low resolution - by b

notes from jerusalem... where we were last week.... there's been little time to blog

our first stop was to see my great aunt and uncle, vicky and nokkie. this was a touch of what it was like for me coming to israel as a kid--lots of stops at family, lots of tea and coffee and cake. vicky is the sister of my late grandmother charlotte. she and nokkie moved to jerusalem in the early 80s from a country town outside Cape Town (where i used to visit them a lot on weekends as a kid). most of their kids, grandkids and greatgrandkids live in israel, many in jerusalem. vicky said that when they moved to jerusalem a quarter century ago she would refer to it as a a "mosaic" where she would walk around the old city and see orthodox jews, arabs, franciscan monks ...

vicky and nokkie

in a mosaic, of course, the different stones don't always really fit very perfectly together. and mosaics are also extremely low-resolution images because the stones (or tiles) are pretty large. the thing is though, in imagery, the finer the dots the greater the resolution. but here, the smaller you break down the dots the the image just seems to degrade.. you get lower resolution. so it's tough to get a clear image of this place

because this is not just a mosaic of jews and muslims and christians... every group is broken down into many, many subgroups. and every group is constantly changing and alliances shift.

for example, according to our guide who took us around the old city of jerusalem, it's not a good idea to try to go to the bathroom in the church of the holy sepulchre because it hasn't been fixed in 100 years because the eastern orthodox, armenian apostolic, roman catholic, coptic orthodox, ethiopian orthodox and the syriac orthodox can't quite agree who should deal with it.

welcome to jerusalem.

vicky and nokkie are very observant jews... but as you can see from their clothes they are not ultra-orthodox (nokkie wears a kippah/yarmulke.. but you can't see it in this picture). behind them is a table by the front door of their apartment.. on it is a t'zedakeh box (a charity box) and guests can drop money into it to support a religious school (a guy comes by every month or so to take the money and give them a receipt) ... when this same guy first brought the box by the door and asked them to keep it vicky wanted reassurance that it was a school that sent it's students to the military. while this might make her sound truly extreme in another country, here it is a actually means something else. many people here resent the fact that many students in the ultra-orthodox schools are exempt from military service and can live their lives here without giving what is considered the most basic amount back to the state---serving in the army.

are you starting to get a sense of the intricate layers of meaning in this place?

there's more

the area where vicky and nokkie live, ramot, is, according to many, a "settlement". many others call it a "neighorhood" or "suburb" of jerusalem. people need to be careful about their language here.. including news organizations that are often subject to intense letter-writing campaigns if they piss people off

get into a debate with somebody.. or even start searching for "facts" online... and you end up in a warren of he-said, she-said that goes back forever and ever. this is what makes it really tough to get a clear picture of jerusalem (and indeed all of israel) because everybody wants you to see THEIR picture...

museams are powerful vehicles for telling stories of a place... and our next stop was the israel musuem near the israeli parliment building. most of the museum is actually closed now for renovations but there was enough open to make a stop seem like a decent idea. I have to take a breather though from the analysis and just look at some sculpture.

the sculpture garden was pleasant to walk around in. here's a piece by fernando botero, the same guy who made the giant cat in rambla raval in barcelona that arel and dorian are climbing on in the masthead of this blog

and some shapes in the trees

ok. breathed enough? here's a bench from the sculpture garden

we then drove into the pretty trendy baka neighborhood where we were going to stay with my mom's second cousin dubby and his wife lies. my parents are very close with them... and have traveled many places with them, including the galapagos islands. they were very nice... offered to let us stay for a couple of nights... and we had some great conversations and wine with them and scrabble too

early the next morning i went for a run up on the haas (as in levis, as in san francisco) promenade. down below you can see the old city.. the walls, the dome of the rock.. from this vantage point it seems like the mosaic maybe is working... or could work... but i wasn't feeling very optimistic.. it was really freezing and i was ill prepared for the cold.. i had run up to the "hill of evil counsel" ( i do love the names of things in jerusalem) where the united nations is based

at 8:30 a guide i'd arranged picked us up.m he drove us a short distance to the old city. we parked and we walked in thru the jaffa gate. we walked a bit.. talked a bit... bought a bagel with zatar we went down to the western wall (or wailing wall). it was thursday … one of the days people celebrate bar mitzvah's at the wall... it can be be pretty colorful and musical

we then walked out of the dung gate (nice name... it was the gate the ancient residents used to cart out their garbage) and to the "city of david"

. kristin wrote about the tunnel we went in. here are some pictures. 

i'm glad we did it.. it was fun..but this particular site is more controversial than most. the city of david is silwan.. an arab neighborhood. and the group that funds the project is focused on settling jews in arab parts of the city.

