It’s been exactly a week since my last blog… and boy has a lot happen in that time! In my last posting on Christmas Eve, I had explained that we would be spending Christmas Eve in Jerusalem, followed by a couple days at the Dead Sea over Christmas. Well things got just a bit more complicated than that.
Shortly after my last blog was completed, my brother phoned from Canada, to say my father had been admitted to hospital! He was in severe abdominal pain, and they thought it was possibly gall stones…. You can only imagine the thoughts and feelings that went through my head as we tried to continue our modest Christmas preparations: was he going to be ok? Should I go home? What was wrong exactly? Being here suddenly seemed very far away… Still somewhat in shock, I accompanied Gerrit out for some last minute Christmas shopping. We got him an office chair, and for me, a set of computer speakers. I also finally caved to the idea of a web cam (suddenly video Skyping with people back home seemed more important than my own camera shyness). Back at the apartment, I prepared the Slovak Christmas Eve dinner of fried carp and potato salad (see photo of the two of us with our Christmas dinner)… I also got in touch with my brothers for an update on my father… not much had really happened yet, he still didn’t have a phone number to be reached at and was going for more tests.
The last item on our agenda for Christmas Eve was to attend Midnight Mass at “Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of JerusalemCenter” where there was to be an English mass. It was a very interesting mass: about 100-150 of us gathered in an auditorium at the centre. There were people from all over the world there, Japan, Vietnam, Spain (the priest who served mass was visiting from Spain and had only just arrived in Jerusalem that morning), France etc. A camera man was filming the evening, and an obnoxious photographer was also present, whose main subject seemed to be an Asian family in attendance (perhaps an ambassador, or other official?). Before mass began, we sang Christmas carols and various brave groups from the audience got up and sang carols in their native languages. During this time, one of the priest approached Gerrit and I and asked if English was our first language, and whether we spoke it well… and ended up asking me if I would do the second reading! With a little trepidation, I agreed and rehearsed my text. The first reading was done by the important Asian. My reading went very well despite a tiny bit of stage fright and I was very proud of myself in the end (see photo - I am doing my reading at the left hand side). Exhausted but glad that we went, we returned home around 2am.
Christmas Day, we slept in, I finally posted all my blogs and we waited till it was late enough in Canada to phone my dad. He sounded pretty terrible, in pain and grumpy… and still without a definitive diagnosis, though it did seem to be some form of gall stones complicated by pancreatitis (hence the reason he was in such terrible pain). I felt awful for him, but was a little reassured by the fact that things were under way (he had had an MRI, and finally had a room and wasn’t lying in Emerg anymore) and it seemed not to be life threatening. So we decided to proceed with our Dead Sea plans and keep in touch by phone and internet.
As previously mentioned, the weather had turned nasty in Jerusalem, and so as we drove down to the Dead Sea on the evening of the 25th, it was through varying degrees of rain. To our surprise, there were even some showers once we reached the bottom of the Rift valley at the north end of the Dead Sea. I’m guessing the north end gets occasional rain, as parts of it look more like savannah than complete desert… but the more south you go, the less vegetation there is, except in the irrigated plantations. We reached the Ein Gedi kibbutz at supper time. Ein Gedi is located on a plateau overlooking the Dead Sea. It is in effect an oasis in the desert, fed by waters from nearby springs that have been known to man in the area since the Stone Age. As we checked in, we were struck by how much warmer it seemed here, compared to Jerusalem, and proceed to dinner at the cafeteria in lighter coats. Dinner was delicious, and included 2 salad bars, a variety of warm courses (see photo - these were the rice, grilled veg and pureed yams and potatoes) and some cakes and ice cream for desert. After dinner, we joined an evening walking tour around the “botanical garden”. This garden is interspersed among the buildings of the resort and the adjoining kibbutz (a kibbutz is a sort of Israeli-style cooperative, often based around agriculture, where people live and volunteer). The garden is unique in that it has a huge variety of plants from around the world, and has everything from desert plants to tropical ones all in the same micro environment. It is so unique in fact, that it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site some 10 years ago. The garden tour was amazing… there is very little light pollution in the desert, and so it was a quite dark on this moonless evening and the up-lit trees looked like creatures from fairy tales (see 4 photos - the one strung with lights is a baobab).
