Italy wins, Jerusalem, Israel 07/10/06

So here I was in the old neighborhoods where I used to live in Jerusalem. I met up with the Valbuena family for lunch. I found myself following a UN vehicle in the streets of Jerusalem to the restaurant. Again, memories came crashing through my head. I remembered how my father had first taught me how to drive in a UN vehicle. I remembered crossing the borders into Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Israel in one of these vehicles and all the diplomatic priveleges that was granted to us. I pictured the car parked outside of our house.

I sat down to eat with the parents, their daughter and husband, their son and girlfriend. I forgot the name of the restaurant, but it was located in the Arab side. The meal was delicious accompanied by a lot of laughter and great conversation.

It was about 3:30pm by the time we got done braking bread. We headed to the Valbuena's house towards the south of Jerusalem on the way to Bethlehem. At 5PM, we headed to an evening service at a congregation where I used to attend called King of Kings. They now meet in their own building, and one of the leaders in Jewish. As I walked in, I met my friend Humberto. He is a good friend of mine from Mexico, who I went to graduate school with. I hadn't seen him in like 5 years. What a great surprise!

The evening service was over at 7pm. I invited my friend Humberto and his friend to the Western Wall. It was their first time in Israel and they hadn't seen anything yet. The Valbuenas invited this lady from Peru, who is now living in Israel, to come along. So we all headed to the Wall. On the way, I got carried away with my tourist guide skills, that I lost the UN car, which I had been following. We drove around close to the old city wall looking for them, but finally decided to park and just meet them at the wall.

It was such a great night! It wasn't cold! It wasn't hot! It was perfect to be outside by the wall to offer our prayers to God. As usual, there were thousands of people. Women on the right and men on the left. It was my pleasure to show my friends around at the Kotel (Wall) for the first time. Of course, I took a lot of pics and video.

Around 10pm, we headed to the Peruvian ladies' house. She invited us to watch the soccer final - Italy vs. France. Her apartment is in the same floor and the Valbuenas. When we got there, we had missed most of the first half. All the guys went to watch the game at her house and all the ladies went to the Valbuenas to watch a Colombian soap opera airing on Israeli TV with Hebrew subtitles. Colombian soap operas (novelas) are pretty popular in Israel.

Italy won after a dramatic moment towards the end of the game. Zinedine Zidan, one of the best players of the world in the French team, disgracefully got kicked out of the game because he lost his cool and blatantly headbutted an Italian player on the chest. The game went into penalties and Italy won 5-3, although France had played better.

I headed back to Abu Gosh in the middle of the night. On the way, there were cars riding around with the Italian flags yelling and blowing their horns. It was a time of celebration around the world. Once I reached the Arab village, it was all quiet.

COPS, Jerusalem, Israel 07/09/06

I got in touch with the Valbuena family, who are a UN family living in Jerusalem. They are great friends of my family. We agreed to get together later on in the day for lunch. So meanwhile, I decided to go to the places where I used to live in Jerusalem as a kid.

It’s a beautiful ride from Har Adar to Jerusalem. I had to ride down the hill, passed Abu Gosh and go up Highway #2 to Jerusalem. That’s why the Bible always says, “Let’s go up to Zion”. Anyway, entering Jerusalem, the scenery is picturesque. On top of the hills lie tall buildings built with Jerusalem Stone. That’s what’s official for construction. My first stop was Ramat Eshkol, a neighborhood, where I lived in Jerusalem. I parked by the shopping center and walked towards a tall white building. Our apartment used to be on the 14th floor. As I set up to take some pics and video, I noticed that most of the people that were walking down from the building were religious. That was interesting, since that was not the case during my childhood years.

After taking a few pictures of the building and the “supersol” (the publix or farm fresh of Israel), I walked over to the shopping area. This is where I, as an 8 year-old boy, good-looking, big rosy cheeks, would run with one lira in my hand to the little store owned by an Argentinian old man, to buy a grape ice popsicle. Here, my mother would use the post office, do her banking, her laundry and some other things. It was very different. I set up my tripod so I would come out on video and pictures. Things got a little interesting.

