Lowest Point of our Lives

As all y'all should remember this was the weekend we were allowed to escape the poverty, overwhelming cold, and slight boredom that we had been experiencing in Nablus for the past 3 weeks.

We are absolutely amazed that we've only been here for three weeks. It seems much longer than that.

So on Thursday we visited Tel Aviv and saw Jerusalem (the old city) from afar. It was a miserable cold and rainy day so doing much outside of the car was not an option. We drove up the Mount of Olives where swell saw her first olive tree and she wept at the beauty and yumminess of it's bounty.

Following our rainy drive we were taken to Jerusalem Mall where we wandered around for a couple of hours and Swell was able to pick up a few "necessities" mugs, a milk frother, a pillow and other things. The mall was a mall.

Driving into Tel Aviv and parts of Jerusalem is like driving into Anytown, USA and visiting the mall was like visiting Anytown Shopping Center in the USA - except I felt for some reason that that the Jerusalem Mall attracted slightly sluttier customers. Perhaps I've been out of the USA for too long and I'm short changing the plethora of slutty dressers there. My apologies if I've under-remembered the sluttiness of the USA.

Anyway our first day of freedom was fun but not all that exciting. It was wet and cold but nice to see new things. Our next day promised to be fun filled but we were unexpectedly hit with the lowest point we will probably ever experience.

We were picked up by a very nice driver and taken toward the Dead Sea. Our first stop was to be Masada - a very cool old fortress that was the last stand for the Israeli's when they were conquered by Rome. There were a great many relics of rooms and baths. They showed were the wall was breached by the Romans. It was just neat to see a part of Israel of which I was unaware. It was also neat to see the Dead Sea from atop the Masada mountain and looking across the sea and through the haze we could see Jordan.

It was on our drive to Masada that we reached what will probably be our lowest point.

That's right we drove right through the lowest point on Earth. It was great. We were further below sea level than one can be without getting wet.

It was kind of cool.

When we reached Masada we took a cable car up to the top and looked around for an hour or so.

After that we hopped back in the car and stopped at the dead sea. It was cold and both Swell and I were sans bathing suit so we just looked at the sea and Swell looked for rocks. I was happy that by not going in the water I can continue my great quest. Not many people have a quest like mine. It is my life goal to get as close to as many bodies of water as possible without actually getting wet. So far I'm doing alright. The Pacific ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean, Dead sea and countless lakes and rivers. I should keep better track. It would make for an impressive conversation.

Following the Dead Sea we went to Jericho. After a very long and annoying wait at the Jericho check point (Jericho is Palestine, we were in Israel) we finally made it into Jericho and went to the Mountain were Christ fasted for 40 days and was tempted. I found it ironic that at the top of this cable car where Jesus himself fasted for 40 days the main attraction is... of course... a restaurant. We sat and ate and looked out over Jericho and talked to our driver about how hard it is for him to enjoy himself when he knows that below us lay a city - the oldest city in the world - that is being absolutely destroyed by the Israelis. Tour buses no longer go into Jericho as there is now a ring road around the city. The checkpoints make it difficult to get in. Israel does not allow produce grown in the lush Jericho valley to be sold outside of its borders. Jericho went from having a vast economy to the poorest city in the West Bank all due to the actions of a foreign country on the transit of goods and people. No employment, bombed out buildings, rude checkpoint guards who closed the checkpoint for 20 minutes or so while we were there - just because. It was disgusting, educational, but at the same time enjoyable.

We have been told more than once this weekend about a lack of respect shown to Arab people. About being treated like animals instead of people. Being talked down to instead of being spoken to.

We were soon too experience the life of a Palestinian, the humiliation, the distrust just because you don't carry an Israeli passport, the Israelis would soon steal our time, and create in us a sense of anger that was not there to being with. All because we were to pick up a friend from the airport and our driver had dark skin.

I'll write more about that tomorrow after I reflect on it a bit more.

