A couple of weeks ago, I wrote how a woman we had met at M'vahkshei Derech offered us the information on her house cleaner as her "contribution" to our decision to come to Israel for 5 months. We've used her house cleaner, a man named "Raz", several times and he does a fairly good job. (FYI, we pay Raz 130 shekels/cleaning ($35) - he probably cleans for about 2 hours.) Raz was last here Sept 12 before Rosh Hashanah, and we had been trying to figure out a time for Raz to come again. We wanted Raz to clean before Sukkot (which begins Sunday night) mainly because my Dad arrives to visit the day after, but Raz was confused about the schedule of Jewish holidays; he kept saying there were only 2-3 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when there is actually a bit more than a week. I called Raz this past Sunday to see if there were a time he could come this week. We made arrangements for Raz to come yesterday (the day before Yom Kippur) at 9 am. Just before 9, though, Raz called to say he couldn't make it because of some roads were closed because of Yom Kippur and could he please come on Thursday instead. After I hung up from speaking to Raz, I asked Pentheus if he thought it was strange that Raz couldn't come. Pentheus said he wasn't surprised at all that Raz couldn't make it, especially because Raz likely lived in East Jerusalem (the Arab part) and the roads to the rest of Jerusalem were closed for the holiday. I was kind of stunned - it had honestly never dawned on me that Raz was an Arab. Now that I know, of course, it makes sense; that's why Raz had the Jewish holidays confused - they aren't his holidays. I'm usually pretty good at things like that, but I just didn't get it. I don't know if that makes me naive or self-centered or something else.
I might have found an Ulpan! Or, more correctly, an Ulpan might have found me. The woman who had initially told me about the Ulpan at the matnas in Ba'aka had continued looking for an Ulpan with no success. So, she hired a Hebrew teacher and created the class! The Ulpan starts 30 Oct and runs through the middle of March. We'll meet twice a week (Sunday and Tuesday mornings, 9-10:30). The class is limited to 9 women, and the emphasis will be on conversational Hebrew and listening to the radio (as opposed to reading and writing). The class will be geared to level "daled-hei" which is level 4-5. I don't really know what level "daled-hei" means in terms of where my Hebrew is, but I'm planning to attend and to find out. I asked whether I could join only until the end of December and was told I could - we are going to hope we find a replacement for me starting January. I am very excited about the Ulpan. Not only do I really want to be working on my Hebrew, but I love the idea of being in class with other women.
I am still trying to find volunteer opportunities to fill my time. I spoke to Cheli, the principal of the boys' school, and she promised we would get together after vacation ends to talk about what I might be able to do. I am willing to do most things, as long as I am with others and can use my Hebrew to some extent. The Szold School has talked about my working individually with students learning English, and I would be okay with that. I really want to do something, and I would love for it to be at the boys' school.
Although the boys are learning some Hebrew at school, and certainly they are exposed to Hebrew a lot, we wish they were learning and speaking more, so we are hiring a Hebrew tutor. Ideally, it would be great if they could get the Hebrew tutoring during the school day, when they are not otherwise participating in their classes. (We don't want the boys to be at school 8-2:20 and then have another couple of hours of Hebrew class. That just doesn't sound like much fun.) I talked to Cheli about it, and she thinks we can make arrangements for someone to come to the school for the boys. We have a great lead for a potential tutor - it's the 18-year old daughter of the private tour guide we are using when my Dad and sister come to Israel next month. Apparently, our guide's daughter starts the Israeli army in mid-December and is looking for things to do for the next couple of months. I've contacted her, and we are going to meet at Aroma on Friday to see if we can work something out.
You know how Time magazine does its Person of the Year in January? Well, the Jerusalem Post does its Person of the Year at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. This year's Person of the Year is Mohamed Morsy, the President of Egypt. Per the Jerusalem Post, President Morsy, an American-schooled engineering professor who led the Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc from 2000-2005, is an Islamist resentful of Western civilization and is out to hammer at the Camp David Accords. But, the Post notes, even if Israel doesn't particularly like Morsy, he is now Israel's next-door neighbor, and will have to deal with issues such as Cairo's control over the Sinai, Egypt's lack of natural resources (i.e., an inability to use a resource such as oil as a tool in its foreign policy actions), a largely poor and illiterate people (1 of every 2 Egyptians can read and half of the country lives off of less than $2/day), and other complex issues.
Oh, I haven't written much about it yet because it's been bumming me out, but so far the "re-do" hasn't worked so well. The boys' behavior, especially that of the CK, has been atrocious - fighting, screaming and throwing fits about everything; disrespectful to us and to each other; refusing to go to bed or to do something we have asked them to do; etc. You get the picture. It's been pretty much like that all week, and started pretty much a day or two after the family meeting. In the context of Yom Kippur, we've talked about trying to do better and taking responsibility for our actions. To be honest, we're not sure what we are going to do about it. The boys have school vacation for 2 weeks and then we're traveling around Israel with my Dad and sister for a few days. There isn't going to be much of a routine for them to fall into until the latter part of October, which is still several weeks away. We can't punish them by not going to Masada or to travel in the North, but we also can't have every day be an exhausting battle of wills.
So as not to end on a bad note, I can tell you one of our favorite things about Israel:
That's right - kosher gummi candy, lots and lots of it! In the States, most gummi candies contain unkosher gelatin, but not in Israel. We often buy gummi candies in bulk, usually at Machaneh Yehudah, the outdoor market, where gummi candy is 28 shekels/kilogram. The boys' favorites are the gummi worms and bananas, the cola-flavored gummies and the sour gummi strips. I get creeped out by the gummi snakes(see bottom middle part of the photo), and refuse either to buy them or let the boys buy them. I have to have some control, right?!
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