More Questions from Whitefish Bay

To the Whitefish Bay class: Thanks so much for your comments and questions. It really makes my day when I hear from you and others. Here are my responses to the questions you asked:

Why are the streets there [in Bethlehem] so skinny?
In Bethlehem for hundreds of years there were no cars and the city is built on hillsides. I think that as the city grew people didn’t plan for wide streets and since the streets have to go up and down the hillsides they go back and forth like switchbacks on a walking trail. Some of the oldest streets are the narrowest and I don’t think we would allow cars to go on these streets.

One other thing that we were told is that there has been some political confusion in the last few years, which has resulted in no one enforcing laws about where you can build a house and that sort of thing. People have taken advantage of this and built homes RIGHT next to the side of the road. Usually cities have laws about leaving some space between your house and the road. So that is another thing that has contributed to the tight roads.

Do boys and girls go to school together?
Boys and girls do go to school together. The expectations for men and women are very different and so it is rare to see a boy and a girl (or a man and a woman) walking together and women tend to sit together and then men together. There are Christians and Muslims in the city. The Christian women do not wear head coverings, but many of the Muslim women do.

In recent years more and more of the Muslim women are wearing conservative clothing and head covering. They say that it helps them feel more comfortable and modest. The men tend to stare at women, especially those who wear less clothes. Grace (she just graduated from college), who was pictured earlier said that she does not go out without either her father or brother accompanying her. I think that things are changing in Bethlehem, like they are everywhere, but in the past women did not work outside of the home. They stay at home and spend lots of time cooking and taking care of large families. In a society like this education is not as important for women. What do you think about that?

Are the laws there the same as in the US? Like speed limits?
I am not sure, but I do know that speed limits are not posted and there did not seem to be any:-)

It is funny…. I am writing this from Rome and a few evenings ago we took a Taxi ride from a restaurant to our apartment. Even though the streets were wider I found this ride scarier than in Bethlehem! In Bethlehem it seemed that there was a very orderly way of driving that everyone understood even though it was not posted and there were few streetlights. In Rome drivers seem to make up their own rules and go as fast as they can. I always tell myself that the driver depends upon this car for his livelihood and so he doesn’t want to have an accident any more than I do. He knows what he is doing. Then I close my eyes and hold on.

What kinds of cars do people there drive?
What I was surprised about in Bethelehm is that they drive mostly what we would call mid-sized cars. The car that we rode around the most in was a Nissan, but there were BMWs, old Hondas, citroens, and I even saw an old VW bug! “The Professor” says that they have to have cars that they can work on since there are not a lot of auto shops around to fix cars. Also, when I asked Osama, who drove us around he said that people need big cars because they have big families. In Rome there are lots of much smaller cars and motorcycles. I am putting in a picture of a Smart Car. Have you seen these cars? There are lots of them here.

I am hoping that you have voted in the final run off for the Armadillo name (Sheriff Bob or Dill) and in the next post you should hear a bit about Rome and also the results of the poll!

Wrapping Up Israel One

Last night we spent the night in a hotel in Tel Aviv. The hotel was across from the beach, so we went out to the beach, sat in soft sand and watched the sunset in the West. Beautiful! Then we slept well in our air-conditioned hotel room until 4 am when the alarm went off. This is our armadillo friend in the Tel Aviv Airport. We name him/her on Tuesday!

Today is a travel day Israel to Cypress to Athens to Rome. All day… Oh well, I think I will get a lot of reading done.

Here are some last thoughts about Bethlehem before I switch to writing about Rome.

Hebron-This is an important place for Christians, Muslims and Jews because it is traditional site of the burial place of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca. Abraham is remembered as the father of all three religions. There are important stories about them in the Old Testament, Koran and the Hebrew Scriptures. Hebron is listed as the place that Abraham buried his wife Sarah. It was a Jewish sacred site and then in the Middle Ages Christians built a church there. Saladin, an Arabian ruler, conquered the area and the church was turned into a mosque. Right now it is still a mosque, but there is an area for Jewish worshippers.

Church of the Nativity-In Bethlehem the site that most of the tourists come to see is the Church of the Nativity. It is built over a cave, which is the traditional site for the birth of Jesus. Three Christian groups share the building; Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Armenian Orthodox. The entry is really small and brings you into a large Orthodox church. You can tell it is orthodox because of the front of the church where there is an iconostasis (altar area specific to the Orthodox). Then you go down some stairs to the nativity cave. From there you can go out another way to the Armenian church and that connects to the Catholic Church. Lots of busses come with tourists who go to the church and many have worship services in the cave before they go on to the next place.

Children in Park-On Saturday before we left we went with all of the Wi’am kids (their summer program) to a park. This week was Danish week and there were Danish Lutherans who prepared some music for the kids. This is the one place that I saw grass and swings and shade trees. It is a really nice park. The kids seemed to have lots of fun running around. The group gathered for a performance of the Danish group. There were lots of drums and rhythm instruments and movement so that all of the kids could participate. The leaders brought falafal sandwiches and bottled water for everyone. Falafal are delicious balls made with ground chickpeas and spices and then deep-fried. They look sort of like meatballs, but they have no meat. A sandwich is actually pita bread with falafal, humus and some chopped tomatos and cucumber. I think they are delicious.

2009 Odyssey

View Larger Map

I am preparing right now for a 5 week long trip to the Mediterranean this summer. I have an opportunity to travel with my husband to archaeological sites in Turkey, Israel, Italy and Greece. I hope to see many other things and meet people in all of these places. Below you will see a map showing the itinerary for the trip. I hope you will join and put your comments and questions onto the blog. The map is interactive. Zoom in and out and slide it to see the parts you are interested in.