Newsletter #14 - Mid-February 2000

Shalom from Israel!

Just a reminder, Kevin set up our new Adventures in Israel website at:

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Orchard/3392/index.html

OR

http://www.geocities.com/liznkev/index.html

You can pick up the old newsletters you missed at this site, as well as scanned photos. (It was Kevin's idea to plaster pictures of me all over the background, they aren't the most flattering but oh well.)

Due to the increased fighting in southern Lebanon, the Embassy has warned us NOT to schedule visits to our contractors in northern Israel. The Israelis living close to the fighting were temporarily moved into shelters, many of which lacked electricity, water, and toilets.

Some of you have asked questions about the Andrea Bocelli concert. It was entirely excerpts from Italian operas, except for an encore of "Ave Maria" which elicited an audible gasp from the Israeli audience! But they applauded anyway. He sang with a lovely young soprano, Fiorenza Cedolins, and we got her autograph. The concert was completely sold out. We sat way in the back in the so-called "cheap seats," ha ha, and we watched through high-powered binoculars. We got some funny looks from other people, but hey - we could almost read the sheet music! Andrea kind of apologized to me for not singing my favorite song, "Time to Say Goodbye," as a pop song would not have fit in with the rest of the concert. He said that if I ever go to Italy, at least I know the Italian words that are in his song! I told him I wasn't complaining, I just wanted him to know it was my favorite! Also, it was neat seeing him in street clothes, as he is very formally dressed for his appearances on PBS. He looks younger, almost boyish, and his features are more refined than in photos. His hands are delicate. He keeps his eyes closed most of the time, since they don't focus correctly. We understand that he got favorable reviews on Israeli TV.

A brief bio of Andrea. He was born with a painful visual disorder, and was only calmed by classical music. At the age of 12 he was completely blinded in a soccer accident. This did not stop him from graduating from law school and practicing law for a year. However, he deeply desired to be an opera singer, and sang at piano bars to finance his singing lessons (and to meet girls). He admits he led a very "dissolute life" until he married a local girl he met at a piano club. Not long after that, Andrea was "discovered" and became an international celebrity. He skis and rides horseback. He has remained married, says his family is #1, and often takes them on the road with him. He has recently undertaken starring in full-length operas before live audiences. This requires him to not only sing, but to act as well - and he must memorize the exact position of everything on the stage. So, he is more than just a pretty face!

We had some extended rain near the end of last month. First the wind whipped up the sand. Then it rained and covered everything with wet sand. The cars don't even get washed clean because of all the dirt in the air. We opened the door to our house at the wrong moment and created a momentary wind tunnel. A whole bunch of dirt and trash suddenly filled our living room and coated all the furniture! During that week my assistant was working in Turkey, so I had to drive by myself to a new contractor's facility way up near Nazerath. Besides fighting the weather, Government car wasn't working right, and it sure was a relief to get back to the office safely! At the very end of the month there was substantial snowfall in Jerusalem, and a teeny weeny bit of snow a couple of miles from our house. We were told that it hasn't snowed this close to Tel Aviv in fifty years! Everyone (except us) tried to drive into Jerusalem to see the snow, which resulted in outrageous traffic jams. Instead, we went to the beach. You could tell there had been a big storm - lots of trash and pebbles washed up. Our Embassy bus trip to Masada was postponed due to flooding in the area. Israel does need rain - otherwise we'll run out of water by this summer. This has been the worst water shortage since Israel became a nation in 1948. There is concern that if the Golan is given back to Syria, they'll divert one third of the water entering Israel. Apparently this was attempted once, but a famous Israeli spy named Eli Cohen found out about it, and the Israeli Air Force took care of the problem!

A group from my office spent Martin Luther King Day convoying up to Samaria. There's a national park containing ruins from the various cultures that lived there. Samaria is over the pre-war "green line," so we had to drive through a military checkpoint to get there. Remember the New Testament Bible stories about the good Samaritan, and Jesus speaking to the woman at the well? The Jews and the Samaritans did not like each other back during Jesus' time. We didn't see any Samaritans. There are only a few hundred left. One group lives close to Samaria at the foot of their holy mountain, and the other group lives near Tel Aviv. Samaritans usually intermarry among themselves, so many of them have health problems. Samaria was also inhabited by the Byzantines, Romans, and Crusaders. We saw the remains of a Christian church where the head of John the Baptist was said to have been kept at one time.

