Ending the year in ירושלים

2014 is winding down and what a year I have had. Let me explain…no there is too much…let me sum up. My dream date came true (nuf said), I broke my arm and got it fixed, my stuff went under water and I flew home from Okinawa to salvage what I could…and back again, I have a grandson and now I am studying Hebrew in Jerusalem. It may not be everybody’s perfect year but I have absolutely no complaints.  I am really graced. Since my last writing, Dad and Betsy returned to Tennessee, I have moved to my new place and my host has been great.  He even loaned me to a couple of Haredi men to tutor them in English, which has also been awesome.  He invited me to his English class on Friday mornings and I try and offer a bit of help and maybe support these guys as they deal with the English language: Things like rough, cough, though and through do not rhyme; or that What looks like it should rhyme with That but rather it sounds like But which doesn’t rhyme with Put. And why Each and Deaf both have the “ea” but sound completely different.  Add to that possessive pronouns and making possessives out of a plural words when they end with S.  It is a wonder anybody can speak English! Well…that’s a subject for another day.  Back to life, I have made a few cool friends whom I hope to be in touch with for a long time to come. Going out for falafels or coffee is just nice to do. Language skills are growing but I am deeply saddened by the fact that upon Ulpan gradation, I will have to turn in my Hebrew skills for Japanese skills. Not sad about returning to Japan…I love that part, but leaving HaAretz (The Land) and my Hebrew learning, is already making me a little sad. So as Chanukah comes to a close and Christmas is soon to be over and a New year begins, I can only say that I hope next year is as wonderful (but less disastrous) as this one was.  I have this nagging aggravation about the fact that I will be in Japan exactly four years since the last time I was in exactly the same place outside Tokyo for the big earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Not that I believe I am a harbinger of doom, but I do have this track record of causing catastrophic events.  Maybe I should just not be saying those things out loud or putting them into print.  Nah just kidding.  I don’t believe in that.  I believe in love and peace and hope and faith and that’s all I have to say about that.  Now to make it to Bethlehem for Christmas and then survive into 2015.  I got a text message from my Mosad contact that there’s gonna be a monster party for New Years…but he can’t tell me where it is. Bummer. the pix are from the top 1 the foundation stone of the first temple in the tunnels, me at Galilee, sunset at Galilee, Absalom's pillar and Zechariah's tomb,  the Old City from where I live, Chanukiah above the tunnel, the view of the Dead Sea from the roof of where I stay, people at the Kotel (the Wall), ...and the Western Wall/The Wailing Wall/ the Kotel tonight.

 

Jerusalem, Tiberias and beyond!

Time just has a way of getting away from a person.  I have finished my 5^th week in Hebrew Ulpan (language school) and it is starting to get more challenging although by building on what I already know and practicing regularly, I am getting the hang of it.  There is so much to do and see in Jerusalem, and that, coupled with showing my dad and Betsy around, I find myself ready to branch out a little. We have done the big things, plus some stuff I haven’t done before.  Some of those things involve walking in the West Bank, in East Jerusalem, and while I understand the idea of not wanting to take a large group of tourists there for safety’s sake, there are things not to be missed.  Things like walking up the Mount of Olives from Gethsemane; things like walking through the Lion’s Gate where Stephen was stoned to death as the first Christian martyr, and walking around the ruins of the pools at Bethesda where Yeshua (Jesus) healed a crippled man. We have been to the serene Garden Tomb and walked the Via Dolorosa from “The Pavement” where Yeshua was tried by Pilate, to the elaborate Church of The Holy Sepulcher. Walking in and out of the Damascus Gate and in the Muslim and Christian Quarters calls for keeping a watchful eye, but overall, it has been awesome.  We went this last week to The Davidson Center near the Dung Gate and they have recently opened the Ophel: the corner where the old old city met the Temple.  It was very cool ascending the giant marble stairs that once up led into the Temple grounds and seeing the remains of houses and mikves and other artifacts and excavations. I had to hum Shir LaMaalot (a song of ascents – Psalm 121) while I was going up to the Temple Mount.  This weekend we are in the Galilee in places like the Mount of Beatitudes and Capernaum, walking around the hill area that Yeshua and the disciples knew so well.  Staying in a nice apartment overlooking the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) is nice too. As I write I see fishing boats on the glassy waters of the Kinneret with a light fog subduing the far shore.
We have had a lot of rain (torrential at times) but it makes everything so green and beautiful, not to mention cleaning the air.  Of course when you add in the cold weather, it has been just short of miserable on some days. There have been a few more terrorist attacks since I last blogged, awful things, but I have managed to stay out of trouble.  There are lots of police and IDF strapped with weapons and riot gear standing by, everywhere from the holy sites to the trains, so I feel like as long as I don’t get crazy, or act too suspiciously when trying to get a cough drop out of my bag, I will be fine.  That last bit bears mentioning since people always seem to wonder about safety.  At least I am not in Ferguson.  I feel quite safe in my ‘hood in Jerusalem, but as a Palestinian classmate told me the other day, “Of course you feel safe here.  You are not a Jew or an Arab.” I suppose everything is relative. My life is blessed and my opportunities are a gift…a thing I have to keep in front of my mind. The pictures are from top to bottom, then left to right: Mount of Olives; Golgotha (Garden Tomb); Temple Stairs (Ophel); police at Damascus Gate; Soldiers in the Jewish Quarter; Byzantine remains (Old City); Western Wall tunnels; Pools at Bethesda; Tower of David (Citadel); Dome of the Rock grounds; Gethsemane; Calvary (Church of the Holy Sepulcher);  White synagogue at Capernaum; Jordan River

