Passover

Pesach, as it's called in Hebrew.

Pesach starts next Friday, but I want to write about it now for two reasons:

1. to encourage Christians out there to really incorporate Passover into their Easter traditions &

2. to tell you this story....

So, I did the dreaded grocery trip yesterday. It gets a little better every time, but I still hate it. It started with the typical fight for parking. Folks, this is not American style parking or American sized parking spaces. By the time I was parked I needed a valium. Anyway, that's not what the story is about, but I did want to mention that when I returned to my car there was a large white scrape down the side and around the back fender. I took one look at it and thought, "oh well." That's when you know you're acclimated to the culture.

Inside the store, things were much better. But there was one strange thing. The bread was all cleaned out. It's a large store. There's a huge bakery section. Pita bread by the gobs, french bread, sandwich bread, etc, etc. It was like snow had been forecast in any of the southern US states. I could hear the people in the bakery chattering about Pesach this and Pesach that, but I didn't get it. I'm not Jewish. I've never lived in Israel during this holiday. So, when I later mentioned this to a friend, I got the skinny on the situation.

Pesach is the holiday commemorating the Jews exodus from Egypt and the tenth plague upon pharoah and the Egyptians when God 'passed over' the Hebrews and spared them. It is a celebration of freedom from slavery. Part of the celebrating includes a seder meal and a week of unleavended bread. Unleavened because God commanded the Hebrews to make and take unleavened bread for the flight from Egypt. So, preceding this meal, all of the leavened bread is cleaned from the house....and apparently the supermarkets. Next week, at the start of Passover, all leavened bread, grain products and any product that could be used in the leavening will be removed from the supermarket shelves or covered for the duration of the week. This means not only no bread, but no cakes, rice, peanuts, pasta, cereal, beer & whiskey. So, in actuality, this was the milk and bread rush before the storm. This is the week everyone is stocking up since next week the official country wide Atkins diet will ensue.

All joking aside, I think there is a lot the Christian community can learn from Passover. With our children learning about Passover at school, church and home this year, it has been a wonderful experience for our family. We have been able to talk as a family about what God did for the Israelites, and what it means to be free. We have a lot of freedoms for which to be thankful. Freedoms that not everyone in the world are able to enjoy. We have also been able to talk as a family about the Last Supper of Christ. Jesus and his disciples were celebrating this very holiday, the Passover meal, the night he was arrested. The unleavened bread is the bread he broke when he said, "my body, broken for you," and the wine he drank during the ceremony is the wine about which he said, "my blood, poured out for you... do this in remembrance of me." The symbolism is rich and refreshing.

For more ideas and ways to incorporate passover into a Christian Easter celebration, check out these links:

http://www.thrivingfamily.com/Features/Magazine/2012/from-the-passover-lamb-to-the-lamb-of-god.aspx

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/parentlife/2012/03/pausing-for-passover-by-michelle-lippincott.html

Shalom y'all, -E

(just for fun)

Lost in Translation

This could be a new series, not just a single post, because let's face it:

My Hebrew stinks.

Yes, I studied for almost a year.

Yes, it was under the best teacher imaginable.

Yes, I actually enjoyed the language and enjoyed learning it.

No, I didn't do the homework, BUT I was able to keep up with Stewart for some time even though I was going to classes part-time and not doing the homework. Just sayin'. Of course, there came a point where he left me in the dust.

Here's the problem with my Hebrew progress, or lack thereof.

Really, it's twofold, so here are the problems:

1. Speaking is difficult, and I'm scared to death of it. I can read OK. I can listen and understand better, but to SPEAK...Lordy, Lordy. That's a whole other ball game.

2. Most people here speak English, and they are eager to practice or oblige.

So, my friendships with other Israelis are completely dependent on English. Sure, I'll throw around a Hebrew phrase or two. I naturally nod, and say, "ken, ken" (yes, yes) as someone rattles away in Hebrew, but for the most part it's all English.

EXCEPT when I go out on errands. I try to force myself to only use Hebrew, or at least try to use my Hebrew when I am grocery shopping, at the pharmacy, asking for directions, etc. It doesn't always work, but I'm patting myself on the back for minimal effort.

