Newsletter #9 - Later November 1999 - still more of Kevin & Elizabeth's excellent adventures

Shalom everyone,

We had diversity training last month at work (i.e., EEO). There are few offices in the Government as diverse as ours in Israel. So, I thought I'd talk a little more about my new co-workers. In our office are Americans born in Madagascar, Britain, Japan, and British Guiana. We have Americans who are Jewish, Oriental, African-American, and American Indian. One of our Americans is an ex-gym teacher who runs up and down the halls instead of walking. During his tour here, he adopted a Palestinian baby (we Americans can adopt Palestinian children, but not Jewish children.) Another American is an ex-fighter pilot. Another one is a former instructor at Fort Lee. One of the American ladies volunteers at an archeological dig as part of her work-sponsored exercise program. We have an American who rides a bike off-road every day to work. There are Jewish people married to non-Jewish people. One of our Americans just married an Italian that she met while at school in Italy.

A few of our office Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs) are Israeli-born. Native Israelis are nicknamed "sabras" after a cactus that grows here (very much like a prickly pear). I asked a "sabra" what that meant to him, and he said it was because they're like thorns that get under your skin! One of our FSNs speaks eight languages. Sometimes there are small communication problems between the Americans and the Israelis in the office - like in a big meeting, one of the Israeli women innocently asked what kind of candy a male co-worker kept in his drawers! That drew a lot of "snickers"! (Sorry, but that was just too good to pass up.)

Two of our FSNs threw a party recently, and they even included an audit team from Germany who was here to do a manpower (i.e., downsizing) review on us. People danced and did the limbo and sang solos. As a whole, Israelis like to have a good time, but are not usually heavy drinkers. Many Israelis like American music and wear American-style clothing.

Kevin and I went to the ordination of the pastor of the African church we sometimes attend. He was ordained by "Parson Carson" from Jacksonville, Florida, who comes to Israel frequently to minister to Russian immigrants. He recently began working with the Africans in Tel Aviv. We were surprised at how many Africans and Filippinos came to the ordination service. I asked Mike why Israel allows so many non-Jews to come here, and he said it's because they are willing to do the types of jobs the Israelis don't want to do. The church has now moved from our town (Herzlia Pituach) to an area of Tel Aviv where many Africans live. Prior to the move, many of them couldn't get to our church because they don't have cars and can't afford taxis. Kevin used to provide rides back and forth, but you can only fit so many people in a Saturn.

Recently I was asked to submit an original poem for the Year 2000 Anthology of the International Library of Poetry. This was because they liked one I submitted last year, a children's poem called "If I Had a Pony," which is on the Internet at www.poetry.com under Elizabeth McDonald. There are some poems listed that were written by other Elizabeth McDonalds and ... I hope no one thinks I wrote some of those other ones!

Kevin began tutoring (through Fulbright) several young Israelis who plan to attend college in the US, and need help with the math portion of the SAT. They all speak English. The students must get a little confused when they come to our house and see a mezzuzah, a shofar, a menorah, and a cross all in the same home!

I am sorry to report that my boss' mother died after a lenthy illness. She was living here with his family in Israel, but the service was held in the US. Some of the Embassy folks had to work over the weekend to get his large family and the coffin all on the same plane. There are certain Jews designated as "Cohens" or priests, who are not allowed near a dead body. So, all the priest-Cohens had to be switched to another plane. Also, it is an American Jewish custom that the coffin not be alone while in transit. Special arrangements were made with El Al so that a co-worker could stay with the coffin to pray over it until it was loaded on the plane, at which time my boss' family prayed over it all the way to the US. Jewish people have a custom called sitting sheva where the family of the deceased sit in a room for seven days, mourning and receiving visitors. After that they are supposed to return to normal life. But, when a parent dies, the children are not allowed to attend weddings, office luncheons, or bar mitzpahs for thirty days. They must avoid festive occasions involving more than 10 people during this time of mourning.

Recently I had a twelve-hour work day. Four of us went way down into the southern desert (known as the Negev) on business. We brought picnic lunches and ate on the way, at the top of a great big crater at Mitzpa Ramon. You'll never believe this, but the ladies room there was shut down and I had to use the men's room AGAIN! Is this becoming a habit or what? After lunch, we zigzagged down into the crater and continued driving through the bottom of it. We got lost for awhile (thank goodness for cellphones!) and it sure is quiet out in the middle of the desert. The Government car was an absolute mess because of all the sand. We had to ditch the car and take a four-wheel drive vehicle to an even more remote location. There were guards stationed way out there in the middle of the desert 24 hours a day. We were told that Bedouins are a problem because they keep stealing the contractor's supplies. So next time you feel a little dissatisfied with your job, think about those poor guys out in the middle of the Negev.

Kevin and I went to a Bedouin festival near Beersheva with some co-workers. Israeli schoolchildren study a unit on Bedouins, so the parents in our office thought it would be educational. The booths were black tents made of burlap sugar sacks. There was folk dancing, but the music sounded like Arabic rap and we couldn't handle too much of that. There were people weaving straw mats and rugs. There were camel saddles for sale, and weird-looking sacks made out of an entire pig or sheep skin. Dust everywhere! We saw a horse shake himself, and dust flew off in clouds. Later on they had camel races, but we had to get home and missed that part.

My mother and her girlfriend visited us for eight days this month. They flew El Al, and sometimes access to the airplane restrooms was blocked because religious Jews prayed in groups in front of the doors. Our house is smaller than all the other American Embassy homes (probably because it's in the high-rent district), but we can still put up two visitors. Kevin prepared a lot of American food for dinners and picnics ahead of time, which was a good thing, because they weren't real gung-ho about the Mediterranean restaurant fare. The herbs and spices are a little different than in the US. We had great weather most of the time, and everyone stayed healthy. Three men tried to pick up my mom. We drove all over the place. Once someone turned a "Jerusalem" direction sign around, and we ended up suddenly driving off the road into the desert. Other than that, we found our way around pretty easily.

During my mom's visit there was a bombing in Netanya, the city up the coast from us, so security was really tightened up. At the mall, not only did they inspect our cars and purses, we also went through metal detectors and got body scanned. I don't even want to THINK about it getting any worse! My mother says one of the highlights of her trip was when Kevin and I modeled our gas masks. Maybe we can send everyone the picture once we learn to scan photographs into our home computer. Hillary Clinton arrived in Israel the day after our company left. We were glad there was no overlap, because she visited some of the same places we did, and it would have been a real bally-gahn (mess) dealing with that.

One of the sites we visited was under Palestinian control. We avoided Bethlehem because of the security concerns, but we made it to the ruins of Herodian, overlooking Bethlehem. Herodian was a palace and fortress that Herod the Great built on top of a mountain, so if he had to flee from Cleopatra, he had somewhere to stay on the way back to his hometown. The Israeli Air Force kept flying overhead, and we were a little concerned until someone explained that the loud explosions were merely sonic booms. There were quite a few Arabs riding around on donkeys; not many owned cars. The few cars we saw had green and white Palestinian plates. The people along the road seemed to be friendly, and smiled and waved at us. There are some Arab towns where they sometimes throw rocks at cars with the yellow-and-black Israeli plates. (We have a black-and-white diplomatic plate.)

This letter is getting a little long, so we'll tell you more about our vacation next time.

Your Israeli correspondents, Kevin & Elizabeth