 

 

I have been in my apartment and my Hebrew classes for two weeks now and everything is going great. Of course there is a learning curve to everything and I have to be re-taught many lessons. A nice Jewish lady from somewhere like Philadelphia told me at a bakery, “These people are so rude.” I scratched my head and told her, “No, but they are so Israeli.”  She thought I was being funny, but truthfully, I have to remember things like standing in line and waiting your turn is very Okinawan, but not very Israeli.  I have to remember that every taxi driver takes a course in a) how to spot a tourist; b) how to make him feel guilty about saying no to a private tour, and c) how to barter on everything and not take no for an answer.  Fortunately I know a little Arabic and can tell them, “La Shukran…Kul shay tamam” or “No thanks, everything is cool.” If that doesn’t work I just say “Ani Gar Po” (or, “I live here”, in Hebrew).That doesn’t fix anything but I have to believe it helps quell the force of the sales pitch. I have to remember that walking down the road is a game of chicken…nobody moves out of anyone’s way and when you bump somebody’s shoulder you either give them a mean face or ignore them completely. I have to remember to not assume that anybody is Jewish or Arab and keep any of my thoughts about the Israeli and Palestinian issue to myself. I don’t discuss American politics either…you never know whose side who is on, but one thing I know…most Israelis and Palestinians I have talked to don’t like Obama due to his disdain for the lot of them…of course, the “chicken sh*t” comment didn’t help, but THIS is not a political blog.  I have made some friends in my ulpan (intensive language course) from all over the world, Germany, Hong Kong, Slovenia, France, and more, and several Palestinians.  Everybody is awesome in the class – we laugh and tell stories in Hebrew about ourselves and our homes and families.  Learning in an ulpan is wonderful and I think my Hebrew is improving at a good clip…plus I speak it everywhere I go. Unfortunately, the last language that I mismanaged was Japanese and tonight after a nice but challenging convo in Hebrew, I said to the lady “Arigato”. Dad thought that was pretty funny. Having my dad here with me has been great.  I think sometimes having another person by your side helps overcome fears that, alone, would be intimidating: things like walking around East Jerusalem, which I am getting familiar with.  Whenever we are concerned we always ask, “What would Mark [my brother] do?”  He would do it…and so do we. Walking around Jerusalem and seeing things you might never get on a tour is great.  We have met and chatted with a lot of people and wandered through places like Gethsemane, Bethesda, The Garden Tomb, Via Dolorosa.  We have explored a lot of side streets and alleyways to find interesting places and people. Of course we have been to the Western (Wailing) Wall, the new Temple Institute, the Tower of David and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  A couple of nights ago we heard a thunderous musical extravaganza about 9 p.m. and decided to go in search of it.  It was a bunch of Chasidim celebrating in the streets and playing music and dancing wildly as they took the Torah into the synagogue.  The music was lively and the mood was enthusiastic. We enjoyed it, then we went home.  Always something new and interesting and I am excited about what the next 11 weeks will bring.

PS: there have been more terrorist attacks lately, but I am watchful and cautious, plus I am not hanging out in places where an attack is more likely to happen.  Of course I know it can happen anywhere, but it is certainly less likely in my mixed Arab and Jewish and Goyim neighborhood.  No worries, here.  If anything, I would invite all my friends to come see me in Jerusalem, when or if I get a job here be-ezrat HaShem. Shabbat Shalom y’all.

