shabbat shalom 06.05.10

Thu, May 6, 2010 10:24:16 AM
From: Linda Whittaker ~Email: olsvig2000@yahoo.com

Hi everyone,

Uff, I'm tired. My new graduate student, Adriaan, flew in from the Netherlands early this morning. I gave him some extra time to sleep a bit, and then we went into downtown Jerusalem. He's never been in the country before, so I had him in tow for a brief orientation excursion. We went to the Mahane Yehuda open air market, which is one of the big open air markets that Turks call "suq", Arabs call "bazaar", and North Africans call "casbah". It's very traditional here but there isn't really anything like it in Europe or North America. There are rows of stone buildings with tables set in front of them loaded with fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, bread, religous items, candy, sweets, household goods, spices, and clothing, all mixed up together, with the vendors shouting their prices in hot competition with each other (usually related to each other too). Dispersed among this are stalls selling falafel, shwarma (doner kebab), juice, sahlep, and some with big pots of Turkish style stews for quick meals eaten standing up. The noise, smells, and swirl of colors are truly Oriental, of dubious sanitation, and absolutely delicious.

So the Dutchman padded after me with a market cart (I never saw one of those in America; it's a vertically oriented fabric carrier rather like a laundry basket on wheels) shlepping my purchases and I waded through the suq, which is one of my favorite places in Jerusalem. We revelled in the spices (he'd never seen or tasted za'atar or sumak before) and stopped at a falafel stand for pita stuffed with falafel and salads. He never had that before either. His eyes were big as saucers.

I guided us back to the car by deliberatey winding through the alleys and courtyards of Nahalot, one of the earlier settlements outside the Jerusalem walls, fortlike houses arranged in squares facing communal courtyards, a regular warren of traditional Jews and now young secular people moving into the tiny houses as well. Every corner there is a surprise, from the loud disputations coming from the open windows of the yeshivas (they are studying the Bible but it sounds more like fighting....), here an Ethiopian restaurant tucked into a tiny courtyard, there a tinsmith still making watering cans by hand.....I think it made him dizzy to see so many strange things in such a short time span. He's having a wonderful time.

I took the day off work to do this and will have to catch up next week. Things are buzzing again too. We still have conferences coming up, and I have to finish my share of writing a paper for publication; gotta get Adriaan started on field work, things are happening in EBONE. I sent two people to Romania this week, one for field training, and the other to represent us at a semi-annual meeting of the project in Bucharest. No time to go myself, and I'll have to represent us in Sweden anyway, next September.

The project is falling into place and we begin to have a clear idea of how we want to wrap this up. We are cooking on all four burners now, at least here with my team in Israel, and still have two years to go. I'm supposed to lead, and it is all I can do to keep up now.

Still getting tired more than I should, and arranged for a general physical checkup to see what may be causing the fatigue. The answer is probably "aging" but better be sure. Most likely it's the pernicious anemia I developed in the last two years, which is a real pain in the butt, but I'm stuck with it.

Other than that not much to complain about. The weather is exquisite now, warm enough for sandals but cool in the evenings. The heaters are off, the mosquito repellents are on, and my garden is beautiful. I'm having friends over for shish kebab tomorrow to welcome this student. Real Middle Eastern food. It's the season for it.

shabbat shalom,
Linda
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