I don’t know what you see within a ten-minute walk from your door. Maybe a park, a grocery store, or a restaurant. Sometimes I miss those things. But on a day like today, I wouldn’t trade.
There wasn’t much rain this winter and so a Bedouin family (extended family with brother and multiple wives and such) moved from the area around Masada this week to the valley below my office. They’ll be there for a few months and I made contact today to hopefully visit them again at sheep-shearing time.
But I was just struck again that I didn’t have to get in a car or bus, but I could just walk down the hill and there they were. Not actors, and not a show. Real life. One of the wives handed us a pita right off the fire. Those are the best. The father was out tending the sheep and goats.
One of the wives told us which way he went but it took a while to find him. I felt like I was Joseph looking for his brothers. Shepherds keep on the move.
The man has 11 kids (2 wives) and the older ones were at school. But a younger daughter seemed to know the ropes already as she moved the flock along.
As I walked back, I was struck by how much the hillside looked like those of Galilee. This is the same hill I see every day from my office (a 90-degree turn of my head just now will do it), but the angle and the greenness brought back memories of time up north.
I went with the veterinarian who lives at the moshav. He had just found out that avian bird flu was discovered in the chicken farm a couple of miles away and now his phone was ringing off the hook. Every person with a chicken in his backyard wanted to know what to do. Someone asked before about the turkeys at the neighboring community – apparently they were nearing maturity when the first incident was reported in the south a few weeks ago and so the entire batch was sold. They won’t be allowed to get a new batch for at least a few months. Our moshav is under quarantine now along with the whole region.
Too bad there isn’t such a thing as a jackal flu.
Todd – boy do I remember those jackals. I don’t have anything like that here in Washington, but I do have coyotes. They’re not quite as obnoxious, but a close second. You do live in an awesome part of the world. I know I would love to come visit it again. I pray your semester is going well.
~Rachel Israel
Man, I remember that view of the hillside like it was yesterday. It was so dry and thorny back then that I actually stopped caring how many thorns were tearing at my legs. The moshav with no funky cheese-turkey poop smell? What’s that like?
Cool story about the bedouin. Bruce Frieler, the guy who wrote “Walking The Bible” and did the TV counterpart, spoke with many bedouin through the Middle East. It was neat to see just how different their lifestyle is and I really wanted some of their great tea. FWIW, the Frieler show was pretty good I and only wish I had thought to do what he did. Scary stuff about bird flu. I guess you guys will be eating something else besides chicken for Shabbat dinner and won’t be having chicken schnitzel for lunch.
Oh man … I miss the jackals! My first night there, they scared Mary and I so bad! Then it just became a normal occurence to hear them every single night. Good times!
~Hannah