Apologies for the gap in time. In the last week I spent most of each day internally fighting some sort of food poisoning or gastroenteritis. I thought it would be exciting to look up and “celebrate” my Hebrew birthday as well as my English one, but the former was spent in a medical clinic with an IV. In short, I'm feeling better, and in sickness as well as health, I have been indulging in the seasonal offering of sufganiot! During my sickness, I still found time to see HP 7 p1, as well as the Western Wall Tunnel Tours. There was also a very festive and warm Thanksgiving meal, filled with heated up apple juice and light night Skype chats with the family.
This weekend brought me twenty minutes outside of Jerusalem to a neighborhood high in the Judean Hills called Har Adar (a play of the word radar, which rests near the peak of the mountain there). I stayed with Batya, the Kivuim Israel coordinator, her gentle and kitchen-expert of a husband Amir, and their darling Eliah, who's first English birthday was on Saturday.
There's a line, “some people live simply, so others can simply live.” This young family succeeds at both, while finding great pleasure in their lives and in eachother. They live in a rented extension of someone's house, with a beautiful backyard overlooking the mountains, local Arab villages, as well as Jerusalem and Ramallah. At least three times over the course of the weekend I heard the wailing muezzin echoing down below. Additionally, I arrived half an hour after a big birthday party took place, so there were plenty of leftovers, including an interesting desert treat called cremeschnitte, basically a very light doughy layered cake with cream inside.
The weekend consisted of a sequence of praying, eating, singing, playing with Eliah, sleeping, and walking to the playground. The night made me feel like I was on an airplane, since at any moment, Eliah can wake up the house, eager for food, water etc., but that's the only way I know babies operate. I have to add that there was a fantastic cashew soup Amir made, and I'd never seen a baby obediently eat so much of any type of food. She loved it!
Shabbat I woke at 6:30 to the birthday girl with a fever. Batya and I went to the park, and then more napping, eating, singing...you get my drift. On the walk back from the park, I visited the lookout at the peak of the mountain, from which I could see basically from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. The rising and falling of the hills, and the contrast between dry brown hills and lush green ones descended into the sunset.
After Shabbat ended, Eliah got a lesson in brushing teeth, since incoming teeth is why Batya thinks she's getting a fever.
Then we said goodbye...
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