I'll leave you with the fact that the people talk about the ungodly winters in Winnipeg everywhere - even in Israel and you may overhear people talk about how no living thing should be able to survive the harsh hinterland that is Manitoba. I listened with glee and thought to myself: "Canadians are hardy folk with nary a complaint about the weather. Rather than complain about how cold it is they just go to the local 7-11 or Macs store and get a slurpee. Drinking the frosty drink with the winter wind howling around them. Not a care in the world. I, for one, am proud to be a Canadian."

I'll also leave you with the question: Have you ever heard "Happy Birthday" sung in such a way that you were in awe of the singing and the whole restaurant would gasp in unison at the beauty of 12-15 men singing happy birthday in Spanish? We have. A group of priests were dining in our hotel restaurant and we were truly in awe of the beauty of them singing happy birthday. It sounded like a group of monks chanting a beautiful prayer. Amazing.

Released

So today was our parole day. We were finally released from the prison that is Nablus. Upon our release I was forced to reflect on all of the other prisoners.

You see we were driven through the city of Nablus by a very kind man who is one of our regular drivers he took us as far as a checkpoint - he could go no further. We had to get into another car that would take us around today. It was nice to leave the city of Nablus and see other sites but it upset me quite some bit to realize that a whole population are not able to travel freely. I am sure a great many of them have never been beyond the Nablus city limits let alone out of Palestine. It is very sad.

Sadder yet was seeing all of the freedoms in Israel. We saw so many stores full of so much stuff. Food, goods, etc. All of which is beyond the reach of the Palestinians.

We drove from Nablus to Tel Aviv where we were met with the first set back of "parole day". We were dropped on the side of the road for a nice romantic walk along the beach (the Mediterranean) as soon as we stepped out of the car we were hit by a very strong and cold wind. Not too bad we thought to ourselves. We are dressed warm and can stand the cold for a short while. So we walked out onto the beach and stuck our fingers in the Mediterranean. The wind was continuing to gust and with sand blowing in our eyes we decided to head back to the paved path. Mere minutes later we started to feel drops. A few minutes after that we were trapped in a major storm. Hail, rain, wind. We were to meet the car that dropped us off at the end of our walk so we had no choice but to continue. So cold. So wet.

The day didn't get much nicer weather wise but we were able to enjoy a few sites.

Which I'll write about tomorrow as it is now bed time and we are tired.

There's not much to tell as we were unable to see any sites other than through a car window due to the weather and lack of time so don't hold your breath.

Recipes?

I need the recipe for creamed cauliflower from someone in Edmonton. Anyone else with a good veggie recipe, forward it my way. We need some ideas that involve the things we can get here (like onions, potatoes, peppers, cauliflower, garlic, cucumbers, tomatoes (sheepie's allergic to those), zucchini, avocados). I just can't think of stuff to make that is simple with just lots of veggies. Oh, there is no cheddar cheese here that I found yet, but maybe when we go away to Jerusalem. And there's yummy 9% fat yogurt that I devour. We got milk in a box today. It was on the shelf; I had to ask where it was because I couldn't find it in the fridge.

swell

Strange day

A strange day today. It all started with a noticeable warming last night. It was much warmer in our home than it had been for quite some time. (The warmth was very much gone by the am and we could once again see our breath in our home).

We got to school and everything proceeded as normal. Our dean soon left ill, however and isn't expected back until next week - we only see her sporadically now as she is a very, very busy woman. That's not really a problem for us but it is strange that we are there more than she is.

Swell soon had lecture - she lectures from 9:30 to 12:30 but throws in a 30 minute break at 11:00 as the students are guaranteed a 15 minute break every hour. So she breaks at 10:55 and we eat some lunch (not a very good lunch if you have to know - stale pita bread, some un-identifiable lunch meat and water). At 11:20 as she gets ready to go back down to her class she is informed that the university has canceled all classes from 11:30 to 1:30 so that students could attend a protest or festival or have an extended lunch or something - we were never entirely sure and the reason seemed to change constantly. Was she ever mad. MAD. She was so angry it was actually funny. She was mostly angry, I believe, because nobody told her in advance and had she known she would not have given the students a break at 11. She would have lectured until 11:30 and ended class at that time. As it was she was short-changed an hour of much needed lecture time but was able to convince the students to return at 1 for their regularly scheduled lab.

