Faculty Field Trip Prep

The first semester of the year we are here, the faculty have to go on field trips together a few days before every scheduled field trip in order to prepare for the field trips with the students. This is a heavy drain on time, but a necessary evil for the faculty that haven't been here before and need to have some familiarity with the locations and logistics before they shepherd forty or so students along. But the second semester those faculty field trip preps become an opportunity for the faculty--and sometimes their wives--to go see some cool stuff that they don't take the students to see. Due to workload, there have been fewer prep trips than Ed and I would have liked, but we did have one great trip to Jericho.

An Nabi Musi

On the road to Jericho, turn right off into the desert about 2 kilometers and you will come to an old caravanserai that is now the traditional Muslim burial site of Moses. It is built in a square, with a courtyard in the middle, and with stone stables all around the inside and stone rooms on the level above.   Looking out from those upstairs rooms you see nothing but dry desert and blue sky. The center courtyard probably used to hold a big fountain, but now is the site of a mosque and cenotaph (the sarcophagus where Moses' body supposedly lies).

Looking into the center courtyard from the stairway up to the "hotel rooms".

Moses' supposed resting place. We are only allowed to look through the window.

Hisham's Palace

This is a Muslim-era palace with incredible mosaics, one of the largest ever discovered, and one of the most famous, depicting the tree of life. We were lucky enough to be there on a day when the dig team had just arrived, headed up by University of Chicago's Don Whitcomb. Don himself took us around and explained all sorts of things about the dig and what they had discovered. It was fascinating to watch them brush away the dirt from a pot they had just uncovered, as well as a mosaic floor. If I hadn't already know how boring archaeology is most of the time, this could experience could have converted me.

Left to right (or back to front): Don Whitcomb, Aaron Schade, Kent Jackson, and Frank Judd. The columns from the palace are still standing (or perhaps reconstructed?) in the left background.

The Russian Cultural Center
Probably in order to gain a political foothold in Jericho, Russia gave millions of dollars to build a huge museum complex. There are two problems, however: first, they only have a few hundred artifacts, many of which are very very small--hence a huge beautiful marble building that is nearly empty; second, the docents don't understand anything about their collection. When we visited they were very excited to ask the professors all about the items on display, to see if they could learn something. It was a surreal experience.

Ed wanted his picture taken in front of this photograph. I don't know why.

Wadi Qelt
The best part of the day was the hike down to St. George's monastery in the valley known as Wadi Qelt. It was built in the sixth century AD and is still actively inhabited by a Greek Orthodox order of monks. I, for one, am continually astonished at what people built without modern machinery.

Our first glimpse of the monastery, built into the side of the cliff. Kent Jackson on the left, Ed on the right.

Ed and I, just a little farther around the corner.

Lovely ironwork decorations.

It was a beautiful, sunny, cool day, and due to all the snow we'd had at Christmas there was a stunning amount of water in the streambed feeding an incredible amount of green vegetation.

Looking down the valley from above the monastery, I assume this is a pump house of some kind.

A hermitage just next to the main monastery, for the monk who felt called to be even more separate from humanity.

It was a beautiful time of year to visit, even though we arrived after visiting hours and couldn't  tour inside.

Just Playin' Around

We spent a lot of time touring and field tripping the first semester, enough, in fact, that for the most part we've enjoyed staying home and just living a normal sort of life these last few months. We'll become tourists again come Summer term, especially when the kids (and I!) get out of school, and we start to feel anxious about the way our last few weeks are slipping away. 

Linda and Emily Judd got creative one day with the construction paper and made fairy princess wings and crowns.

Plastic bag races down the hallway!

Linda already loves talking on the phone...

Our Closest Park

Abby and Joe's preschool is part of a hospital and humanitarian aid complex that houses UNRWA and a number of other charity organizations. Someone also donated money to build this playground next to the hospital. It's a bit run down, but there is little trash and the kids like it. On one of the many school holidays I dragged the kids away from the TV and made them come to the park for an hour. What I like most about this place is that we always meet Arab kids who are anxious to try out their English and who are very excited to play with my blond-haired kids. I try to learn new Arabic words when I go.

