Subject: Update #2 from Israel

Shalom everyone,

Good news - we finally received our car, exactly one month after our arrival! We shipped it in May and had been renting a car (at our own expense) in Orlando. It arrived in the port at Haifa two months later, and was driven to the Embassy for processing, which seemed to involve installing European headlights and a diplomatic license plate for $150. We had to buy one year's worth of mandatory Israeli insurance before they would even process it. Now Kevin drops me off at work and does the errands in the car instead of on foot! It is one of only a handful of Saturns in Israel. We are still awaiting our household goods. We are paid $50 a day until their arrival and we have the welcome kit, so it's not so bad.

Our weekend is Friday and Saturday. We joined co-workers for a drive to Netanya (north of Tel Aviv on the coast) where there is a Friday morning "siuk" (shook - Arabic word for farmers market) on Fridays. They even have fish swimming right there in tanks that they kill - then hose down the areas to rinse off the blood.

We are attending Bible study at a co-worker's house. We give a ride to a Philippino neighbor.

A co-worker took us to a Messianic Jewish congregation not far from Jerusalem. The preacher spoke in Hebrew, followed by simultaneous translation into English, Russian, and sign language. The church has grown so much that half the congregation meets in another town. We will go back when it is cooler, as the building is not air conditioned and still very crowded! Israel is very hot in the summer. We also visited another Messianic congregation in downtown Tel Aviv, over a pool hall. They had trouble finding a place to meet because the rabbis control who can rent conference rooms in hotels. If the hotels want to maintain a kosher license, they have to please the rabbis, and the rabbis wouldn't approve renting a conference room to Messianic Jews. They also had translation into English, which makes the service last a real long time. The pastor's wife is American.

We finally got to Jerusalem! Jerusalem is like stepping backward in time, or visiting a theme park where employees dress up in period clothing and role-play. The difference is, this is real! It was mobbed. The Jewish quarter was closed, of course, for Sabbath (Shabat) because it was Saturday. However, we did get to the Arab and Christian quarters. My co-worker buys so many carpets, antiques, and other stuff that all the shopkeepers know her and give her good deals. Every time we visited a shop, they wanted to feed us! We ate falafel (chickpea) sandwiches there, a traditional Middle Eastern food. The streets are narrow and paved with stones. Kids ride bikes, and there are carts and people everywhere. All the shopkeepers try to entice you into their stores and come up with wares to your table when you're eating. One little boy stuck a live injured bird under Kevin's nose and it flopped into his dinner plate (fortunately AFTER he had finished eating)! We bought a brass menorah (Jewish lampstand) with part of the money I received as a going-away gift from my old office. We also bought me a big white head scarf to keep off the strong sun, and to cover my arms for when we go through orthodox religious areas. One of the shops sells pottery and coins that are authenticated by museums and are up to 6500 years old that Palestinians bring in anonymously so their land doesn't get designated as a historical site. I got scolded for offering to shake hands with a Muslim man. Strict Muslim men don't shake hands with women they're not married to.

At 4 p.m. the bells tolled solemnly, and the Greek Orthodox marched to church, all dressed in black, through the Christian quarter. I almost got run over. We went into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of two competing sites for the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. There were various religious services going on simultaneously, people wearing unusual clothing praying in corners, and tourists kissing the rocks where Christ's body was thought to have been prepared for burial, and wear the cross was stuck in the ground. It was big and dark with candles burning and echoes and old paintings and everywhere, stone.

After eating New York-style pizza in the Arab section, we walked through a smelly meat market to the western wall of Herod's temple. This is the real thing and is about all that was left after the Romans destroyed the city in 70 AD. It is surmounted by a round golden Moslem mosque, the Dome of the Rock, so the holy sites for the Moslems and Jews are co-located. We prayed at the wall. Men are on one side and women on the other. The men bob their heads while praying, but the women were sitting in chairs reading scripture. Because it was Shabat, many men wore big black hats that looked like mushrooms. Kevin was provided with a cardboard "kipa" so his head would be covered. A teenage boy was having his bar-mitzvah ceremony and I got in trouble with the Orthodox Jews for trying to take a photo on Shabat. So you see, I am an equal opportunity offender! We left through the Arab quarter. Embassy personnel are supposed to be out of the Old City before dark. The lights were turned on around the old city walls and it was special feeling walking around at night. We are planning to go back with a tour group later this month.

It has not rained in our area for the last six weeks at least. The surrounding countryside is arid and rocky, but our neighborhood is green. Most people have walls in front of their homes surmounted by flowers, shrubs and trees. For a while we could smell orange blossoms! There are little (sometimes decorated) doors in the walls where they stick their garbage cans. The houses are all fairly neutral colors, many with red tile roofs.There is a whole Philippino section near our house.

Typical Israeli children are undisciplined. Once they reach the age of 12 or 13 they are allowed to run around by themselves at night. They have their dates sleep over for the night, and the parents put their daughters on birth control pills. Crime is getting much worse than it was 5 years ago, when women could walk the streets by themselves at night, and people never locked their doors.

Kevin and I sometimes leave my office, eat dinner out, and then walk along one of the beaches. Israelis flock to the beach after work, until 8 p.m.. There are people yakking on cellphones, tons of joggers, and naked children and animals loose everywhere. To the critters, it's one big litter box. If you're not careful, dogs will pee on your head. Paddle ball on the beach is big here. There are tons of young adults and many have a natural tan and athletic build, so they look better than people at most American beaches. There is ice cream made at a local kibbutz, and restaurants along the shore.

There are many restaurants and bakeries around my office, including Thai, Portuguese, Indian, Chinese, and steak. We can also buy Israeli foods from neighborhood delis, already prepared. One thing we can't find in grocery stores is canned soups. Most Israelis seem to eat late and stay up late.

Kevin is teaching himself to read Hebrew. There are schools you can go to that are pretty intensive. He is still hoping to get a job connected with the Epcot Year 2000 plans, where Israel will be a major player.

Well that's all for now. We keep having more adventures and I want to get this part off to everyone.

God bless!

'liz and Kevin