Exciting News - New Jumper

One of the problems of being on the road is packing and trying to travel as light as possible. I have managed to reduce my 'wardrobe' to just the bare necessities, but I recently lost my one and only jumper. Without a reserve jumper I reluctantly had to visit our local shopping centre where I bought the item on the right. I'm not sure if the jumper looks like that on me!

As I right this blog I am packing my new jumper along with the rest of my wardrobe . We are travelling to Bournemouth once again for our second intensive 2-week TEFL course. In between the courses we have been studying at home and teaching Turkish and Hungarian women.

I hope I don't get any jumpers, socks or scarfs as Christmas presents this year as my suitcase is now full with essentials.

I do hope we will have more interesting news to share with you after our course. P

'All boxed up'

Surprisingly, it was 4 years last week that we shrink wrapped all our remaining pocessions into this 7ft by 7ft by 5ft wooden packing case before flying off to Bethlehem in the West Bank. It was all quite traumatic at the time, storing everything that felt so precious and so important to us. Now all these years later, I am not really sure what is actually in there; perhaps some Ikea furniture, a guitar , a camera.

2 months ago we did the same but in reverse. We flew home from Israel/Palestine with 2 suitcases, a rucksack and computer bag each. In 4 years I have learnt to live with less; admittedly we have left some non -valuable stuff in Nazareth but I am aware that we are shrinking as we go.

As we are travelling around the UK visiting our Churches and supporters we take a tiny 'snail shell' of belongings; mainly 'techy' stuff - computers, cell phone a few clothes. I have definitely learnt to be content with less. Jane

The Shires

We really feel that we are home after spending time walking 'England's mountains green' - and yes we also saw the 'Last Night of the Proms'.

This last week we have visited friends and supporters in the north of the country: the Lake District in Cumbria, the Vale of York, and the Derbyshire Peak District where we walked 'Lose Hill' (see picture). We are now returning to Somerset for a visit to the Georgian city of Bath before going on a retreat on Exmoor in Devonshire - the best of all the locations (I am Devonian so I am slightly biased).

What a great selection of places to visit - hard to beat anywhere in the world.

So far we have had sunshine every day - in between the showers of blessings. P

Habeebee

We have started our British tour with a couple of gigs near to our home - this means there is less work for our roadies.

Our first visit was a church in Bedminster, Bristol. It was good to hear the familiar Bristol (pronounced Bristle) accent. A non-romantic Bristolian term of endearment that is used for friends, or sometimes even strangers, is 'my lover'. An Arabic translation of this is 'habeebee', which is also used in the same context.

Our second visit was in a small hamlet in Somerset, where the church tower dates back to the 13th century. The church (in the picture) is surrounded by green fields and rolling hills and confirmed that we were truly back in England. P

Optical Illusion

We are just preparing for our final holiday camp for children. One of the fun things we are doing in the camps is learning about vision and how that sometimes all that we see isn't what it seems. We show the children some simple tricks, that they can learn, and we use some old trusted optical illusions that play tricks on the eyes by using different perspectives, colours and shapes. But there are also some new optical illusions that are better when seen on the computer screen - the flower petals are not actually moving!

More Cakes

Would you like some cloud-cake? This was the question we were asked after the Ascension Day service. We have learnt that to decline the offer of food is considered offensive in the Arab culture, so we smiled and accepted. To our surprise cloud-cake was one of the nicer cakes we have sampled, it wasn't too sweet, but nice and fluffy - like all cloud-cakes should be. We associate Christmas with certain foods, and Easter is synonymous with eggs; so why not have special foods at other festivals (see 19 April's blog for Easter cakes). We are going to Jerusalem tomorrow for a special Pentecost service at the cathedral, not sure what will be served at the after service refreshments. P

Just another day!

This week we had 'English Day' at school. Years 1 to 6 were treated to the delights of 'word bingo', 'boggle', 'word aerobics' spelling games and songs- including the perennial '10 green bottles'. The absolute favourite was 'Bingo'. Peter held the children in spellbound suspense at one stage with four of the groups hanging on with one last picture to go! It was a good day, with the the learning heavily disguised as a fun package. However during the breaktime there was a small fracas in the playgound resulting in a smashed window and a few minor casualites. As well as the delights of teaching English Jane had to use her nursing skills and administered first aid to two children and a staff member. All part of the rich tapestary of life here in Nazareth! J.

Keys

When we left the UK 4 years ago I still remember the strange feeling of not owning anything substantial. This was confirmed by not having any keys. No keys to a house, or a car; no church keys, and no keys for work or the social club.

Since living here for 2 years I have managed to accumulate a significant number of keys. The handing over ceremonies will start this week when I hand back the key to the Bible College after we finish teaching our English class. Gradually our keys will reduce and then when we eventually leave it will be back to 'no-keys' Pete. P

Jesus is up!

We caused a few chuckles at church when we tried to reply in Arabic to 'Christ is risen': 'al masiih qamm' - 'haqqan qaam'.

But on our walk home from church on Easter morning we were also able to have a chuckle when a passing motorist shouted at us, 'Jesus is up!' I'm not sure what the response should be, but before we could reply he had disappeared into the distance.

Our Easter has been busy, we've taken part in services in the hospital and church, and we've been able to visit other churches that celebrate Easter in completly different ways.