During her unscheduled time away from class the power in the building flickered on and off for a few minutes for unknown reasons. At some point in the day some guy walks into my office and says something about a computer in Arabic - I understood him enough to get from it - I have a similar computer does the internet work? I figure he was asking because when the power went out the internet went out. I start to answer in English and he stops and asks if I speak Arabic. I figure; "Here we go." But it turns out not only does he know English but he actually lives in Savannah, GA and has so for the past 20 years. He is teaching Organic Chemistry and arrived two weeks ago. His question was really; "Why doesn't my computer work?" I showed him what the computer guy did to my computer and he goes off to try to fix his. (He later returns with his computer and asks for my help - I know nothing about computers but was willing to give it a whirl. Luckily at that very moment Swell say the computer dude in the hallway so he came in and fixed this guy's computer)

We get home and our internet has been acting very strange. It just up and quits sporadically for varying periods of time.

Something strange is afoot. I had a regular work day and didn't accomplish much at all. I was able to get tomorrow's "Environmental Optometry" class prepared - I get to teach about light and lighting a topic I find extremely.... boring. I'm sure my students will feel likewise.

For those of you hoping and wishing that our pay would, in fact, be less than we were promised so that we would have to go home - sorry. Long story short. The guy we were talking to isn't involved in that area of the university and was speaking out of turn. We knew it would work out.

This weekend we go to Jerusalem, Jericho and Tel Aviv. Hope to see some good things. On Saturday we pick someone up from the airport and then she will stay with us for a week before a whirlwind tour of Israel with a group of Americans. We're looking forward to the company and hopeful that another body in the house will get us above freezing.

Sorry for the boring update but I'm not in much of a writing mood.

Hope everyone is well.

Most of you probably won't understand this post

Tough.

My jaw hit the floor today. One of the classes Swell and I are in charge of is third year "procedures". I ended up in charge of this one. Basically it is my job to teach THIRD YEAR optometry students how to refract (find a glasses prescription), in addition I am to teach some magic tests optometrists do to determine the status of a patient's binocular vision from which a plethora of treatment options arise. After I teach them that I am suppossed to teach them how to do visual fields (Tangent screen baby! for those who are already confused when I say: "Tangent screen baby!" read "1855 technology baby!" and when I say "technology" read a "black sheet hanging from a wall baby!") Following perimetry (visual field testing) I am supposed to teach them how to use a slit lamp (the light that the optometrist uses to look at the health of your eye - you know when they say: "Look at my ear" and if you're my patient you say: "I can't see your ear" and I say: "That's becuase i) I don't own a comb ii) I cut my hair every 6 months and iii) shut up")

So back to the point of this post. I spent the last two weeks teaching the students a large portion of the distance refraction sequence (finding the glasses one would need for clear distance vision). There was a lot of confusion during this teaching but I thought I cleared it all up.

Today we started the lab portion of this class. I was told that the students knew how to do retinosopy (an objective test that allows the optometrist to figure out the prescription) so I just touched on retinoscopy in lecture. Basically this is retinoscopy and remember you do this and this.

No one mentioned any confusion on that part of lecture. They mentioned confusion on much of the rest of my lectures but not on retinoscopy.

So in the lab portion of the class they were to do retinoscopy on a patient and then 5 other "sphere" tests (what the heck I'll list them here for all of you to know: Bichrome, MSBVA, Equalization, Maximum Plus to 20/20, BSBVA - now you've learned something)

Well I say: "do these things and hand in your sheet when you're done."

Nobody moves. Not a soul. They just stand there staring at each other. Then the questions begin.

"When we're doing the right eye retinoscopy the left eye is occluded right?"

"NO!"

"We just find neutral right."

"NO, please find against in all meridians and then neutralize."

Now I know this is not making sense to the majority of you but suffice it to say these kids are clueless. They haven't an idea about any optometric procedures. They have a small amount of theoretical knowledge but know nothing about the practical aspect of optometry.