There are also many references to Samaria in the Bible's Old Testament. After King Solomon's death, the kingdom split (supposedly over tax issues), and the capital of the northern kingdom (known as Israel) was Shechem. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel fell under this northern kingdom, and the other two southern tribes comprised the southern kingdom of Judah. Several years after the split, King Omri built a town nearly on a lone mountain surrounded by nearby moutains, a more defensible position called "Samaria." Omri's son Ahab significantly expanded the prestige of Israel. He was also one of the most evil kings Israel ever had because he promoted the idol worship practices of his wife Jezebel, including infant sacrifice. Samaria remained the capital of the northern kingdom for some time after that. It was also the home town of the prophet Elisha. Later, the Assyrians conquered Israel and carried off the ten tribes. Samaria was abandoned until Christian times.

Our group ate a traditional Arabic meal just outside the park, on an outdoor terrace at the Holy Sun restaurant. The owner wore a traditional Arab head shawl. We bought a guidebook on Samaria with his picture in it. We had lamb, chicken, various types of salad, Turkish coffee, bread that looked like a large pizza crust, and bananas for dessert. We passed the bread and other dishes around the table, and everyone took what they wanted. One section of the terrace was located in Israel, and the other part was in the West Bank! A tree near the edge of the terrace marks the border. Several of us spent time afterward outside the park, hiking around fields, climbing walls and hills, looking for artifacts. We found blue and green Roman glass, pot handles, and sections of jars. Container rims and engraved pieces are the most valuable. Ancient coins are more difficult to find - the best time is after it rains. Two Arab men in an official car kept stopping and asking if everything was ok. They identified themselves as the "tourist police," and they chased away a group of small boys they thought were begging for money.

Kevin watched the Super Bowl with some other guys at the Marine House near our home. It started after midnight our time. He got home about the time I woke up to go to work.

Kevin went back to visit the Spanish church in downtown Tel Aviv. Most of the members are very poor and work as domestic help. Several of them claim to have found money mysteriously appearing in their purses or on the floor, or gold flakes showing up on their hands. He is helping one of the pastors, Dominique Bierman, write a condensed version of her auto-biography (she has already published a complete version). They also need someone to organize their e-mail and set up a website for the ministry, so he may be quite busy for a while!

Kevin surprised me with a "Jewish Bible." This is a fairly new English translation of the complete Bible with the Old Testament books in the Jewish sequence. To add to the confusion, many of the words are Hebrew. For example, Eve is "Havah," Moses is "Moshe," Jesus is "Yeshua," and the high priest is the "cohen gadol" or Big Cohen. The New Testament book of Hebrews is called "Messianic Jews." And so on.

The extensive repairs to our house seem to be completed. Now the rest of my co-workers have leaky roofs! We had to have our wiring upgraded because the a/c-heater unit was added after the house was built, and little thought was given as to its effect on the existing electical system. Sometimes when the heater came on, it blew out power to our whole house. Other Embassy homes have experienced this problem as well. Only twenty years ago, Israel was a very poor country with just a few wealthy people. Even the Embassy homes lacked a/c. Only the diplomats and wealthy people drove mid-size or bigger cars; everyone else had puddle-jumpers.

Kevin and I finally got our Israeli drivers licences. This involved going to a licensing office located in a mall in Tel Aviv. The first thing you see upon entering the mall is a huge red plaster elephant made into a kiddy slide. The kids climb up through the elephant's neck, and slide down through a chute under his tail!

A week-long "big kahuna" management meeting was recently held in Heidelberg, Germany. Our Team Leader carried lots of kosher foods with him on the trip. He also had to arrive early enough to contact a rabbi to coordinate group prayer sessions, which requires a quorum of Jewish men to pray twice daily. Then, he was unable to leave when the meeting adjourned because Shabat had alrady started, so he had to stay in Germany until Shabat ended. During his absence I got to be Team Leader for a week. The man who was Acting Commander got injured while carrying a child hit by a car out of the street. So, with everyone higher up gone, I had to authorize a change to our Commander's travel orders! There had been some thought of sending me to Germany to help with their backlog, but apparently this idea has fallen by the wayside at the moment.

Kevin and I have both visited the dentist since our arrival in Israel. The biggest difference is the noisy equipment they use here. The dentist said that hearing loss is a real problem with Israeli dentists - and we can sure understand why! He was using German equipment. I told him that the equipment our American dentist used was nowhere near as noisy. In any case, he has planned well for the future - he married a hearing specialist!

Happy Valentines Day to all! (It's celebrated in Israel too!)

K&E