Beach and Bats

"Toads, beetles, bats light on you!" --The Tempest

On Saturday (thankfully after church) we received the news that our house in Orem had been infested by bats.  Hundreds of bats.  Hundreds of mommy bats who were birthing their baby bats in our attic and water heater room.  Hundreds of protected bats which can't be trapped, killed, or otherwise hunted until after neonatal bat season is over, which is August 15 or September 1, depending on whom you ask.

Thanks to Paul and Diane, our amazing renters, the situation has improved since our first freak out on Saturday, but it still has not been completely resolved three days later.  But I promised myself this would not be a complaining blog, so....

In the happy category, we were able to get rid of the ants in our apartment (memo to me: don't leave crummy pizza boxes on the floor for three days) by spraying all the baseboards with a stinky chemical and hitting the beach for the rest of the day.  At least ants aren't a protected species.  We had a nice day, complete with a trip to IKEA.

The Tel Aviv IKEA sells hotdogs or falafels for 5 shekels, with tahina sauce next to the ketchup and mustard.

More about the beach:  We went to Palmahim, near Bat Yam (The little Esplin kids called it Bat Man Beach.  I was feeling a little sensitive about bats at the moment and didn't appreciate the joke as much as I will later, much later, several thousand dollars later if we want to do the job right and seal all the 1/4 inch gaps around my house.  Or several hundred dollars if we just want to make it more bat-proof than the neighbors' house. Okay, that's the end of the complaining.)

Our kids sunburn easily, so you will notice that they are the ones fully clothed over their swim suits.  It does not make me the most popular mom of the day, but we made it through with no sunburns.  Some other bathers were covered for religious reasons, mostly Jewish headscarves, but there were a few Muslim bathers within sight as well.

If you look closely, you can see Emily's shark sculpture. 

The weather was perfect, warm air, medium warm water, cool breezes just when you need them, a great getaway as school is getting underway.

Emily made a tunnel in the sand.

When we returned the chemical smell was almost gone, and the ants haven't return.  Even our insect bites have lessened.  Hmmm.

After the kids were in bed, I saw something pink and fast darted across the kitchen.  I corralled this tiny gecko into a corner and carried it outside for a late night photo shoot on the balcony.

So the indoor critter count right now is:
huge spiders- 1 (caught and released last week)
geckos- 1 (assuming this was the same one under the couch this morning)
ants: 600 or 0, depending on when you start counting
bats:  who knows?
Not complaining--it's kind of a fun challenge to catch the little beasties and send them on their way.

I was grateful for the resources to get away for a few hours before returning to the school schedule and the whirlwind of students coming.  Each day I feel more at home here, and yet each day I realize how much there is to learn.  Today we spent the morning in the old city, and I'm still disoriented in all the same places as before.  Again, not complaining--the old city is definitely a fun challenge, like a chess game where you don't really know what's after the next turn.  But on the other hand, it's not hard to know more than the students as we help them this first week.  

Tuesday we went all over the Old City.  Here are some highlights:
Jewish Sites: Hurva Synagogue, Jewish quarter with exquisite art and reconstructed Roman street
Christian sites: Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Via Dolorosa (the way of suffering commemorating the last few hours of the Savior's life), Greek Orthodox Church of John the Baptist, Chapel of Austrian Hospice
Muslim sites: (seen from a distance) Dome of the Rock, Al Aqsa Mosque, Mosque of Omar, and countless smaller mosques and domed houses in the Muslim quarter.

Fun side note about the Mosque of Omar, apparently the Caliph Omar was invited to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the 7th century A.D. (Muslims venerate Jesus as a prophet) but he declined, stating that if he entered and prayed, his followers would feel compelled to tear down the church and build a mosque instead, so he prayed across the street, in honor of this legend, the Mosque of Omar stands just south of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  It's a nice story.  I don't know if it's true, but there's a lesson in there.

It seems like every stone has a story here.  Years ago as workers were fixing underground sewers in the old city, they uncovered ten feet below the surface a road of huge stones, worn smooth by the passage of thousands of feet.  They determined that this was the Roman-era road, 2000+ years old, and raised and embedded several of the huge stones in the current road.  So we can truly walk on stones where Jesus likely walked.  But like President Thomas S. Monson said in October 2014,
"Physically walking where Jesus walked is less important than walking as He walked. Emulating His actions and following His example are far more important than trying to retrace the remnants of the trails He traversed in mortality....  All of us can walk the path He walked when, with His words ringing in our ears, His Spirit filling our hearts, and His teachings guiding our lives, we choose to follow Him as we journey through mortality. His example lights the way. "

So, that settles it, no more complaining!