Happy holidays! (it occurred to me just the other day that I don't know why anyone would get upset about this expression...Christians have two holidays at this time of year, Christmas, and the Christian new year; what's to be bothered by?) Ben-Gurion street is decked out with Christmas lights, Santa figures (some cute and some creepy), and an enormous Christmas tree constructed of empty water bottles and covered with lights. Rather than being snowy and cold it's hot and dry. Rather than listening to Christmas songs for four months we put them on just for today, which distills their enjoyability. And rather than giving any gifts I enjoyed good company, good food, good music, good movies and good conversation at a relatively large and cheerful Christmas (or in-honor-of) Christmas party.
Today also happens to mark the halfway point of my service in Haifa. Exactly as much time remains as has already passed, and it has passed quickly, and I am told it the second half passes faster. I am beginning to really realize that my time here is short and whatever I want to do, I'd better do it before the opportunity slips away or is cut short, because you never know what is going to happen. I feel like it's time now to begin to seriously consider and make plans for life after Israel. I can tell already I will probably have a difficult transition, and culture shock wherever I might go, even home. Well, if you pray, please remember me in your prayers and even if you don't I'll remember you in mine.
Love you.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
12 December
I can no longer say things are so normal. You never know what is going to happen next. On 2 December a huge forest fire that lasted 4 days and killed now 43 people broke out near Haifa (although I never so much as saw the smoke from the fire, I was sent a large number of concerned messages). Hundreds of visitors came to Haifa on 8 and 9 December to celebrate the Twin Holy Days, the birthdays of the founders of the Baha'i faith and the Babi faith, its short-lived predecessor. Yesterday I went to Jerusalem, which is an incredible city - I think there can't be many more exciting and interesting places to visit in the world. I could have stayed for a week or longer. We went from place to place to place to place. First we went to the Mount of Olives and looked out over the city, then we saw the Church of Gethsemane (though we didn't go inside), then visited the tomb of Mary (amazing, and eerie in a warm, homelike kind of way...it's hard to describe otherwise). We went on to the Western or Wailing Wall - humorously, to me anyway, the wall is partitioned so that there is a women's side and a men's side. The men's side comprises about two-thirds to three quarters of the wall. Yet there were many more women than men present. I waited quite a while before I finally got close enough to touch the wall and say a prayer there. After that we wandered through the bazaar for a little while - it was raining and our driver/guide introduced us to sahlab, a drink made of powdered milk, rosewater, coconut, crushed peanuts, and something else I couldn't identify which made it very thick, like oatmeal. Maybe it was semolina flour. After that we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which I can't adequately describe. I can only recommend going. It's an ancient and somehow harmonious mix of the expressions of devotion of many sects of Christianity. After that we caught a panoramic view of the whole city from the top of the Austrian Hospice of the Holy Family (where the Pope stays when he goes to Jerusalem). It's low and dusty and ancient and all gold and stone. Finally we paid a visit to the Israel museum, which contains an encyclopedically comprehensive history of Israel and the entire world. I saw some things I thought I'd never see...like a prayer niche and surrounding wall of a mosque from Esfahan, Iran (how and why a portion of an ornate mosque was transported to a museum in Israel, I don't know, but, as long as it was there I enjoyed it). I could have spend an entire day or two in the museum. As might be imagine I went home completely physically and mentally exhausted...but excited because I've seen life from a different perspective...from many different perspecties...and now I'm filled with new images and ideas and feelings about the world around me.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
30 November
So we are in the holiday season...not that you'd know it around here except by looking at the one restaurant on Ben-Gurion Avenue covered with showers of white Christmas lights and decked out with a couple of reindeer. I'm sad to have missed another Thanksgiving and to be missing another Christmas at home. I guess that's the choice I made when I decided to go to Spain, and I'm happy I did. I miss snow but I know I only miss it enough to enjoy it for a maximum of two days. After that I'd probably wish I were back in Israel or dead.
Things are unusually normal here. I'm still trying to explore the city, little by little (next on my list is a cafe with reputedly amazing bread at the top of the mountain called Lechem Eretz - I think this literally means "Bread Tree"), and the country too. It looks like I'll go to Jerusalem next week, for the first time! It seems odd that I've been here for more than a year and I haven't been to Jerusalem. Because I have a long weekend I may go for two days and spend the night at the same place where the pope sleeps when he comes - interestingly enough - though I'd be in a dormitory, not in the sort of classy digs I'm sure are reserved for him. It's probably more likely though that I'll go for just a day trip. I'd like to go on more trips to natural sites than visits to cities like Nazareth and Eilat. Fresh air is hard to come by here. I went for the first time in months to Carmel Forest last week - this is a forest that's nestled by the university, or I should say the university is nestled by the forest. It's scrubby and a lot of it burned down in the '70's but it still feels much nicer than being in the city. I was kind of disappointed in myself because I was exhausted by the end of it, even though we didn't find any of the difficult trails, so I sat out the excursion to the Ethiopian restaurant which was apparently much more fun - I can see what my groupmates thought of my hike planning skills, then. Actually, the restaurant is really good - and it seems better because it looks like a seedy hole in the wall that may or may not be the origin of tomorrow's food poisoning.
Sometimes I feel like I seem way too tired for my age, and own good - sometimes I find that I get distracted at work and sleepy too early in the evening and too late in the morning. I think it's a product of sitting at a desk ALL THE TIME but in any case I'm going to see a naturopathic doctor in January. He's a Baha'i from Canada volunteering his time and services here. The same is true of the dentists we see for routine check-ups (anything like surgery we'd go to a local health care provider for). As you might imagine this is hugely cost-effective and it must feel so good to render a service like that for the people living here - because a lot of health care providers here don't speak English very well.
I feel pretty same old, same old right now which I suppose is good to feel sometimes. In about two months two of my flatmates go home and so I suppose that will be an upheaval, not that I see much of any of my flatmates at all. In any case I will get a new bedroom. That's exciting. After that the only scenario in which I might move again would be one involving marriage. That's not so exciting. I was a bit overeager to move back in April and if I'd waited until my 25th birthday I could have moved into a two-share instead of a three- or four-share flat. The two-share flats, I've noticed, tend to be bigger, cleaner, and overall nicer (though this isn't always true) and their occupants do not have their flats inspected - as I'm in a four-share flat I'm grouped in with all the 19-year-olds in multi-shares who don't know how to use a sponge. (I'm sure there are lots of 19-year-olds who do know how to use sponges.) Though sometimes it's fun to run into my flatmates late at night and just have a chat, I will NOT be sorry to leave the communal living phase of my life behind.
Come to think of it I'm facing another pending upheaval, which is the departure of one of my four co-workers and the coming of his replacement. I'm still not ready and it looks like she will come to our office in February. After that, we lose another one, and gain another one, and after that, we lose yet another one, and gain yet another one. All this is happening within about four months and naturally, in an office fully staffed by medium-term volunteers, we want to minimize the disturbance caused by our inevitable frequent turnover - so we aim NOT to have three people leaving and three people coming at once, generally, though in this case it seems we coordinated poorly. It could be a really interesting challenge. It could also, quite objectively, be my worst nightmare.
Things are unusually normal here. I'm still trying to explore the city, little by little (next on my list is a cafe with reputedly amazing bread at the top of the mountain called Lechem Eretz - I think this literally means "Bread Tree"), and the country too. It looks like I'll go to Jerusalem next week, for the first time! It seems odd that I've been here for more than a year and I haven't been to Jerusalem. Because I have a long weekend I may go for two days and spend the night at the same place where the pope sleeps when he comes - interestingly enough - though I'd be in a dormitory, not in the sort of classy digs I'm sure are reserved for him. It's probably more likely though that I'll go for just a day trip. I'd like to go on more trips to natural sites than visits to cities like Nazareth and Eilat. Fresh air is hard to come by here. I went for the first time in months to Carmel Forest last week - this is a forest that's nestled by the university, or I should say the university is nestled by the forest. It's scrubby and a lot of it burned down in the '70's but it still feels much nicer than being in the city. I was kind of disappointed in myself because I was exhausted by the end of it, even though we didn't find any of the difficult trails, so I sat out the excursion to the Ethiopian restaurant which was apparently much more fun - I can see what my groupmates thought of my hike planning skills, then. Actually, the restaurant is really good - and it seems better because it looks like a seedy hole in the wall that may or may not be the origin of tomorrow's food poisoning.
Sometimes I feel like I seem way too tired for my age, and own good - sometimes I find that I get distracted at work and sleepy too early in the evening and too late in the morning. I think it's a product of sitting at a desk ALL THE TIME but in any case I'm going to see a naturopathic doctor in January. He's a Baha'i from Canada volunteering his time and services here. The same is true of the dentists we see for routine check-ups (anything like surgery we'd go to a local health care provider for). As you might imagine this is hugely cost-effective and it must feel so good to render a service like that for the people living here - because a lot of health care providers here don't speak English very well.
I feel pretty same old, same old right now which I suppose is good to feel sometimes. In about two months two of my flatmates go home and so I suppose that will be an upheaval, not that I see much of any of my flatmates at all. In any case I will get a new bedroom. That's exciting. After that the only scenario in which I might move again would be one involving marriage. That's not so exciting. I was a bit overeager to move back in April and if I'd waited until my 25th birthday I could have moved into a two-share instead of a three- or four-share flat. The two-share flats, I've noticed, tend to be bigger, cleaner, and overall nicer (though this isn't always true) and their occupants do not have their flats inspected - as I'm in a four-share flat I'm grouped in with all the 19-year-olds in multi-shares who don't know how to use a sponge. (I'm sure there are lots of 19-year-olds who do know how to use sponges.) Though sometimes it's fun to run into my flatmates late at night and just have a chat, I will NOT be sorry to leave the communal living phase of my life behind.
Come to think of it I'm facing another pending upheaval, which is the departure of one of my four co-workers and the coming of his replacement. I'm still not ready and it looks like she will come to our office in February. After that, we lose another one, and gain another one, and after that, we lose yet another one, and gain yet another one. All this is happening within about four months and naturally, in an office fully staffed by medium-term volunteers, we want to minimize the disturbance caused by our inevitable frequent turnover - so we aim NOT to have three people leaving and three people coming at once, generally, though in this case it seems we coordinated poorly. It could be a really interesting challenge. It could also, quite objectively, be my worst nightmare.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
13 November
You know it's really hard to find the time to sit down and do a lot of things. Only in the past week have I learned not to succumb to "peer pressure" all the time and learn to say no. I'm not wasting my time if I need to spend an evening in one of the Shrines, or at home, or doing something with other people or having some time to myself. It feels good though it's hard to strike a balance. Many things are like that.
So, the pilgrims are finally back! And they are funny. I already have a small arsenal of funny stories and we are only halfway through the second group.
1) A pilgrim was the last person to emerge from the Shrine one night and found his expensive and custom-made shoes were missing. He found a custodian who lent him his (enormously oversized) shoes so that he could walk back to the visitors' centre. Later the custodian found a pair of extra shoes and showed them to the pilgrim. The pilgrim looked at them and said those are definitely not mine. They were old and worn, so it looks like another pilgrim decided to treat the collection of shoes outside the Shrine as a clothing exchange.
2) Another pilgrim begged the authorities at the airport in Tel Aviv not to stamp his mother's passport with an Israeli entry visa because they plan to go to Iran next year. Finally, after much begging and pleading, an official stamped her visa on a separate sheet of paper. And then the mother stamped her own passport twice with a stamp at a visitors centre that read "Bahji" (which authorities in Iran might recognize as a Baha'i holy place, as it refers to the area of our holiest Shrine).
3) For the first time last night I heard pilgrims sing while waiting for a pilgrim talk to begin.
4) For the first time last night I heard pilgrims applaud the recitation of a prayer. It's hard to imagine why people would do that. It's probably some social dynamic. A few people started clapping, and everyone thinks they should.
Anyway, inspired by my Spain trip I've been searching out the best bakeries in Haifa. I found some pastries I like better than the ones in Spain...and they are waaay cheaper, about 2 shekels apiece which is about 50 cents. Haifa seems to do chocolate and lemon custard pastries very well. Bagels not so much. I guess a lot of people from the U.S. come here with the notion that Israel must have great bagels because the best bagels in America come from Jewish delis. Well, the bagels here taste and feel like hot dog bun bread. But the pastries are fantastic.
I've been trying to get to know Haifa a little better, because I realized I've been living here a long time now but I probably have more of a composite knowledge of Spain after spending two weeks there. I'm finding new places to buy flea market goods and produce, get things tailored, see popular and unpopular films, etc. and discovering or rediscovering new ways to get around like the subway. I'm also working on seeing more of the country, gradually, though, because I don't need to spend money every weekend seeing everything.
Another consequence of the Spain trip is distraction at work. I think it stems from boredom because I know the pattern already in most aspects of my job. I'm volunteering myself to become the information technology liaison in place of a co-worker who is leaving soon. If they let me I will learn to use programs like Illustrator which is exciting and definitely something new. If I do work as a special collections librarian this might prove good knowledge, because I think the librarians of the future, and many of the present, need to know how to use graphic design technologies to make high-quality reproductions of printed materials, etc. So at last my work might have some direct implications for my career.
I'm still trying to learn Farsi after six months and it's interesting that I wrote in my last entry that I felt my Hebrew was better than my Farsi - because now I feel that the opposite is true. Finally I can form sentences in my head - they may not be quite right, but I get the idea. It's hard for me to even try with Hebrew anymore because I feel like it puts me in a very low position. I live here too, after all, and I don't like putting myself in a position where I might get ripped off because I'm making myself look vulnerable and eager to please. I'd rather assert myself in English than stumble in Hebrew. In any case, the people here speak Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, German, Spanish, Romanian, English, and other languages...it's a nation of immigrants.
I'm also still facilitating a Kitab-i-Iqan study group, mostly comprised of security guards, and it's fascinating to see their interest and determination in reading this book well. I'm reading this and many other books at this time because I am going through another reading phase. The last one tapered off in July but now my appetite for good books is back. Right now I'm reading Maria by Jorge Isaacs which is a classic, so it's a bit dated and a bit tough and it's a little over the top because that was the style at the time, but if you get past that it's really a sweet story.
So, the pilgrims are finally back! And they are funny. I already have a small arsenal of funny stories and we are only halfway through the second group.
1) A pilgrim was the last person to emerge from the Shrine one night and found his expensive and custom-made shoes were missing. He found a custodian who lent him his (enormously oversized) shoes so that he could walk back to the visitors' centre. Later the custodian found a pair of extra shoes and showed them to the pilgrim. The pilgrim looked at them and said those are definitely not mine. They were old and worn, so it looks like another pilgrim decided to treat the collection of shoes outside the Shrine as a clothing exchange.