We didn't even get through retinoscopy today let alone the other 5 tests. I know have had to scrap the whole idea of going forward with astigmatism testing and revert to at least a week on retinoscopy. I am never going to get through this material.

When I see them again on Monday they will be told that for the rest of the semester they will live and breathe Refraction. If they can't do a complete refractive exam and slit lamp exam within 2 hours by the end of the semester I will consider my time here a failure.

I should have had some idea at how behind these kids were when on the fist day I was asked: "What does OU mean?" (OU means both eyes - something that they should have learned day one.)

Swell is laughing at me because she was faced with similar problems during her "review" of contact lens I with the same students. She is to teach complex contact lens fitting but during her review found out that they don't even know how to vertex correct (determine a contact lens prescription from an eyeglass prescription - which should have been covered in contact lens I).

*sigh.

Wish us luck.

Our First Invitation

Today was a day of firsts. It was the first day that we were invited to a neighbours house for cake and coffee.

Our neighbour - not really a neighbour - they live a couple of buildings down but in the same complex - invited us over for coffee. They phoned at 6:30 pm and we were suppossed to there at 7:30 pm. Not much notice but I guess that is how things are done here. We accepted - well Swell accepted because I let her answer the phone - never again will she answer the phone. I hate going over to people's homes. In fact I hate talking to people and would prefer that people would leave me alone. I'm not saying all people - just everyone but Swell and our families. The rest of you I can live without.

Now don't get upset. It's not you. It's me. You see somewhere during my upbringing I grew to dislike social situations. I was deathly shy growing up and am still shy to some extent. I can stand up in front of thousands of people and speak but put me in a group of five people and I cringe. It's a genetic thing I think. So I'd prefer to stay at home and just be by myself.

Anyway we went over and had a pleasent time. A very nice family. The Dad is the University Vice President and actually founded the Optometry faculty (he's a chemist but he thought there was a need so he put together all the appropriate paper work, curriculum, etc. and was the first dean of the school - last year he found the current dean and gladly gave the position to her as optometry is, obviously, not his forte.) The Mum graduated from An-Najah university years ago with a art degree (and can bake a mean cake) and the youngest son is in year four of his five year computer engineering degree. The eldest son is away in England studying for his PhD in computer engineering. It was a nice time except:

We recived our first invitation to stay on after this semester. It only took two weeks. The set up the invitation quite nicely. They went on and on about how the university is now the premier university in Palestine but that they are having serious difficulties attracting qualified faculty. Computer engineering only has 3 faculty. Optometry really only has one. The students are hard done by. They are poor and deal with great pains to pay for their education and even getting to school is very difficult for them. That the optometry students are some of the finest students in the land. And so on and so on. Then the invitation occurred. It was funny.

Funnier yet is when he talked to us about our salary. He mentioned that I was going to get X dollars and Swell was going to get Y dollars. Not surprisingly X > Y. Well Swell looked shocked. So the man became very concerned that he had just insulted her and went on and on about how I'm getting more because I have a masters degree.

Well she wasn't shocked that I was making more (FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OUR MARRIAGE - good thing I'm comfortable with my manhood). She was shocked because the numbers he said were half of what we were promised before we left. Needless to say there will be a discussion with our dean tomorrow. Funnier yet was that he phoned when we got home to ensure me that he would speak with the president to equalize our pay. NOT the concern. If we don't get what we were promised I don't think we can feasibly stay. On paper it just worked out that we wouldn't go broke here. At best we would break even (expenses = income) and we wouldn't have to hit our savings. At worst we would be able to pay all of our major bills with our income and live off of the savings. With our mortgage (anyone want to rent out a beautiful fully furnished condo in Atlanta?), and our student loans... we can't work for free. Those are really our only bills so we don't demand a lot but we do need to avoid missing payments.

Oh, well. It will work out.

We survived a coffee invitation (I had to drink tea - YUCK!!! but didn't have to drink coffee - which would have killed me) but have been pre-invited to dinner at a later date. Yippee!

Anyway. Tomorrow starts our third week of school. We have the classes we've taught for two weeks now but will also start some labs. We're getting busier but we're still doing well.