As I was doing my thing, I noticed an old man looking at me with a lot of interest. He would stare and stare. Then I noticed that he went up to the other old man that was guarding the entrance to the bank. As they talked, I noticed them pointing towards my direction. One of them scratched their head and the other one grabbed his chin. They talked for a while, as if trying to solve a puzzle, showing no signs of a smile or a grin.

Finally, the shorter and skinnier old man, started walking up to me, as I posed for a picture with the shawarma and falafel place behind me. I thought, “Oh no, the guy’s suspicious!”
Sure enough, the guy asked me in Hebrew, “why are you taking pictures?”
“I used to live here when I was a little boy!” I answered back in Hebrew.
“So why are you taking pictures?” he asked again not giving any importance to my first answer.
“It’s been a while, since I’ve been here and now I want to take pictures for myself,” I proudly answered – proud that I could say this in Hebrew.
“I don’t believe you! Let me see your ID!” he demanded.
“Are you the police?” I asked immediately. When he said yes, I said, “Let me see your ID!”

He opened his wallet quickly and closed it just as quick. He insisted on seeing my ID, but I refused. He threatened to call the police, as he pulled out his cell phone and started dialing.

“Call the police! I’ll wait here!” I replied with confidence. I kept walking around to take more pictures and the old man just kept getting more nervous. I decided to walk to the other side of the road, which probably made his heart pound like crazy. I took some pictures of the surrounding area and the football field that was at the bottom of the hill. I looked back towards the old man and noticed him waving his arm calling me back. When I was done, I crossed the road back to where Mr. Grumpy was.

“Stay here! The police is coming!”
“Where are they? I have to go!”
“Wait! They’re coming!”

So I waited for a while, enjoying all the excitement I had caused. Then I saw this big vehicle with a long cage on the back pull up to the shopping area. I thought that this had become a bigger deal than I thought it would be. After old Grump made sure I noticed the vehicle, he ran over and talked to them for a while. I waited, but then I decided to approach the police myself to get this over with.

“Do you speak English?” I asked again with my Hebrew.
“Lo,” was their answer.
“How am I going to explain myself out of this one?” I thought. So calmly I proceeded to explain myself in Hebrew, just as I had done with old man. The old man was waiting to see what would happen to me and would not leave. One of the policemen told him to leave and ended up yelling at him. I felt bad. He finally walked away.

“Let me see your ID!” he said.
I showed the police on the passenger side of the vehicle my ID. He asked me where I
was from and why I was taking pictures and for whom they were. They were nice during the whole interrogation. When they were satisfied with my answers, they drove off. Ramat Eshkol is still a very nice neighborhood. Thousands of memories flashed back through my head as I walked the hood and took pictures.

After all this excitement, I headed to a place called French Hill, another neighborhood where I used to live. I did the same thing. As soon as I was finished, I got a call from the Valbuena family and drove off to meet them at Novotel Hotel, not far from where I was.

Good bye Nahariya, Hello Jerusalem! 07/08/06

Sadly, today I left Nahariya, but joyfully, my destination was Yerushalaim. Carlos and family and myself walked over to shabbat service with the group from Nahariya. I stopped by just to say hello. I was supposed to be in Jerusalem by 6pm, so I had to leave soon since I wanted to stopped by Haifa.

Before leaving, I decided to take a few more photos. It was Shabbat morning and Nahariya was pretty quiet. Not too cars cruising around. For the most part, the few people that were walking around were the religious people. Unfortunately, I made my turn onto the highway to Haifa leaving Nahariya behind, but carrying with me new memories and holding on to the old ones still. After Akko, I got to Haifa fairly quickly.