2) Another pilgrim begged the authorities at the airport in Tel Aviv not to stamp his mother's passport with an Israeli entry visa because they plan to go to Iran next year. Finally, after much begging and pleading, an official stamped her visa on a separate sheet of paper. And then the mother stamped her own passport twice with a stamp at a visitors centre that read "Bahji" (which authorities in Iran might recognize as a Baha'i holy place, as it refers to the area of our holiest Shrine).
3) For the first time last night I heard pilgrims sing while waiting for a pilgrim talk to begin.
4) For the first time last night I heard pilgrims applaud the recitation of a prayer. It's hard to imagine why people would do that. It's probably some social dynamic. A few people started clapping, and everyone thinks they should.
Anyway, inspired by my Spain trip I've been searching out the best bakeries in Haifa. I found some pastries I like better than the ones in Spain...and they are waaay cheaper, about 2 shekels apiece which is about 50 cents. Haifa seems to do chocolate and lemon custard pastries very well. Bagels not so much. I guess a lot of people from the U.S. come here with the notion that Israel must have great bagels because the best bagels in America come from Jewish delis. Well, the bagels here taste and feel like hot dog bun bread. But the pastries are fantastic.
I've been trying to get to know Haifa a little better, because I realized I've been living here a long time now but I probably have more of a composite knowledge of Spain after spending two weeks there. I'm finding new places to buy flea market goods and produce, get things tailored, see popular and unpopular films, etc. and discovering or rediscovering new ways to get around like the subway. I'm also working on seeing more of the country, gradually, though, because I don't need to spend money every weekend seeing everything.
Another consequence of the Spain trip is distraction at work. I think it stems from boredom because I know the pattern already in most aspects of my job. I'm volunteering myself to become the information technology liaison in place of a co-worker who is leaving soon. If they let me I will learn to use programs like Illustrator which is exciting and definitely something new. If I do work as a special collections librarian this might prove good knowledge, because I think the librarians of the future, and many of the present, need to know how to use graphic design technologies to make high-quality reproductions of printed materials, etc. So at last my work might have some direct implications for my career.
I'm still trying to learn Farsi after six months and it's interesting that I wrote in my last entry that I felt my Hebrew was better than my Farsi - because now I feel that the opposite is true. Finally I can form sentences in my head - they may not be quite right, but I get the idea. It's hard for me to even try with Hebrew anymore because I feel like it puts me in a very low position. I live here too, after all, and I don't like putting myself in a position where I might get ripped off because I'm making myself look vulnerable and eager to please. I'd rather assert myself in English than stumble in Hebrew. In any case, the people here speak Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, German, Spanish, Romanian, English, and other languages...it's a nation of immigrants.
I'm also still facilitating a Kitab-i-Iqan study group, mostly comprised of security guards, and it's fascinating to see their interest and determination in reading this book well. I'm reading this and many other books at this time because I am going through another reading phase. The last one tapered off in July but now my appetite for good books is back. Right now I'm reading Maria by Jorge Isaacs which is a classic, so it's a bit dated and a bit tough and it's a little over the top because that was the style at the time, but if you get past that it's really a sweet story.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
2 October 2010
I believed I posted something right after my birthday and now I see that it has been more than five weeks since I last wrote anything! I'm really surprised that the summer is flying by...without the pilgrims which are the "lifeblood of the World Centre" and all activity, and chaos, that so many of us put into bringing and hosting them and sending them off, I thought that the summer would be slow and dull, but actually, I've never been doing so many things that I was excited and happy about and the times that time has flown like this I can count on one hand.
To start, my birthday was really nice...I went to my favorite restaurant with 13 of my favorite people, and it's good that no more could make it because the restaurant can only accommodate groups of 14. If my connection can handle it I will post a picture, complete with descriptions of the people in the photo because I've been told I talk about my friends but don't actually describe them much of the time, and they are interesting, wonderful souls and certainly deserve a description! One of the best parts of the evening was half of the table secretly collaborating to get me a free dessert...the problem was that the other half of the table was openly collaborating to go for frozen yogurt (which by the way is much more yogurty here) down the street but the secret collaborators couldn't hear them and neither could I. I couldn't understand why they stayed at the restaurant for "coffee" until I received two photo text messages later - one of the intact dessert and one of an empty plate.
My Farsi is coming along slowly but surely...I'm trying to put a fair amount of effort into learning it because I know that it is impossible to develop any facility with a language by sporadic study. I can form simple sentences and read simple stories now but I still think my Hebrew is better and my Hebrew is not very good at all. I have enough Hebrew to have critically read the translation from English to Hebrew of a Baha'i children's song and feel that the translation is a little weird, if the meter is OK. That's pretty good I think, although I still struggle to talk to people on the street, usually because they want directions to some place, and I could not give them directions in English.
I started a group that is studying together the second most important Baha'i sacred text, the Kitab-i-Iqan or the Book of Certitude (the most important one is a book of laws and it is not often studied in groups because we know and live the laws). Because it is an explanation of the faith to a Muslim individual it is very hard for me and many in my group to read (again) but it's our good fortune to have a Kenyan with us who knows a lot about Islamic traditions and history.
I find that I spend a lot of time at the staff lending library, and dropped by today to find a staff member from the research library working hard...on a Saturday...so I asked her what she was up to and she said that the library's collection is being refreshed and its whole configuration in terms of both appearance and organization. She invited me to be a part of the process and I gladly accepted. I hope that I can be inspired with some good ideas to bring more staff to visit and enjoy the library. There is such a strong culture of learning here that it seems a shame our library does not get much use.
Lately I am a bit nervous that my work is not helping me to develop good qualities, and that in fact some of my good qualities are relapsing. That may be nothing a break from work can't solve...I am a little ashamed to admit that I have never worked so much for such a long time with no breaks (e.g., winter break, spring break) in my life so my tolerance level is relative. In any case it's a good thing for many many reaons I will be on my way to Spain in one week. I hope I'll be ready. I tried to pack today and found that it's just too early. But I am gradually gathering together all the things I need and trying to feel ready for such a big and very special trip.
To start, my birthday was really nice...I went to my favorite restaurant with 13 of my favorite people, and it's good that no more could make it because the restaurant can only accommodate groups of 14. If my connection can handle it I will post a picture, complete with descriptions of the people in the photo because I've been told I talk about my friends but don't actually describe them much of the time, and they are interesting, wonderful souls and certainly deserve a description! One of the best parts of the evening was half of the table secretly collaborating to get me a free dessert...the problem was that the other half of the table was openly collaborating to go for frozen yogurt (which by the way is much more yogurty here) down the street but the secret collaborators couldn't hear them and neither could I. I couldn't understand why they stayed at the restaurant for "coffee" until I received two photo text messages later - one of the intact dessert and one of an empty plate.
My Farsi is coming along slowly but surely...I'm trying to put a fair amount of effort into learning it because I know that it is impossible to develop any facility with a language by sporadic study. I can form simple sentences and read simple stories now but I still think my Hebrew is better and my Hebrew is not very good at all. I have enough Hebrew to have critically read the translation from English to Hebrew of a Baha'i children's song and feel that the translation is a little weird, if the meter is OK. That's pretty good I think, although I still struggle to talk to people on the street, usually because they want directions to some place, and I could not give them directions in English.
I started a group that is studying together the second most important Baha'i sacred text, the Kitab-i-Iqan or the Book of Certitude (the most important one is a book of laws and it is not often studied in groups because we know and live the laws). Because it is an explanation of the faith to a Muslim individual it is very hard for me and many in my group to read (again) but it's our good fortune to have a Kenyan with us who knows a lot about Islamic traditions and history.
I find that I spend a lot of time at the staff lending library, and dropped by today to find a staff member from the research library working hard...on a Saturday...so I asked her what she was up to and she said that the library's collection is being refreshed and its whole configuration in terms of both appearance and organization. She invited me to be a part of the process and I gladly accepted. I hope that I can be inspired with some good ideas to bring more staff to visit and enjoy the library. There is such a strong culture of learning here that it seems a shame our library does not get much use.
Lately I am a bit nervous that my work is not helping me to develop good qualities, and that in fact some of my good qualities are relapsing. That may be nothing a break from work can't solve...I am a little ashamed to admit that I have never worked so much for such a long time with no breaks (e.g., winter break, spring break) in my life so my tolerance level is relative. In any case it's a good thing for many many reaons I will be on my way to Spain in one week. I hope I'll be ready. I tried to pack today and found that it's just too early. But I am gradually gathering together all the things I need and trying to feel ready for such a big and very special trip.
Monday, August 23, 2010
23 August 2010
Imagine a college campus. Imagine the turnover a college campus endures every year. Imagine a place with the same turnover, occurring gradually instead of in "peristaltic waves" (one of my favorite ways to describe college population flow by one of my favorite writers, Lorrie Moore). And you've imagined my environment.
And things to do around here flow like the people that do them. Initiatives come and go - but they less often just go and more often and grow and evolve. If there is one thing the Baha'i youth here are good at, it's exploring their world. (The truth is they are good at many things.) I say all this to explain that it all makes it very difficult for those of us who neglect to write home for a while to sum that while up.
Since I last wrote, I basically gave up on my efforts to learn Hebrew. If I wanted to give adequate attention to learning a local language, Arabic would probably be more useful if you balance the environment I am living in (having lots of Arab Christians) and the international utility factor (as well as the "trying to deconstruct the biggest culture clash of our time" factor). The fact is that after Spanish, which I am always working on thanks to my friends and students, what I should concentrate on learning is French. Now that my struggles to read the letters of a foreign alphabet have subsided, I know I'll be amazed and pleased with the progress I can make with a language that's so closely related to English and Spanish. I need to nurture the investment I made and try to become more useful to my office.
Now I'm not sure what that investment will do for me, even if I manage to render myself fluent in French one day. It's never bad to have another way of expressing yourself and another way of looking at the world. My main purpose in going to study French was to make myself more versatile and valuable as a translator. Talking to people around here and at home who have (or know people who have) made their living, partly made their living, or tried to make their living as a translator, I realize that being a professional translator means scraping together a living assignment by assignment, and I realize that scraping together a living assignment by assignment is not so appealing to me.
The more I look at studying library science the more interested I am - I can see upfront why it's a stereotypically boring job, but I can also see the possibilities for really improving people's lives with good access to knowledge and good community programs. I like the balance I perceive between community time and quality time in many possible settings. It seems like a good match for me given my undying lifelong love for books and reading. It would be a dream to work in a community with a large Hispanic population and improve communications on both sides of the language divide. There is also a conservation side to library science and that may actually be more interesting to me - I've been volunteering in the conservation office since May and I am really enjoying it - it's like making art with a very practical, satisfying purpose. While it's probably a trivial factor I find myself thinking that conservation may be the only branch of library science that involves physical books within a couple of decades, and I would prefer that computer screens did not monopolize my professional life. Anyway, ultimately, the good news now is that I seem to be gaining momentum and direction. Some friends and friends-of-friends do translation projects on the side and prefer them that way because then they're actually a treat.
Anyway, I've also been trying to study the writings of the Baha'i faith more. That was at least half of my specific purpose in coming here and I only seem to be beginning to focus on fundamentals. It's just so easy and tempted to get taken into this and that activity and initiative because my time here will come to an end sooner rather than later, and all learning is learning. My understanding of the faith has deepened considerably since I arrived, but the most important advancements I've made in this regard have not been in things like an appreciation of the history of the faith or an understanding of its teachings, but my attitude towards it and towards faith in general. Now I appreciate its purpose and significance much more, my interpretation of the whole world is less foggy, and I am learning to take nothing for granted.
I've also been dabbling in capoeira and liking it. It's like yoga, dance, and martial arts all blended and harmonized with music. Hopefully I can stick with it because I've decided I can no longer play tennis - the "free" (or free so far, anyway) courts are nearly always occupied and the courts that can be booked but cost money are $6 per person, per game. Even if I buy a membership and play once a week the cost is the same. Thank God at least one country in the world (America has its head right about how much outdoor tennis courts should cost to use (nothing). So no way am I going to pay that. I can still run and so I am but...have you ever tried to run in a place that feels like a giant sauna? Let me tell you, don't, if you can avoid it. For the same reason it will be a couple of months before I venture on another hike. But capoeira has great potential for the whole year.
And things to do around here flow like the people that do them. Initiatives come and go - but they less often just go and more often and grow and evolve. If there is one thing the Baha'i youth here are good at, it's exploring their world. (The truth is they are good at many things.) I say all this to explain that it all makes it very difficult for those of us who neglect to write home for a while to sum that while up.
Since I last wrote, I basically gave up on my efforts to learn Hebrew. If I wanted to give adequate attention to learning a local language, Arabic would probably be more useful if you balance the environment I am living in (having lots of Arab Christians) and the international utility factor (as well as the "trying to deconstruct the biggest culture clash of our time" factor). The fact is that after Spanish, which I am always working on thanks to my friends and students, what I should concentrate on learning is French. Now that my struggles to read the letters of a foreign alphabet have subsided, I know I'll be amazed and pleased with the progress I can make with a language that's so closely related to English and Spanish. I need to nurture the investment I made and try to become more useful to my office.
Now I'm not sure what that investment will do for me, even if I manage to render myself fluent in French one day. It's never bad to have another way of expressing yourself and another way of looking at the world. My main purpose in going to study French was to make myself more versatile and valuable as a translator. Talking to people around here and at home who have (or know people who have) made their living, partly made their living, or tried to make their living as a translator, I realize that being a professional translator means scraping together a living assignment by assignment, and I realize that scraping together a living assignment by assignment is not so appealing to me.
The more I look at studying library science the more interested I am - I can see upfront why it's a stereotypically boring job, but I can also see the possibilities for really improving people's lives with good access to knowledge and good community programs. I like the balance I perceive between community time and quality time in many possible settings. It seems like a good match for me given my undying lifelong love for books and reading. It would be a dream to work in a community with a large Hispanic population and improve communications on both sides of the language divide. There is also a conservation side to library science and that may actually be more interesting to me - I've been volunteering in the conservation office since May and I am really enjoying it - it's like making art with a very practical, satisfying purpose. While it's probably a trivial factor I find myself thinking that conservation may be the only branch of library science that involves physical books within a couple of decades, and I would prefer that computer screens did not monopolize my professional life. Anyway, ultimately, the good news now is that I seem to be gaining momentum and direction. Some friends and friends-of-friends do translation projects on the side and prefer them that way because then they're actually a treat.
Anyway, I've also been trying to study the writings of the Baha'i faith more. That was at least half of my specific purpose in coming here and I only seem to be beginning to focus on fundamentals. It's just so easy and tempted to get taken into this and that activity and initiative because my time here will come to an end sooner rather than later, and all learning is learning. My understanding of the faith has deepened considerably since I arrived, but the most important advancements I've made in this regard have not been in things like an appreciation of the history of the faith or an understanding of its teachings, but my attitude towards it and towards faith in general. Now I appreciate its purpose and significance much more, my interpretation of the whole world is less foggy, and I am learning to take nothing for granted.
