I arrived in Tel Aviv in the early afternoon and took a train and then bus to a suburb of Tel Aviv called Bat Yam. A friend of mine from BYU who grew up in Israel had heeded my yelps for help after the Hebrew University had informed me that the dorms weren't available until a number of days later than I had thought. I could pay for the extra days but then I heard that snow was forecasted for Jerusalem.
The two nights and one day in Bat Yam were a soft landing. The mom cooks like she means it and we hit a nice restaurant in Jaffa's old city (I sort of thought of it as my "rent" and swallowed hard when the bill came). During my one day there, I took a bus ride to Ashkelon to see it's archeology park. The site was next on my list from a previous visit to Israel--I'd say it is a second tier site that might not hold much interest for someone who hasn't already spent a couple of years in Israel and who has read up on the history of the city as I happen to have.
The following morning I made a quick trip to Jerusalem to meet up with some LDS folks in Jerusalem who had planned a birthday dinner in Ramallah with a member of the branch who lives there. I also tried to get the ball rolling in Hebrew University's bureaucracy so that my real arrival later would be smoother than it otherwise would have been. The birthday party was for an American woman who long ago, while at ASU, had married a Palestinian Christian. Their children are not at school in the U.S.A. It was nice to catch up with her and hear about the how those who had been teenagers when I had seen them last were doing. It was also nice to meet some of the LDS folks living in and around Jerusalem.
The next day, intending to escaped the cold weather (including a day with snow) and be in a corner of Israel that will be difficult to take the time to see once school starts, I headed to Jerusalem's central bus station intending to catch a bus to Eilat. When I first approached the bus the driver said a rough equivalent of "too bad" since I didn't have a reservation. I turned to walk away before remembering that I'm in Israel and if you take no for an answer here you get pushed aside all the time. So I stayed with a group of almost 10 others for whom there wasn't room. Finally, the bus driver let us on and we stood, sat, or laid down in the aisles or doorways for the 4 hour trip to the southern tip of the country. A young man pittied me after a couple of hours and traded places with me and then as people got off I managed to get a seat of my own. Much of the drive was along the shore of the Dead Sea which kept my attention as I listed to an hour long hebrew short story on a book on tape--about three times.
Among those at the Birthday dinner, were a young lady and her mother. The daughter had stayed in "The Shelter" in Eilat and recommended it. She talked a little about Christian discussions but didn't give me fair warning that staying at "The Shelter" is truly an experience. The name "Shelter" comes from a reference to verse in Isaiah but there's a sense in which 'homeless shelter' fits as well. Not only is it the cheapest place in town, but you can sleep on the ground outside for half the price (this was only available for males and there were more males outside than in). But folks looking for a cheap night's sleep isn't what's "Shelter" about the "Shelter." There is a guy who comes there every morning to pick up his metal detector so he can make his living at the beach and there is some mystery guest who has stolen 30 mugs in 30 days. One of the volunteers warned me that the homeless come in and take food out of the guest refrigerator all the time.
So what's the charm of the "Shelter?" The pastor runs the hostel as a fund raiser for his work with Sudanese refugees. His Sudanese refugees aren't Darfurians but southern Sudanese Christians--many of whom spent years in Egypt before coming to Israel (only a trickle does so). I was first exposed to this "mission" on Friday evening. As I checked in I was invited to the outreach meeting and was told that there was a Sabbath dinner afterwards. I like seeing other religions in action and I'm not one to turn down free food so I stuck around. It turns out that among the 200people at the meeting, there were people from all over the world including probably 50 from Sudan. The first half was singing with song in various languages in turn. The preaching was quite a scene. The preacher had his say for a few words and then translators yelled out the meaning in Russian, Spanish, and Arabic (I was sitting by three Chinese and the translation for them was more subdued).
If I make it back to Eilat within the next couple of months I hope to have additional discussions with two young ladies--one from the Netherlands who volunteers with the Sudanese and hence stays free at the shelter and a Canadian (Teresa from the Eilat hiking post) who volunteers at the Shelter and so gets opportunities to serve the Sudanese. Teresa mentioned that when the children first came, they took them to a play ground and the children had no idea what to do there. The young lady from the Netherlands says they are making progress. Their fate is uncertain so she says there is no use teaching them hebrew but there is a lot of progress they can make towards fitting in in a western system if they make it to one.
After four days and five nights of budget accomodations I caught the 7:00 a.m. bus to Jerusalem--$100 (including hostel and round trip bus fare) plus the cheapest food I could find poorer but with a bit wider range of what won't faze me.
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