Holy Moley, What a mess!

It's been a while, and I don't know if anyone will be 'alerted' to a new post, but I wrote this for the Patient and Family Advisory council, a group of special people that I work with, but who I have been separated from as this pandemic wrecks its havoc.

As and unexpected introvert (yeah, that's me) I am probably doing ok, and yet, as introverted as I am, I love community (I guess that's the unexpected part, who knows)

I am finding things to do, like making different types of masks, not medically efficient, but not bad either.  Working on a model now with a denim exterior and cotton lining.  Got bandana rubber band and classic style with different sides so you know which one was facing out  if you have to take it off and reuse.  Our Son's love has a compromised immune system, as in one epi pen is usually not enough, so she's been quarantine since before Colorado locked down, she's become my hero, making masks for medical and food service friends.

I'm not cleaning and organizing as other more virtuous folks are (I'm sure I'll be sorry when this time is past, or maybe it will last long enough that I'll feel I must clean or be mocked by actual clean homemakers) but I'm working on my Japanese, which will be just as unusable as it was when I first took it. Guess I can re-watch all those Japanese language movies.   (And maybe get a job with Aisen when this is all over.)

I have a bad habit of starting the next book before I finish the last, so I'm trying to finish all those books, (seriously, there are probably 20 in a variety of subjects that are stacked on my night stand in a first come first served rotation unless I find another book like Mark Levin's UnFreedom of the press, which is actually on my iPad)  this is a mixed blessing.  Dark Agenda, Hiroshima (personal accounts of the aftermath of the end of the war with Japan), and No Traveler Returns (personal accounts of the Warsaw Ghetto at the end of WWII) , along with Greg Gutfeld's Not Cool are not happy books, need to pick one that's more uplifting....like, As You Wish, the story of the making of the Princess Bride, the Ally by Michael Oren.

Thank Goodness General Hospital has episodes that will take us through the end of June? May?
 I don't know what I'd do if I lost the connection with my friends in Port Charles.

I do love the run-on sentence as a literary tool.

Michael has been fighting with his chief nemesis, Apple, as he tries to post his messages on YouTube. Yesterday's message went up today, and just like that, my husband became a televangelist. Pretty cool but fear not, we'll remain the same humble, fashion backward, Jesus lovers we've always been.  He's also been working when he can at the House of Hope. Sadly we both suffer from seasonal allergies so if he is sniffling or has sinus congestion it just feels wrong to go in to help.  He does help on those days stock the foods that the feds decide they must distribute, to that, I have bushels of cucumbers....if anyone wants some.  Garbanzo beans too, if you need some, I can hook you up. You just never know what the truck will bring.

So, there you go. I'll stop now, I'm pretty sure this is all too much information.

Hope you're all well and not too stir crazy.  This too shall pass and we'll be stronger if not poorer for it.

Keep in mind that old bit if advice,  Illegitimi no carborundum with apologies to those who took Latin in High School, I don't know the word for virus so just went with the original.

Blessings to you all, and Yeshuah, Please,  Come be Lord over this Mess! 

Speechless

Had to share this with all of you.  I need add nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvRWkgQQ0yo&feature=youtu.be

All of our lives are filled with memories and milestones.  Some of us create scrapbooks or photo albums to hold the memories.  I have both, but my favorite two storage units are my actual memories and a collection of boxes that hold photos and items from a particular trip or event.  I have a Scotland box and a Newport box, one for Japan and one for my miscellaneous political adventures. But the largest box of memories is filled with items from Israel.

The first day of school this year was an especially melancholy day for me.  A year ago, on September First, I officially lost my heart to the students and staff at Hand in Hand schools.  I sat and watched as the kids poured back into the school after a summer of war and fear, but their faces were filled with excitement and joy.  They sang and hugged and danced and I was completely enchanted.



I listened as my friend translated the speeches and explained the songs, but some things just don’t need translation.  The complete happiness to be back with friends and family in school, of all places, was unmistakable.  The rest of the year was not a disappointment.  

I’m sitting on my porch, wondering if I will ever be the same person I was before my year in Jerusalem.  Really.  The joy and enthusiasm of the people I worked with, the commitment to honoring and sharing lives and futures, is something that I have sought all my life.




I love my family, and friends, and my life, don’t misunderstand. I missed my kitchen and my own bed, my dogs, and yes of course, my sweet husband.  I wondered often what the heck I was thinking, traveling halfway around the world leaving my life behind, and now I wonder how I could leave Israel.





How I could leave my kids, my friends and family there.

It’s not what I expected; coming home and missing home.


So, here I am, sitting on my porch, imagining the dancing and singing on the first day of school.  The joy and the dancing of the High Holidays, the eating, dancing and celebrating in the Sukkah and looking forward to the dancing and joy of Hanukah, appreciative beyond words for the opportunity I was given to make a place in my heart for the land and her people.

No, I don’t think I will ever be the same, but you can be sure, I will never stop dancing.

Houston, the Kibbutzim Interns have landed!!

