15/1 and 17/1: Tel Aviv

The place that I am staying is about half an hour in a car from Tel Aviv. I have been to Tel Aviv on my own two times. But before I tell more about that feel like ranting about Hebrew. Hebrew is a completely different alphabet than the Latin alphabet that we use in most of Europe and the rest of the world. But unlike languages like Mandarin or Hindi where the written word is beautiful, Hebrew seems like nothing more than lines (much like Latin really, but those lines I know!), lines that I can’t even begin to understand. Which is probably why it frustrates me so much, street signs and bus stops only in Hebrew doesn’t help me at all, even if I know how to say it. Luckily the street signs in Tel Aviv are also in English. The first time I went to Tel Aviv on my own I went to the Diaspora museum because a book I have called: a 1000 places to see before you die, mentions this one. It tells the story about Jews in the Diaspora by focusing on major aspects of Jewish life like family, community, faith, culture among the nations and the return to Zion. It has a lot of beautiful models of synagogues from all over the world, many of which were destroyed during World War II. After that I took a bike, Tel Aviv has a wonderful biking system with bikes practically everywhere in the city – you can borrow a bike from any station and leave it at any other station, and went to the waterfront. From there I biked down toward the kids’ father’s workplace as he would be giving me a lift back with him. On the way while I was enjoying the view a guy came over, he was older than my father, bald and kind of chubby, he started talking to me and I really didn’t want to talk to him so I stayed polite for a few moments until he saw my phone and asked if I wanted his number, then I just raced off. He yelled: “we could also make love!” after me, I just stepped on it a bit more. Today I also went to Tel Aviv this time through the city, but mostly the waterfront down to Jaffa, Yafo or whatever you want to call it. I also biked most of the way today, until I was in the old part of Jaffa from where I walked up and there I had an ice-cream and enjoyed the last of the sunshine. It is Friday today, which means that by sunset it will be the Shabbat, which in turn means that there won’t be any public transportation. I thought that it didn’t stop before sunset, but it stops at 2 pm. I didn’t go there before 1 pm, so I would have had to take a bus straight back. So they had to come and get me and I said that I thought there would be something later, but then the father was like: “no, I told you that they end early on Friday.” I just thought, well great, you saw me leaving a little before 1 pm, you could have figured out I wouldn’t have made it with a bus back at 2 pm! But never mind, I had a nice day. When I was waiting for him two people started conversations with me. The first scared away some pigeons and then he asked if it was his fault, we agreed that it was since I was standing still, after a little more talk we went on our way. A little while after another guy came up to me, he, like the other one, started off in Hebrew. “You don’t speak Hebrew?” I answered in the negative and then he asked me where I am from and went on to show me pictures of a trip he took to Denmark. But by then the father was there to pick me up.

10/1, 11/1 and 12/1: Bible Lands

This weekend I was in Jerusalem. I hadn’t planned to go, but the day before I decided to do it and booked a place to stay and then I was off, and all of a sudden I was there. I saw the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, the Temple Mount, the Mount of Olives, Via Dolorosa and all those places in the old city that means so much to so many different religions.  Christianity, Islam and Judaism for all of them Jerusalem is sacred, especially the old city. The old city is divided into quarters: the Muslim quarter, the Christian quarter, the Jewish quarter and the Armenian quarter. It seemed incredible how all these religions appear to be working together in a small place like the old city because they all seem to understand that for the others it is also a holy place, not just for them. The place I stayed was a little hostel practically on the temple mount, or at least right next to it! Which also means that the Western Wall is really close. Because I am not a Muslim I can’t just go to the temple mount, but it was open on Sunday morning so I got to see it anyway and it is spectacular, like the rest of the old city. I meet some people at the hostel that I spent Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday morning with. It was really nice to have someone to share it all with, because it is rather overwhelming. Somehow, all of a sudden, it all wasn’t just stories that I’ve heard more times than I can count, you walk the same steps as history. We walked the old city, the armaments, to the top of the Mount of Olives. I heard of something called the Jerusalem syndrome, where people who come to Jerusalem all of a sudden think they are back in biblical times. Israel has Nazareth, Jerusalem, Bethlehem (Palestine), Jericho etc. all these places I have heard about since I was little. I understand why it gets too much for some, when so much of history, religion, becomes real.   

Thoughts on Israel, bilingualism etc.

This December a few weeks after I got back from Kenya a grandmother asked if I would like to go to Israel to help with her two grandchildren. I didn’t get a lot of consideration time, but decided to go, she would be paying the ticket and I would see some of Israel, so I didn’t see why I shouldn’t. I have now been here over a week and I have under a week left. The day after I got here it was the Shabbat, though I didn’t see much proof of that in the park by the water that I was in. everybody was running, fishing, cycling, nobody seemed to be able to hold still on their one day off from work. Apparently everybody who lives in Israel (and are Jews) has to join the military. Men for three years and women for two years, which means that it seems no matter where you look there will be soldiers. Eighteen year olds running around with guns like it can’t kill. The two grandchildren have a Danish mother and an Israeli father. Their mother speaks Danish with them and their father Hebrew, so they are bilingual. The oldest is four and when the other children in the kindergarten started to speak he was annoyed that he couldn’t form words as easily as they could. The youngest is one and a half and the few words he has are mostly Hebrew, but it is amazing to see how he understand each language equally well. The boys also communicate in Hebrew when they are playing and are annoyed at one another. The two words the youngest says the most are “dig” and something that sounds like “mig”. In Danish the first one means you and the second me, but in Hebrew the first one is said as a sort of insult meaning something like stop it, but they use it mostly to annoy one another. The other means water, though as I have heard it more it sounds more like “mein.”  But it is funny how the two things mean different things in the languages, so when the eldest says “dig” when he is speaking Danish, even if he means it in Hebrew, it doesn’t seem like such an insult. I really have to get used to the whole Shabbat thing, Saturday is like Sunday and Sunday is like any other normal day!

