israel

We had a well deserved beach afternoon in Tel Aviv. The kids made sand donut holes and sand art.
Jesse and I took little naps then watched people. The first photo is of Muslim women- a grandmother, mother and daughter. From what I have learned – some Muslims believe that Muslim women should be fully covered starting when they reach puberty so as not to attract the attention of men. Sometimes this is the woman’s choice and sometimes a dominant male figure makes the decision for her. In some places we visited, women were completely covered- with not even the eyes showing. I don’t want to go off on a tangent with this, but this does make me think of women as being property in some instances. Are we suppose to believe that all men can’t control themselves when they see a woman’s hair, ankle or shoulder? What about when a father withholds the right to an education from his daughter in the name of religion? The more it’s in my face, the more I wonder how much power (if any) some of these women have to make their own decisions.

Here are some photos of our “accomodations” at the Tel Aviv airport. Looks like Emerson is dreaming of being back in Cairo with the mummies!
This arrangement provided much more legroom than we had the night before- we had to sleep in a car in Jerusalem (long story.) The next day we found a public bathroom to freshen up in. You can see in some of the photos taken in Jerusalem and Bethlehem- we are looking worse than usual (didn’t know that was possible.) ha!

We stopped to eat some pita and hummus on a cobblestone street in Jerusalem. We set out a sarong and made it like a nice little picnic. We were taking in the whole scene- there were people on once in a lifetime pilgrimages and there were others bartering with shopkeepers. All of a sudden, a boy on a bike whips around a corner and almost runs into a lady outside of a store in front of us. She screeches (extremely loud) “Jesus Christ, you Jackass!!!” I started laughing like crazy. I know I’ve been to that point on this trip- when reserves are low, and I’m hungry and tired, but I am proud to say that I haven’t lost it like that….at least not yet. There are crucifixes everywhere, people are praying, some are crying tears of joy because they’ve made it to this holy place, the spot where Jesus was crucified is, literally, 100 feet away and this woman just screamed at the top of her lungs “Jesus Christ!” I would not have been surprised if people’s ears started to bleed! I don’t know why, but I live for stuff like that- those awkward, weird, raw spurts of unedited emotion where everyone witnessing the exchange becomes part of the moment.
I also loved that she used the word ‘jackass.’ It is a word I don’t hear very often, but when it is well placed- it is pure comedy gold!