silent contemplative time, reading 1 Nephi 2:4-5 about Lehi's family traveling in the wilderness while surrounded by miles and miles of nothing but sand.

The kibbutz was bigger than the kids expected.  The dining area was three blocks from the sleeping area.  Food was good, and everyone knelt at mini tables or sat in the grass.  It was billed as an "American-style" barbecue, but translated into a beef patty, served with pitas, and the condiments were the same as you would put on falafels, shredded cabbage and cucumbers, tzatziki sauce and hummus served alongside french fries, ketchup, and mustard.  The swimming pool after dinner was a big hit.  The cool water felt great after the hot day on the bus and in the sand.     

On day two, the students woke up before 6, ate breakfast, and crossed the border into Egypt.  Nearly everyone crossed through uneventfully, but one student holding his scriptures was stopped and one guard inspected his suitcase and another flipped through his quad to see what was in it.  Everyone reloaded onto Egyptian buses which took them to Cairo in about 6 hours.  They ate at the Palmyra restaurant, watched a cool laser light show at the pyramids, and slept at the Oasis Hotel.   

On day 3 they actually toured the pyramids,
They downsized into day packs and took an hour flight to Luxor. The hotel was luxurious, with large rooms and waiters so helpful that they cleared Carrie's plate before she was even finished eating. 

On day 4 They ate custom-made omelettes and crepes for breakfast.  Luxor was a lot hotter than Cairo, and they toured tombs so hot that exiting to the 90 degree weather was actually refreshing.

to be continued...

School Begins

After a wonderful Sabbath on Saturday and a Sunday full of grocery shopping, all of which still seems new and strange to me), we jumped into our second week full steam ahead.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, AUGUST 30, 2010

 The Anglican International School at Jerusalem has pre-k through secondary grades on one historic campus, formerly a hospital.  The younger kids are generally enjoying school, figuring out when to wear their P.E. uniforms (60 shekels or about $16), when to bring their library bags (30 shekels/ $8) and when to bring their lunch cards (13 shekels for pizza day).  Home lunches are monitored; sweets, crisps, and fizzy drinks are discouraged.  Water bottles are required every day.  Overheard on day 3: "I remembered to bring home all three water bottles!" 

 Challenges so far:  Tired kids nearly falling asleep in classes; connecting with six other kids and crossing a parental traffic jam to the shuttle; too much swearing in the secondary schools, and distracting earrings on high school boys.  Megan is taking French class, since neither Hebrew nor Arabic would fit into her schedule.  The "French will be easier for you since you have studied Spanish" phase has yet to kick in.

Highlights so far: Lisa enjoys the climbing structure in P.E.  Amanda made a person out of a box in art, and Lisa is making a candy cane out of clay.  Carrie ended up with Hebrew. Megan finds math class easy.  Mom enjoys receiving text messages from the kids as they ride home in the shuttle.  Carrie's classmate was acting up in class, and the teacher asked if he ate too much sugar at lunch.  He said, "No, I'm fasting for Ramadan." Below is the photo of Day Two. Still smiling!

 

FAMILY HIKE

For Family Night on August 30, we walked east and then south of the Jerusalem Center to a wonderful scenic overlook at the Church of Dominus Flevit.   Along the way, we passed several buildings commemorating the Savior's ascension from the Mount of Olives, including the Augusta Victoria (top left- a Lutheran church and hospital), the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension (another visible landmark), and the Mosque of the Ascenscion (top right- this was once a Crusader chapel but the minaret you see is a later addition).  

We balanced on curbs just inches wide along a busy street, dodged a camel lounging on the sidewalk, walked through a Palestinian neighborhood, and descended several steep hills and flights of stairs, (two young boys were riding down the hill on an office chair) but the view was worth it. 

This view (right) was from an overlook on the way to Dominus Flevit.  The wind coming up from the Kidron Valley was pretty intense but quite welcome after the heat of the day.

Dominus Flevit means "The Lord wept."  The church was built to commemorate the moment described in Luke 19:41 when the Savior wept as He pondered the impending destruction of Jerusalem.  We took photos of ourselves smiling, but the tourists near us were taking photos of themselves looking pensively away toward the city, as if they, too, were pondering on the history and future of the Holy Land.

Just south of the church is a large Jewish cemetery (right).  There were a few visitors, and many graves had piles of small memorial stones stacked on top. 

DINING OUT

For the benefit of my aunt Jane Fillmore, I have to mention we ate dinner Tuesday night (8/31) with the other faculty and administrators at Eucalyptus, a ritzy restaurant tucked away in an artist's colony in Western Jerusalem, specializing in Biblical and Israeli foods.  First was pita accompanied by humus and nearly a dozen other appetizers, some with familiar vegetables hiding behind unfamiliar flavors.  My favorite was the lubia, which I think is artichoke.  I was told by Sarah Yarden, the wife of the contemporary Israeli history teacher, that lubia is an edible weed which kept Jerusalem's inhabitants alive during a seige in the last century.  The main courses were bamia, or okra, with meatballs.  This was delicious, as were the figs stuffed with sweet tamarind sauce, but what really made an impression was the maklube, or curried chicken and potatoes (usually made with cauliflower and carrots, according to Na'ama Hayet).  The cooks carried the maklube in a huge pot, which they overturned and slammed onto the serving platter for an upside down dish.  I tried serving my chicken soup that way a few nights later, but no one liked the end result.  The dessert was a flan-like pudding with fruit sauce, a square of dark cake and a drizzle of carmel and chocolate sauce.  Besides the fact that it was delicious, I don't remember dessert well because I was laughing too hard at the jokes of the Arabic teacher, Ayman Jebarra. 

BYU JERUSALEM CENTER BEGINS

The students arrived yesterday (Wednesday, September 1), and the whole center has taken on a new level of energy.  It always makes me feel good when Kent Jackson (Associate Director over Academics) tells the students, "The Center was too quiet before you came."  I take that to mean that my kids were sufficiently quiet, or else all those years of riding a Harley have affected his hearing. 

We are learning names as well as helping orient students to the Center and the City.  After only two lessons, I played tour guide to seven students, leading them on a 4 hour tour through East Jerusalem, then through the old city, ending up in West Jerusalem where vans picked everyone up.   

There was this handsome tour guide who let my group join his when I ran out of things to say.  He kindly posed for a photo with Emily and I (above).  This is the roof of the Austrian Hospice, a hotel and restaurant with the nicest restrooms in the old city. 

Highlights:  The student's faces when we looked over Jerusalem, breathtaking from each new overlook;  My first glimpse inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; my second falafel from the Moshiko cafe; delicious sesame bread delivered by Tawfic Alawi, Associate Director over Security (we didn't eat it until we were out of East Jerusalem and the Old City to avoid flaunting food in front of our fasting Muslim neighbors); the students' surprise when a shopkeeper in the old city called out, "You are Mormons?  Yes?  What the heck!" 

This was a very brief tour intended to familiarize the students with safe areas they could visit later in small groups.  When students venture out on their own, they must be in groups of three or more during the day, and the trio must include one gentleman after dark.  The ratio of female to male students is about 4:1.