After a good night’s sleep (the air is refreshing to breathe here… it’s difficult to describe, it’s just delicious… I read somewhere it has to do with high Bromide saturation or something), we enjoyed a feast of a breakfast, another buffet extravaganza of fresh salads, cheese and fruits, egg pie and Israeli pastries etc.
After breakfast, we walked around the resort, enjoying the gardens by daylight, and astounded by the views of the surrounding mountains beyond the oasis plateau (see photos - the one of the left is of the oasis plateau to the left, the Arugot valley bellow and Mount Zeruya above on the left; right photo - garden flowers and palm tree). By the time we got back to our room, the sun had come out in full, and it was so warm, that we were able to don shorts and t-shirts! The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the Dead Sea. We floated in the salt saturated water, hung out at the beach, played with the salt, covered each other with the mud and relaxed with massages… Overall, it was a “take it easy “day where I tried to think as little as possible (my mind had been swirling with worry for the last 2 days). Instead, I endeavoured with varying degrees of success to bask in the sunshine, to soak in the healing quality of the water and mud and to be in the moment with the beautiful surroundings (see photos - Gerrit and I mudded up; below - Gerrit floating in the Dead Dea and close up of salt crystals with mountains beyond ). My evening update from a still quite painful dad revealed that no gall stones seemed to be present anymore as per the MRI, but the doctors were assuming that that was what had caused the ensuing pancreatitis, and so it was a question of days of fasting, IV fluids, pain meds and wait and see... hmmm…. Gerrit and I spent a quiet evening together in the room, accompanied by a very friendly kitty that Gerrit had befriended… nothing like petting a purring sleeping fur ball when you need comfort (see photo of Gerrit with 2 local feline greeters… the one on his lap ended up having room privileges with us, he was so cute and well behaved!).
Our final day at the Dead Sea was spent hiking in the Ein Gedi Nature reserve. There are trails along two river beds (called Wadi in Hebrew) and up and down 3 mountain peaks in the area next to the Oasis. The park includes several springs with waterfalls whose waters run down the river beds, a number of ancient ruins from various human settlements of the area over the last 20,000 years (see photo of the 2 of us standing in a Chalcolite era temple, with Mount En Gedi behind us), and specimens of the local desert wildlife (we saw bats, Hyrax and Ibexes – see photo of 5 Hyraxes below). We had enough time for a 3 hour circuit before the mandatory exit from the park at sundown (4pm on the Dead Sea in the winter)... the ascent to the top takes some 8 hours… so we just climbed along one of the river beds, then up and over a plateau below one of the peaks and back to the visitor centre through the oases of date palms at the base of the mountains (see photo - Gerrit sitting in palm plantation). By the way, when I visited the Dead Sea with Sonya, I was wondering what the palms were for… it seems they are cultivated for their fruit, the date, and their wood is also used for construction. Other plants grown here include the plant from whose branches they derive Henna dye… and in Biblical times, they cultivated some secret and famous “persimmon” plants (apparently not the same as the present day persimmon) from which they extracted very valuable perfume, the sale of which made En Gedi rich at the time. Post hike (see photo below of the En Gedi oasis on its plateau, sun setting behind the mountains), we dropped by the spa centre one more time, this time to soak in their sulfur spring pools. The water was warm, salty and smelled mildly of rotten eggs, and we were able to float in it like in the Dead Sea. After about 15 minutes of this, I felt a little woozy, and ended up getting out as my face and neck felt flush and swollen…. Funny, I had had no reaction to the mud or Dead Sea the previous day. Luckily by the time we drove back up to Jerusalem, I was back to normal.
Back in Jerusalem on Saturday evening, we got in touch with my brother for a dad update… not too much had changed…. But my brother was wondering about whether we had heard any of the bombing. Gerrit and I both thought he meant the handful of missile that were coming out of Gaza over the last few days… not until we got off the phone with my brother and started reading news online did we understand what he had meant: Israel’s retaliation and bombing of Gaza, with some 200 Palestinian casualties! We had played ostrich while away at the Dead Sea, and hadn’t heard yet!