Downtime in Tennessee

I have been back in the USA for 2 months now. I don’t know that I have accomplished much, but I have managed to keep myself occupied.  My Oriental carpets from Turkey and Afghanistan are in better shape than I expected due to the color running and being folded during the Great Pensacola Flood of 2014…still despite the fact that they are nowhere near showroom quality, I figure the flood adds to their individual stories. Their smell will certainly add to that story unless I can figure out a way to make them smell more like camels and less like sewage. I have sorted through almost everything that I salvaged and have thrown out a fair amount of permanently damaged stuff, or things that I looked at and wondered “why in the world am I saving this?” Now I can almost put all my worldly possessions in the bed of my truck when I move again.  That’s quite a downsize from a 3 bedroom house. Other things have been busy work like, banking, doctor’s appointments, fighting to settle my worker’s comp case…you know, the kind of stuff that gets in the way of having fun.  My son John and his girlfriend Autumn made me the grandfather on August 12^th of Cayden, a 9 and a half pound baby boy.  I got to spend 22 consecutive hours with my Blake the day he picked me up at the airport coming in from Okinawa until I dropped him off to catch his plane back to Orlando.  I really like that guy.  I am catching up on quality time with my parents as well, living very close to each of them. I am staying in an apartment in the back of my dad’s barn with a bunch of farm equipment, so although I have privacy, a nice place and a great view of the woods complete with hoot owls, deer, and things that shriek in the night, I have to admit that I miss my apartment in Okinawa with the view of the East China Sea. I miss my people in Okinawa too, some more than others (you know who you are) but I guess that is par for the course.  The School Age kids at Camp Kinser in sent me a video birthday song via FB, which made my day…that and the strawberry cake my mom made and a great birthday dinner with my dad. Then that afternoon as I was turning 35, I hit the road for Wisconsin to attend my niece Amanda’s wedding. My other niece Andrea was her bridesmaid.  I must say, even though I may be a little prejudiced that my nieces are two of the most beautiful young women EVER. My new nephew Jordan and his son Jaden were also quite striking. Last week I was off to see my “other” grandkids (Robert and his family) in Columbus, Ohio, and then to see my buddy Sue in Philadelphia (and New York) for a few days. Soon, I will be headed back to Florida for a week to meet Cayden, then back home to prep for my move to Jerusalem on October 23^rd.  I am stoked beyond words and I get to share it with my Dad for a month before my stepmom joins us for a couple of weeks. Almost everyone in my family will have been to Israel with me after this. Now you have it. That brings me up to date as far as the blog goes. Still a lot to do over the next several weeks.  I expect my next blog posting will be from the eternal city Jerusalem.