A cool car. Unfortunately, the seats are just a little too high for Abby and Joe.

Abby and Linda posing on the mermaid. Ignore the trash in the pools underneath (I was praying they wouldn't fall in).

Tzurim Valley Walk
The Jerusalem Center is located on the south end of the Mount of Olives, which the Israeli Parks Authority has turned into a lovely walk. Unfortunately it's somewhat unsafe after dark, but it's a great place to take the family on a sunny afternoon when you don't want to have to get into the car to go anywhere.

Linda waiting for us to catch up while Daddy talked to some local kids who were infatuated with Joe. Obviously Abby didn't even notice we weren't with her and went barreling on ahead.

We discovered that under the upper rock layer, the Mount of Olives has the same soft chalky limestone as we saw in Bet Guvrin and the huge bell caves. The kids were trying to enlarge this existing cave, but we ran out of time.

Gan Hamifletzet a.k.a. The Monster Park
This is located quite a ways from our house, but it's totally worth the drive. Too bad people have used the room up at the top of the slides as a bathroom--it was really stinky up there! But those slides were so fast that Mary and Isaac were the only ones who could go down on their own. Very fun!

Fun Faces
Just for fun:

The gross stuff all over is humus mixed with ketchup. This boy likes to dip everything he eats.

Abby and Sister Schade watching a movie in the Student Lounge.

Abby in Pink.

Jerusalem Center Concert Series

Almost every Sunday evening there is a world-class concert in the Auditorium on the 8th floor. Great acoustics and an incredible view. The concerts are open to the public and they are always full.

Mom and Dad can have fun too

Me with Jolynn Williams, a member of the branch and mother of Ivan, Isaac's buddy. We like to go see the sights during the day when the kids are gone. I wish I could see we did it regularly, but life always seems to get in the way. 

One of the BYU students this semester is Camilla Summers (2nd from the right). She was four years old when I was a missionary in Appleton, Wisconsin where she lived. After she told me who she was, I remembered her and her parents, and then I got to see her parents again when they came to visit Israel in February. Camilla also got her mission call while her parents were visiting, going to Russia Novosibirsk. Amazing how life seems to move in circles. (Why do Ed and I both look so geeky in this picture and the Summers look so cute?)

We had another blast from the past when Ken and Emily Taylor came to Israel for a work trip. Ken and Ed were home teaching companions in Chicago when Emily and I lived in Washington D.C back when we were dating (or about to date). The men came to D.C. together to visit us and we all eventually ended up married. It was really great to see them again. I'd forgotten how fun it was to spend time with them. I hope we'll see them again before 10 more years pass.

President Obama's visit to Israel shut down the city, snarled traffic, and mostly kept us indoors for three days. But it was fun to have him visit while we were here.

Ed took the kids rock climbing for a youth activity. It was weekly exercise for him back in Provo, and I think going with the youth made him really miss it.

I thought I'd jump on potty training early with Joe and bought him a potty seat. He thought it was super cool, so cool, in fact, that when it got poop in it he screamed and cried until I cleaned it out. How dare we defile his seat with poop! Now I'm not sure exactly how to move forward. Maybe we'll just have to start with the regular toilet.

Giving Joe a ride on his throne.

Joe learning to throw the frisbee.

A painfully honest moment

I was waiting in my car at a stoplight one afternoon in November, when a boy that looks about 14 approaches my car with a sponge to wash my window. As he gives me the questioning eyebrow, I mouth the word "no," shake my head and wave my hands at him. He looks at me, pretending not to understand, and comes closer with the sponge. I begin to feel frustrated, because I know that everyone in this country understands the word "NO," so I say it a little louder, shake my head a little stronger, and wave my hands a little wider. But the boy continues to feign ignorance and begins to wipe my windshield. What can I do? He has pulled the wiper blade away from my windshield and there is soap everywhere, so it's not like I can just honk and he will go away. I feel angry at being trapped by his deceit, yet as he continues to wash my windshield I think to myself, "What 14 year-old boy stands on a street corner, trying to wash windows in the hot afternoon sun, just for fun? No boys that I know of. Perhaps he really needs money and this is the only way he knows to get it. Why isn't he in school? Perhaps he has no parents. Perhaps his parents can't or won't provide for him. What would it hurt me to give him 10 shekels? He looks like a nice kid. Maybe I've lived too many years in a city, being solicited by beggars, and I've lost the Christlike compassion I should feel."