outside the tunnel

from the van heading up thru silwan

back thru the dung gate and to the western wall

bar mitzvahs were in full swing. dorian got some candy

it is a tradition to leave a note in the cracks in the western wall (some people believe they are leaving a note for god or the messiah). here arel and dorian write notes.

and put them in cracks in the wall

despite many famous, plaintive photos over the years of everyone from soldiers to pope john paul ii hugging the wall (they tend to be close up shots, very emotive, and they leave out the tumult/balagan behind the subject) the place does not have a very spiritual feel to me.. in general it's too carnivally and crowded for my taste

the wall is essentially a retaining wall for what was the second of two great jewish temples that were destroyed in history and jews call the area above it the temple mount. some really radical extreme jews would like to build a third temple up there... (read michael chabon's the yiddish policeman's union for a fictional and interesting look at this idea) ... what's up there are the dome of the rock ( a beautiful, at least from afar, golden domed building) and the al aqsa mosque.

there was a long wait to go up... dorian was getting antsy.. and you can't go inside al aqsa mosque now ... and some people had advised us against going up during these times of elevated tensions so we went to lunch

we ate at a place called "friends" a pretty large restaurant on one of the old city's many narrow streets. the streets have steps (the city s pretty hilly) and the steps have mini ramps on all of them for the carts that are always around. no cars in these windy, narrow streets

we had a tasty lunch of humus, t'hina, schwarma, other salads

fanta comes in either arabic

or hebrew

the cauliflower only comes in hot pink

maybe the cauliflower and kristin's shoes can form a group together. that would be very jerusalem. oh wait, one's a vegetable. one's a shoe. ain't gonna happen.

the shops and restaurants (mostly arab-run) had been closed for a few days in a commercial strike to protest israel's actions in gaza (no commercial strike to protest rocket fire into israel.. but whatever). i was struck by some of the irony walking by. here is a shop that had been closed.. then it opens and sells IDF (israel defense forces) schwag. bizarre.

security was much tighter than this.. especially as we made our way through the narrow streets of the old city. i wasn't about to stick my phone camera in the face of the soliders and riot cops... so i don't have the pictures .. but there were a lot as we walked thru the old city

we then went back to the jaffa gate and up on the walls.. the ramparts... we paid a small fee and up we went.. and walked a decent way around the city to the damascus gate

clothes can be clues in jerusalem.. .. but it can be subtle. is this woman an orthodox jew, a religous muslim, or my wife keeping out the cold with her hoodie? hmmm

flowers and oranges

a reminder

walking

looking

as we approached damascas gate the view of the dome of the rock

this is the looking at the market on the inside of damascus gate. we go down in a sec

in the market in the muslim quarter... sweets

more sweets

more sweets and a poster

a cat on al wad street

soldiers and riot cops... al wad street was one of the most intense for me the entire day.... the street is squarely in the muslim quarter of the old city.. yet there are a number of orthodox jewish schools up and down the street, each with four or so cops outside.. also on this street is the home of israels old leader ariel sharon ... my friend calls itthe "bring it on" house.

as we turned onto via dolorosa street (the street down which jesus carried the cross to his crucifixion, many believe) we bought a small cup of sahleb. i thought it was yummy (and warm) and i was glad when nobody else really liked it. more for me!

we ended at the church of the holy sepulchre dorian was really tired at this point. it was all too much religion for kristin (as she's said) but i like it in there.

this heads up to where people believe jesus was crucified. on the blog itself is a video of the actual spot.. i really wish i'd turned my camera on about 15 seconds earlier so you could hear more of the guy singing.. he has a really beautiful voice. the people are kneeling down to kiss the spot of the crucifixion

one of the domes

here is a mosaic (an actual one) of jesus being washed after being removed from the cross

this is where, apparently, he actually was washed. pilgrims come here and bring things from their town to be blessed on the stone.. then they take the things back home again.

this might look like someone who works there... but it's just a guy in a nike hoody. he's standing at the cave where, according to what many believe, jesus was buried and came back to life

we soon left the old city.. had a coffee..

here is a final picture of us and our guide..

