Food, Friends, and Faux Fall Festivals

Let me clarify that title, these are bona fide festivals, just not in the fall.  We help the students get a taste of the feasting at the end of Ramadan, which is a late summer Muslim holiday.  Then the next week we simulate a Seder or Passover program, which actually takes place in the spring.

 

The students are given license to dress up. 



The  Arab night includes two Muslim muezzins who demonstrate the call to prayer, followed by a feast, then dancing led by Palestinian folk dancers.

Thanks to a school holiday, I enjoyed a visit with Sana', a branch member and friend from past years. She teaches preschool on the day we meet to worship, so seeing her is a rare treat. She is an excellent cook and helped me prepare the can of okra I bought by mistake. 

The gym has fun possibilities for clubhouses.

For Rosh Hashanah, it's traditional to eat  apples, honey, or other sweet treats to wish for a sweet new year. Emily peeled. the apples for our pie.

Our bus driver's daughters sometimes catch a ride in the mornings.

Fu food labels:

Frank was happy with this find:

Madison opened her mission call to Korea Seoul South.  The next morning, Ali opened her call to  the Massachusetts Boston mission. 

Frank and I enjoyed a date on the rooftop of the Notre Dame hotel. 

Bread, fruit, and cheese were the appetizer we shared with two other couples. Frank ordered a taco salad, which was more than he could finish. I had some very good salmon.  We were too stuffed for dessert, probably a good thing because our portion of the bill was 250 shekels.  Over $60. You know you're in a fancy place when they don't serve tap water.  The view and company were amazing.

Ivy and Jenny helped decorate for the Seder.  

 

Emily was an accompanistvfor many of the traditional songs throughout the evening.

Ophir Yarden was our MC, sharing his insights and enthusiasm for the holiday.

The cafeteria staff treated us to 5 star dining.

These captions are shorter than the events deserve, sad to say. Sometimes the things of most importance take a long time to process and compose and all that comes through are the minor details.  We are learning and stretching every day, trying to invite the spitit, build bridges, watch out for friends and family who need a lift, and keep ahead of the ever-quickening schedule. We truly could not do it all without the help of the Lord and the principles that help us have love in our family.

Slings, Caves, and Mirrors in the Shephelah

Another fun week!  We spend most of our week in and around Jerusalem in the little orbit of school, shopping, and small side trips, but at least once a week we try to break out and visit some of the cool sites around us, often with the student field trips. Here are some memories from the Shephelah outing. This means the low hills between the high hills of Jerusalem and the plains along the coast. 

This particular day started with a huge spider in the corridor outside our apartment.   We gave it a better home outside. 

The low hills are divided by several valleys which provided some defense for Jerusalem over the centuries of conquest. Each valley had one or two fortified hilltop cities to guard them, and these hilltop forts usually had elaborate gates, storage for provisions in case of seige, often a holy place for worship, and some means of communicating with each other, whether couriers or signal fires. Also, these fortresses show evidence of changing hands, as the Israelites and Canaanites or Philistines battled back and forth.  Now these hilltop forts are called tels, which basically means they were built up in elevation over the centuries but now they are a confusing jumble of rocks only anarchaeologist could love.  Like the back of my closet at the moment.


Here is a holy place at Tel Bet Shemesh, not a very big hill, but it overlooks the area where Sampson's exploits took place.  At one point the holy nature of this site was oscured by covering the altars with earth and stabling animals there.

On top of Tel Azekah the students had a great view of the valley and distant hills. There is an ancient message written on a scrap of pottery about watching for the signal fires of Azekah and Lachish.  So the students divided up, one bus traveling to Azekah and one bus to Lachish with mirrors.  These forts are 15 miles apart, but when the students angled the mirrors just right, they could reflect the sun's rays at the other group like a tiny pinpoint of light on the far horizon.  Over a cell phone, we could hear the cheers of the other group when we got it right.

Tel Mareshah is always a favorite spot (probably because of the gift shop selling ice cream bars).  This was an industrial site rather than a strategic site. Its chalky limestone was quarried out in bell-shaped caves whichhave great acoustics and also large colonies of bats. 

We, as well as other tourists, enjoyed the students' singing there.  

In other areas of the site we saw olive processing equipment, dove " apartment buildings," and water storage cisterns.  One of the primary uses of the soft limestone was to coat the inside of cisterns to keep them watertight. The plaster had to be maintained or the water would drain out of the cistern. Here is the olive oil factory.

Modern stairs sometimes have to be creative to fit in the tiny places.

One cave system went on and on as underground quarries and storage rooms intersected in a strange, Seussian labyrinth.  Mostly dark and clammy...

...with an occasional hint of daylight. 

This room was like an M.C.Escher print come to life. A stairway sheared off at an odd angle and now rests sideways on the floor of this chamber.

Lisa is perking out between the dovecote niches where two rooms were carved too close to each other.

Amanda poses beside the entrance to a Greek-style tomb.

Fancy paintings line the walls.

At Lachish, we once again reenacted the signals with mirrors.

Former holy place.

Then we drove to the Valley of Elah, where David slew Goliath. The kids had fun slinging stones, especially Emily and Amanda with their softball experiences.

Slinging stones with accuracy  is definitely tricky, but it's not hard to get impressive speed and distance.  I think of the scripture thatvtells us that it may be necessary to reprove someone in our stewardship with sharpness, or with a clear focus on the issue at hand. It's easy to speak words of quickness and force, but how difficult to say just the right thing a person needs to hear, followed by an increase of love.  Working on that!

I think I have started a new tradition of running out of bread just before a holiday, of which October is chock full.  So what else to do but make some?  This is Roxanna's no-knead recipe. 

http://itsaprontime.blogspot.co.il/?m=1

And here is a wheat bread version. 

Seeing all the ancient creativity made us want to get a little artsy ourselves.