As all these thoughts are going through my mind, the boy finishes my window, and I must confess, it looks pretty good. Of course, the Jerusalem Center staff had just washed and vacuumed my car the day before, so it didn't really need it, but at least the boy had used clean water and a squeegee instead of a dirty rag. Then he comes around to the driver's side window, puts his face down close and holds out his hand. I feel at this moment the fear that comes from being confronted by a stranger who wants something from me. I know what I look like through the windshield of my nice new BYU car--white and wealthy. And this young stranger is standing very close to me and my children, with his hand out. The fear and the frustration that come from being manipulated overwhelms my Christian reasoning and shaking my head I say through the window "I told you no in the first place. No! I won't pay you!" He backs away, the light turns green, and I accelerate through the intersection.

I feel terrible. I wanted to assume the best of this boy--I wanted to be Good--and I didn't because I was afraid and angry. As I drive, I realize I have to turn around to get into the nearby gas station, and in my embarrassment, and because of my sadness both for the boy and for myself, I consider stopping at the corner to give him some money. But as I come closer, I see him asking another driver if he can wash his window. This driver also waves him away, but he is a local, and of the same ethnic group as the boy. And the boy doesn't push it; he just walks away. This driver is not a white, female foreigner whose gender, language barrier or colonialist compassion can be taken advantage of. So instead of stopping, I drive past him to the gas station with my 10 shekels.

Months later, I still feel sad that I let fear and anger determine my actions. I know what I should have done:

    "And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
     Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
     For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
     And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another" (Mosiah 4:16-21).

Holy Week/Spring Break 2013

The week of Passover--Holy Week for Christians--always coincides with Spring Break for Israeli schools. Unfortunately for the Stratfords, it also coincided with the flu and the chicken pox. I had at least one kid in bed sick every day from the Thursday before Spring Break until the Wednesday after. It was actually pretty good timing, because it was a relief not having to make sure anyone got to school or lessons or anything. We all lost track of our days and nights, watched a whole lot of television, and disinfected everything over and over again.  Best of all, Abby's chicken pox were extremely mild, and she was over them in just a few days. We kept Joe under quarantine for a couple weeks after Abby's break-out, just in case he might catch them, but he had had his first immunization, so he never manifested any pox. Nevertheless, I was really glad when it was all over, mostly because if we had continued to be sick we couldn't have gone to Galilee the following weekend. And it would have been truly tragic to be stuck in the Jerusalem Center while all the other students and families were playing on the beach at En Gev Resort. 

A picture of Abby's pox, which were so mild you can hardly see them. I considered also including a picture of someone throwing up, but decided to spare you.

By the Easter weekend everyone was mostly better. Mary was yet to develop the flu (the next day she woke up with it), but Easter Saturday (our Sabbath) itself was free from visible infection. I couldn't take Abby and Joe to church, so we took an Easter walk around the grounds in our Sabbath clothes. The kids smelled flowers, played in the stream, and threw rocks in the bushes. The Jerusalem Center gardeners are wonderful, and there were flowers in bloom everywhere. The birds were singing, and it was a sunny 70 degrees outside. It was perhaps the nicest Easter "service" I've ever been privy to. 

Some beautiful flowers in the newly-renovated Biblical garden.
I should have panned up a little and got Abby fully in the frame.

Abby likes to water the flowers.

After church, the kids and I colored eggs, thanks to the family who lived in the apartment before us. They had left a Paas coloring kit from America in the cupboard, and the kids really enjoyed using it.