I've also been dabbling in capoeira and liking it. It's like yoga, dance, and martial arts all blended and harmonized with music. Hopefully I can stick with it because I've decided I can no longer play tennis - the "free" (or free so far, anyway) courts are nearly always occupied and the courts that can be booked but cost money are $6 per person, per game. Even if I buy a membership and play once a week the cost is the same. Thank God at least one country in the world (America has its head right about how much outdoor tennis courts should cost to use (nothing). So no way am I going to pay that. I can still run and so I am but...have you ever tried to run in a place that feels like a giant sauna? Let me tell you, don't, if you can avoid it. For the same reason it will be a couple of months before I venture on another hike. But capoeira has great potential for the whole year.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
17 August 2010
Before I talk about my own life over the past few weeks I just want to share my thoughts on something that has been occupying my mind:
http://news.bahai.org/story/786
Long story short: Baha'is are the largest religious minority in Iran with about 300,000 recorded adherents and, it is estimated, many more who do not openly declare their faith out of fear. They face significant persecution and in the years shortly after the Iranian revolution in 1979 many Baha'i leaders were killed. After a trial that has been drawn out over more than two years, seven Baha'i leaders in Iran have been sentenced to 20 years in prison for alleged crimes such as espionage for Israel, "spreading corruption on earth", etc. Those are the basic facts. What bothers me most is not the 20 year prison sentence, but a comparison to this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8000522.stm
And how the stories compare. People who followed the international news even a little in April 2009 knew her name and her case. Roxana Saberi is a American journalist, and, pardon me for saying this, nobody important. The 7 Baha'i leaders looked after a community of 300,000. Many of them have had the opportunity to leave the country but have chosen to stay. Roxana Saberi came to Iran from America and looked after herself, in between, according to her BBC profile, accumulating master's degrees. The Baha'is were falsely accused of various serious crimes. Roxana Saberi was charged with buying a bottle of wine and working without a valid license. The Baha'is were sentenced to 20 years in prison. Roxana Saberi was sentenced to 8 years in prison. There was such an uproar over Roxana Saberi's case that hers became a household name for a while, and, under enormous international pressure, the Iranian government set her free. Several public figures have condemned the sentencing of the 7 Baha'is, but "uproar" is not a word I would use to describe international response.
So what is the difference? One possible explanation is the nature of the accusations. Everyone can agree that punishing Roxana Saberi's supposed crimes with eight years in prison is ridiculous. People who don't know much about religion, or care about religious issues, might not realize that the allegations against the Baha'is have no basis in reality. But that seems unlikely given that most people in the west apparently feel that the Iranian government is a peculiar one. The best explanation I can think of is that Roxana Saberi was an American, or maybe more importantly, a westerner, in a country where westerners are vilified by the government as a source of moral and general corruption. And her imprisonment upset Americans (and/or westerners), because they believed that she was being imprisoned because she was an American. If Americans in Iran are being treated with injustice, that's one thing, but if Iranians in Iran are being treated with injustice, that's another.
Unfortunately it's already time for bed so I'll have to write about my life later.
http://news.bahai.org/story/786
Long story short: Baha'is are the largest religious minority in Iran with about 300,000 recorded adherents and, it is estimated, many more who do not openly declare their faith out of fear. They face significant persecution and in the years shortly after the Iranian revolution in 1979 many Baha'i leaders were killed. After a trial that has been drawn out over more than two years, seven Baha'i leaders in Iran have been sentenced to 20 years in prison for alleged crimes such as espionage for Israel, "spreading corruption on earth", etc. Those are the basic facts. What bothers me most is not the 20 year prison sentence, but a comparison to this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8000522.stm
And how the stories compare. People who followed the international news even a little in April 2009 knew her name and her case. Roxana Saberi is a American journalist, and, pardon me for saying this, nobody important. The 7 Baha'i leaders looked after a community of 300,000. Many of them have had the opportunity to leave the country but have chosen to stay. Roxana Saberi came to Iran from America and looked after herself, in between, according to her BBC profile, accumulating master's degrees. The Baha'is were falsely accused of various serious crimes. Roxana Saberi was charged with buying a bottle of wine and working without a valid license. The Baha'is were sentenced to 20 years in prison. Roxana Saberi was sentenced to 8 years in prison. There was such an uproar over Roxana Saberi's case that hers became a household name for a while, and, under enormous international pressure, the Iranian government set her free. Several public figures have condemned the sentencing of the 7 Baha'is, but "uproar" is not a word I would use to describe international response.
So what is the difference? One possible explanation is the nature of the accusations. Everyone can agree that punishing Roxana Saberi's supposed crimes with eight years in prison is ridiculous. People who don't know much about religion, or care about religious issues, might not realize that the allegations against the Baha'is have no basis in reality. But that seems unlikely given that most people in the west apparently feel that the Iranian government is a peculiar one. The best explanation I can think of is that Roxana Saberi was an American, or maybe more importantly, a westerner, in a country where westerners are vilified by the government as a source of moral and general corruption. And her imprisonment upset Americans (and/or westerners), because they believed that she was being imprisoned because she was an American. If Americans in Iran are being treated with injustice, that's one thing, but if Iranians in Iran are being treated with injustice, that's another.
Unfortunately it's already time for bed so I'll have to write about my life later.
Friday, July 23, 2010
23 July 2010
I knew it had been a long time since I last wrote, but I can't believe it's been more than a month now. So, obviously, time has flown by lately.
I solved the mystery of why the Baha'is have their own food centre. It's actually common sense. The Baha'i World Centre buys food in bulk, wholesale, and sells it at a center staffed by volunteers. Hence, it's a practical financial move. I'm making a couple of new friends, a brilliant (as in smart, not British slang for "cool", though they are both) British couple that collaborates with me to do the morning crossword, who go shopping for proper vegetables every Thursday morning (the vegetables at the Food Centre are usually two or three days old), and hope to join them one of these days.
I'm making other efforts to make my lifestyle more healthy. I've begun running again on weekends. For a while I was thinking about taking classes at a yoga studio in the Merkaz HaCarmel (this is a neighborhood near the top of the mountain that has a downtown feel - ironic, if you ask me, it's not "down" at all). I know yoga classes are expensive so I just wanted to get a start with an instructor to develop a home practice. But then I decided they would be too expensive, especially in light of my newfound tennis partner and connection to the tennis facilities in Haifa (for some reason the concept of a free public tennis court does not existing in Haifa - basketball courts, yes, "soccer courts", yes, but tennis courts, no). I like the idea of yoga because you can do it at home, even in a constrained space such as my cozy shoebox of a room, and God knows this city is 0% track and 100% obstacle course (for that reason, I think it would be a great place to try extreme running, which I'm fascinated by, but also terrified of, so forget that). Besides, it can work out every muscle in your body. So in consultation with the internet I am developing what I call youga (i.e., customized yoga) which is sort of a combination between yoga, calisthenics, gymnnastics, and doing whatever I want. As long as I can sweat I'm happy not paying $10 a day (!) to do more or less the same in a yoga studio. So there goes one possible opportunity to meet some more Israelis.
Speaking of tennis, I found a Russian partner, Oxana (also a Baha'i) and we have been playing for the last three weeks at a court owned by a Russian Jewish immigrant who doesn't speak English. So I've been trying to learn Hebrew for the past few months only to find that my first repeated encounter with a local would be much easier if I knew some Russian (of course! why didn't I think of that. Though this does not convince me to learn Russian, but to keep Oxana around). I love being back on the court and although tennis can be very expensive here, I've found some ways to make it cheap - Oxana provides balls, I found a reasonably good free racket in the clothing exchange and refreshed and gladdened its spirit with a new overgrip. Also, it may be possible to make arrangements for the use of the court to be free or cheap - I don't understand how because I don't understand Russian, but at least Oxana does.
I find myself to be doing a lot lately which is probably the main reason why I have not written in a long time, and why I am mildly sick for the first time in my 10 months here. I'm teaching an intermediate Spanish class and I really love it. My class dwindled to two or three people per class so I put out an open invitation for new students and received more than 10 responses. Some of them were from complete beginners or very rusty people so I had to redirect them. That left 6 prospective new students. Of them four showed up to the next class. So I think that makes a healthy size class. Something that is great about this group is that they love reading. I didn't want to impose my love of reading in Spanish on them, but as long as we are together in this, I've begun to have them read and discuss short stories every week. I'd like to introduce Spanish-language movies with English subtitles at some point, though I need to either gather the equipment first or find someone who already has all the equipment. Being a teacher, I'm learning, is challenging because you have a sense of what your students don't know by virtue of knowing, relatively speaking, a lot more than them. I end up feeling that every class was inadequate because we focused on reading but we didn't do much listening, or because we concentrated on conversation skills but didn't build much knowledge of proper grammar. I know that you can only do so much with one hour a week so part of facing the challenge of being a teacher, after, of course, teaching as best I can, is just being content with what little knowledge I find I can pass on in such a short time.
I'm also dealing with the dilemma of language overload because I studied Hebrew and Persian at the same time. I decided I had to focus on just one so I chose Persian because Hebrew will wear out its usefulness in not much time. But, I continue to study Hebrew in spite of myself because it really seems like the right thing to do to make the effort to learn the local language as far as I can if I'm as good as residing here. So I couldn't resist an invitation to Hebrew speaking Sunday lunches. My Persian class is ongoing and I will not give it up because it opens up the possibility of reading the Baha'i writings in their original Persian - although many of them are mixed with Arabic, to confound me thoroughly. Learning Persian also opens the possibility of reading some famous Baha'i poems (many of which are not translated yet because it is so hard to do well) and non-Baha'i Persian poems, which sounds fun because trying to read such works in translation only reminds me of what I'm missing. The fact is that I should probably be focused on building upon my investment in French. I get a little practice every week as I try to translate incoming French emails, with a success rate of 81% or so (80% seems like too low of an estimate). I'm open to suggestions as to how to deal with this dilemma.
This entry is already very long and I have not even described all I've been doing lately. So, speaking of writing, I will pick up next time I write where I left off by going into some of my latest collaborative doings that like my Spanish class make me feel like I'm contributing to life on this planet outside of my work. I'm going make sure to get enough rest to stave off anything worse than a mild virus, and my father may be proud to know that I plan to go running tomorrow as part of my efforts to feel better because I agree that it's probably counterproductive to lounge around when you're sick.
I solved the mystery of why the Baha'is have their own food centre. It's actually common sense. The Baha'i World Centre buys food in bulk, wholesale, and sells it at a center staffed by volunteers. Hence, it's a practical financial move. I'm making a couple of new friends, a brilliant (as in smart, not British slang for "cool", though they are both) British couple that collaborates with me to do the morning crossword, who go shopping for proper vegetables every Thursday morning (the vegetables at the Food Centre are usually two or three days old), and hope to join them one of these days.
I'm making other efforts to make my lifestyle more healthy. I've begun running again on weekends. For a while I was thinking about taking classes at a yoga studio in the Merkaz HaCarmel (this is a neighborhood near the top of the mountain that has a downtown feel - ironic, if you ask me, it's not "down" at all). I know yoga classes are expensive so I just wanted to get a start with an instructor to develop a home practice. But then I decided they would be too expensive, especially in light of my newfound tennis partner and connection to the tennis facilities in Haifa (for some reason the concept of a free public tennis court does not existing in Haifa - basketball courts, yes, "soccer courts", yes, but tennis courts, no). I like the idea of yoga because you can do it at home, even in a constrained space such as my cozy shoebox of a room, and God knows this city is 0% track and 100% obstacle course (for that reason, I think it would be a great place to try extreme running, which I'm fascinated by, but also terrified of, so forget that). Besides, it can work out every muscle in your body. So in consultation with the internet I am developing what I call youga (i.e., customized yoga) which is sort of a combination between yoga, calisthenics, gymnnastics, and doing whatever I want. As long as I can sweat I'm happy not paying $10 a day (!) to do more or less the same in a yoga studio. So there goes one possible opportunity to meet some more Israelis.
Speaking of tennis, I found a Russian partner, Oxana (also a Baha'i) and we have been playing for the last three weeks at a court owned by a Russian Jewish immigrant who doesn't speak English. So I've been trying to learn Hebrew for the past few months only to find that my first repeated encounter with a local would be much easier if I knew some Russian (of course! why didn't I think of that. Though this does not convince me to learn Russian, but to keep Oxana around). I love being back on the court and although tennis can be very expensive here, I've found some ways to make it cheap - Oxana provides balls, I found a reasonably good free racket in the clothing exchange and refreshed and gladdened its spirit with a new overgrip. Also, it may be possible to make arrangements for the use of the court to be free or cheap - I don't understand how because I don't understand Russian, but at least Oxana does.
I find myself to be doing a lot lately which is probably the main reason why I have not written in a long time, and why I am mildly sick for the first time in my 10 months here. I'm teaching an intermediate Spanish class and I really love it. My class dwindled to two or three people per class so I put out an open invitation for new students and received more than 10 responses. Some of them were from complete beginners or very rusty people so I had to redirect them. That left 6 prospective new students. Of them four showed up to the next class. So I think that makes a healthy size class. Something that is great about this group is that they love reading. I didn't want to impose my love of reading in Spanish on them, but as long as we are together in this, I've begun to have them read and discuss short stories every week. I'd like to introduce Spanish-language movies with English subtitles at some point, though I need to either gather the equipment first or find someone who already has all the equipment. Being a teacher, I'm learning, is challenging because you have a sense of what your students don't know by virtue of knowing, relatively speaking, a lot more than them. I end up feeling that every class was inadequate because we focused on reading but we didn't do much listening, or because we concentrated on conversation skills but didn't build much knowledge of proper grammar. I know that you can only do so much with one hour a week so part of facing the challenge of being a teacher, after, of course, teaching as best I can, is just being content with what little knowledge I find I can pass on in such a short time.
I'm also dealing with the dilemma of language overload because I studied Hebrew and Persian at the same time. I decided I had to focus on just one so I chose Persian because Hebrew will wear out its usefulness in not much time. But, I continue to study Hebrew in spite of myself because it really seems like the right thing to do to make the effort to learn the local language as far as I can if I'm as good as residing here. So I couldn't resist an invitation to Hebrew speaking Sunday lunches. My Persian class is ongoing and I will not give it up because it opens up the possibility of reading the Baha'i writings in their original Persian - although many of them are mixed with Arabic, to confound me thoroughly. Learning Persian also opens the possibility of reading some famous Baha'i poems (many of which are not translated yet because it is so hard to do well) and non-Baha'i Persian poems, which sounds fun because trying to read such works in translation only reminds me of what I'm missing. The fact is that I should probably be focused on building upon my investment in French. I get a little practice every week as I try to translate incoming French emails, with a success rate of 81% or so (80% seems like too low of an estimate). I'm open to suggestions as to how to deal with this dilemma.
