Newsletter # 10 - Early December 1999

Shalom Y'all,

Hope everyone receiving this letter in the US had a grand Thanksgiving. It is getting cool here. We use our heaters a lot now. Marble floors can get very cold!

Back to our vacation with my mother and her girlfriend. They enjoyed meeting my co-workers on the day they arrived. We took a day-long Embassy bus trip to areas of Israel which were controlled by Syria until the 1967 war in the Golan Heights. Among the sites we saw was Gamla. You may have heard of the mass suicide at Massada to avoid enslavement by the Romans around 72 A.D.. It happened a little earlier and on a larger scale at Gamla, as recorded by Josephus in "The Jewish Wars." Gamla is a mountain ridge shaped like a camel's back (hence, Gamla or "Camel") On the east side of the ridge is a relatively flat slope that decends at about 45 degrees where the people lived. The west side is nearly a cliff its so steep. When the Romans attacked, the people panicked and fled to the top of the ridge. They either threw themselves off or were pushed off by the crowds behind them. Thousands died. More died in this way than at by the sword. Gamla was never resettled and the ruins today are pretty much as they after the battle. One of the most interesting things is a 1st century synagogue, one of handful that still exist. There is also a mikva, or ritual bath, and a Torah closet where the scrolls were kept. The Bible states that Jesus taught in the synagogues throughout Galilee, so Jesus probably taught there. You can walk where He may have walked, sit where He may have sat. It's really neat.

Another day, we drove all the way around the Sea of Galilee, now known as Lake Kinneret. Much of Jesus' ministry was conducted around the northern part of the Sea. One of the places we stopped was an ostrich farm. Ostriches aren't considered kosher because of their toes. They only have two, whereas most fowl have three. The baby ostriches were so cute. They looked like little round brown bushes with thin necks sticking up. Adult ostriches are so strong they can run through a fence. They usually mate for life, except the men ostriches sometimes fool around while the gals are sitting on the eggs, or if there are too few men ostriches to keep all the gals happy. Ostriches are not very smart. We fed them ostrich food off paddles, and they had trouble deciding whether to reach their necks over or through the fence! (Of course, they get free food. We paid to get in. So, maybe they're not so dumb after all!)

We also drove our car (huffing and puffing) up to the top of Mount Tabor. Most people drive partway up and take taxis, which whiz around the tight curves as if it were a racecourse. This is the Catholic site of the Transfiguration of Jesus. (The Protestant candidate is Mount Hermon way up in northern Israel, based on the fact that Moses appeared there with Jesus and Elijah. God punished Moses by refusing to let him enter the Promised Land - so would he have been allowed on Mt. Tabor?) There are a Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic church and a beautiful garden up on top. We heard a Brazilian tour group singing in the Catholic church, and it was so beautiful. The view from the top is magnificent. The Old Testament Book of Judges records that Deborah and Barak led the Israelis to victory in war from Mt. Tabor. Deborah is one of my heroines!

We also went Jericho, the lowest as well as the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. Jericho was the first city captured by the Israelites when Joshua led them into the Promised Land after forty years of wandering in the desert. Jesus healed blind Bartimaeus near Jericho, and had dinner there with a short tax collector named Zaccheus after spotting him sitting above the crowd in a sycamore tree. We rode a tram up the mountain that is supposed to be the Mount of Jesus' Temptation. Then we hiked up the cliff to a skinny Greek Orthodox monastery built high into the side of the mountain. Part of it is built into a cave and part is a regular building. We met two monks from Greece. I asked the older one what monks do up there all day and he said, "We're monks. Monks pray!" When they found out we were from the American Embassy, they invited us in for snacks. The younger one wore a long gray frock, glasses, and a ponytail. He had fun sitting in the windowsill and looking out over Jericho with our binoculars. I was afraid he was going to fall out the window and over the cliff, until I found out there was a porch underneath him.

