Ramparts Walk
Around the city walls there is a small slightly frightening raised
walk way that you can pay about 8 shekels and walk around the whole old city.
The day we went as a small group it was so cold and windy and started to rain
at the end but it was still super cool! We stopped at the lookout above Jaffa
gate and ate lunch overlooking the city and had an excellent view of the Dome
over the Rock. Whilst eating lunch the prayer call rung out from every mosque
in sight. It was deafening but I think that the prayer call is one of the
coolest (maybe not at 5 in the morning) sounds to hear! While we were walking
on the rampart we ran into some older ladies from Europe who were all traveling
together. They asked us to sing America’s National Anthem. She stopped us once
we got to, “…o’er the ramparts we watched…” She got so excited about us singing
about ramparts while we were on a rampart, cute huh?
Free Day
This past Monday we had a free day and I wondered around the
city making our way to the Shook. The walk to the Shook only takes about 40
minutes but we turned it into a 2 hour walk to it. Along the way we met these
high school kids whose teacher “had a stomach ache” so they were out of school
making a movie. They asked Dan in our group to do some back flips (he was
showing off earlier in the park and they saw him) and to take pictures with us.
Only one of them really spoke English the rest of them would just laugh every time
we talked. They were hilarious!
We found the Shook after a few pit stops and just wondered.
The Shook is a big outdoor market that is kind of like a flea market but
classy. It reminded of some of the streets in the old city but cleaner and more
variety. They had big tea stores with all the herbal tea out in big containers,
bread stores, restaurants, candy shops, lots and lots of vegetables and fruit
stands, and clothing stores.
Seder Meal
This week was our Jewish cultural week. My last post was all
about the Yad Veshim the holocaust museum that we went to and we ended to the
week with a Seder meal! It was about 3 hours long with lots of singing! It was
fun! I am still constantly amazed here about how open the devotion the different
faiths have to their strong beliefs.
Actually I lied the last thing to end the Jewish week was
going out to Synagogue last night. It’s a school and a synagogue that was
started by families that couldn’t find a school they thought suitable for their
kids. The ones that I met who started the place were from America, but I don’t
think all of them were. The lady that talked to us about the history of the synagogue
and school was fascinating! She came here after being a principle in California
for 17 or 19 years with her husband because they wanted to contribute the
building up a Jewish nation. They school was founded and she is a very open and
innovative teacher it sounded like. The school was the first to bring in
Autistic children into a regular school and incorporate them fully. Before
these kids were brought into these schools they were sent to an institution for
all handicaps both mental and physical and given no advantageous attention to
further growth or learning. Basically at these school they did not have a
teacher assigned to the autistic children but had children helping children and
the results they saw in the school was phenomenal. She said that when the kids
have an adult with him as an aid sometimes they are shown too much “mercy” by
the adult and therefore sometimes do not grow. When another child is leading
them the child encourage them to stretch themselves and grow. They implemented
the program throughout Israel she said. Some of the children they took in are
now prominent lawyers, physicians, and business owners in the community. They
first started the program in the early 80’s I believe.
The other story she told us that I just though was amazing,
but really had nothing to do with but had relevance in her life because the
story cam full circle for her a few days before and she had being thinking
about it and wanted to share. She said that one morning 31 years ago she went
outside the school to make sure all the children had made it in when she heard
what she though was a baby cry. She asked the secretary if she heard the noise
too and she did but thought it was a cat. She went out further and decided it
was definitely the cries of a new infant. She followed the cry to the field
right by the school and found a brand new baby with the umbilical cord still attached
with ants and cats around him. She picked him and took him inside to clean him
off and called the police. They came and took the baby and after a few days she
called them to find out what happened. The police did not who the mother was
but thought she must had been a student from Hebrew University (the dorms are
right next to this synagogue/school) and also though she was American because
the skirt that the baby was wrapped in was an American brand. That’s all they
could deduce I guess from what they had. Fast-forward 31 years and earlier that
week she received a call from a man asking who the principle was 31 years ago.
She told him that it was her and asked he wanted to know. He told her that he
was that baby she found and asked if he could come meet her talk with her. He
brought his wife and kids with him to meet her. He told her that he had been
adopted and was named Shy which means present or gift in Hebrew. He expressed
to her why his mother had thrown her away and she had a really neat perspective
on that. She said that she never thought that his mother had never thrown him
away but left him in a place where she knew he would be found and have a better
chance. Any way I thought it was a really touching story!!