This entry is already very long and I have not even described all I've been doing lately. So, speaking of writing, I will pick up next time I write where I left off by going into some of my latest collaborative doings that like my Spanish class make me feel like I'm contributing to life on this planet outside of my work. I'm going make sure to get enough rest to stave off anything worse than a mild virus, and my father may be proud to know that I plan to go running tomorrow as part of my efforts to feel better because I agree that it's probably counterproductive to lounge around when you're sick.
Monday, June 14, 2010
14 June
So this evening I had a class and decided to skip it...(points to me for not letting the group know. I got a call 10 minutes after it was scheduled to start. Sometimes I forget that unlike many places at home, life does not automatically go on without me, if I'm to be there). I went shopping instead. I don't often go shopping. Most of the things I need I can purchase in the building I work in. After some nearly nine months of being by and large content with a very limited selection, I'm deciding I should branch out a little bit. I've often wondered why we have a little grocery store just for Baha'is at all. We also have vouchers for a huge local grocery store and are free to get reimbursement for purchases made at other food stores. I suppose it is just a matter of convenience, to make it easy to buy our staple foods. Anyway, I spent most of the evening traipsing around the top of Mount Carmel and realizing my sense of direction in this city is finally pretty good. I saw a building I've seen many times before but never been curious about, and decided to look it up. It's a cultural events complex that includes a cinematheque - I looked that up and found to my surprise and happiness that it shows international movies. That means it shows movies in English, which is good, and movies in Spanish, which is also good. Most movies are in French - that's good too, as long as they have English subtitles. I think I'll take my Spanish class to one of the Spanish movies one of these days....
I think among all the staff here there is a constant feeling of tension between developing your knowledge and understanding of the faith, and devoting time to your hobbies and personal interests. I think I have a reasonable balance between these, though I probably spend more time on the latter - I should be keeping in mind that I have opportunities to pursue the former here that I do not have at home (and vice versa, for that matter). Though ultimately I probably let too much time slip by. For me at least there is also a tension between wanting to know Israelis and not having many proper opportunities. When I first came I got a bad impression of Israeli culture as almost belligerent. I'm starting to warm up to it as I realize that it's not a single culture, but many cultures as it's a nation of immigrants. You meet all kinds of. Also I find that people are not so much aggressive as simply direct and they tend to compensate for their brashness by being willing to do almost anything to help you if they sense you need it. So I'm keeping my eyes out for more opportunities.
I think among all the staff here there is a constant feeling of tension between developing your knowledge and understanding of the faith, and devoting time to your hobbies and personal interests. I think I have a reasonable balance between these, though I probably spend more time on the latter - I should be keeping in mind that I have opportunities to pursue the former here that I do not have at home (and vice versa, for that matter). Though ultimately I probably let too much time slip by. For me at least there is also a tension between wanting to know Israelis and not having many proper opportunities. When I first came I got a bad impression of Israeli culture as almost belligerent. I'm starting to warm up to it as I realize that it's not a single culture, but many cultures as it's a nation of immigrants. You meet all kinds of. Also I find that people are not so much aggressive as simply direct and they tend to compensate for their brashness by being willing to do almost anything to help you if they sense you need it. So I'm keeping my eyes out for more opportunities.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
13 June
Today I was chatting with a friend who will be leaving the Baha'i World Centre in August. I asked her if she is prepared to leave, and she considered the question and said, "Well, mentally yes. It was a shock to see my replacement come last week, because it made it finally feel real that I am really leaving. But now I'm over that. I want to be back in the real world...nowhere else in the world do you live the same way you do here. There's no anonymity. I feel that when I'm back home I'll be able to kind of let my hair down." It was a big relief to hear her say this because I've been feeling similarly and presuming it's unhealthy, which I reflected on a bit in my last post. Now I realize that like almost everything, anonymity can be healthy in moderation. Seeing the same people day in and day out will wear on anyone.
Her statement "nowhere else in the world do you live the same way" got me thinking about the culture here. There is, for example, a huge culture of learning. Everyone is always learning something or working on some skill or making some artistic product. To cite a trivial example, and the one I'm actually going to dwell on, everyone, everyone here drinks tea. It's very interesting how ingrained it is into the culture, especially among the great majority of 20 somethings on the scene, among which age group tea consumption is not a common worldwide practice. The 15 minute breaks we take from work in the mornings and afternoons are generally called "tea breaks". Half an aisle in our tiny bare-necessities store is devoted to different tea varieties. Recently I've been told of a World Centre wide youth ritual called the Tim Tam slam. A Tim Tam is an excessively sweet chocolate cookie. The objective, as I understand it, is to hold the cookie between your teeth as you dip the other end in a cup of tea and then try to slurp the whole thing before it melts away. Fascinating, no? I think only here could a ritual so ridiculous be developed around a cup of tea.
There are many more, um, dignified things I've learned about tea drinking here. Although Persians prefer British tea, they refuse to drink it with milk added because it ruins the scent. They will only add sugar. (I continue to drink my tea with milk anyway. I've never given a second thought to smelling my tea.) Tea for large groups here is often prepared in a samovar, a device of Russian/Persian stock, and it is made to be very very concentrated. Strong tea is poured and hot water is added, rather that what I think would be the also perfectly logical route of making a more dilute tea.
I've actually all but given up coffee here because I've been exposed to enough teas that I can gauge their strengths and choose one that's just strong enough to keep me going as needed. I think I've mentioned this before but I save almost every outer sleeve of almost every tea bag I've used to make myself a cup because for me this is a small but very extrinsic symbol of the peculiarities of life here. It's actually kind of comforting to collect the sleeves and think about assembling them into some sort of statement that proclaims to the world "look at this parallel universe!" It makes me think I'm not so bad at adjusting, I just really live in a very weird place.
Her statement "nowhere else in the world do you live the same way" got me thinking about the culture here. There is, for example, a huge culture of learning. Everyone is always learning something or working on some skill or making some artistic product. To cite a trivial example, and the one I'm actually going to dwell on, everyone, everyone here drinks tea. It's very interesting how ingrained it is into the culture, especially among the great majority of 20 somethings on the scene, among which age group tea consumption is not a common worldwide practice. The 15 minute breaks we take from work in the mornings and afternoons are generally called "tea breaks". Half an aisle in our tiny bare-necessities store is devoted to different tea varieties. Recently I've been told of a World Centre wide youth ritual called the Tim Tam slam. A Tim Tam is an excessively sweet chocolate cookie. The objective, as I understand it, is to hold the cookie between your teeth as you dip the other end in a cup of tea and then try to slurp the whole thing before it melts away. Fascinating, no? I think only here could a ritual so ridiculous be developed around a cup of tea.
There are many more, um, dignified things I've learned about tea drinking here. Although Persians prefer British tea, they refuse to drink it with milk added because it ruins the scent. They will only add sugar. (I continue to drink my tea with milk anyway. I've never given a second thought to smelling my tea.) Tea for large groups here is often prepared in a samovar, a device of Russian/Persian stock, and it is made to be very very concentrated. Strong tea is poured and hot water is added, rather that what I think would be the also perfectly logical route of making a more dilute tea.
I've actually all but given up coffee here because I've been exposed to enough teas that I can gauge their strengths and choose one that's just strong enough to keep me going as needed. I think I've mentioned this before but I save almost every outer sleeve of almost every tea bag I've used to make myself a cup because for me this is a small but very extrinsic symbol of the peculiarities of life here. It's actually kind of comforting to collect the sleeves and think about assembling them into some sort of statement that proclaims to the world "look at this parallel universe!" It makes me think I'm not so bad at adjusting, I just really live in a very weird place.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
5 June
It's interesting that I'm getting a lot of the same two questions lately from prospective visitors: Should I come to Haifa? and Should I go to Turkey? Some are really very worried about the aftermath of the Gaza-bound flotilla, which is by far the most "interesting" thing to occur, politically speaking, since I arrived in September (unless you count Iran in general). Others are not. The U.S. State Department has officially encouraged postponing or cancelling any travel to Israel. I have to say that seems extreme to me. Though I'm not one to say where the situation will go.
Just yesterday I dreamed that Amanda and Jeff were flying, presumably, to Mexico, but "started to sense that something was unusual when we layed over in Pittsburgh" and ended up in Israel for their wedding. Immediately after I woke up I asked myself seriously why I shouldn't go. I decided against it for myriad obvious logistical reasons. I haven't always thought this way but I am now thinking that if only it were more practical, and something I reconsidered much further in advance, I would go.
I went back to the book lab in the conservation office on Friday. I didn't make any major mistakes this time and progressed as far as finishing the text block of the four books I'm working on. I learned that in older books those fabric bits visible above and below the spine served a purpose, and they live on in newer books but tend to be only decorative. Really a lot goes into bookbinding that is either invisible to the reader, or visible but misleading. So I believe next time I'll work on making the cover - which seems to me to be the most exciting and glamorous part.
Today I went on the first hiking trip I've been on that I wouldn't do again. I went to Yehudia national park in the Golan Heights, which was part of Syria before the 6 day war. It was something like walking through the Grand Canyon. The hiking was, for me, very intense (even involving some swimming in over-your-head deep water) but the beauty of the place was worth it. Now, however, I'm paying the price as the lower half of my body seems to have ceased functioning for a little while. Strangely, though I must have used my arms and especially my wrists almost as much as my legs for support and hoisting myself up and over large rocks, and guarding against falling when I scaled down surfaces, they don't hurt as much. Yet.
Outside of the pursuits I've found to entertain myself outside of work, I'm having sort of mixed feelings about my job. I don't see myself as someone who can hardly sit down and function at the same time. I've met many such people here (regrettably for them I've seen some within my office) and I'm not among them. At the same time I don't want to restrict myself to life completely behind a desk. I'd like for my work to occasionally call for something a little different. I can feel the toll that a somewhat stressful desk job is taking on my body. I know that a big part of the stress comes from allowing myself to be stressed because sometimes I choose not to try to deal with it effectively. I just get caught up in it. Anyway, aside from feeling some stress, which I can improve, I'm feeling some boredom, too, which I'm not sure I can improve. I've felt for a little bit of time now, maybe a month, that I'm ready to move on with my life. Professionally I think I'm (emphasis on) approaching the time that I am ready for that.
But if I remember that I came here to develop spiritually I know that I'm not ready to leave here. What I'm feeling is probably a readiness to give up on that, which is, of course, against the whole point. I have friends here and overall it's not very hard to feel comfortable among the people here, but can't really help feeling like a misfit some of the time. The vast majority of staff here are second-generation Baha'is and some of them at least talk like they've never doubted or questioned for one moment what they believe. How could I develop spiritually if the most visible route to "development" is unquestioning faith? One of the most fundamental principles of the Baha'i faith is independent investigation of truth and meaning, though it seems that everyone (perhaps naturally) has their own unique understanding of what it means. Some think it is only the obligation of those who are not yet Baha'is. Needless to say, that doesn't help me. Of course, there is always the possibility that what I guess I'm perceiving as some degree of close-mindedness is just some sort of failure to communicate. I have found that I've been wrong about people once I've gotten to know them and their depth of thought and understanding and consideration of the faith is much deeper than it seemed at first.
When I imagine myself going home tomorrow I see me losing myself in cafes working on bad poetry and probably smoking. And picking up a prayer book or a book of the Baha'i writings once in a while. I kind of appreciated the anonymity I had in college though I don't suppose it helped me to grow. At least I didn't start smoking then (I really don't see that happening - here it seems to just represent a slump in trying to uphold my values because I really think it's disgusting). I've talked about wanting to feel not so disconnected from my community, and here I have an opportunity to experiment with that, in my strange, challenging little community where people are constantly coming and going. Though it all basically makes sense in my head, I doubt I'm expressing a coherent train of thought. Oh, well - I figure I have a while to keep trying.
Just yesterday I dreamed that Amanda and Jeff were flying, presumably, to Mexico, but "started to sense that something was unusual when we layed over in Pittsburgh" and ended up in Israel for their wedding. Immediately after I woke up I asked myself seriously why I shouldn't go. I decided against it for myriad obvious logistical reasons. I haven't always thought this way but I am now thinking that if only it were more practical, and something I reconsidered much further in advance, I would go.
I went back to the book lab in the conservation office on Friday. I didn't make any major mistakes this time and progressed as far as finishing the text block of the four books I'm working on. I learned that in older books those fabric bits visible above and below the spine served a purpose, and they live on in newer books but tend to be only decorative. Really a lot goes into bookbinding that is either invisible to the reader, or visible but misleading. So I believe next time I'll work on making the cover - which seems to me to be the most exciting and glamorous part.
Today I went on the first hiking trip I've been on that I wouldn't do again. I went to Yehudia national park in the Golan Heights, which was part of Syria before the 6 day war. It was something like walking through the Grand Canyon. The hiking was, for me, very intense (even involving some swimming in over-your-head deep water) but the beauty of the place was worth it. Now, however, I'm paying the price as the lower half of my body seems to have ceased functioning for a little while. Strangely, though I must have used my arms and especially my wrists almost as much as my legs for support and hoisting myself up and over large rocks, and guarding against falling when I scaled down surfaces, they don't hurt as much. Yet.
Outside of the pursuits I've found to entertain myself outside of work, I'm having sort of mixed feelings about my job. I don't see myself as someone who can hardly sit down and function at the same time. I've met many such people here (regrettably for them I've seen some within my office) and I'm not among them. At the same time I don't want to restrict myself to life completely behind a desk. I'd like for my work to occasionally call for something a little different. I can feel the toll that a somewhat stressful desk job is taking on my body. I know that a big part of the stress comes from allowing myself to be stressed because sometimes I choose not to try to deal with it effectively. I just get caught up in it. Anyway, aside from feeling some stress, which I can improve, I'm feeling some boredom, too, which I'm not sure I can improve. I've felt for a little bit of time now, maybe a month, that I'm ready to move on with my life. Professionally I think I'm (emphasis on) approaching the time that I am ready for that.
But if I remember that I came here to develop spiritually I know that I'm not ready to leave here. What I'm feeling is probably a readiness to give up on that, which is, of course, against the whole point. I have friends here and overall it's not very hard to feel comfortable among the people here, but can't really help feeling like a misfit some of the time. The vast majority of staff here are second-generation Baha'is and some of them at least talk like they've never doubted or questioned for one moment what they believe. How could I develop spiritually if the most visible route to "development" is unquestioning faith? One of the most fundamental principles of the Baha'i faith is independent investigation of truth and meaning, though it seems that everyone (perhaps naturally) has their own unique understanding of what it means. Some think it is only the obligation of those who are not yet Baha'is. Needless to say, that doesn't help me. Of course, there is always the possibility that what I guess I'm perceiving as some degree of close-mindedness is just some sort of failure to communicate. I have found that I've been wrong about people once I've gotten to know them and their depth of thought and understanding and consideration of the faith is much deeper than it seemed at first.