It's been a month

So we left home a month ago. It seems like a year. We left the comfort of a very expensive, very nice condo to explore the world unknown. We left jobs that paid us very well for a job that will hopefully keep us afloat financially. We left a culture we understood for a culture we don't. We left our car, our television, our comfortable bed and our heat. What have we learned in the month we've been gone and the two weeks we've been in Nablus?

1) Heat is nice. You don't miss it until it's gone.
2) A dryer is nice - without one you wash your clothes but you can't wear them for two or three more days.
3) If you put speed bumps on all the major roads all that it does is make the drivers speed from bump to bump - slamming on the brakes at the last possible moment and then accelerating at break neck speed until they get to the next bump.
4) If you block intersections to prevent U-Turns all it does is make the drivers U-Turn over the curb.
5) Freedom is nice. I don't like having to call someone every time I want to go to the store, or out for lunch.
6) The people here are overly kind, and overly generous. They will share with you their last shekel. They will buy you lunch, desert, serve you coffee or tea and don't take no for an answer - even when you know you have more money than they do.
7) The Israeli checkpoints are hindering Palestinian student's right to an education - often preventing them from getting to school for poor or no reasons.
8) I really don't miss seeing patients.
9) Some members of our families are concerned enough about our welfare to check on us. Others - not so much ;)
10) Buying an airplane ticket from Tel Aviv to Durban, South Africa is i) expensive and ii) a very long, long flight. Five hours from Tel Aviv to Paris (YUCK - I hate the Paris airport), 11 hours from Paris to Johannesburg and then a little bit over an hour to get to Durban. All told slightly over 20 hours to get their and about 24 to get back. Should be fun.

We've learned other things but I think 10 is a nice number and will leave it at that.

Lazy day today as Swell points out in the post following this one. We only worked for a couple of hours but will have to bite the bullet and really get to work tomorrow. Beyond planning classes I really need to work on writing my paper - I worked on it all day on Tuesday and will do some more on Sunday. I was also encouraged to write a little something about our time here and try to get it published so I should start jotting some thoughts down.

All in all we're very content - albeit cold - and very happy to be here. We've taken to teaching, although we have yet to see if our students have taken to learning. I handed out an assignment that will be due on Wednesday so we'll see if they understood any of the last two weeks.

Hope all of our readers are doing well.

Send some warmth our way!

Well, it is still freezing. It's not bad when we are sleeping, but getting up in the am at 6:00 really sucks when it is so cold. You just want to stay in bed because that is the warmest place. Even in the hot shower you cannot get warm! Good thing I like hot drinks (poor Sheepie doesn't). I just sip on a Tim Horton's cappucino or tea every 3 hours or so. Our portable heaters work well though, and we are warm when we are just sitting here. It is just impossible to want to do anything else but sit here on the couch on our computers. We had to re-arrange our living space due to the phone plug-in suddenly breaking in the "living room"; so now we are in the "dining room", but it is all just one huge space. We're thinking about moving our entire furniture/rug/computers to a spare room so we can heat it better with our portable heaters. One bonus about being so cold... Sheepie is literally doing all the cooking/cleaning! He's been making some yummy meals and I'm greatful.

Today we were to go do our usual food shopping. We went to the biggest supermarket they have and spend too much money on groceries. I think the biggest supermarket is also the most expensive. We will ask to go to a smaller one next time. They were out of pita bread (or didn't get get their shippment), so we had some guy translate to our driver (sucks when you can't communicate with your driver) to take us to get bread. He took us to a bakery! We got HOT pita bread, right out of the oven. I, of course, had to get other stuff while there: 4 pizzas (2 cheese, 2 egg!), sliced bread, and a traditional big sweet bread. YUM! That only cost us 11 sheckels (about $3). So that really proved to us that we are shopping the wrong way. We need to hit these specialty stores for everything...cheaper and better stuff. But that would take a whole day to just shop!