Now we're leaving to help at a youth camp, which will round off a hectic but interesting and enjoyable Easter. P

'Cakay Basjway'

There is a wonderful Arab tradition during the period of 'eid il fesah' (Easter time). There is a gathering of women - mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, distant Aunts and neighbours. The gathering is about cooking, reminiscing, meeting old friends and relations and creating kilos and kilos of these scrumptious cakes, known as 'Cakay Basjway'. They are made from figs and sweet lattice pastry. There are three different shapes - the crown, the spear and the sponge, all symbols from the crucifixion of Jesus. Despite the sadness they represent they are delicous. One of the delightful things about Arab culture, here in Israel, is the traditions that remain. Despite living in a first world country in the twenty first century, the women will always gather and create together. J

Guitar-man

My guitar music folder is expanding by the day. The songs from my guitar teacher in the UK consisted mostly of 60's & 70's songs, these are being pushed to the back of my folder by a diverse collection of music. I am playing my guitar in a variety of places and so I have to make sure I take the correct music with me. A couple of weeks ago at the 'Woman's day of prayer' I was playing 'Amazing Grace' with 2 chords, because the accompanying piano was so out of tune the pianist had to avoid certain notes. Life is a little easier in the hospital chapel where most of the time I play solo, but there is a huge diverstiy of songs at the different services: at one service we use Tabernacle Hymns from the 1960's with hymns such as 'Count your blessings'; at another service we use an Arabic chorus book with songs like 'uhibbuka rabbi yasuu'; and on Sunday evenings more modern hymns and songs, including 'How great is our God'. In our adult English lesson 'Summertime' has been used to add variety to a lesson; and at school good old favourites like 'The wheels on the bus'. At the end of the week I appreicate the chance to sit down and play 'Here comes the sun', 'Blackbird' and 'Yesterday' - you still can't beat those classic Beatles songs. P

Web-links to a long weekend of meetings

After travelling down to Jerusalem on Friday we found out that our meeting at the cathedral had been cancelled. In the evening we went to the Church of the Nazarene for dinner, a communion service and a tour of their roof. As with most buildings in this part of the world the roof is flat, which allows it to be used for an aquaponics experiment: http://www.aquaponics.org.uk/information/

On Saturday we met with a couple from the UK who serve with the Chemin Neuf Community at the Ecco Homo guest house. We first met them in Nazareth where they may be helping to run a new initiave called the Mary Centre, which also has a newly grown roof garden:

http://www.eccehomoconvent.org/en/content/chemin-neuf-community

On Sunday we visited the East Jerusalem Baptist Church where the sermon was given by a Chinese pastor, he gave an interesting talk with updates from China.

On Monday we visited the Hope School, where we met Dick and Janet from one of our supporting churches in the UK, it also gave Jane the opportunity to show off her great knowledge of Arabic - shame the student didn't understand her, must be the Nazareth accent: http://www.hopeschoolbeitjala.com/

And later we visited a permaculture farm:

http://www.bustanqaraaqa.org/al3/web/page/display/id/1.html

Before returning to Nazareth on Tuesday we had another non-meeting at the Cathedral. Apart from our meetings at the beginning and end of our long-weekend we had some very productive meetings and met some great people who gave us food for thought, I hope you find some of the links interesting. P

Logic

We are still getting used to living in a different culture. There's not only the weather and language, but there's also a different worldview. When we have appointments and meetings we try to plan alternative arrangements, and pack a book and MP3 player, just in case the meeting is late or cancelled, which is quite often. But one reliable part of life here are the buses that leave the bus stations exactly on time, but after leaving the bus station the Middle Eastern logic takes over. There's a sentence on the timetable that the times at all the subsequent bus-stops depend on traffic conditions, and that buses may pass earlier than scheduled. At least buses at home normally wait until the planned time if they are early. I cannot see the need for a detailed timetable if the bus does not wait if it is running early. We are fortunate that we normally travel between bus stations and so we rarely have to spend hours and hours waiting at bus stops. P

A Right Turkey!

Living in the Middle East, we never know who or what we are going to find in our back garden. On this occasion we had just arrived back home after a torrential rain storm and came across a turkey, a guinea fowl, not really sure what. Peter put Jane on guard while he rushed inside to get a camera. The bird started getting a little aggressive so Jane is holding the umbrella up as tentative protection. Needless to say we didn't eat our new friend for lunch.
Time is ticking away now for us now, we've just 6 months left; we are trying to make the most of every day and every relationship we encounter, friendly or hostile! We have just started teaching English at the Bible College and have a delightful group of 10 students of mixed faiths and backgrounds. Our work with children and young adults is also increasing and we are grateful that two years of relationship building is now coming to fruition. ' Nouska Allah !' Thanks to God (as they say in these parts) J

Forever Friends

One of our regular visitors to the flat is this 'little fellow'. He is one of our more docile and less active visitors (previous friends include a rat and outside scorpion) but he does have personality and staying power. He did not want to get out of the sink at this stage in the proceedings, and insisted on helping me wash up the cups.
We do like to be welcoming to all - as the Arabs say 'ahlan wa salan' but this was one step to far for me. He fitted quite snuggley into a plant pot and I bravely removed him to colder climes. Somehow I think he will return! J