At home in Jerusalem

After staying up until 4:30 AM to pack and ready the house, hefting twenty bags through airports (thanks to sky caps at one end and BYU intensive Arabic students at the other end for helping) and a little over 24 hours in transit and we are here at home in Jerusalem. The flight--SLC--Atlanta--Tel Aviv--was mostly uneventful. The flight from Atlanta was packed with many young Israeli families returning from summer vacations in the US--lots of children. Our kids were real troopers on the flight. The lack of sleep was only manifest later when we went to eat dinner at the oasis in the center. Joel looked at the heaping plate of unknown food they had kept for us and burst in to tears. Not to worry he was soon pacified with some plain pita bread, mashed potatoes and lemonade. After a quick dinner we put the kids to bed only to return and find them all hiding in Joel's top bunk. One minute they were playing on the beds and the next they were all sound asleep. But not for long. At about 3:30 AM Will woke up hungry and jet lagged. Then at 4:30 we were all up with the call to prayer. Will finally fell back asleep at about 5:30. We then were all up again at 7:00 so by 8:00 we could be at the Anglican School for new student orientation. My goal was to not let the children take a nap (so we could get over jet lag in time for school on Monday) so after an encouraging school experience we walked from the school--which borders the ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Sherim--through the Russian compound with its prison and Russian Orthodox Church to the Old City. Our plan was to walk the walls from Jaffa gate to Damascus gate, but first we needed to rest from our hot walk so we stopped just inside Jaffa gate for some fresh sesame bread and zatar and sprite or cold water. Once rejuvenated we found out that our chosen portion of the wall is closed on Fridays during Muslim prayers so we called the center to have a van come and pick us up. The best meeting point was at the New Gate--while waiting for the van we watched a big dump truck back in and dump a load of sand for a new light rail being installed. As the truck was pulling out Joel started to walk across the road as it comes through the gate just as a car that had been waiting on the dump truck started to exit out through the gate. A short, elderly Arab man (our guardian angel for the day) grabbed Joel and stopped him just in time to prevent a most likely pedestrian fender bender. After a hodge podge lunch in our apartment the kids went exploring via the rose gardens surrounding our terrace balcony around the corner to the window to the boy's room. Sarah wanted to look in the window and thought for sure that her feet were fat enough to walk on the grate below the window that was covering some sort of vent but they weren't and so her left foot slipped through the grate until her calf became wedged tightly between the flat two inch wide white grate bars. Joel came a running. Marie and I then came running through the rose bushes to find Sarah crying more out of fear than hurt. I could not pull her leg out, but then Marie brought some water for lubrication and once we wet her leg and I pulled hard enough it came out with no lasting damage and only a few scrapes. Marie and I then left the kids in Sarah's care (do we dare do this) for an orientation meeting for the two new faculty members and their wives. There was no more exploring and the kids were fine. It is sure nice to be able to leave the kids in our apartment watching a movie and know that if there is a problem they can come up two flights and find us. It is also nice to know that there is a very nice security system watching over us. We then explored the center (anything to keep the kids awake) and found some books and DVDS to entertain us over the weekend. Then we checked a car out of the motor pool and drove a short distance to an 24/7 Arab market in Wadi Joz. The Manscills followed us in another center car so they could learn the route. When we pulled in to park Bro. Manscill point out that we had a flat tire. We called to the Center (with the required-for-security-purposes cell phone we had just been issued--Marie and I each get our own phone--a first for both of us) to report the problem. Meanwhile Craig and I started to change the tire. An Arab employee of the store saw two gringos attempting to change the tire. He came to check it out and decided the jack would need something under it to enable it to raise the tire high enough. We thought he went off to find a board of some sort to put under the jack when all of a sudden out of the store warehouse he came driving a fork lift! Up went the car, off and on went the tires and before we knew it we were in the fresh produce side of the store buying pomegranates, mangoes, plums and apples. Across the street in the other part of the store it was a bit more difficult trying to figure out what was butter, tomato paste, 1 % milk etc--many of the items are only labeled in Hebrew. Back at the center we had a delicious dinner at the oasis and then by 7:30 the kids were all ready for bed. I started to read a story to Will, but half way through it we both fell asleep. Marie woke me up an hour later and I took this picture of two sleeping boys after an eventful first day in Jerusalem.