After the bread shop, the driver stopped somewhere and said, "Come! Please come!" (He speaks a little bit of english that he picked up along the way). We ended up at his apartment, where we were greeted by like 7 kids and his mom (?) and wife was a little shy. The older lady made tea for me (sorry Sheepie, you don't like hot drinks!) and they just introduced all the kids to us. From what we gathered he has 5 kids, the rest live there but are cousins I think. They were adorable kids and so shy. The older ones knew a little bit of English and that was fun.

Then we went to go pick up a cleaning crew... We were told to "Please come!" again and saw a castle that was built in 1890 or something. It had 40 FREEZING rooms. The school rents it from the owners and they hope to make a museum there and maybe a recidence for the school to use. And offices for restoring stuff. That was a nice surprise.

Then we dropped up the cleaning crew at the school and finally went home. Long shopping trip for us.

We hope to get lots of work done, but we are lazy today.

swell

Surprise Day Off

Yesterday was a terrible day for Swell. She was very unhappy. I guess I started the unhappiness. We have been quite far behind in getting our notes ready for the classes we teach. We are often printing and photocopying them minutes before class starts.

Yesterday was that kind of day. I had finished my notes over the weekend and had them up and ready on the computer that is hooked to the printer. The bad thing was that the woman who works in the office that contains the printer was a touch late. So we had to wait, and wait, and wait. As soon as she arrived and turned everything on I tried to print my notes. No luck. Something was wrong. I'm no computer expert but I can usually figure some things out. When the error messages are written in Arabic it becomes a little bit more difficult to figure out exactly what is going on.

We called the computer guy. He fixed the connection and my notes were printing. Soon I had them photocopied and stapled but I had to run down to class and got there just in time to start lecture. (I'm ahead in all of my notes now so this shouldn't happen anymore). So Swell was stressing out for me and then saw me when I came back from that first class.

I came back shaking my head. These students - and I know optometry is different here and that they've had a rough go of it - really need a swift kick. All I see is blank stares as I lecture. I had enough so I asked what was going on. The only reply that I got was that they are not used to so much detail. TOUGH! You're in University, get used to it.

I see no way around presenting detail. If you have a patient in your chair and you see reduntant tissue aligned with a Dentate Process and it is located superior nasal you need to know that you don't need to rush them to the hospital. You need to know that this is found in a large percentage of people. You need to know that the risk of retinal detachement increases if the fold is found temporally and is large (covering process and bay). I can't just show you a picture and say this is a meridional fold - you need to know about it and what to do.

So I was shaking my head because they are overwhelmed (I've told them numberous times that they shouldn't understand everything when they leave lecture. They need to go home and read their notes. They need to go to the library and look at books.)

So that made Swell a little bit more angry. I then went to my next class. Teaching the same students procedures. They are so far behind it is scary. They have some knowledge but it is scattered and they don't know how to apply it to optometry. I got through about half of what I wanted to. Oh well.

Anyway after that class Swell had to go to her class where she was told that she is giving too many notes. "6 pages a day means that we get 18 pages a week. That's too much." Little do they know. They should see what we got.

She went downhill from there. "What are we doing here, etc. etc." She's better today because I told her its not her responsibility to condense the notes into bite size pieces. The students need to study. They need to determine how it is best for them to learn this information. 6 pages of notes is not a lot. I don't think the students are used to going home and reading and studying to learn. I think they're used to just getting it in lecture and knowing enough to pass their tests. We'll see how this week goes.

Today, Sunday, we got up at our regular 6 am time. Swell had a shower and we made breakfast. At 7:40 am our driver arrives to take us to school. He picks us up as well as the vice president of the University. We drive a few feet to the end of the parking lot where the vice president lives and wait 10 minutes. He never comes out of his house. The driver phones someone and then hands me the phone. We are told: "No lecture today." I say: "Yes, no lecture today (because on Sunday's we don't have class we just do preparation for future classes)." The guy on the other end of the phone says: "No University today." I say: "Oh..." and the driver takes us home.

We immediatly go onto the internet to find out what is going on.