Fun faces.

Then, because we had no Easter baskets, I found a fairly easy pattern on the web and we each wove a small basket out of paper, plus a couple extras for Dad and Joe. It turned out to be a really fun activity, and the kids decided we should make our own baskets every year. However, they demanded that next time we try a more sturdy model so they could get more and heavier gifts from the Easter Bunny.

I think the most amazing thing about the afternoon was the fact that my kids actually did two craft activities one after the other without losing interest, giving up, starting a fight, or making a mess. People always told me that one day they would grow up and it would get easier, and I guess it really is true!

I was particularly impressed with Abby's ability to figure out when a strip was supposed to go over and when it was supposed to go under. Smart AND cute!

Hard at work!

After we finished making the baskets, we went down to the playground are to have an Easter Egg hunt. Last year's family had also left some foam and sticker craft eggs in the cupboard for us to find, so we took turns hiding those around the lawn and playground.  

Hunting for eggs.

The baskets also doubled as great hats.

Joe enjoyed playing at the playground as much as hunting for eggs.

Just for fun, here are a few more pictures of the cutest toddler in the whole world:

Easter morning: not a big haul by American standards, but the kids were satisfied (thank goodness).

Because the kids were sick, Ed and I missed out on a lot of the Holy Week activities, such as the Palm Sunday Walk. (We're going to try to hit the Orthodox Easter festivities the first weekend in May.) Ed made it to the Holy Thursday service at the Garden of Gethsemane, followed by a candlelit walk to Caiaphas' house. Then on Sunday morning, I got up early and went to the sunrise Easter service at the Garden Tomb. There were two thousand people there, and I was sitting where I couldn't see the band (yes, I said the band), the preacher, or the tomb. But it was meaningful to be there, singing and worshipping with people from all over the world. Despite the difficult and tiring week dealing with the flu and chicken pox, Easter weekend turned out to be very rewarding. Even though I missed a lot of the traditional celebrating throughout the week, I had a wonderful Easter with my family.

Some of the BYU students (Jessica, Rachel, Katie and Spencer) along the alleyway leading to the Garden. 

After the service with Megan from Seminary and BYU students Meg, Tori, Courtney and Kari.

A sample of the sermon at the Easter Service. I should have recorded the singing!

Mary's Day

For Mary's special field trip day, she wanted to do Hezekiah's Tunnel. The tunnel walk is only about 20 minutes long, and she had to endure 2 1/2 hours of other stuff before she could get in the tunnel--boring stuff like archaeological explanations, a 3D explanatory movie, and walking two kilometers. But I think she enjoyed the day nonetheless. I know she was at least happy to get a free day off of school!

I wanted to take a picture of her in this niche.

That meant she demanded the right to take a picture of me sitting on this rock.

She was bored during one of the explanations, so she took pictures of flowers to pass the time.

Here's Dad, sitting and waiting for everyone to finish in the tunnel.
He's actually sitting on an old sarcophagus (an ancient coffin).

After Mary made it out of the tunnel, she wanted to play around near the water. (The water in the tunnel is a spring--much cleaner than the muddy stuff at the end.) You can't see it in this photo, but she is wet all the way to her waist. 

The end of Hezekiah's Tunnel is also the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus told the blind man to go and wash his eyes to receive his sight (John 9). Here's Ed teaching the story.

Mary wasn't all that interested in listening to her Dad talk, so she sat on the sarcophagus and cleaned her feet. 

A very old and cool-looking olive tree.

On the old City of David ridge, to the South of the Temple Mount and just below Hezekiah's Tunnel is an old rock quarry. Here you see Mary lying on a stone that was partly cut for use in building. It is roughly the size of the stones used in the retaining wall around the Temple Mount, so perhaps that is where it was originally intended to be used.

Mary with Lizzy Van de Graff, the student who was her buddy through the tunnel. Lizzy has the brightest smile, and is one of the finest violinists I've ever had the privilege to know. Apparently she can also whistle a concerto!