Surgery in Okinawa...or One Night in Kaiho

Sorry folks...no pictures this time...just a delightful story. I guess I should have been using my thinking cap and taking pictures along the way of my doctors clinics nurses hospitals and of course my arm.  Hindsight is 20/20 and sometimes 50/50, LOL. Let me say a couple of things about being in a Japanese Hospital.  I noticed a few things that were very different from American hospitals.  Let me just say that I showed up at 11:00 for a noon operation.  The first thing was probably the fact that the Kaiho Hospital was clean but not American-style sterile.  Many of the staff wore masks, which is not uncommon in Japan but they did not seem overly concerned about making sure everything was mopped up cleaned up sterilized and bleached. There were no hand sanitizer dispensers every 6 feet with warning signs about MRSA and hand washing techniques, and a slow painful gruesome death that awaits anybody who ignores the warnings.  The nurse who drew my blood wiped my arm with an alcohol swab then felt for a vein with her bare fingers, and drew the blood.  When I was admitted the paperwork was just: name, address, phone number, emergency contact…5 minutes max, including translation.  I got to my room a few minutes later and was met by a team of nurses all giggling, twittering, and bowing.  They quickly and efficiently got me into a hospital gown, orthopedic stockings, started an IV, took vital signs and practiced speaking English while I practiced speaking Japanese. When it was time to go to the OR I walked downstairs with my IV pole accompanied by a nurse and my surgeon to a big curtain draped across the hallway.  After changing out of my street shoes and into operating room slippers, I walked behind the curtain to see my Dr. sitting at a computer.  Behind him was a large open room with an operating table, towels and blankets, a large tray with instruments and a couple of people milling about in OR scrubs and masks.  Once again everything looked very clean, neat and orderly, but not necessarily sterile in the way a Navy Corpsman is trained to see it.  I was not in a position to be demanding an American style sterile field or to be questioning my surgeon just before going under the knife.  Plus it occurs to me that maybe the Japanese have a better grip on things than we do in some cases.  I just hoped that this was one of those cases.  I lay on the table draped for surgery with this surgeon telling me not to worry and everything would be fine, when in walks the anesthesiologist who pulls his mask down, and says “Konnichiwa, Garry san”.  So I’m laying there thinking "dude put a mask on", when Dr. Shiroma says, “now you’ll feel a pinch as I start the nerve block.” After that everything seemed pretty routine, I fell asleep, and woke up afterwards feeling like I just had a nice nap.  They rolled me back into my room on my bed about 3:00 and shortly after getting situated, my two colleagues Christina and Samantha arrived.  They told me that my Dr. had explained the surgery, the outcome and the prognosis to them in detail without the benefit of release of information and with no regard for HIPAA.  They laughed and said they could’ve gotten any information they wanted.  I replied maybe the Japanese do not look for a reason to sue somebody and do not see any personal benefit to be gained by knowing somebody else’s personal health information.  Christina and Samantha brought me a big soft pillow and some flowers, because someone had told them a pillow would be nice because all I had was a small stone…well actually 2 tiny buckwheat pillows.  I got through the night OK however the Japanese appear to have a much higher pain threshold than I have since my pain medication was a mild analgesic/anti inflammatory agent which I asked for at 6:30 PM when the first pangs of discomfort began.  I dozed off about 730 or eight but then woke up again at 10 as the pain began to throb even though my arm was elevated and strapped to a pole.  They told me that I could not get a shotto (injection) but that I could get a soppo, which I learned meant suppository pain reliever.  I really didn’t much care how they gave it to me at that point.  So it went all night every 3 hours alternating a shotto and a soppo.  Surprisingly I actually slept OK that night but in the morning my Dr. called to check on me.  He asked if I needed anything and I said, “stronger pain meds.” After breakfast and spilling some of my soup on my chest, my cadre of nurses came in giggling, twittering and bowing to remove my IV, help me change clothes, and get to the bathroom.  Apparently they forgot that I had a nerve block the day before so when the nurse released my arm from the pole, it just fell.  I guess I forgot too because I just watched my fist punch me in the face.  Apparently drinking water is BYOB, hence the confusing look on the faces of the nurses whenever I would ask them in my most polite Japanese for some water. They brought me a cup and filled it with tap water looking at me as if they were wondering, “what the heck is he going to do with that?” After a while I just decided I would get my own cups of water, as long as I could keep from hitting myself in the face.  So about noon I had lunch and then began the process of discharging, moving around the room by myself with my arm supported by my other arm and waiting for Christina to pick me up and take me to my doctor’s office.  They loaded me up with antibiotics, analgesics and antipyretics and a two weeks’ supply of Tramacet for pain collected my credit card payment and sent me on my way.  Overall I have to say the experience was…if not delightful, at least made pleasant for a guy 8000 miles from home

Okinawa Winter

My view this morning as I write this blog entry

Although my failure to blog in several months may seem like I have been so busy, in truth, I have been just living life.  It is very different when you go somewhere to live for a year rather than a few weeks or months.  I realize more keenly than ever the difference between living somewhere and visiting. Rather than finding cool places to visit and take photo ops, I find myself going to the grocery, doing laundry, reading, going to the gym, walking, an occasional date, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy Okinawa and my job, just without the compulsion to travel or blog every weekend.  So please forgive me whilst I catch up on lost time.  There was the holiday season which flew by. Thanksgiving was a rainy chilly day when I went to a glass factory and then came home to a crockpot turkey and veg meal with my friend Laura.  Christmas was nice, except that most of the presents I was expecting arrived in the weeks afterward. There was my Clamshell Chanukiah which I later realized was probably not the kosher thing to do. New year came and went and then FSU won the National Championship, which was the highlight of my winter.  Finally received my victory sweatshirt at the end of February. Coldish, windy and rainy is how I describe Okinawa winter. Of course the windy part is pretty much all the time, but now it is finally Spring.  The cherry blossoms are out, all the flora is starting to bloom and the island is waking up from its wintry nap. As I look out from my balcony at an almost glassy sea and bright sunlight I realize just how fortunate I am and how much I need to take advantage of the time and opportunity given to me.  I will try and blog a little more often since there is so much here to see and do.  Now that spring is here and summer is around the corner, I kind of feel myself coming back to life, much like the island, from my winter nap.  These few pics will not fully sum up the past 5 months but may in some way put into perspective how nice Okinawa really is. Maybe my next entry will actually be interesting to read!