Up until now, when people had asked how the “situation” was here, I had happily answered that things where really stable and calm, that there were record numbers of tourists around because of just how quiet things were in the last while. To say this shook us up a little would be an understatement. If you study a map of the area, Gaza is just a couple hundred kilometers from here, and the West Bank a mere skip and a jump… Before coming here, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict had weighed heavily on my mind, and what it would mean for us to live here… When we got here, I was thrilled to be able to shove “the issue” under a rock as it didn’t seem to be an issue here in daily life: I explored both sides of Jerusalem, Israeli West Jerusalem and parts of Palestinian East Jerusalem (for instance the Mount of Olives) and for the most part felt I could maintain middle ground, partly hiding under the label of tourist. Beyond the personal safety fears, and the fear of renewed terrorist attacks, I now worry how this will change our experience of being here. So far, it’s been almost surreal to what degree it’s been business as usual. On Sunday night, there was tangible tension in the air, and a discernible increased police presence in the city… but otherwise, nothing… so this is another wait and see whilst biting your nails situation for us.
Back to the original nail biter now: my dad sounded a lot better on the phone Monday, in much less pain and hopeful of getting released after New Year’s. Today, the news is not so good… he had an unexplained fever yesterday and was once again quite uncomfortable… partly due to hiccups that wouldn’t go away. They’ve done more tests, the results of which I will hopefully learn shortly. So the worry goes on.
Tonight is New Year’s Eve…. But just like Christmas, it’s just a regular day here… Hannukah is now over, and the Jewish new year was months ago. Gerrit is at work both today and tomorrow… and I have am supposed to visit the zoo vet tomorrow to see if I can volunteer there…. I have been working with Spay Israel regularly these past couple weeks, but it’s just one day a week… and things with the SPCA continue to develop. If things ever settle down, I hope to have time to blog about our daily life here, and tell you more about my vet adventures thus far! Unfortunately, this isn’t likely any time soon, as we have another adventure just one week away: next Wednesday, the 7th of January we fly to Holland. We are supposed to spend about 10 days there, as Gerrit gets the final parts of his Israeli visa in place now that the work permit is done... We are also supposed to visit his family and spend some time exploring Amsterdam (which we didn’t get a chance to do much last visit)… but of course we’ll see how the situation with my dad evolves back home first.
So from some rather unsettled times here in Jerusalem, here’s wishing everyone back home a very Happy New Year! May the New Year bring peace, health and happiness to you all, and may the bad stay in the old year. Have some bubbly & kapustnica (Slovak sauerkraut - I've given up trying to make it, it's all pork sausage and pork meat) for us tonight!
n the irrigated plantations. We reached the Ein Gedi kibbutz at supper time. Ein Gedi is located on a plateau overlooking the 
By the time we got back to our room, the sun had come out in full, and it was so warm, that we were able to don shorts and t-shirts! The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the 
Instead, I endeavoured with varying degrees of success to bask in the sunshine, to soak in the healing quality of the water and mud and to be in the moment with the beautiful surroundings (see photos - Gerrit and I mudded up; below - Gerrit floating in the Dead Dea and close up of salt crystals with mountains beyond ). My evening update from a still quite painful dad revealed that no gall stones seemed to be present anymore as per the MRI, but the doctors were assuming that that was what had caused the ensuing pancreatitis, and so it was a question of days of fasting, IV fluids, pain meds and wait and see... hmmm…. Gerrit and I spent a quiet evening together in the room, accompanied by a very friendly kitty that Gerrit had befriended… nothing like petting a purring sleeping fur ball when you need comfort (see photo of Gerrit with 2 local feline greeters… the one on his lap ended up having room privileges with us, he was so cute and well behaved!).
We had enough time for a 3 hour circuit before the mandatory exit from the park at sundown (4pm on the Dead Sea in the winter)... the ascent to the top takes some 8 hours… so we just climbed along one of the river beds, then up and over a plateau below one of the peaks and back to the visitor centre through the oases of date palms at the base of the mountains (see photo - Gerrit sitting in palm plantation). By the way, when I visited the 
ch not to share
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