In Haifa, I made my way towards the Bahai temple which is located up in the slopes of the Carmel Mountains. It's a beautiful building with exquisite gardens around it. The Bahai faith was founded in 1863 by Mirza Husayn, a Persian who was later known as Bahaullah. Haifa serves as the world center of this religion. If you want to learn more about this religion, check out: http://info.bahai.org/bahaullah-teachings.html.

Anyway, I'm not a Bahai, but the temple and the view from up there is definitely worth checking out. You can see the lower city and port area of Haifa and also appreciate the residential area, which lies on the mountain. Haifa is very old and was developed as a port in the 30's to replace the 2000 year old port of Akko.

I spent a while up there. I couldn't get enough of the scenery. I walked around the garden because the temple is only opened early in the morning for the main public. It was, however, opened for worshippers. I was already inside the temple many years ago.

Well, I headed towards Yerushalaim by the way of Tel Aviv. I followed my friend's directions to his house. His name is Tim King. I took the Adar exit, which took me to an Israeli Settement called Mevaseret Zion. It's a pretty and fairly new village from where you get a grandiose view of Jerusalem on top of the hill beyond. I knew in a short while I had taken the wrong exit, but I kept driving around to look at the little town. I headed back to the highway and returned to the previous exit, which led me into Abu Gosh, which is an Israeli Arab village. I passed it and continued on the winding road about a mile or so towards the north. I ended up on top of the hill in an Israeli village called Har Adar, which means Hill of the Eternal Flame. (By the way, on the way up to Har Adar, I passed a sign that said Kiriat Anavim. Anavim means grapes and it reminded me of my favorite - grape ice popsicle.) Har Adar was my home for the next three days. It's a fairly new settlement inside the Green line border. There's a lot of construction going on.

I hadn't seen Tim King since 1991, when I used to work for the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. He was one of the founders. If you want more info check out: www.icej.org You can get great information about what's going on in Israel. I got my own room with a view towards Jerusalem. Awesome!

Nahariya, Israel 07/07/06

Yom Shishi (Friday). What a great day! The weekend is here. We were supposed to go down to the beach, but ended up walking downtown Nahariya. The weather was pretty hot, but it's tolerable, since it's humid like Miami. It was walking down Memory Lane, as we walked Herzl street to the center of the little town. Although the town has grown, it remains a small town. We went to the Photo Store to copy my pictures from the memory sticks to CDs. That took a while. Meanwhile, Carlos, Diana and Little Tamar went down to another store and got me some fresh sunflower seeds and some Burrecas. Burrecas are like bread stuffed with potato. That description however, does not do it justice! They are sooooo delicious. I hadn't had one since Yad Vashem last year in Yerushalaim.

We walked the little town some more, but hurried home to get ready to go to a prayer meeting at Diana's cousin's house. Before that, Carlos and Diana took me to see old Stanley Roberts, who used to lead our prayer group. There he was standing with a smile on his wrinkled face. He answered my question and told me that he did not remember me. That almost broke my heart, but then I let it go realizing that he was not as young as he used to be and he had seen thousands of people since 1985. I have also changed a lot.

The prayer meeting that had once belonged to Stanley was now in Hebrew, and it was such a great feeling. I enjoyed singing Hebrew songs with my brothers and sisters and sharing some moments with them.

Right after the meeting, we headed to Diana's parents house for a Shabbat dinner. There was so much delicious food. Diana's mother had prepared almost everything including her special Polish dish. After dinner, some of us talked while the Israeli "American Idol" was on television. Apparently, that's the most watched show there as well. Another great day!

Rosh Hanikra and Akko, Israel, 07/06/06

Another day waking up in Nahariya. Today our mind was set on Rosh Hanikra, located at the border with Lebanon. “Rosh Hanikra has served as a passage point for trade caravans and armies between Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Egypt and Africa.” During the second World War, the British army dug a tunnel for the railway running between Haifa and Beirut to transport army cargo. However in 1948, the Israelis blew up part of the tunnel to stop an invasion that had been planned by the Lebanese army.