When I imagine myself going home tomorrow I see me losing myself in cafes working on bad poetry and probably smoking. And picking up a prayer book or a book of the Baha'i writings once in a while. I kind of appreciated the anonymity I had in college though I don't suppose it helped me to grow. At least I didn't start smoking then (I really don't see that happening - here it seems to just represent a slump in trying to uphold my values because I really think it's disgusting). I've talked about wanting to feel not so disconnected from my community, and here I have an opportunity to experiment with that, in my strange, challenging little community where people are constantly coming and going. Though it all basically makes sense in my head, I doubt I'm expressing a coherent train of thought. Oh, well - I figure I have a while to keep trying.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
29 May
Another week came and went. The speed of the passage of time can be incredible. I'm not always sure where it goes. May has almost come and gone without my knowledge. It's getting very hot here and I know the worst is coming in September. That's nice.
I started to work in the conservation office on Friday. I plan to balance volunteering in the library with working in conservation - so far, the latter is more interesting, and because they revitalize library books with fresh binding and other treatments, I can be helping both departments at the same time. What the conservation office does is pretty amazing. They don't have any true conservators at the moment (for reasons unbeknownst to me), but they get along in terms of maintaining the artifacts (tablets, calligraphy, etc.) One of the workers in the office showed me a tablet that appeared to have a light brown background. Around the edges where the frame had been removed, it was a mossy green - so it was his job to restore the color in a facsimile. The writing on the tablet, though, he didn't dare mess with, because he can't read Arabic or Persian and so he would not know if he were blotting out a faded dot and thus changing the meaning, or something like that.
Anyway, it was my job to learn to do bookbinding. I liked it, though I made a minor mistake that ended up costing me an hour of labor - but it's ok, things happen. It's certainly painstaking, but once I know what I'm doing a little better, I think it'll be really fun. Eventually I'll have the skills and knowledge of the new tools I have available to bind my own books if I so choose, with my own materials, of course.
Outside of volunteering and inside my regular office, for the moment, I'm bored. I can tell that all members of my office are weary to varying degrees. I feel pretty tired and I know I don't have it the worst. We're all trying our best but maintaining enthusiasm over a desk-and-computer job, perhaps most of all in the hot spring/summer months, is not easy. It would be good to get out of Haifa for a while. However, this can be difficult because much of the country grinds to a halt from 2:00pm on Friday to Saturday evening. Even though I could leave Haifa on Friday afternoon and come back on Saturday evening every weekend, what would be the point if everything is closed? I don't know if I will ever get to know Tel Aviv (or most any other city) for this reason. To me, Tel Aviv (during the week) represents civilization as I know it - of course, Haifa is developed, but it has a penetrating dirty, old, and worn feel, unlike the relatively young country I grew up in.
Since I took over the brief visit desk, I've had a love-hate relationship with holy days. The last of holy day "season" (basically, the springtime) passed yesterday and I must say I'm not so unhappy that the next is in late August. Maybe I'll get some rest.
I started to work in the conservation office on Friday. I plan to balance volunteering in the library with working in conservation - so far, the latter is more interesting, and because they revitalize library books with fresh binding and other treatments, I can be helping both departments at the same time. What the conservation office does is pretty amazing. They don't have any true conservators at the moment (for reasons unbeknownst to me), but they get along in terms of maintaining the artifacts (tablets, calligraphy, etc.) One of the workers in the office showed me a tablet that appeared to have a light brown background. Around the edges where the frame had been removed, it was a mossy green - so it was his job to restore the color in a facsimile. The writing on the tablet, though, he didn't dare mess with, because he can't read Arabic or Persian and so he would not know if he were blotting out a faded dot and thus changing the meaning, or something like that.
Anyway, it was my job to learn to do bookbinding. I liked it, though I made a minor mistake that ended up costing me an hour of labor - but it's ok, things happen. It's certainly painstaking, but once I know what I'm doing a little better, I think it'll be really fun. Eventually I'll have the skills and knowledge of the new tools I have available to bind my own books if I so choose, with my own materials, of course.
Outside of volunteering and inside my regular office, for the moment, I'm bored. I can tell that all members of my office are weary to varying degrees. I feel pretty tired and I know I don't have it the worst. We're all trying our best but maintaining enthusiasm over a desk-and-computer job, perhaps most of all in the hot spring/summer months, is not easy. It would be good to get out of Haifa for a while. However, this can be difficult because much of the country grinds to a halt from 2:00pm on Friday to Saturday evening. Even though I could leave Haifa on Friday afternoon and come back on Saturday evening every weekend, what would be the point if everything is closed? I don't know if I will ever get to know Tel Aviv (or most any other city) for this reason. To me, Tel Aviv (during the week) represents civilization as I know it - of course, Haifa is developed, but it has a penetrating dirty, old, and worn feel, unlike the relatively young country I grew up in.
Since I took over the brief visit desk, I've had a love-hate relationship with holy days. The last of holy day "season" (basically, the springtime) passed yesterday and I must say I'm not so unhappy that the next is in late August. Maybe I'll get some rest.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
22 May
I wish I could accurately/adequately summarize the last three weeks, but I can't remember them. In my mind they are a blur of paperwork and unusual requests. Things have been really busy in the office lately as we are in transition - preparing to close out a position in the next couple of weeks. Finally I feel that we are beginning to adjust to it, and everything, as suspected and known, will be ok.
I've been trying to gather the individual initiative to work on a couple of art projects. One is a painting I mentioned a while ago. I have it sketched out and transferred the sketch to canvas paper, so it's all ready to print. My efforts at building up individual initiative have not succeeded thus far, so I tried group initiative. I called an artist friend and asked if she'd like to paint together. She agreed, but somehow we ended up going out to dinner with my flatmates and a visiting mother. Last night I tried again, and this time, I called two friends. Both agreed. All of us ended up going out for coffee with visitors instead. Back to individual initiative. If that doesn't work, back to the drawing board.
What I have been doing successfully is a great deal of reading. I'm devouring books as I haven't done since I was a little kid and reading was a new and awesome concept to me. As I practice reading in Spanish, it gets easier. And as I learn more about the Baha'i faith, I understand more of what I read about it.
Somehow the opportunities arose within the same week to start taking classes in Persian and a second level of Hebrew. I'm not going to pass up either opportunity though I do wonder how I'm going to get along studying two languages with different scripts (both different, of course, from English) three nights a week (2 Hebrew, 1 Persian). At least I know the alphabets of both scripts, though I can't sound them out fluidly quite yet because for heaven's sake, they're backwards.
I've been getting to know my new flatmates better and better over the past month and some odd days, and the situation is good. At this time I feel like my move up the mountain is a matter of having six of one and half a dozen of the other, but when I think of my new flatmates (and how nice it will be to have a five minute walk to work when it's 95 degrees Farenheit with 100% humidity), I'm happy, and it's all good.
One thing that really bothers me lately is being eight hours ahead of Wisconsin. This makes calling home near-impossible. I'm working on getting up early on Tuesday mornings, I promise.
I've been trying to gather the individual initiative to work on a couple of art projects. One is a painting I mentioned a while ago. I have it sketched out and transferred the sketch to canvas paper, so it's all ready to print. My efforts at building up individual initiative have not succeeded thus far, so I tried group initiative. I called an artist friend and asked if she'd like to paint together. She agreed, but somehow we ended up going out to dinner with my flatmates and a visiting mother. Last night I tried again, and this time, I called two friends. Both agreed. All of us ended up going out for coffee with visitors instead. Back to individual initiative. If that doesn't work, back to the drawing board.
What I have been doing successfully is a great deal of reading. I'm devouring books as I haven't done since I was a little kid and reading was a new and awesome concept to me. As I practice reading in Spanish, it gets easier. And as I learn more about the Baha'i faith, I understand more of what I read about it.
Somehow the opportunities arose within the same week to start taking classes in Persian and a second level of Hebrew. I'm not going to pass up either opportunity though I do wonder how I'm going to get along studying two languages with different scripts (both different, of course, from English) three nights a week (2 Hebrew, 1 Persian). At least I know the alphabets of both scripts, though I can't sound them out fluidly quite yet because for heaven's sake, they're backwards.
I've been getting to know my new flatmates better and better over the past month and some odd days, and the situation is good. At this time I feel like my move up the mountain is a matter of having six of one and half a dozen of the other, but when I think of my new flatmates (and how nice it will be to have a five minute walk to work when it's 95 degrees Farenheit with 100% humidity), I'm happy, and it's all good.
One thing that really bothers me lately is being eight hours ahead of Wisconsin. This makes calling home near-impossible. I'm working on getting up early on Tuesday mornings, I promise.
Friday, April 30, 2010
April 30
Sunday marks the end of the 12 day Baha'i festival of Ridvan - I think I have described this in the past as "a couple of holy days" because I was thinking of them in terms of the key days of the Ridvan season, which happen to be the days we don't work. I should explain that Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i faith, announced his station as a messenger of God to humanity while living in exile from Iran in Baghdad, Iraq. The 12 days of Ridvan commemmorate the 12 days Baha'u'llah spent in a garden in Iraq called (renamed) the Ridvan garden. Ridvan (pronounced Rezvan - actually, I'm not sure because different people pronounce it differently - I pronounce it Rezvan, anyway) is Arabic for paradise. The events that occurred in the garden inverted an otherwise gloomy situation because Baha'u'llah was on the eve of being further exiled to Constantinople (then, part of the Ottoman empire as was Iraq - and if you're at all familiar with the work of Tin Pan Alley, or They Might Be Giants, you're well aware that Istanbul was Constantinople; now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople).
The first, ninth, and twelfth days are specially commemmorated. This year the ninth and twelfth days fall on a Thursday and a Sunday - which means a four day weekend for many BWC staff. So we are currently amidst a lot of family visitors, regular visitors, even visitors for a wedding, plus approximately 400 pilgrims. Some staff have balanced out this population dynamic by going out of town or even travelling abroad for the weekend. I myself am going to Akka, the Carmel forest on the outskirts of Haifa, and the beach, but nothing more special or far-reaching than that (that may sound like a lot but these are some of my most regular hang-outs - I just happen to have time to visit three of them in a single weekend).
I've been living a little higher up the mountain for about a week now. Combined with a work (and free time) schedule that has been too busy for me, living in a much busier area with many more Baha'is (come to think of it, that is a part of why my schedule has been too busy) has been draining for me and I'm going to need to make a special effort to not do so much for a while. A lot of things are making me feel mentally worn out. There are all kinds of activities to take part in, but I'm starting to feel that for me far too many of them are too, well, studious. I have a friend who practices playing water polo twice a week and occasionally plays games on weekends. It takes up a very large portion of her free time, but she loves it, and she's not always either sitting in front of a computer or with her nose in a book or workbook or study sheet or administrative message or whatever. Plus she gets to spend some time with Israelis which I'm still struggling to find an suitable avenue for doing just once in a while - so I don't feel disconnected from the world, which I'm really not - I just happen to be living in a milieu of enough mostly native English speakers to fill a small town.
I hope moving up the mountain wasn't a mistake. I wanted to be closer to activity when I wanted to take part in it. Now I hope I won't get sucked into everything and if I want quiet time, I can have it. My new roommates are nice but one of them, although she has nothing if not a good heart, might be a bit of a challenge for me to live with because she seems to have quite a maternal personality - I consider myself a big girl able to take care of myself, so...we'll see how that goes.
I've been spending lots of time in the shrines, which I've felt I've needed, though I don't understand why - I'm aware this happens to a lot of people shortly before they leave - after all, when will they be back? - but I'm not leaving soon. Maybe I'm homesick. I am feeling a little restless, while exciting but ideas are forming in my head about how to proceed with my career, and the kind of adult life I'd like to have. I've been thinking about how I've always felt kind of displaced. Now I'm definitely displaced. The BWC only happens to be where it is because of a string of exiles some 150 years ago (see the first paragraph). Maybe I need to feel more anchored to someplace. OK, where? What's home? Right now the only place that feels like a real (accessible) home is inside the shrines.
The first, ninth, and twelfth days are specially commemmorated. This year the ninth and twelfth days fall on a Thursday and a Sunday - which means a four day weekend for many BWC staff. So we are currently amidst a lot of family visitors, regular visitors, even visitors for a wedding, plus approximately 400 pilgrims. Some staff have balanced out this population dynamic by going out of town or even travelling abroad for the weekend. I myself am going to Akka, the Carmel forest on the outskirts of Haifa, and the beach, but nothing more special or far-reaching than that (that may sound like a lot but these are some of my most regular hang-outs - I just happen to have time to visit three of them in a single weekend).
I've been living a little higher up the mountain for about a week now. Combined with a work (and free time) schedule that has been too busy for me, living in a much busier area with many more Baha'is (come to think of it, that is a part of why my schedule has been too busy) has been draining for me and I'm going to need to make a special effort to not do so much for a while. A lot of things are making me feel mentally worn out. There are all kinds of activities to take part in, but I'm starting to feel that for me far too many of them are too, well, studious. I have a friend who practices playing water polo twice a week and occasionally plays games on weekends. It takes up a very large portion of her free time, but she loves it, and she's not always either sitting in front of a computer or with her nose in a book or workbook or study sheet or administrative message or whatever. Plus she gets to spend some time with Israelis which I'm still struggling to find an suitable avenue for doing just once in a while - so I don't feel disconnected from the world, which I'm really not - I just happen to be living in a milieu of enough mostly native English speakers to fill a small town.
I hope moving up the mountain wasn't a mistake. I wanted to be closer to activity when I wanted to take part in it. Now I hope I won't get sucked into everything and if I want quiet time, I can have it. My new roommates are nice but one of them, although she has nothing if not a good heart, might be a bit of a challenge for me to live with because she seems to have quite a maternal personality - I consider myself a big girl able to take care of myself, so...we'll see how that goes.
I've been spending lots of time in the shrines, which I've felt I've needed, though I don't understand why - I'm aware this happens to a lot of people shortly before they leave - after all, when will they be back? - but I'm not leaving soon. Maybe I'm homesick. I am feeling a little restless, while exciting but ideas are forming in my head about how to proceed with my career, and the kind of adult life I'd like to have. I've been thinking about how I've always felt kind of displaced. Now I'm definitely displaced. The BWC only happens to be where it is because of a string of exiles some 150 years ago (see the first paragraph). Maybe I need to feel more anchored to someplace. OK, where? What's home? Right now the only place that feels like a real (accessible) home is inside the shrines.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
15 April
I've been so occupied in the last few weeks that the thought has crossed my mind many times to update my blog, but no more than that. I say "occupied" instead of "busy" because "busy" seems to imply that one is fulfilling obligations to the outside world. A lot of what has been keeping me occupied has been personal and individual and very positive. It's my feeling that as this introspective phase that I have been going through recedes at least for a while, it's soon going to be replaced with a phase of being much more active in my community, which is very positive also.
