shabbat shalom 18.03.10

Hi everyone, I just got back from two days in the Negev Highlands.  The rains were good, and there are flowers everywhere in the desert: Most of these are the sweet and delicate little annuals that pop up after winter rains, bloom in a few weeks and vanish by the end of April.  The little purple ones are a kind of annual geranium, and there are many kinds of Composites (daisy family), but the shrubs are in bloom as well. I went down mainly to see how my student is doing with the biodiversity sampling in our project, and he is doing fine.  But it was also a chance to catch up with old friends from the days when I lived at the field station at Sede Boqer, between 1984 and 1994.  A lot are still there.  The place has quadrupled in size and become a regular small town, almost, with several neighborhoods.  The Institute for Desert Research has built several grand buildings, and those left from the time I helped to pioneer the institute are dwarfed if still standing. Still, it doesn't look nearly as much fun as we had when we were just getting off the ground.  In those days, we were a small band of mostly young people and a handful of crazy older people.  We started with huts and caravans.  Our laboratories were scrounged from the kibbutz scrap heaps.  Half the time the electricity, water or telephone connections were down (and people waited for years to get telephones installed.)  But every time we did something, it was a "first".  The first international grants, the first international conferences.  Everybody knew everyone else and his dog.  It could be claustrophobic, in fact.  But it was often a lot of fun, and we made our own fun.  Now, it's "establishment".  I'm amazed that my student has spent a month there and hardly knows anyone; it never would have happened in the pioneering years. One of the first things I did was drag him around to some of the veterans so he knows them and they know him.  It's important, since he has a greater diversity of work to do in the coming month.  Second, I caught up with a handful of old friends.  One took me to lunch, another couple had me over to dinner, and took me back as far as Beersheva in their Land Rover this morning.  But the oldest and dearest friend is the desert itself, and I took some time to walk alone along the canyon rim of Nahal Zin (the biblical Wilderness of Zin) and breathe in the clean, metallic air of the desert.  It cleared my lungs of the persistent phlegm and cough I had during the last weeks, as I knew it would.  The light was almost blinding; I have lost my "desert eyes" in the 15 years I've lived up in the Judean Mountains.  Still, the plant names started popping into my mind as I walked and started reading the landscape, the tracks, the digging of various animals, noting the birds....the desert rat was still in the back of my brain and waking up.  It was a little purification and did me good. The dust of the "hamsin" and the heavy pollen count in Jerusalem was making a lot of people sick, but a northern front moved in and cleared the air.  Good thing, now we have bright, clear weather for Passover.  It's a little bit cool, but will warm up.  Perfect weather for rolling up sleeves and tucking into the work of cleaning house, putting away the winter clothing, getting out the summer clothing. What else to mention....I had to sell two gold Krugerrands I had inherited from my husband.  I'd kept these for 30 years since his death, but the economic crash of 2009, devaluation of my pension and savings, plus heavy expenses in the winter, were putting my budget in a bad place.  Rather than go into debt, I decided to sell these coins; after all we had bought them for such a time as this.  Then came the question how to sell them??  This is not easy in Jerusalem.  I asked at the bank, and they didn't know.  They suggested jewelers.  So I went to the main street and asked in several jewelry shops.  Most didn't buy coins, just old jewelry.  Those who did were not offering fair prices (Krugerrands have known standard international value).  I was getting discouraged, but thought to ask in a money changer's kiosk.  The kid at the desk had a customer who bought gold coins, so a connection was made, and the man, an old haredi jeweler, came over with a fat wad of bills and paid me the international value on the spot, and I promptly deposited the money in my bank account.  All in all, a very Middle Eastern kind of experience.  Now I know how it is done.  I suppose there are gold exchanges, but nobody has an idea where....Hopefully I won't have to do this again, but at least I now know how. I guess that is about all for now.  I've been traveling all day and am tired so good night for now. shabbat shalom, Linda