On the way there, we stopped by a monument that was erected in memory of the Ma’apilim (illegal immigrants) escaping from persecution into the British controlled promised land in the 1940’s. Many of them were returned to the Holocaust. A quotation from Jeremiah 31:17: "And your children will come again to their own country." is inscribed on one of the rocks. It’s a beautiful site that lies by the rocky seashore.

We continued up the road to the end of the country. At the foot of the hill, there used to be a parking lot for United Nations vehicles were parked before proceeding to cross the border into Naqoura, Lebanon. We crossed the border many times to visit my father when he was working there in the 1980’s. There was no sign that the United Nations was ever there. What used to be the parking lot was now green where wild flowers had grown. We parked further up and walked up to the top. It was a marvelous view looking down at the northern surroundings of Nahariya by the sea.

We waited in line to catch the cable car that would take us down to the caves of Rosh Hanikra. There were several friendly fishermen that were eager to get down there to catch their evening dinner. The ride to the caves was about a minute. The caves were naturally formed by sea movement on the white chalky rock, but we know who is in control. It was a great feeling walking inside the tunnels and stopping by what seemed to be natural windows by the water with different shades of blue and green. It was beautiful.

After catching the cable car back up to the top, we walked up to the gate that I had seen opened so many times on my way to Lebanon to visit my father. Many memories came crashing through my mind as Carlos and I discussed the old days. It was pretty emotional. There was not too much movement. After hanging out for a little while, there was an army truck. Right behind it was a UN vehicle, but the plates read UNTSO, which meant that he either came from Tiberias or Jerusalem.

After talking to some Orthodox youths, we made our way back to Nahariya. We picked up Diana and headed for Akko (or Acre), one of the oldest ports in the world and the oldest city in Israel. The city has been conquered by many empires, most recently by the Ottoman. We had a nice walk through the old city, which is populated mostly by Israeli Arabs. We were greeted by the many shop owners in the Shouk as they tried to get us to buy their merchandise. When we got to the shore, many fishing boats were already parked. Fishing was over for the day. To finish the Akko tour, we had some ice popsicles.

We headed home. The night was concluded with some singing, when a friend of the Delgadillo family came over for their weekly Thursday meeting.

Gan Hashlosha - Sachne, Israel, 07/05/06

A new day in Nahariya! What a great feeling! We headed out to a place called Sachne in Arabic or Gan HaShlosha in Hebrew. Gan HaShlosha, situated at the foot of Mt. Gilboa where King Saul died, means Garden of the Three. The name is in memory of three men that were killed in 1938 stepping on a mine, while guarding the area. There are natural springs with beautiful waterfalls and stone bridges.

We drove passed Akko, Nazareth Illit (Upper Nazareth – Israeli, Nazareth and Afula. This is a town where G-d appeared to Miriam and told her she was going to be the mother of the Messiah. That’s where one of my life verse was first quoted, “blessed are thou among all women.” The majority of the population of Nazareth used to be Christian, but now it’s Muslim. It is situated in the mountains as well, so we had to drive through the curvy roads, up to the city and then down. Poor Diana was getting a little dizzy.

I was at Gan HaShlosha last year, but it was so quick, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have. Carlos and I started a fire for a barbeque. Diana had seasoned the beef and the chicken. So we put it in the fire along with some corn. With Diana’s Israeli touch, everything was delicious! There were many groups of children boy scouts style constantly singing and chanting. Little Tamar was loving every minute of every second of the food and the water. Yes! We were able to get into the warm water and enjoy it for a while.

We took another road back to Nahariya to avoid the Nazareth traffic. We bought some ice popsicles at a gas station by Megiddo and the luscious Valley of Jezreel. Everything was simply Awesome.