On Wednesday of last week I acquired a new flatmate - just as the one and only one I've had for seven months borders on leaving. It worries me that she doesn't know what she's going to do when she goes home - how you can go home after a year and a half of living in a foreign country with no plans for the future is not something I can understand - but it makes me happy that she told me recently that she's very interested in going into journalism and writing about human rights issues. Some sort of work like that would definitely fall along the lines of what she has been doing all her time in Israel so it will be great if her last 18 months give her a head start in her chosen field.
On Friday last week she had her goodbye party. I asked specifically if we could have a lot of music, not because I love it (though I really do) but because I've noticed that it tends to make everyone happy. I was the only person at the party who was not Persian or married to a Persian (or engaged to a Persian) so most of the music was Persian or Arabic. Five people approached me later and either apologized or teased me for being subjected to so much Persian music. This was at the same time very funny and completely incomprehensible to me. Music is music. I was not familiar with more than one of two of the songs, but it didn't really matter. I had my wish.
My roommate is friendly and pleasant. She's from Canada, studied communications, and seems smart and healthy and balanced. Unfortunately I won't be living very long with her. I took a flat offer much closer to my office - it makes me happy that I've been asking around to see who will be living in my area and maybe 90% of the people I've asked will be living within a few blocks of me. I didn't fully realize before how many BWC staff members are concentrated within such a small radius.
I have a week to get my things together. In the meantime I am really looking forward to a beach picnic on Saturday. Two weekends ago I went on a long hike through a very hidden little forest that winds through Haifa and the path took my companions and me to the beach, so we had played in the water a little bit (and I saw my first jellyfish outside a zoo - we stayed clear of it) and napped on the beach. Before that I hadn't been to the beach since sometime in January (I know, my life is so hard). So I am really looking forward to this weekend. A lot of African friends will be there and they are always a joy to be around because they are generally contagiously happy.
In addition to the beach outing, I'm also looking forward to a couple of upcoming holy day observations (I'll explain as they occur). A friend from Mexico has commented on my very long hair and offered to style it for such a special occasion as a holy day "with flowers and everything, just like Frida Kahlo". I am looking very forward to my Mexican hairdo.
Besides all these things, what has caused me to be so occupied lately is primarily one thing: reading. I've always loved reading but would never say that I read voraciously, but now my eyes can't move fast enough across the page and my brain can't absorb what I take in fast enough. I'm reading a four volume series called The Revelation of Baha'u'llah which is history of major Baha'i writings (including some of those which have not been translated from Arabic or Persian yet - this is what is most fascinating about this series, that it gives me a window into things I may not otherwise have access to in my lifetime...it can be hard to read at times though because Arabic and Persian human and place names tend to sound very similar to me and it doesn't help that they're naturally rhymy languages). I'm trying to maintain my reading skills in Spanish and reading a very very cute Spanish novel - it's good and old with lots of antiquated language and over-the-top sentiments and it's just fun to read. I'm also listening to Running with Scissors which makes me in turns laugh a lot and raise an eyebrow.
In news that is not related to my life, but makes me very happy, I recently learned that one of the former counselors at Camp New Hope had her first child after her own mother died of cancer - so she asked the wife of the husband and wife who served as camp directors that summer to be her baby's grandmother. She is thrilled at this.
On Wednesday of last week I acquired a new flatmate - just as the one and only one I've had for seven months borders on leaving. It worries me that she doesn't know what she's going to do when she goes home - how you can go home after a year and a half of living in a foreign country with no plans for the future is not something I can understand - but it makes me happy that she told me recently that she's very interested in going into journalism and writing about human rights issues. Some sort of work like that would definitely fall along the lines of what she has been doing all her time in Israel so it will be great if her last 18 months give her a head start in her chosen field.
On Friday last week she had her goodbye party. I asked specifically if we could have a lot of music, not because I love it (though I really do) but because I've noticed that it tends to make everyone happy. I was the only person at the party who was not Persian or married to a Persian (or engaged to a Persian) so most of the music was Persian or Arabic. Five people approached me later and either apologized or teased me for being subjected to so much Persian music. This was at the same time very funny and completely incomprehensible to me. Music is music. I was not familiar with more than one of two of the songs, but it didn't really matter. I had my wish.
My roommate is friendly and pleasant. She's from Canada, studied communications, and seems smart and healthy and balanced. Unfortunately I won't be living very long with her. I took a flat offer much closer to my office - it makes me happy that I've been asking around to see who will be living in my area and maybe 90% of the people I've asked will be living within a few blocks of me. I didn't fully realize before how many BWC staff members are concentrated within such a small radius.
I have a week to get my things together. In the meantime I am really looking forward to a beach picnic on Saturday. Two weekends ago I went on a long hike through a very hidden little forest that winds through Haifa and the path took my companions and me to the beach, so we had played in the water a little bit (and I saw my first jellyfish outside a zoo - we stayed clear of it) and napped on the beach. Before that I hadn't been to the beach since sometime in January (I know, my life is so hard). So I am really looking forward to this weekend. A lot of African friends will be there and they are always a joy to be around because they are generally contagiously happy.
In addition to the beach outing, I'm also looking forward to a couple of upcoming holy day observations (I'll explain as they occur). A friend from Mexico has commented on my very long hair and offered to style it for such a special occasion as a holy day "with flowers and everything, just like Frida Kahlo". I am looking very forward to my Mexican hairdo.
Besides all these things, what has caused me to be so occupied lately is primarily one thing: reading. I've always loved reading but would never say that I read voraciously, but now my eyes can't move fast enough across the page and my brain can't absorb what I take in fast enough. I'm reading a four volume series called The Revelation of Baha'u'llah which is history of major Baha'i writings (including some of those which have not been translated from Arabic or Persian yet - this is what is most fascinating about this series, that it gives me a window into things I may not otherwise have access to in my lifetime...it can be hard to read at times though because Arabic and Persian human and place names tend to sound very similar to me and it doesn't help that they're naturally rhymy languages). I'm trying to maintain my reading skills in Spanish and reading a very very cute Spanish novel - it's good and old with lots of antiquated language and over-the-top sentiments and it's just fun to read. I'm also listening to Running with Scissors which makes me in turns laugh a lot and raise an eyebrow.
In news that is not related to my life, but makes me very happy, I recently learned that one of the former counselors at Camp New Hope had her first child after her own mother died of cancer - so she asked the wife of the husband and wife who served as camp directors that summer to be her baby's grandmother. She is thrilled at this.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
March 27
I am really pleased with the way this week went, and I feel like some problems I was having are beginning to resolve themselves. At work I am to take over the brief visits desk, acting as a travel agent of sorts (emphasis on "of sorts") for Baha'is who wish to come to the Akka/Haifa area for reasons other than a formal nine-day pilgrimage (the most common reasons are to attend a holy day observance or simply to spend some time in the shrines). This desk works much more closely with another department than the nine-day section of the pilgrimage department, and it tends to operate on a much more urgent basis...and I will continue to do nine-day pilgrimage half-time, theoretically. Looked at most pessimistically it's a lot of training, and looked at most optimistically it's a lot of variety. I feel that I made a breakthrough in my training this week...now I feel a lot more confident and invested in it.
Today I went on a lengthy circuit around northern Israel on a sherut with three of my friends, their mothers, and three other staff members. First we went to Nimrod Fortress, an Arab/Muslim structure built to protect Syria and particularly Damascus against Christian invasion during the Crusades of the medieval period. It was fascinating to explore the ins and outs of the ruinous structure and to take in the surrounding views. The mist and fog produced by the altitude and perhaps the weather of the day enhanced the atmosphere somehow. Next we went to a nice restaurant that seemed questionable at first (part of its claim to fame was its view, but today that happened to be entirely obscured in said mist and fog) but turned out to be a very good choice. Finally we went to Yardanit, a baptismal site on the Jordan River where Christ Himself is believed to have been baptized by John the Baptist. It was thoroughly commercialized and equally depressing. The best part of the trip was the group, and spending time with a couple of wild, crazy and sweet mothers (the third was not wild and crazy but she was sweet). I'm very happy with my first major excursion outside of Haifa. Pictures pending. Still. Sorry.
Today I went on a lengthy circuit around northern Israel on a sherut with three of my friends, their mothers, and three other staff members. First we went to Nimrod Fortress, an Arab/Muslim structure built to protect Syria and particularly Damascus against Christian invasion during the Crusades of the medieval period. It was fascinating to explore the ins and outs of the ruinous structure and to take in the surrounding views. The mist and fog produced by the altitude and perhaps the weather of the day enhanced the atmosphere somehow. Next we went to a nice restaurant that seemed questionable at first (part of its claim to fame was its view, but today that happened to be entirely obscured in said mist and fog) but turned out to be a very good choice. Finally we went to Yardanit, a baptismal site on the Jordan River where Christ Himself is believed to have been baptized by John the Baptist. It was thoroughly commercialized and equally depressing. The best part of the trip was the group, and spending time with a couple of wild, crazy and sweet mothers (the third was not wild and crazy but she was sweet). I'm very happy with my first major excursion outside of Haifa. Pictures pending. Still. Sorry.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
March 20
While the last week of fasting was in some ways the easiest, it was also a challenge to continue to function on a relatively low level of energy. I got accustomed to being tired a fair amount of the time. It wasn't until the last few days that I realized that it actually helps to be somewhat physically active. I may have been fasting but my body still needed some healthy moving around like anybody's body. Of course I was careful not to overdo it.
The end of the week was the best part. A member of the Universal House of Justice who is well-beloved by the Bahá'í World Centre community (especially the youth for holding a weekly Thursday night study class for youth) is officially retiring on Sunday after 31 years of living in Haifa. For all but a few months of those 31 years he held his Thursday night study class every week, even when under the weather. That means that this past Thursday was his very last class. It seems that Bahá’ís are, in my opinion, almost over the top in their love of ceremoniousness, so naturally, the class was epic, but it was well-deserved. He was given flowers, a personal gift, a donation to the Bahá’í fund in his name, an electronic book full of staff photos and last words for him, and a resounding good-bye. Later one guy told me that his eyes must have been sweating at the good-bye.
On Friday I went to the shrine at Bahjí, wisely, because I am sure that it was filled nearly to excess today with pilgrims and visitors and staff. This morning I went hiking (this was nonstrenuous hiking). I drank a lot of water in the morning and traipsed around in the sunlight. It would have been the best day of the fast even if not for the evening, when I went to a gathering with African, African-affiliated, and non-African friends to break the fast together for the last time. We had delicious African food, and drumming and singing. When I left I didn’t feel anything but happiness.
The end of the fast marks the first day of spring, and the beginning of Naw Ruz the Bahá’í new year. It also nearly marks the day I’ve been here for six short months.
While I have no patience to upload photos directly to my blog today, I discovered when I was hiking that my memory card is full, so in due course I will be making a Picasa web album (as I did in summer) and uploading all my photos of the Holy Land. Stay tuned.
The end of the week was the best part. A member of the Universal House of Justice who is well-beloved by the Bahá'í World Centre community (especially the youth for holding a weekly Thursday night study class for youth) is officially retiring on Sunday after 31 years of living in Haifa. For all but a few months of those 31 years he held his Thursday night study class every week, even when under the weather. That means that this past Thursday was his very last class. It seems that Bahá’ís are, in my opinion, almost over the top in their love of ceremoniousness, so naturally, the class was epic, but it was well-deserved. He was given flowers, a personal gift, a donation to the Bahá’í fund in his name, an electronic book full of staff photos and last words for him, and a resounding good-bye. Later one guy told me that his eyes must have been sweating at the good-bye.
On Friday I went to the shrine at Bahjí, wisely, because I am sure that it was filled nearly to excess today with pilgrims and visitors and staff. This morning I went hiking (this was nonstrenuous hiking). I drank a lot of water in the morning and traipsed around in the sunlight. It would have been the best day of the fast even if not for the evening, when I went to a gathering with African, African-affiliated, and non-African friends to break the fast together for the last time. We had delicious African food, and drumming and singing. When I left I didn’t feel anything but happiness.
The end of the fast marks the first day of spring, and the beginning of Naw Ruz the Bahá’í new year. It also nearly marks the day I’ve been here for six short months.
While I have no patience to upload photos directly to my blog today, I discovered when I was hiking that my memory card is full, so in due course I will be making a Picasa web album (as I did in summer) and uploading all my photos of the Holy Land. Stay tuned.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
March 13
First, my apologies for an upside-down image of someone's street art representation of the Shrine of the Bab. I do not know how it got like that nor do I know how to fix it.
Fortunately I managed to look after baby Zoe without any trouble. In return her parents took me out to eat a second time. It was then that I discovered Giraffe, a Thai restaurant in the Merkaz Carmel at the top of the mountain. (I don't know if there are giraffes in Thailand and I can assure you giraffe meat wasn't served, but it's becoming ever clearer to me that a close name-place relationship isn't a high priority here). It's now on my list along with Ein Hod, the artists' village, of places to take any visitors if or when they come. It's really a treat.
Another place I went to for the first time this week was the Grand Canyon Mall (why a mall in Israel is named for a natural landmark in the United States, this i couldn't possibly tell you). It's a three story mall and I do recognize the irony in going to a massive mall during a fasting season, but now I have two dresses to alternate between during the upcoming holy days. That is not so bad. Unless I'm desperate for some article I can't find anywhere else, I imagine it's going to be some six more months before I go back, for the sake of soundness of mind and wallet.
I'm very excited to say that I taught a Spanish class this week in anticipation of possibly taking over a class that my officemate teaches after she leaves in June. I really enjoyed it. I know that my officemate cycles through two or three levels of Spanish classes every few weeks or months, and I don't know if I would be up to a commitment like that, but I would be more than glad to continue her intermediate class. It seems that it would help balance out the days I feel that by and large I'm serving people but mostly on that day I'm just pushing paper.
One week of fasting remains. My favorite part of the fast is breaking it with good friends. Then things go more or less back to normal on Saturday night with a celebration of the Baha'i new year the nature of which I have not determined yet. On this day it's very common and traditional to have a big celebration with lots of food and performing arts. I hope that will be the case. If not I am sure I will have my fill of arts with the film festival a few days later, which I try not to think about to avoid feeling too much anticipation. I think most people are really looking forward to the event and I think most of us have been involved in its making in some way. Even I with no particular cinematic talent or interest ended up as an extra in one film. It's going to be a good time.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
March 6
I loyally continue my uploads. For this round the pictures are more or less self-explanatory.