Nablus - Ma'an - On Saturday the Hamas movement in Nablus announced that several of its members and supporters were attacked by gunmen, whom the movement described as "night militias." The assaults since yesterday are as follows:

1- Shooting at the house of the Palestinian Legislative Council member, Dawood Abu Seir, and an attempt to abduct him.
2- Shooting at the house of Dr Muhammad Sleiby and an attempt to abduct him.
3- Attempts to set alight the "change and reform" bloc's (Hamas) offices.
4- Abduction of Fayiz Al-Bishtawi from his work.
5- Abduction of Dr Khadir Sunduq, dean of Islamic religion at An-Najah University.

From: (http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=19199)

We say, in unision: "Oh...". Swell shouted: "SNOW DAY!" And then we went back to bed.

We're not sure why the Palestinians are being so stupid. We hope that they stop killing each other soon. The Dean of Islamic religon has been released already and we haven't seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. Strange day but we're getting some work done while at home.

'Till next time.

The end of week 1

So today is Thursday - the first day of our weekend. It's around noon here and we haven't really acomplished much today. In the next hour or so we'll start working on getting some lectures ready. Our goal is to work really hard to get well ahead on the lecture front to give us some breathing room. As it stands now the hour before class we're busy printing, photocopying, collating, and stapling notes. We then run down to the classroom and hope the computer and the projector will actually communicate with each other.

Swell's computer isn't able to be used with the projector as they don't have the right cord available for it so she uses mine. This becomes difficult when she creates gigantic files that need to be transferred to my computer. Hopefully she'll start making smaller, more friendly files this week forward.

We don't have much to say. We're living pretty boring lives right now. We get up at 6 in the morning get ready go to school for 8 and then lecture/work on lectures until 3pm. We then come home - often stopping at the supermarket to buy food/supplies - and work some more and/or watch Freaks and Geeks. Not an exciting life but we're enjoying it.

We did spend a few hours yesterday putting a selection of our Egpyt photos up for all y'all to enjoy. (http://picasaweb.google.com/xmattodx double click on the first photo to make them bigger and then you can scroll through them. I don't suggest doing slide show) I'll try to write out some stories behind the photos later today. Now - I need to eat and get to work on next weeks lectures. But before then while we were on our Nile cruise the cleaning staff would make towel designs on our beds. They made a flower, cobra and other things. We could identify all of them but this one:




What is this? Please guess away.

Bottom line of the above post: We're still safe but we're freezing to death.

Pretty good day

Today we got our washing machine! Yepee! We will soon have clean clothes...after we go buy laundry detergent. Apparently we bought only fabric softner, not actual soap. So off to the store again. And we need the thing to hang the clothes on to dry cuz they don't make dryers here. Clean clothes will be nice. Sheepie actually washed some clothes already with fabric softner, not knowing that's what it was. We were amazed how nice the detergent smelled and how nice our house smelled for 2 days after that!

Today was the first "real lecture" day. Scary for me. Technology is not my friend. My Mac could not be hooked onto the Projector so I had to save it on a thumb drive and then play it off of Sheepie's computer...well, we didn't realize that the file was too big to be transferred. So I lectured the first 30 minutes without my lovely eye pictures, then Sheepie got about half of the slide show to work. Hopefully I can fix it tomorrow for the next day! But I did give the students all the notes, just the pictures were not available (this was disease, so you need to look at pictures). All the students then asked for the slide show as well. I said I can try to put it on CDs for them, then they all got out their thumb drives! Hopefully the lecture made sense and we'll get more tech-friendly as the week goes by. Sucks that we have to rely on technology so much and it seems so out of our hands.. like the projector might or might not work, you never know...

We are home now and I'm gonna attempt to make some chicken stew. I was a hostess to the guys who came to install the washer (2 plus our regular driver) and made them all tea and gave them cookies. Everywhere you go you are offered tea here. Usually it is Lipton "Yellow" brand, which is Earl Grey! Yummy tea. It's really cheap and it is everywhere here and Egypt. Some people put mint or sage leaves in it. At school there is a man who just goes around making us tea all day (or coffee-which is the small Turkish black coffee). The university employs him from the refugee camp (he needs the job and the president tries to find jobs for people). We also have a janitor that comes around every few hours to get our trash, clean the floor, etc! He's really nice, but we really don't make much trash; so usually we just say hello and "no trash".

