Lost? Who's lost?

Everyone should find themselves lost in a foreign country at least once.  And to add to the fun, they should not know the local language(s).  I’m not sure why, maybe just so I won’t be the only one.  Once again, I thought I knew where I was going, and in the end, I wasn't really that far off.  But in the dark, walking up hill, with an abbreviated map…at least things didn't go horribly wrong, just not right.  I thought I had learned my lesson when it came to abbreviated maps when I found myself accidentally in Arkansas once, and then completely lost in Memphis.  But I digress.   So, there I am, I got on the right bus, got off at the correct stop, in my hand the annotated abbreviated map, the one I annotated with  the help of the google map online, my healing blisters securely taped and my hopes high that coming this far, I was finally going to the school to join in an official event, actually this event, http://www.timesofisrael.com/jews-and-arabs-take-a-walk/

But it was not to be.  Once again Google maps and the aforementioned abbreviated map, boasting itself as “the most up-to-date Jerusalem City Map” (undated) led me astray.  Not being familiar with meters, I just kept walking, sure that the turn was ahead.  When I did turn at the first road, it was into a Muslim neighborhood.  I stopped in at a little bodega (I’m sure that’s not what they call them but you know what I mean) and the nice man behind the counter called to the nice man in the car and because I knew to say Yad b’ Yad, his face lit up and he told me I’d come too far and would I like a ride.  Well, I promised several people back home that I specifically would not take rides from strangers and this seemed the right time to keep that promise.  I thanked him and said I could call my friends who were waiting for me which was true. 

I’ll spare you the uphill drama that came next, because as soon as I was able to reach the folks from the school, I turned around and walked downhill, just as far.  As I was coming across a bridge, I looked to my left and saw the soccer stadium that is my point of reference.  Turning to my right I saw, of course, the school where I stood last February looking at the Soccer Stadium and the parkway below, the park that follows the old railway line that shadowed the 1949 Armistice Agreement Line.  At this point the walk is almost over, the end point is somewhere else, and people have other places to go, but now I was on a quest.  Seeing my goal, I managed to find the little walk way that I had missed the first time past expecting a road.  I walked to the school, and this is what it looks like at night when no one is there…

Tomorrow, I will make the journey again but this time without the flawed maps of men.  I now know three bus lines that will get me there in plenty of time for the 11AM Opening Ceremony.  After the Opening of the new school year, I’ll be heading over to the offices to meet and visit with the staff.  I’ll have a guide this time, I’m fairly certain I won’t get lost.