Ayyam-i-Ha came and went with a few parties and white elephant gift exchanges (I ended up, somehow, with a pair of earrings bearing images of Abdu'l-Baha...imagine coming into a pair of Jesus earrings and you have some idea of how awkward this was for me. I was opening gifts for myself and another person so I ended up giving everything to her for her to choose...I have no idea what she did with them...the other gifts were nice) and good fun. The fast began on Tuesday and the first two days were rather difficult but I've been slowly picking up on ways to let it be a reminder but not a distraction and to make sure it doesn't cut into the quality of my work. It helps to have a breakfast with some protein, for logical reasons. It also helps to walk around at noon and in the afternoon. My stomach hurt all afternoon the first two days and it's my humble hypothesis that getting up and moving around helps move stomach acid through so it doesn't sit until in my stomach in my stomach until it's time for dinner. All in all it's not such a difficult thing. I'm just missing one meal and pushing the other two out. As long as I don't overeat I don't feel it's unhealthy.
It's in fact quite healthy in that it helps me to build up resolve and discipline. Of course I have to have the resolve not to eat at the wrong time, but I also have to make sure I go to bed early enough to wake up before sunrise to eat something, then I have to actually wake up before sunrise. I have to premeditate everything. I've also been trying to devote my time to more meaningful activities than normal. I'm attending the gatherings I would normally skip and to providing help to anyone that I see I can help somehow. I've gone to the shrines more often too and all this helps to make this time feel like it's somehow outside of time and my normal life, whatever that is. Thinking about it now I'm not sure that these things have to stop or reduce too significantly with the fast. I could handle a little less of the premeditation.
I've had a great weekend. I have three friends who are on pilgrimage now - a girl who went to law school in Madison and a couple with a 21 month old baby. I took the former to a really nice devotional meeting with prayers and stories and someone who played the guitar and sang. I think she was a little surprised to see a member of the Universal House of Justice (simply put, the most important living authorities in the Baha'i faith) as a guest of honor at the meeting, but only for fun. They are actually quite involved in community life here.
Today I went to dinner with the couple and spent the evening increasingly not envying those with toddlers - I don't think I've often tried to spend social time with parents of young children, so I haven't realized how incredibly hard it is. They basically spent the night taking turns with her. I offered to babysit her during the two remaining evening talks of their pilgrimage and they were very grateful. Hopefully I can handle her without anyone to take turns with.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Februay 20
Here is another small handful of pictures I have:
The first photo illustrates the proximity of my balcony (you can see a small bit in the corner) to a Baha'i holy site (the circle of cypress trees surrounded by a pebbled path). The site marks the spot where the founder of the Baha'i faith pitched a tent upon arriving in Haifa and indicated where the Shrine of the Bab should be built. The middle three photos are views of Haifa from the street at the same altitude as the 19th terrace of the Shrine of the Bab (in the last of these, the rounded building topped with green tiles is the one in which I normally work). The last is the Japanese art museum.
While I feel like I'm being a bad documentarian for the entire month of February, the fact is that not very much is happening. I think February is a grim, slow-moving month as a matter of universal law (perhaps this is not true for the southern hemisphere, and instead August is the runty month). It's a well-established phenomenon that February is the worst time of year for any travel-related enterprise. In fact there have been so few pilgrims lately that I've hardly noticed their presence. A number of holy days are approaching which makes me think that I'll probably be unable to not notice them soon.
As I think I've mentioned, the Baha'i faith has its own (solar) calendar, largely unused except by those few Baha'is who are numerical fanatics, who often do the rest of us the courtesy of putting the Gregorian, i.e. A.D., date alongside the Bahá'í, a.k.a. B.E. (Bahá'í era) date, so that we have some clue when they mean. (My Hebrew teacher tells me that the Israeli government follows a similar practice with respect to Jewish calendar dates; outside of official documents, everyone excepting perhaps the Arabs uses the Gregorian date). In any case, the Bahá'í calendar consists of 19 months of 19 days. This comes out to 361 days, so leap days are added every four years according to common practice. (I realize this raises the question of why leave some well-enough aspects of time-telling alone and others not. I don't have an answer for that but maybe you can think of one.) This leaves four days most years, and five days others, left over. Naturally, these spare days are reserved for partying. I have to say that I really like the idea of setting four whole days aside for partying without any particularly special significance about it to be corrupted. It is pretty clever.
These "intercalary days" always fall at the end of February - February 26-28 and March 1. When I say "partying" I hope you don't have mental images of Mardi Gras because that's not the case. The spirit behind them is roughly the same as the way Christmas is celebrated. Gifts are exchanged and people gather to enjoy each other's company and do community service works. I don't have work off for these particular days, but I already have plans to attend a couple of parties with white elephant exchanges and that sort of thing. There will be a special party for the children.
All this serves a parallel function to Mardi Gras, if we don't wear shiny beads and flash people. From March 2 to March 20 is the Bahá'í 19 day fast in which healthy and appropriately aged Bahá'ís abstain from eating or drinking (except, naturally, as necessary to sustain health) between sunrise and sunset. When I ask people what fasting in the Holy Land is like, I get mixed replies. Some say that the atmosphere is very spiritual and others say that most everyone seems grumpy. I suppose that probably means that fasting is what you make it and how you see it. The purpose of fasting is hard to define even though it's a common practice across religions - everyone has their own interpretation, and I think that's the way it should be. I think it's a way to remember wealth disparities in the world and the necessity of diminishing them, and exercising the ability to put material preoccupations a bit lower in my consciousness...among other reasons, but I will refrain from attempting a laundry list.
The fast concludes with the first day of spring, also the Bahá'í new year. This day will be a work holiday for me. A lot of Bahá'ís consider this their favorite holiday, myself included. I don't think new year's resolutions are common but the first day of spring carries with it an inherent sense of renewal anyway. There is a big celebration with a lot of food and performing arts.
After that there are twelve holy days in april with three days of observances, two of them involving the suspension of work, but I only mention them now to give a sense of what a dense time of year this is in terms of special occasions. I'll describe them later, hopefully adequately, because they are called the "Most Great Festival" and so are akin to Easter or Christmas in their significance.
In terms of recent events...last week there was a wonderful art show with submissions from the staff and their family members, with so many different art forms and approaches to creativity represented, including calligraphy and photography collages and fine pottery. I don't know where anyone here finds the time or the facilities to make and glaze fine pottery. I wanted to buy some of the children's artwork but none of it was for sale. That was probably a requirement to keep the kids from developing too much of a capital focused mindset too early on. Kids here are rare enough that people tend to fawn over them, so if their work had been for sale it probably would have sold out in a heartbeat. I didn't buy anything because it was all too expensive, and there was nothing I was really truly compelled to own. My walls remain bare for the most part, except for a picture I found of the Bahá'í temple in India, an impromptu flower painting I made on posterboard with cheap acrylics, and a Jewish prayer for blessing a home that I can't read save for the title (and honestly I can't read that with 100% grammatical and lexical certainty) but that is only motivation to fill them myself.
Speaking of Hebrew, my enthusiasm for learning has waned a little bit, I think because of the nature of the class - three quarters of the attendees gave up a few lessons ago and the teacher seems to have slackened the structure as a result and now it feels like I'm learning random words. Still I feel like I have a good foundation. The problem with learning Hebrew is using it where it's not appropriate. I live in a mostly Arab Christian neighborhood and they don't like to be spoken to in Hebrew, preferring Arabic. (My Arabic is limited to one word, "shukran", "thank you.") I however am ignorant to non-obvious context clues, if they exist, which would tell me which language to use. I guess I just have to gradually build a piece by piece memory of who speaks what where. A friend of mine suggested that I approach all linguistically uncertain situations by speaking Spanish and then switching to English. However this friend is half Persian and could easily pass for hispanic (or nearly anything except east Asian for that matter). I don't think I could even pass for Spanish. His idea might be worth trying in a really uncertain situation though.
In some situations however it's really easy to tell. There is a neighborhood in Haifa called the Wadi that is mostly Arab Muslim...and it really looks and feels like being in the Middle East. Its businesses are open on Shabbat unlike those belonging to most Jewish people/Hebrew speakers. So when I go there I know it's safe to use my, ah, limited (but, if we are optimistic, slowly growing) Arabic vocabulary. The neighborhood has indoor and outdoor markets stuffed with fruits and nuts and vegetables and spices. Many of the fruits I don't recognize and many I would recognize are so enormous that I don't recognize them. Some friends and I went there yesterday for falafel and baklava (both indoor establishments, I assure you). Both were the best I've ever had. I think living here might change my eating habits forever.
The first photo illustrates the proximity of my balcony (you can see a small bit in the corner) to a Baha'i holy site (the circle of cypress trees surrounded by a pebbled path). The site marks the spot where the founder of the Baha'i faith pitched a tent upon arriving in Haifa and indicated where the Shrine of the Bab should be built. The middle three photos are views of Haifa from the street at the same altitude as the 19th terrace of the Shrine of the Bab (in the last of these, the rounded building topped with green tiles is the one in which I normally work). The last is the Japanese art museum.
While I feel like I'm being a bad documentarian for the entire month of February, the fact is that not very much is happening. I think February is a grim, slow-moving month as a matter of universal law (perhaps this is not true for the southern hemisphere, and instead August is the runty month). It's a well-established phenomenon that February is the worst time of year for any travel-related enterprise. In fact there have been so few pilgrims lately that I've hardly noticed their presence. A number of holy days are approaching which makes me think that I'll probably be unable to not notice them soon.
As I think I've mentioned, the Baha'i faith has its own (solar) calendar, largely unused except by those few Baha'is who are numerical fanatics, who often do the rest of us the courtesy of putting the Gregorian, i.e. A.D., date alongside the Bahá'í, a.k.a. B.E. (Bahá'í era) date, so that we have some clue when they mean. (My Hebrew teacher tells me that the Israeli government follows a similar practice with respect to Jewish calendar dates; outside of official documents, everyone excepting perhaps the Arabs uses the Gregorian date). In any case, the Bahá'í calendar consists of 19 months of 19 days. This comes out to 361 days, so leap days are added every four years according to common practice. (I realize this raises the question of why leave some well-enough aspects of time-telling alone and others not. I don't have an answer for that but maybe you can think of one.) This leaves four days most years, and five days others, left over. Naturally, these spare days are reserved for partying. I have to say that I really like the idea of setting four whole days aside for partying without any particularly special significance about it to be corrupted. It is pretty clever.
These "intercalary days" always fall at the end of February - February 26-28 and March 1. When I say "partying" I hope you don't have mental images of Mardi Gras because that's not the case. The spirit behind them is roughly the same as the way Christmas is celebrated. Gifts are exchanged and people gather to enjoy each other's company and do community service works. I don't have work off for these particular days, but I already have plans to attend a couple of parties with white elephant exchanges and that sort of thing. There will be a special party for the children.
All this serves a parallel function to Mardi Gras, if we don't wear shiny beads and flash people. From March 2 to March 20 is the Bahá'í 19 day fast in which healthy and appropriately aged Bahá'ís abstain from eating or drinking (except, naturally, as necessary to sustain health) between sunrise and sunset. When I ask people what fasting in the Holy Land is like, I get mixed replies. Some say that the atmosphere is very spiritual and others say that most everyone seems grumpy. I suppose that probably means that fasting is what you make it and how you see it. The purpose of fasting is hard to define even though it's a common practice across religions - everyone has their own interpretation, and I think that's the way it should be. I think it's a way to remember wealth disparities in the world and the necessity of diminishing them, and exercising the ability to put material preoccupations a bit lower in my consciousness...among other reasons, but I will refrain from attempting a laundry list.
The fast concludes with the first day of spring, also the Bahá'í new year. This day will be a work holiday for me. A lot of Bahá'ís consider this their favorite holiday, myself included. I don't think new year's resolutions are common but the first day of spring carries with it an inherent sense of renewal anyway. There is a big celebration with a lot of food and performing arts.
After that there are twelve holy days in april with three days of observances, two of them involving the suspension of work, but I only mention them now to give a sense of what a dense time of year this is in terms of special occasions. I'll describe them later, hopefully adequately, because they are called the "Most Great Festival" and so are akin to Easter or Christmas in their significance.
In terms of recent events...last week there was a wonderful art show with submissions from the staff and their family members, with so many different art forms and approaches to creativity represented, including calligraphy and photography collages and fine pottery. I don't know where anyone here finds the time or the facilities to make and glaze fine pottery. I wanted to buy some of the children's artwork but none of it was for sale. That was probably a requirement to keep the kids from developing too much of a capital focused mindset too early on. Kids here are rare enough that people tend to fawn over them, so if their work had been for sale it probably would have sold out in a heartbeat. I didn't buy anything because it was all too expensive, and there was nothing I was really truly compelled to own. My walls remain bare for the most part, except for a picture I found of the Bahá'í temple in India, an impromptu flower painting I made on posterboard with cheap acrylics, and a Jewish prayer for blessing a home that I can't read save for the title (and honestly I can't read that with 100% grammatical and lexical certainty) but that is only motivation to fill them myself.
Speaking of Hebrew, my enthusiasm for learning has waned a little bit, I think because of the nature of the class - three quarters of the attendees gave up a few lessons ago and the teacher seems to have slackened the structure as a result and now it feels like I'm learning random words. Still I feel like I have a good foundation. The problem with learning Hebrew is using it where it's not appropriate. I live in a mostly Arab Christian neighborhood and they don't like to be spoken to in Hebrew, preferring Arabic. (My Arabic is limited to one word, "shukran", "thank you.") I however am ignorant to non-obvious context clues, if they exist, which would tell me which language to use. I guess I just have to gradually build a piece by piece memory of who speaks what where. A friend of mine suggested that I approach all linguistically uncertain situations by speaking Spanish and then switching to English. However this friend is half Persian and could easily pass for hispanic (or nearly anything except east Asian for that matter). I don't think I could even pass for Spanish. His idea might be worth trying in a really uncertain situation though.
In some situations however it's really easy to tell. There is a neighborhood in Haifa called the Wadi that is mostly Arab Muslim...and it really looks and feels like being in the Middle East. Its businesses are open on Shabbat unlike those belonging to most Jewish people/Hebrew speakers. So when I go there I know it's safe to use my, ah, limited (but, if we are optimistic, slowly growing) Arabic vocabulary. The neighborhood has indoor and outdoor markets stuffed with fruits and nuts and vegetables and spices. Many of the fruits I don't recognize and many I would recognize are so enormous that I don't recognize them. Some friends and I went there yesterday for falafel and baklava (both indoor establishments, I assure you). Both were the best I've ever had. I think living here might change my eating habits forever.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
February 6
Not much to say. Hebrew is coming along nicely. It's hard to study independently, though. I think I will want to continue my study after the class ends, so I will have to look into ways of doing so. I wanted to upload all my photos, but owing to the slow speed of my little processor (that is to say, blame my processor, not me) I can only upload a few at a time. One is a view through the screen of my living room window. Another is the first meal I made for guests, featuring an herb souffle; some Israeli dish with labneh cheese, mint, and pita bread; plums; leftover raisin cake; cherries; cookies; pecans; and lemonade. Another photo really shows the magnitude of my balcony...it's quite nice. The last two are views of a beautiful rainfall after a heavy storm (both taken from my balcony).