29/11: Going home

Everything went well going home, a lot of airports, airplanes, talking, I saw a few movies, slept, put pepper in my tea and drank it anyway, in Istanbul a guy who had called me ten times or something the previous night, whom I had met at the Blue Post before going to the fourteen falls, he had wanted my number I didn’t want to give it, but relented since I wouldn’t use it much longer, called me again and I agreed to send him a text with my name and Danish number before hanging up – I just turned off my phone straight away, afraid he might call back when he realized I never intended to send him that text. I meet some volunteers I know from Tanzania also going home to Denmark, talked to a Swedish guy who wanted to know if he was the right place and got on my flight home. There I got my bag and said goodbye to the others before going to meet my family who were waiting for me just past a set of doors.

28/11: Fourteen falls

I got up this morning and had some breakfast before going for a walk to look at the waterfalls and around the hotel. Then I wanted to go to the fourteen falls, the receptionist remembered and asked me before I had a change to say anything and she arranged transport for me. Both to the falls and to Nairobi. It was quite incredible, though I ended up paying way too much, the guide really ripped me off. But it seemed like it would go to a good cause. So I let him. We started by going over in a boat to get closer to the falls, it was kind of like a little island, without being an island. There was so much trash it is crazy, I hope some of my money goes to cleaning this place up, but I doubt it. Then we went up to the river above/before the falls to look at it from that side and to get across. At first I thought we would just jump from stone to stone lie I have tried before, but no. we had to get into the water as well and the only reason I didn’t fall was that I had two strong guys holding my hands to keep me steady. It was really fun, but would probably be more fun if there had been less water. I am glad I did it before going home tomorrow. Afterwards we drove to Nairobi where the driver dropped me, I then had lunch before Peter came and took me to the guesthouse. I am still here just waiting to go to the airport at 1 am. So excited!

27/11: Plan in Tharaka

The breakfast more than made up for this place’s price, if I come here again I won’t eat dinner to have more room for breakfast. My Plan driver, Bedan, was only half an hour late in picking me up from the hotel. Then we started our journey with a quick, though nothing is quick in Nairobi, visit to the Plan office to drop off some papers. After 4.5 hours we were in Marimanti, Tharaka, by then it was 12.30 pm. The program was planned to start at 10 am. How they thought I could make that I don’t know. On the turn-off to Marimanti we had picked up a Peace Corps guy working in the area who wanted to know more about Plan’s work in the area. At first they thought he was with me, but we quickly straightened it out – though he was referred to as my friend for the rest of the day.  I met a few of the staff before I set off with Bedan, Vincent and Kendy. We had two school visits planned for the day. By the time we got to the first one we were three hours late. I could have told them that if they knew it takes 4.5 hours and even if we left on time we still would not have made it there at 10. At the first school there is more than 300 students normally, but as it is a vacation now, I had counted on it being next week, only 30 had shown up for me from class 6 and 7. The school has some nice buildings that Plan has made and also some water tanks because there is no river nearby so they are completely dependent on rainwater. The 30 girls that were there were patiently waiting for me to come and talk with them, but they were painstakingly shy – laughing when I said something, I apparently spoke too fast for them so they needed time to digest. A small group of nine wanted to speak with me more personally. Before I could really speak with them like I wanted to we had to go to the other school. We drove an hour to get there and they had gone home. So I took some pictures and we drove the hour and a half back to Marimanti where we got some late lunch/early dinner. Back at the office they had to clear a few policy issues before we could go as we would be travelling at night. We left there at 6 pm, me with lots of things to tell, but I have to tell them right so wait a little while and wait for them at plan-future.blogspot.com. A little after 9 pm I was at the Blue Post Hotel in Thika, my lodgings for the night. I picked it because it is situated between two falls – Thika fall and Chania fall. I want to go to the fourteen falls which is a little outside of Thika tomorrow. It was nice to go to sleep listening to the sound of the waterfalls.

26/11: The beginning of the end

Today I finished packing and relaxed until lunch. After lunch some of the PA employees and the father/taxi driver who had been worried about me the other day came. One of them is going all the way to Nairobi with me. I didn’t know what to do about my computer and I started telling the other employee about it when she exclaimed: “oh, thank you!” and just like that I had given it to her. I started to explain that it is broken, to that she said that if she can’t get it to work she would use it as wall decoration. So I am sure it will be put to good use either way. Then I was on my way to Nairobi, a trip that went as well as usual. In Nairobi Peter, the PA taxi driver of Nairobi, was waiting for us. He took me to Silver Springs Hotel where I will be staying one night on Plan. Though it turns out they haven’t been able to pay the bill, so I have to pay myself and then they will send me the money later. It is a very nice room, but they could have saved themselves a lot of money on something just as nice, but less luxurious. I watched some tv and then I went down to the buffet to get some dinner. It was really good. Then I watched some TPF6 and two and a half men before I went to sleep.