Sometimes, I succeed. And I'll be honest. It feels like a grand accomplishment. Other times, things don't go so well. Just last week at the butcher, I was trying to ask him to trim the fat from my roast.

"Bli shemesh, bevakashah," I requested politely. He corrected me, "Bli shemen."

Oh, right. Shemesh is sun. No, I don't want the sun trimmed from my meat.

At least that's not as bad as a friend of a friend of mine here in Tel Aviv. She requested "Shemen Zayin." She meant to say "Shemen Zaitim." She wanted olive oil. She asked for penis oil. Oops.

Sometimes the translation to English is almost as bad. A large supermarket chain here is starting to add English to all of their generic product labels. On a box of generic twinkies, the package read, "Personal sponges." Ummm..... yeah, not really the best choice. I think they were going for "individually wrapped," and somehow picked up on sponge part and left off the cake part. Anyhoo. A "personal sponge" would probably be on a different aisle, no?

There are very few ways to "cheat" at Hebrew. No easy translation aides. Google translate has a Hebrew to English translator feature, but it is practically unusable. Comical at best. Lydia's school sends out a ridiculous number of emails. Like several a day. Sometimes it is an announcement sheet for the whole school. Sometimes it is an email at 11 pm informing you that the school hours for the following day have been changed. Sometimes, it is the teacher giving you a heads up about a field trip or the coming week's events. Regardless, it is a challenge for me. And suffice it to say, we have missed a few things along the way. My best effort in mass quantities like this, well... is google translate. It's embarrassing to admit, but there it is. So, I pop the emails into google translate, try to decipher the gist of it, and really read the portions that don't make sense.

In doing this, I once received an email from Lydia's school all about grenades. How the school would be celebrating grenades. How the children were going to be examining grenades. How grenades were essential to Israel, and how each child should bring a grenade to school with them. The missing link? Pomegranates. Google translated the Hebrew word for pomegranate as grenade. Thank goodness we didn't send Lydia to school with a grenade.

It's time to hit those Hebrew books again.

Shalom 'yall,

E

PS- the word 'ri-mon' in Hebrew is actually the same for pomegranate, and you guessed it...grenade. Who knew?

Camels

Yep...just camels.

We've become quite familiar with camels. Signs like this one dot the Israeli highways outside the cities.

Camels are great. You can ride them. You can see them wandering around the desert. You can even catch an occasional camel race. Yet, they were even more abundant in Jordan, and we learned some very interesting things about these water lugging creatures...

Kelly Hills on a camel...

Above, our co-traveler Ross bought the saddle-bag right off this camel's back.

Apparently, everything's got a price around here.

This dude knows his camels (he was really quite friendly)

Lydia takes the lead (as usual).

Elizabeth & I never thought our kids would be so experienced riding camels.

I mean, really?!? They've probably been on as many camels as horses so far.

When in Rome...

There aren't exactly wild camels, because they all have owners, and their back legs are loosely tied together, preventing them from running. They are a little like cows: people let them out to pasture for a week at a time in the Jordanian desert, & without the ropes they'll just wander off and eventually wind up in Saudi-Arabia.

Some camels are used for racing, and these can fetch prices up to $1,000,000. Yes, you read that right. One million dollars. These are purchased mainly from Saudi or UAE racing enthusiasts with buku $$.

Other interesting facts:
Camels are generally docile creatures, but they can sprint up to 65mph. wow!
Also, not only can you eat camel meat (done that), but camel milk is a home remedy for ailments from headaches to cancer (didn't do that). One of our Jordanian guides told us not to try it without a toilet nearby--So we didn't.

Our other guide planned on serving 3 camels and 10 sheep at his upcoming wedding. The camels alone will cost him $15,000.00 each (or so he said).

If there was ever an animal that looked like a drawing from a Dr Suess book actually came to life, it's the camel.

Hooray for camels!

Shalom Y'all!

S

Purim

Purim is the Jewish holiday celebrating the book of Esther and her role in the victory of the Jewish people over Haman, the Biblical Heinrich Himmler. There are several customs and traditions associated with this holiday, but the two that you will find many Israeli Jews observing, whether they are religious or not, are dressing up in costume and adhering to the rabbinical commandment to drink until drunk. I'm not exactly sure how either of these evolved from the book of Esther, but it makes for one happy holiday!

