Lingo

Overcoming the language barrier has prompted me to do what I enjoy most, problem solving. Our church service is totally in Arabic and so visitors find it difficult to fully participate. There are English equivalents to the Arabic Book of Common Prayer, Arabic hymn book, and Arabic service book. We use the Arabic prayer book for the collect and readings - problem simply solved by ordering English prayer books. The hymn book is more problematic. We have been given some 'New English Hymnal' hymn books, and so I am matching the tunes found in both books and producing a list of hymns that can be sung together in English and Arabic. And finally, although we have English service book for visitors, they like to join in certain parts of the service in Arabic (Lord's prayer, sharing the peace etc). To solve this last problem I am producing the Arabic service book in simple phonetics. But I'll still need to use all the books, so it's a good job I sit at an old choir stall instead of the small prayer desk. P

It's the thought that counts

We are just coming to the end of the Christmas season - we had our church Christmas party last night. Christmas decorations are still on display for those celebrating the Orthodox Christmas.

I do hope you had Christmas presents that were given after much thought and consideration - I certainly did. We spent Christmas Day with Phil & Angela. Angela had just returned from the UK and brought back some traditional Christmas food, which was appreciated by one and all. She also took advantage of her time at home to get some presents that are difficult to buy in Israel. After our delicious Christmas dinner Angela handed her present to me - imagine my surprise to have a pot of 'SUDOCREM', for the treatment of nappy rash, incontinence dermatitis and eczema. I would have preferred to have had some 'SUDAFED' tablets for my sinus problems! The mistake caused tears of laughter and I'm sure her new granddaughter will appreciate my returned gift. P

Christmas Tree

Our previous vicar often reminded us that this time of year is still the season of Christmas - so Happy Christmas. In the Holy Land Christmas continues for a couple more weeks, the Orthodox Christmas is next week and the Armenian Christmas in 2 weeks. It's possible to get 'traditional' Christmas trees in Nazareth, but we have improvised with a cactus that was given to us a few weeks ago. A generous lady at church told us that she had a cactus she wanted to give to us. She lives a few miles from us so Jane caught a taxi to collect it. The taxi driver was given a well deserved tip for getting both Jane and the 7' cactus home in one piece. P

On the radio

We've just been listening to the latest episode of 'From Our Own Correspondent' on the BBC world service (the programme is also broadcast on Radio 4). The first item is about the hospital in which we are working part-time in Nazareth. Here are the links for 'i player' and podcasts, where you can either download or listen online. I had to type the links so I hope they are accurate:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p005gqc2/From_Our_Own_Correspondent_26_12_2009/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/fooc

Busy

An ordained friend recently commented about the number of services he had over the Christmas period, we also have a full diary of events. This time of year is a great time to meet many new people. A few months ago we joined a Christmas choir at a local Baptist church, after many practices and extra tutorials with our Arabic teacher, we have 2 performances (one on live TV); this evening we have a carol service at the hospital , and next week we are singing carols to captive audiences on the wards, at local convents and other hospitals; we also get invitations to visit carol concerts in other churches (this started 2 weeks ago); at school we have been rehearsing English carols with the kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grade classes, the school concert is on Wednesday; and of course there are the normal Christmas services at church.

The traditional Christmas tree can be found in many homes. But instead of having piles of presents under the tree there is a nativity scene in a cave (made from rock coloured paper).

We hope you have a peaceful Christmas. P

Foreigners

Not many internationals learn Arabic and it is presumed that we don't understand the locals when they start talking about the 'ajaaneb' (the foreigners). By recognizing some key words we can now join in their conversations. As well as getting to know the locals we have the benefit of working and mixing with a rich mixture of other foreigners from Australia, Germany, USA, Canada, France, Italy, Vietnam, Switzerland, Finland and many, many others. We are very grateful that English is the common international language. We have also benefited from the building skills of Dirk (van Wendel de Joode), from Holland, and his willing assistant Bruno (Costa), from Brazil, who have helped with some of our home improvements. P

Hiking with Hinke

Our Arabic is probably progressing quicker than our North Americanese. Jane recently asked Hinke, a Canadian friend living in Nazareth, if she would be able to show us one the walks that she knows. Jane was thinking along the lines of the beginning of the Jesus trail, which starts in Nazareth (http://www.jesustrail.com/) and finishes at Galilee, but was unaware that 'walk' in North Americanese means a stroll around the town. Hinke could see the disappointment in Jane's face when she suggested a walk to the market. Eventually we were able to communicate what we actually wanted to do. This was our first taste of walking in countryside around Nazareth - we have been waiting for the weather to cool down before hiking/walking the Jesus Trail, and Hinke has kindly guided us on the first few miles. We may walk/hike the next section tomorrow - weather permitting. P