We did some sightseeing at the ruins of Zippori, which is very close to Nazareth. During Jesus' time Herod Antipas (son of Herod the Great) was building Zippori into a very lavish, modern, and important city. Since not much was going on in Nazareth at that time, it is very likely that Jesus, being a carpenter/stone mason, would have been one of the Zippori contractors - and probably visited and worked there during its construction. I wonder if the auditors gave Him very much trouble. That's our job, you know. There are gorgeous mosaic tile floors still in the process of being restored, some of them depicting Dionysius, the Greek god of wine and drunkeness, having a great time at parties. It gives you an idea about the personality of the owner of the house.

We also drove through the wilderness in between Jericho and Bethlehem. They're connected by very steep, curvy roads, dotted with Arab villages, some impoverished and some more prosperous. We saw dark-skinned, uniformed schoolchildren walking by the roadsides; shepherds and their herds pouring over the road like a tan river; busstops out in the middle of nowhere.

And before they went back home, we all found time to go to the local beach and play frisbee!

It was decided that we needed more security at work, since we're not physically located at the Embassy. We now have an armed guard at the entrance, and we walk in through a metal detector. I am working overtime again to complete some overdue risk assessments. My position was vacant for seven months before I came on board, and I'm still catching up. We're undergoing a major audit in April (plus a smaller one prior to that), and everyone has been told to start preparing now. So, I may not get any more vacations until the audit is over. We all attended an offsite teambuilding and stress management meeting, and the Command bought us all lunch. Maybe the new security measures are to keep us from going postal!

Our office in Israel has a very good reputation as being one of the best overseas offices to work in. The stress management facilitator observed that our group has an excellent sense of humor. Besides being comedians, they are also hams (which is very strange considering we're in Israel!). They like to sing and put on funny skits whenever the opportunity arises. There are photos on the bulletin board showing some of the men impersonating the Spice Girls. Another of the guys dressed up as Cupid for a co-worker's bridal shower. A lot of my American co-workers have taken in stray cats, which they then try to paw-n off on each other. Many Israelis and Americans that we know hire people to clean their houses. We have had several people recommend their domestic help to us. I think they are surprised that we would actually prefer to clean our own house! You have to keep track of the taxes, insurance, and vacation time yourself, because there is no maid service organization to do it for you. A high percentage of my American co-workers are church-goers. One of my native ("sabra") Israeli co-workers had a great opportunity to live (very well-off) in the US, but she says she wants to stay in Israel. As a young person she competed as a gymnast in the Maccabee games, and also served in the Israeli Army. Another Israeli co-worker was very badly injured during one of the wars, in a tank. The religious Jews in our office walk to the mall down the street after lunch, where there is a place to pray. There are certain prayers that must be said before dusk and in the presence of at least nine other Jewish men.

Shortly after my boss's mom died, another American co-worker lost his mom. A collection was taken up in the office for memorial trees to be planted in their honor in the Jerusalem Forest. The sons were given lovely certificates showing how many tress were planted. If you plant the trees yourself, you can go back to see them later. We are thinking about planting some in honor of my father. Apparently the deceased does not have to be Jewish.

If you want to view some interesting slides of Israel, check out www.levitt.com and click on "Israel slideshow." There is also some live coverage of the East Jerusalem area at www.olivetree.org. The "Messiahcam" is a hidden camera located in the vicinity of the Mount of Olives, set up by a Christian ministry who believes that Jesus is coming back very soon. Both religious Jews and Christians believe that the Messiah will stand on the Mount of Olives and enter Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate, which is currently blocked off. Christians are awaiting the Second Coming of Jesus. Of course, since most Jews don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, they are waiting for someone else.

There are going to be some vacancies in our office next year as several Americans (but not me) rotate back to the States: One or two GS-13 team leaders, a GS-12 industrial specialist, general engineer, and a couple of quality assurance jobs. Anyone know of some good folks who would like to work with great people at a real interesting overseas assignment?

K&E