Linda Whittaker  | ||
| Linda Olsvig-Whittaker |
| Hi everyone, August in the Middle East; we are now in the classic, endless days of August when the temperature climbs to the mid 30's (I guess around 100 F) every day and we have endless, blazing sun, with no rain until November. I suffered in this when I first came, but now I like it; my arthritis is no problem and housekeeping is easy. After 30 years in Israel, my bones have adapted to the dust and heat, and it is cold and rain that make me sick. Pretty funny after living the first 27 years in a wet northern climate in the United States. The boy has turned over at least 4 times since then and I don't have a cell left that remembers upstate New York. The proof of this was taking Monday off work and going to Ramle, down on the coastal plain.    Ramle was the regional capital for more than 1,000 years, from the Umayad to the Mamluk Turks (roughly 700-1800 AD), on the crossroads of two major caravn routes. It's an impoverished town now, full of crime, but it had its glory days and traces are still there from the magnificence it had in the Middle Ages. Today it is known for its great suq, or bazaar, in the middle of town. It also has an amazing diversity of working-class people: Moslems, Jews and Christians, Arabs, Russians, Indian Jews, Bulgarians, Ethiopians, Spanish speaking Jews, French speaking Jews, Turkish Jews.....just about everything except English-speaking Jews.....Near the suq it is possible to find a stall selling Turkish boreks next to an Indian grocery store selling Bollywood DVD's on the side, and next to that a ladies clothing store that sells fashionable Moslem chadors. (That's just one street, and I stopped in all three.) I've been prowling Ramle for a couple years now, and the more I see it, the more fascinate I become. It reminds me more of places like Kathmandu more than Tel Aviv, nearby. So when I tire of Jeruslaem and modern professional life, I take the train down an hour to Ramle and dive into the bazaar, shop, eat at an Indian restaurant, and poke around. It's like a quick trip to North Africa or Pakistan..... I did have business there this time. The Ministry of Environment has an office in the Government Building there (right at the bus station, 10 stories high, and insulated from the swirling multicultural masses below as much as if it were in north Tel Aviv. Totally not part of Ramle, and few of the people there know anything about the town in which they work....) They had a database question, and I helped them out. An hour's work, and okay, I spent nearly a day in Ramle on the excuse of having to be there for work.....pleading guilty. I promised the next time they needed my help, we would all go to lunch at the Maharajah next to the suq.......I have to come from Jerusalem to introduce them to their town? It was hot though. I clocked the temperature in Jerusalem at 36 C when I returned at 16:30, which means it was at least that hot in Ramle when I was wanering aroun the casbah....it wasn't too bad though. I stayed in the shade and drank plenty of the special Ramle lemonade (they crush the whole lemon and filter the extract, it's more bitter than the regular lemonade). Chai masala perked me up after lunch; otherwise I would have fallen asleep after a big Indian lunch. In all, a delightful day. The rest of the week was work. I have to present a lecture at a conference at the end of the month, and hate doing these things at the last minute, so I got it together now. Doing graphics instead of math; my boss advised to keep it very simple....I have to get the hang of doing conceptual sketches to get complex ideas across. Other news: I adopted a second blind cat. I babysat this one a few weeks ago and had him at the vet to try to save his eyes, no luck. But he got proper medical care, and then his owner returned from Russia. In the end she couldn't cope (an artsy craftsy sensitive type who does puppeting for a living); too complicated for her. I watched her try to find a home for this guy and finally took pity on the situation. He's cute and friendly, and quite blind, but not deaf like my white cat Homer. He'll be fine. But I don't need more cats! Not much else to mention. I take it easy on this hot weekend; our hamsin weather will go through the next week. Get up early, sleep in the midday heat. It's not bad at all if you go with it, rather than fight it. shabbat shalom Linda |
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http://shabbat-shalom-jerusalem.blogspot.com/
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