The kids dress up for school and have parties. They make baskets full of goodies to trade and share and take extras to donate to the needy (charity is also a custom of Purim). Lydia dressed up like Little Bo Peep, with which unfortunately no one here was familiar. Everyone else was dressed up as Disney princesses, Minnie Mouse, brides, queens, etc., but apparently Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme characters are only familiar to Westerners. She looked super cute all the same. Will was SpiderMan along with about half of his male classmates. You win some, you lose some.

Our friends, the Dekters, really got into the spirit. Fabulous!

I had the opportunity to volunteer at Lydia's classroom for the day, which is always an experience. The Israeli norm of organized chaos was once again the theme of the day. I was one of 4 parent volunteers sent to lead a group of 5 children around the school to different activity stations. This translated into mobs of children all in costume, hopped up on sugar, running to and fro and cutting in line at the "activities." I just kept counting my kids and praying I didn't lose anyone in the shuffle. Good times.

Actually, they all had a lot of fun.

This is Lydia's teacher's aid. She can yell with the best of them, but she keeps those 35 kids in line!

Other Purim traditions:

• reading the scroll of Esther
• baking/ eating "oznei Haman" a.k.a. Haman's Ears' cookies
• using noisemakers, supposedly only to blot out the name of Haman when it is read in Scripture, but this evolved into noisemakers all day long, to include firecrackers.
• burning the effigy of Haman
• fasting during the day until the evening meal

So, if you're looking for something to do this fine Thursday, go throw on a costume, eat some tasty cookies, grab some noisemakers, and drink until you can't see straight.

Happy Purim Everyone!

Shalom Y'all!

E

Wadi Rum

For day 2 of our Jordanian adventure, we left Petra for the deserts of Wadi Rum. We almost baled on day 2 due to the lingering difficulties of day 1, but boy are we glad we didn't. Everyone was feeling better as the day went on, and this was an adventure we would have been very sad to miss. The views alone were breathtaking.

On the road to Wadi Rum, Jordan (w/ a touch of snow).

We didn't hit any traffic until the middle of the desert.

In Wadi Rum, the rock formations, mountains and sand change colors from tan to brown to a rich red.

The seven pillars from Lawrence of Arabia.

Okay....So, I have mixed feelings on the whole tour thing. We debated at length whether or not it would be worth paying the money for a tour or trying to do it all on our own. These are my hindsight thoughts: Petra - totally doable without a tour... Probably even better without a tour if you are traveling with children, as we were. However, you do get added info and guidance with the tour that you would miss otherwise.

Now, for Wadi Rum: I would absolutely, 100% recommend hiring a jeep tour. And not just any jeep tour. A GOOD jeep tour. We went with the highly acclaimed Desert Eco Tours. You will pay more, but it is entirely worth it. Our drivers and guides were excellent. We saw things we never would have been able to do on our own. And the other tour groups we ran into were pitiful. Broken down old jeeps. 1950's pick up trucks with their tour passengers loaded in the back on mats. They looked miserable. It wasn't exactly warm outside, and then add the wind and blowing sand. No thank you. To top it all of, their guides didn't speak a lick of English. I'm pretty sure I would have demanded a refund if I were on any of the other trips.

Our tour group consisted of 2 cars with a total of 9 people. Much better numbers than the day before, and before the day was over we were all good friends. Our tour guides, Mohammad & Ali, were phenomenal. Mohammad was an ex-Jordanian army ranger, and his English was perfect. He shared with us his thoughts on the region, culture, history, & Islam at length. He was very kind and took great care of us. He can also drive a jeep through sand like a mad man.

Here is Mohammad free climbing, showing off some of his skills.

Cave-drawings with ancient arabic script etched into the rocks below

It reminded me a bit too much of that movie "127 hours."

Mohammad, cooking our lunch... over a fire he made out of tumbleweed. Scrumptious...

Those boys are so clever.

Our friends, Dallas & Kelly, perched atop the rocks & soaking in some sun.

Lydia on top of the world...

(grandparents, please don't freak out. She wasn't that close to the edge.)

Towards the end of the day we found this huge sand dune and stopped off for some exploring...

Will decides to climb the "mountain."

And then of course, roll down. Will made himself into a red-sand sugar cookie.

One of the best days ever.

Shalom Y'all!