Friday, January 15, 2010
January 15, 2010
This week I've been informed that my coordinator has high hopes and big plans for me. So big I can't even say what they are. They have to remain confidential until my office is aware.
Regrettably I had to quit the FUNDAEC class I mentioned in my last entry because it coincides with the start of my upcoming Hebrew classes. I found the FUNDAEC class such a great way to understand the nature of education throughout the world - it was so interesting to see other BWC staff members' thought processes and reactions to the material...it really helped me to understand more about the dozens of cultures of the world that are represented here. I hope to join such a diverse group in the near future. But for now, I have to focus on my Hebrew lessons. I've been told they are pretty simple in nature - they don't so much cover such things as grammar and phonetics as polite phrases and speech that lubricates the transition to English. However it's my understanding that those who really want to learn Hebrew properly can take a second, more in-depth class. I'll just see what happens.
It is hard to believe that soon my flatmate, Aram, will be leaving me. She'll be going in April. I have been trying to keep the flat sparkling (with limited success) to keep her from having to worry about such mundane things while she is try to enjoy her last couple of months. On the other hand I worry about her sometimes. She will drop anything for anyone and as a result it almost seems that her own life is outside of her control. She has indicated to me that before she leaves she would like to teach a beginning Farsi class because fourth months ago when I arrived she asked several of my fellow orientees which of them would be interested in such a class. She does not want to disappoint them and that is a nice sentiment, but I think she needs to keep in mind that she never promised anything and she doesn't owe a free class to anyone. I want her to learn to enjoy herself and be content with what she can do and what she can't do. Then again, feeling insufficient is more or less synonymous with being human, so I don't think I should be too hard on her.
In other news, I'm terribly excited to go to the beach tomorrow. Yes, the beach, and yes, January. I've described the concept of polar bearing to some fellow staff. The notion was met with laughter by some and horror by others. It will be interesting to see if anyone is interesting in trying a, well, mild version tomorrow.
Regrettably I had to quit the FUNDAEC class I mentioned in my last entry because it coincides with the start of my upcoming Hebrew classes. I found the FUNDAEC class such a great way to understand the nature of education throughout the world - it was so interesting to see other BWC staff members' thought processes and reactions to the material...it really helped me to understand more about the dozens of cultures of the world that are represented here. I hope to join such a diverse group in the near future. But for now, I have to focus on my Hebrew lessons. I've been told they are pretty simple in nature - they don't so much cover such things as grammar and phonetics as polite phrases and speech that lubricates the transition to English. However it's my understanding that those who really want to learn Hebrew properly can take a second, more in-depth class. I'll just see what happens.
It is hard to believe that soon my flatmate, Aram, will be leaving me. She'll be going in April. I have been trying to keep the flat sparkling (with limited success) to keep her from having to worry about such mundane things while she is try to enjoy her last couple of months. On the other hand I worry about her sometimes. She will drop anything for anyone and as a result it almost seems that her own life is outside of her control. She has indicated to me that before she leaves she would like to teach a beginning Farsi class because fourth months ago when I arrived she asked several of my fellow orientees which of them would be interested in such a class. She does not want to disappoint them and that is a nice sentiment, but I think she needs to keep in mind that she never promised anything and she doesn't owe a free class to anyone. I want her to learn to enjoy herself and be content with what she can do and what she can't do. Then again, feeling insufficient is more or less synonymous with being human, so I don't think I should be too hard on her.
In other news, I'm terribly excited to go to the beach tomorrow. Yes, the beach, and yes, January. I've described the concept of polar bearing to some fellow staff. The notion was met with laughter by some and horror by others. It will be interesting to see if anyone is interesting in trying a, well, mild version tomorrow.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
January 9, 2010
On some weeks, a rhythm and a routine sneak into my life and time goes by very fast, in pulses. This week was busy and unusual and it slipped away in a heartbeat. I can hardly remember it.
I joined a FUNDAEC class - this is an acronym for Fundación para la Aplicación y Enseñanza de las Ciencias, which is a Bahá'í organization that is working on developing a educational system that minimizes emphasis on competition and maximizes emphasis on discussion and collaborative efforts, and attempts to integrate contemplation of spiritual concepts into the curriculum. Currently it is an accredited complete high school program in five countries. What I am doing is going through the actual curriculum of the introductory book at a fast pace (as our focus is to examine the educational approach). I don't know how to sum up the system. I don't have a conclusive opinion about it yet...but as I am studying with a big group in my downstairs neighbors' apartment, I am finding it a wonderful way to meet many people from many different countries (my office is relatively un-diverse in this regard and will be comprised entirely of U.S. citizens by June, save for one Swazi who is technically a transplant), and to discuss education as it relates to spirituality and vice versa. I'm also finally getting to know my downstairs neighbors who are really good, courteous and friendly guys.
At some point I can't accurately place in time, I also finally had the opportunity to visit the temple land and Bahá'í cemetery. The temple land is the site of the future Bahá'í temple in Israel. It is currently marked with gardens and an obelisk. The Bahá'í cemetery was a bit anticlimactic to visit as many of the grave markers were in Farsi, so I had no idea who was underneath them. However there were many graves of recent prominent Bahá'ís as well. As such I got to visit the gravesite of the author of the very first Bahá'í book I ever read.
I have a hard time reading the news here, hard as I try. One of the most peculiar things about the news here, aside from the huge difference in perspective that exists from one publication to the next, is that things that would be big news at home are commonplace and meaningless here. If Canada fired rockets at the United States, even if they didn't hit anybody, it would be big news. But here as long as the rockets don't hit anybody, it gets mentioned in the news but nobody cares. I should mention here that rocket attacks from Lebanon do not appear to be a significant threat at this time. Relations with Lebanon are as I understand relatively stable at this moment.
This weekend was really enjoyable, I went out to eat with friends a couple of times, went shopping for embroidery supplies (really this is a feat considering that my work schedule is generally incompatible or only narrowly compatible with most store hours) and went hiking today, which was a surprise treat. It is January, yes, but it was such a beautiful day that I was almost uncomfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. (I've been trying to organize a trip to the beach just to be able to brag about going to the beach in January, but I think this is a close enough approximation. In any case a beach trip for next Saturday is pending.) There is a national park right here in Haifa that I didn't know about until today; it's way up at the top of the mountain, right next to the university. It's enormous and it's not the prettiest thing that you ever did see, but it has its own beauty. I got to be surrounded by wildlife and breathe what I hoped was truly fresh air for the first time in three months. Part of the park is a lovely wildlife preserve designed to protect certain species native to the middle east. These nearly faced extinction with the coming of the German Templars and their practice of hunting for sport. I loved it so much and I'm sure I will be coming back regularly.
I joined a FUNDAEC class - this is an acronym for Fundación para la Aplicación y Enseñanza de las Ciencias, which is a Bahá'í organization that is working on developing a educational system that minimizes emphasis on competition and maximizes emphasis on discussion and collaborative efforts, and attempts to integrate contemplation of spiritual concepts into the curriculum. Currently it is an accredited complete high school program in five countries. What I am doing is going through the actual curriculum of the introductory book at a fast pace (as our focus is to examine the educational approach). I don't know how to sum up the system. I don't have a conclusive opinion about it yet...but as I am studying with a big group in my downstairs neighbors' apartment, I am finding it a wonderful way to meet many people from many different countries (my office is relatively un-diverse in this regard and will be comprised entirely of U.S. citizens by June, save for one Swazi who is technically a transplant), and to discuss education as it relates to spirituality and vice versa. I'm also finally getting to know my downstairs neighbors who are really good, courteous and friendly guys.
At some point I can't accurately place in time, I also finally had the opportunity to visit the temple land and Bahá'í cemetery. The temple land is the site of the future Bahá'í temple in Israel. It is currently marked with gardens and an obelisk. The Bahá'í cemetery was a bit anticlimactic to visit as many of the grave markers were in Farsi, so I had no idea who was underneath them. However there were many graves of recent prominent Bahá'ís as well. As such I got to visit the gravesite of the author of the very first Bahá'í book I ever read.
I have a hard time reading the news here, hard as I try. One of the most peculiar things about the news here, aside from the huge difference in perspective that exists from one publication to the next, is that things that would be big news at home are commonplace and meaningless here. If Canada fired rockets at the United States, even if they didn't hit anybody, it would be big news. But here as long as the rockets don't hit anybody, it gets mentioned in the news but nobody cares. I should mention here that rocket attacks from Lebanon do not appear to be a significant threat at this time. Relations with Lebanon are as I understand relatively stable at this moment.
This weekend was really enjoyable, I went out to eat with friends a couple of times, went shopping for embroidery supplies (really this is a feat considering that my work schedule is generally incompatible or only narrowly compatible with most store hours) and went hiking today, which was a surprise treat. It is January, yes, but it was such a beautiful day that I was almost uncomfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. (I've been trying to organize a trip to the beach just to be able to brag about going to the beach in January, but I think this is a close enough approximation. In any case a beach trip for next Saturday is pending.) There is a national park right here in Haifa that I didn't know about until today; it's way up at the top of the mountain, right next to the university. It's enormous and it's not the prettiest thing that you ever did see, but it has its own beauty. I got to be surrounded by wildlife and breathe what I hoped was truly fresh air for the first time in three months. Part of the park is a lovely wildlife preserve designed to protect certain species native to the middle east. These nearly faced extinction with the coming of the German Templars and their practice of hunting for sport. I loved it so much and I'm sure I will be coming back regularly.
Friday, January 1, 2010
January 1
Happy 2010 to everybody! At work here as well as in many other places I'm sure, my coworkers and I could not believe that it is already 2010. One of them commented that he remembers thinking of 2010 as off in the distant future. I replied that I could remember thinking of 2000 in the same way (though it never really was that distant for me as I was 15 in 2000). As he put it, "we're living in the future."
This is a good time to point ot that the Baha'i faith actually has its own calendar (largely unused at this point), in which the first day of the New Year is, most logically in my opinion, the first day of spring, March 21. Also logically, as in Judaism and Islam, days are considered to begin at sunset the Gregorian day before. I say this is logical even though it's hard to wrap my mind around why a day would begin with eating dinner and going to bed, because it allows most everyone to participate in welcoming the new year, in spite of their bedtimes and without altering sleep cycles.
The Bahá'í World Centre, however, in striving to be comprehended by as much of the world as possible, follows the Gregorian New Year. As such, excitingly, I got to change every number on my date stamp today, which led me to contemplate my definition of "exciting".
Since my last entry, I dropped out of the art class I mentioned after attending all of one session, because I do have a couple of art projects up my sleeve, but I need to be working on them independently; it works better for me. The one I have sketched is hard to describe beyond the fact that it deals with themes of memory and its organization, or lack thereof and meshes the concepts of universal and personal experience. Clear and specific, right? I've been reading a lot, and I attribute this to Israel's winter weather. Though it's not genuinely cold by any stretch of the imagination, it does have its frosty moments in the evenings, and when all you have to protect yourself against even the slight chill is a couple of blankets, a space heater, and no insulation, curling up in bed with a good book is frequently an appealing option. I read Daughter of Fortune and found it somewhat pornographic and definitely a cheapened imitation of García-Márquez with some awkward allusions to Jorge Luis Borges, and I realized upon seeing them again that I missed the arrogant know-it-all feelings I used to have when I read Spanish literature because I know a couple of things about it. I'm rereading Their Eyes Were Watching God and realizing that it's a terribly awkwardly written book, which I hadn't noticed reading it when I was 17. The sentences are ambiguous in a clearly unintentional way and the point of view and even the tenses keep shifting at random. Anyway, I like the story, so I'll forgive Zora Neale Hurston, but I won't name my kid after her like half my acquaintances with young children.
I've been trying to cook, and trying not to get discouraged by recurrent disasters. Let's leave it at that.
I start mandatory Hebrew lessons which are paid for by the World Centre in the middle of January. If I don't master the Farsi alphabet by then, I'll be pretty sad. Part of me recognizes the importance of Hebrew lessons and part of me wishes I could just concentrate on one language at a time. This is hard enough. But it will be good to be able to read things like street signs that say "closed" or "private" or "trespassers will be shot".
In other news, I continue to overdress daily, and I continue to wonder when winter will really start. I don't mean to brag, but I'm starting to think maybe this is it.
This is a good time to point ot that the Baha'i faith actually has its own calendar (largely unused at this point), in which the first day of the New Year is, most logically in my opinion, the first day of spring, March 21. Also logically, as in Judaism and Islam, days are considered to begin at sunset the Gregorian day before. I say this is logical even though it's hard to wrap my mind around why a day would begin with eating dinner and going to bed, because it allows most everyone to participate in welcoming the new year, in spite of their bedtimes and without altering sleep cycles.
The Bahá'í World Centre, however, in striving to be comprehended by as much of the world as possible, follows the Gregorian New Year. As such, excitingly, I got to change every number on my date stamp today, which led me to contemplate my definition of "exciting".
Since my last entry, I dropped out of the art class I mentioned after attending all of one session, because I do have a couple of art projects up my sleeve, but I need to be working on them independently; it works better for me. The one I have sketched is hard to describe beyond the fact that it deals with themes of memory and its organization, or lack thereof and meshes the concepts of universal and personal experience. Clear and specific, right? I've been reading a lot, and I attribute this to Israel's winter weather. Though it's not genuinely cold by any stretch of the imagination, it does have its frosty moments in the evenings, and when all you have to protect yourself against even the slight chill is a couple of blankets, a space heater, and no insulation, curling up in bed with a good book is frequently an appealing option. I read Daughter of Fortune and found it somewhat pornographic and definitely a cheapened imitation of García-Márquez with some awkward allusions to Jorge Luis Borges, and I realized upon seeing them again that I missed the arrogant know-it-all feelings I used to have when I read Spanish literature because I know a couple of things about it. I'm rereading Their Eyes Were Watching God and realizing that it's a terribly awkwardly written book, which I hadn't noticed reading it when I was 17. The sentences are ambiguous in a clearly unintentional way and the point of view and even the tenses keep shifting at random. Anyway, I like the story, so I'll forgive Zora Neale Hurston, but I won't name my kid after her like half my acquaintances with young children.
I've been trying to cook, and trying not to get discouraged by recurrent disasters. Let's leave it at that.
I start mandatory Hebrew lessons which are paid for by the World Centre in the middle of January. If I don't master the Farsi alphabet by then, I'll be pretty sad. Part of me recognizes the importance of Hebrew lessons and part of me wishes I could just concentrate on one language at a time. This is hard enough. But it will be good to be able to read things like street signs that say "closed" or "private" or "trespassers will be shot".
In other news, I continue to overdress daily, and I continue to wonder when winter will really start. I don't mean to brag, but I'm starting to think maybe this is it.
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