A Huge Thank You to Randy Czarlinsky, the Mickey Leland Kibbutzim Internship Foundation, and anyone else involved in sending 10 of the most amazing young people to Israel, with a morning to spend at the Hand in Hand Jerusalem School.



The kids in the 4th grade English class that they visited were thrilled to have the Americans here, and thought it was pretty cool that they came from the same ‘place’ I did.  The opportunity to make introductions, practice their English, play spelling games, dance, play a little Football and get in a little arm wrestling was welcomed by the kids as well as their teacher, Lynn.

The short kids loved the attention from the big kids not to mention the distraction from their regular classwork.  I think sometimes that’s what they like best about me, I take them out of the class for ‘special’ time that is not regular class work.

I really needn’t say much more than ‘send more interns’.  

Hi, My name is and I like...

My name is and I like...

Well played interns, well played!!  Todah rabah! Kol hakavod!

Don’t check your identity at the door!

I mentioned that last week was a busy one at the school and Identity Day was one of the activities that made it so: basically the culmination of a year’s work in the Max Rayne Jerusalem School in the 1st-9th grade classes.



We all struggle with our identities, who we are, where we fit, but in the West we have the luxury it seems, to ‘find ourselves’ which is not the case here.  In a place where history is present always and where ‘narratives’ can and often do collide, it is important in a different more urgent way if you will, to who know ‘who you are’ and ‘how you fit’.

Here, especially at the Hand in Hand schools, students are encouraged not only to look at their own identities: personal, family, community, religious, and national, but at those of their classmates and friends.  Not only to look, but to appreciate and respect that your narrative may be different from mine but it is your narrative and it has value.

future architect 

Identity Day gives the students an opportunity to explore and share who they are in a community setting that delights in and encourages the process, knowing that understanding is a key for the future.





I think LeVar Burton said it well after his visit earlier in the day. "My hope is that these kids are the future of this region. And that their willingness to look beyond labels and to embrace one another as human beings – I hope that becomes the model for generations to come”

That, to me, is a large part of what Identity Day is all about.  



The final presentation is a big event with parents and friends invited to come and share.  Students present a variety of creations from written word and photographs, to drawings and dioramas, singing and dancing.  Some are directly involved in describing their work and what it means to them.  Others like the chorus’, musicians and dancers, present merely for our enjoyment and enlightenment.

Bible Hill and the Scottish Church

Reading Rainbow goes International!

Last week was pretty busy at the school, adding to the excitement was a film crew from Reading Rainbow and of course its host, LeVar Burton.  I got to recruit two students from the 4^th grade class with the help of the teacher, who would be filmed with LeVar in a short segment.  One Arab and one Jew, one boy one girl. English speakers preferred.

It was pretty exciting for all of us, even if some of us were new to Reading Rainbow.  I have always loved the show and my children have fond memories of it as well, so I was pretty stoked, but it is generally unknown in Israel.

With the attached video, there’s not much else to say except LeVar is just as nice in person as he appears on screen, and so genuine with the kids.  Good thing too, cuz’ kids see right through insincere.

If you’d like to see more about our visitor, visit:

http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/06/08/reading-rainbow-goes-international-liebermann-pkg.cnn

Well, the watermelon was healthy, right?

The end of the school year is fast approaching, and with that the end of school extravaganza POOL PARTY! So today the kids had an
in-house fundraiser for that event.

About a half hour before my second class ends, the kids were dismissed to the center courtyard to set up a snack Kiosk filled with lovely delights, exactly at lunch time.
Someone has thought this one through!



So, for lunch I had, in no particular order:
A small piece of chocolate cake with sprinkles,
Two chocolate covered cubes of vanilla ice cream,
A sandwich size bag of popcorn,
Another bag of popcorn,
A cup of watermelon chunks,
A pancake,
A heart cookie with sprinkles,
Two small pieces of maple cake,
A cup of turmos beans,
Oh my gosh, a second cup of turmos beans for later, these are so good!
Two more chocolate covered ice cream cubes (shared one with the students selling them),
A cup and a half of Israeli Chex Mix (end of the batch and I paid him double),
A third bag of popcorn (all three went in my bag for later),
Two pieces of strip candy that I can’t eat so I shared,
A cup of coke (because the grape juice pack was not at all inticing)

The math was easy, everything cost 1 shekel so, including the ‘tip’ I had one of the least healthy lunches of my adult life and a great time doing it for about 20 shekels!

Now in my defense of the many sweets, when I say small, think bite sized, literally, it was a fundraiser after all.

Now don’t judge me, you already know I’m a sucker for furry creatures and lizards, well I guess you can add kids to that, especially ‘my’ kids.


For those of you who aren’t familiar with turmos beans, you're in good company.  During the break between classes, the English teacher I work with shared some with me.  I thought they were chick peas so when she asked if I knew what they were I said, “Yes, chickpeas.” No she said and told me what they were, which of course didn’t help.  She’s Jewish and these are an Arab snack and she really had no clue  what exactly they were either.  When I found them at the sale later, of course I had to buy some and look them up later.

If you’d like to know more about Turmos beans, visit:
http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/04/lupines-traditional-middle-eastern-snack-food-recipe/