Tears of Joy, Nahariya, Israel 07/04/06

Yes, it was independence day for the United States. I heard that many Israelis joined the Americans at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv to celebrate. Wow! As for me, I checked out of the hotel at around 10:30am. I did a little shopping in Ben Gurion street and headed out. What a great time I had had in Tel Aviv! I carry with me great memories.

It was all coastal road along the Mediterranean Sea towards the north of Israel. It was possible to see the Sea now and then. On the way was Netanya, Hadera, Caesarea, Neveh Yam and finally Haifa. I had been planning on going up to the top of the mountain, where the Bahai Temple is located to take pictures and video. It's an awesome view of the Port of Haifa from up there. Mt. Carmel that has also been in my mind for such a long time. What a bummer! The batteries of my video camera died. I thought I had charged the extra battery. So I proceeded, thinking that I would be up there on the way back to Jerusalem.

Haifa is beautiful and clean. Like all the other cities in Israel, it has grown quite a bit. It's a city built in a little peninsula on a mountain by the water. At a short distance lies Mt. Carmel, Akko and Nahariya. The main highway takes you right through the main street of Haifa. I went passed the bus terminal which I had used so many times, the port from where I had sailed to Cyprus and the Arab neighborhood that I had walked. There were also new buildings and the roads had been widened.

Akko was just a few minutes away, even closer than before because this city has grown as well. There were beautiful buildings and everything was very well organized. I continued and in about 15 minutes I was in Nahariya. On the left by the Sea, I saw a new neighborhood. I stopped to take pictures. Then I drove on and on the right was the neighborhood where we used to have our Bible studies with an old British man called Stanley Roberts and his wife. I wondered if he was still alive. My heart started pounding. I took a picture and drove on. There it was! The traffic light that marks the entrance to the city. I excitedly took a left and found myself on the main street of Nahariya. Tears started rolling down my face as many fond memories started flashing through my mind. I remember back in 1977, when I first came to visit, that there were horses and carriages for the tourists. My father had given us the pleasure to ride one of the carriages around the then very small town. The horses were not there any more. I drove on as I tried to contain the tears on my face. I made a left when I got to Weizman street. This was the street where we used to live. I tried swallowing, and my heart was beating like crazy.

Finally, I got to the building where we used to live. I remember it being a new building, but 20 years had passed since then. People looked on with a puzzled face as I took pictures of the building. What a great moment! I hoped that the blond twins that lived in the building would come out any minute to play with me. There was no sign of the little brunette with the dazzling blue eyes and a beautiful smile. I wondered what my childhood Israeli friends would look like now. On the other side of the street was where I used to be picked up by the school bus to travel 2 hours to Herzlia. Dennis, the Nigerian kid, and my sister Ketty were not there waiting. I looked at the building again, and couldn't see my father's red station wagon. My bike that my sisters had brought from the US was not parked at the bottom of the building. The small green fence that divided my building and the other was not there. I still bare the scar on my leg from the time I tried to jump it, but got caught in it. It was a beautiful sight to see once again after so many years!

I drove back to the main street to call my friend Carlos, who was like a little brother when we were going to school together. Last time I had seen him was maybe back in 1989. Maybe before that. He is now married to a beautiful wife, Diana, and has an adorable daughter, Little Tamar. It was Diana who answered the phone and we immediately got along. I was such a special moment to meet his girls. I got a lot of the scoop from her Point of View, including how they got together. Carlos got home from work very shortly. I was overjoyed to see Carlitos after such a long time. It kind of reminded me of the story of David and Jonathan. We sat down and he gave me the scoop from his point of view.

The Delgadillo family showed me around Nahariya. Of course, we had to buy some ice popsicles. We went by the Sea and beheld such a fantastic sunset. The whole area by the beach where I used to go was very different and it looked very nice, very touristy. There was a little walk way along the water with restaurants and bars. We sat down to grab a bite to eat and watched the rest of the sunset. The weather was perfect for a time of catching up and simply talking. What a great day it was!