next morning on derech beit lechem ... headin' outta dodge (after a nice breakfast with danny, julie and gang)

dead sea - by b

i'm glad we found the road to the dead sea and i'm glad we took it. it was pretty calm out there. warmish. getting there and back is another story that kristin has already touched on... i might add to that at some point ..meanwhile. here are some pictures from the sea itself

the dead sea

kristin in the dead sea

getting muddy

more muddiness

people claim the dead sea minerals combined with the fact that there is about 10 percent more oxygen in the air there has all sorts of healing properties. perhaps it speeds up the development of adult teeth

arel floating. i actually put my head all the way back... which feels really good

more muddy people

the guys said the dead sea was the best part of their trip so far

a release, i hope by k

i don't even know where to begin or what exactly to write, but i need to release some of the many many thoughts swirling around in my head. my mind has been astir ever since we got here and it seems to be getting more intense. the past couple of days when we got back to where we were staying, i had to lie down in the dark and just be. yesterday was especially bad after a long day in jerusalem. i think it is the tensest city i have ever been in. or, maybe better said, that is the tensest i have ever been in a city. just walking into the old city through the jaffa gate, i felt my chest and neck tighten up...it felt asphyxiating. i imagine it's worse now because of what's happening in gaza, but i think i would have had a similar reaction anyway. there are thousands of years of tension and strife and i don't find that uplifting or joyous in any way.

as i was thinking about writing this post, i was feeling a little guilty. doesn't everyone love jerusalem? isn't it one of those places everyone is supposed to be moved by? i have been thinking a lot in the past months about what attracts people to a place, what makes them feel good in one place more than another. i'm learning that sometimes the only answer is that it just is that way. you can't point to specific things, you just feel good. in my new coaching lingo, it resonates. and i'm realizing that some things/places resonate with some people and some don't, and that's okay. it's neither good nor bad, right nor wrong. it just is what it is. so, i'm not wrong for not feeling good in jerusalem...it's just what i felt.

my two favorite moments in the old city were when we were in a 2,500 year old water tunnel under the "city of david" and as we walked along the ramparts around the old city. in the tunnel, i had my leggings pulled up all the way up my thighs, my dress hitched up for the deepest part, my bright pink shoes hanging around my neck, a headlamp on, walking in this pitch black tunnel in shin deep water most of the way...quite a sight...fortunately it was dark! it was quiet, we were alone and it was actually warmer down there bare foot in the water than in the city above.

as barak was buying tickets to go in the tunnel, dorian ran over to me and said, "the tunnel may be closed. we may not be able to go in." but then barak came up and said, yes we could go. it wasn't until we were about 25 minutes into our tunnel walk when barak asked our guide why it was unclear if we could go in the tunnel earlier. here we were, the only people down under tons of solid rock. i figured it was that others didn't want to get wet. well, the guide chooses this point to nonchalantly tell us that this was the first day the tunnel had been opened because it comes out in an arab area and there had been some problems because of the gaza situation. oh yeah, and he also told us that when he rode his bike in the area the tunnel ends a few days earlier, some kids had been throwing rocks at him! oh goody, can't wait until the tunnel ends! fortunately, arel and dorian were having a great time, asking us to turn flashlights off now and again to experience the total blackness. fortunately, we didn't have problems getting back up to the old city, but the tension was there. shit happens here and you can't take any of it lightly.

walking on the ramparts was also nice. we could look down on the old city, talk about the history, but not be in the thick of it. there was more room to breathe. one part of the ramparts was essentially the border between israel and jordan for around 20 years and the guide pointed out the bullets holes in the buildings from that time. reminded me of seeing all the bullethole-ridden buildings near the berlin wall. that former border that we were walking along fell when barak was a baby in israel, during the 6-day war. i imagine how terrifying it must have been for his parents (not to mention everyone else living there) and how even as a six-month-old baby barak picked some of it up. he still carries it around with him, which is partly why i think it is so hard for him to be in israel.

there is also a much larger military presence in jerusalem. again, i'm not sure if it's always like this or if there is more now. i guess today i do know that it was especially guarded because muslims had called for a "day of wrath" in reaction to the gaza situation. i found that out over bagels this morning with our friends daniel and julie and their kids. oh fun, a day of wrath to get the new year started! and we were planning to go to the west bank to check out the dead sea. everyone assured us that the road we would take is israeli controlled and "perfectly safe," but all the little groups of three or four soldiers with guns at random points along the way was not comforting.

as we were trying to find our way out of jerusalem, which took a very long time, we kept coming across signs for tel aviv. my mind was saying, maybe we should just go back, but i kept my mouth shut. but after about 20 minutes and still not finding the right way out of the city, i said to barak, maybe all these tel aviv signs are telling us something. turns out they were. we decided to follow them and finally found the highway to the dead sea...

there is so much more to say, but i'm feeling really exhausted. can't say everything all at once. i guess the final note for this post is just that i feel sad for the people that live here and have to experience this tension as a regular part of their lives. it must be very painful. it is an incredibly complicated situation and there are no clear or easy answers.

...by a

:'(