We still need a few things to get settled, but it feels like we've pretty much lived here for a long time already, even though it's just a week!

The students are super nice and I enjoyed my lecture today because they really get involved with the lecture; it's not just 18 blank faces starring back at you. They actually talk to me during the lecture, it's so nice cuz I know they are all listening. They help out so much too.. set up the projector for us, clean after us, offer to pass out our papers! And they stop by our office so other people they know can meet us, makes us feel special :)

Our electric toothbrush, flash, and shaver power cord made it back from Egypt. All seems to be in working condition.

Gotta go cook. Hope this turns out okay...

swell

Cold, so cold... and dirty.

We're sitting at home right now. Swell is working on her contact lens lecture for Tuesday - I have no lectures on Tuesday which means I'm better than she is. It's true, I'm better.

Anyway we're sitting at home right now she's working on her lecture and I'm working on this. You might ask; "I wonder how he is working on a post if he is sitting at home right now with Swell sitting beside him working on her contact lens lecture for Tuesday he doesn't have a lecture on Tuesday so that makes him better than..."

...interruption...

What the heck was that? Don't mind us we're just hearing ummm.... some noises.

Anyway you were asking how I could be writing a post from home. Well we now have internet at home - well I have internet. Swell has a Mac. Mac's and developing countries... err... occupied territories... don't mix very well. Hopefully she will get online with her computer soon. Until then she'll have to use mine.

Today a fellow came set up my computer in a matter of minutes and I now have faster internet than I did back home. (Could be because I was stealing internet at home?)

We are sitting on the couch, I'm writing a post and swell is working on her contact lens lecture for Tuesday (I don't have a lecture on Tuesday!) but we're sitting in the cold. We have no water again. Surprisingly not a city wide issued despite the ummmm... noises we're hearing. The lack of water is just an us thing. One cannot have heat when the flat is heated by water. It's an unfortunate reality.

Luckily we also have electric heaters. That's nice. They heat a good square foot of space. Very lucky for us.

We have some fellows coming to look at the water situation. We hope that the ummmm... noises weren't directed at them.

We should note that we haven't seen our boss - the dean of optometry since Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are the weekend. Saturday's Israeli's (of which she is one) are forbidden from coming here under threat of arrest and fines. Not really sure why but she can't get out here on Saturdays. That means if we weren't here the students would have to have all of their lectures on Mon, Tues, and Wed. C-R-A-Z-Y. Makes us happy to be here. So far so good. Tommorrow is the first real day of lectures. Wish us luck!

Hope everyone is well.

Final for sure correct (maybe) contact information.
Cell phone: 011 972 59 907 6393
Home phone: 011 970 09 234 9525
Skype: mnpearce (according to Gilda - DON'T use skype to phone our home or cell phone only use it to phone our skype)
email: you should know it by now if not ask nicely and we'll give it to you.

There was actually a long break while writing this post. 7 guys just came to fix our water. It's fixed. We didn't break it. Someone is trying to sababtoge us.

Anyway that was long enough. I have to wait a couple of hours for hot water now so that I can have a shower.

In Trouble

So yesterday we got in a little bit of trouble. We have been a little underwhelmed by the details given to us about living and working in an occupied territory. Although everyone has been very nice the organization of our arrival left a lot to be desired.

We would have liked an orientation to living here, a list of phone numbers, things we should expect, etc. We didn't get any of those things so we're learning the hard way.

Yesterday one of our neighbours a Dr. So and so dropped by our place to politely tell us to limit our use of heat and hot water to at most 4 or 5 hours per day. Apparently our water is heated (and thereby our "central heat" is created) via the burning of gas. Apparently their is a gas shortage in Nablus. Apparently the building's tank is only at 20% of capacity. Apparently they expect it to run out in the next week or so. Apparently our turning the heat on and leaving it on while we are home (turning it off when we leave) was excessive. Who knew?

So now we will get home at 3:30ish and leave the heat off for a few hours. We will then turn it on for the house to warm up from cold to chilly and for me to have a shower every second day or so. I will then get up an hour or so before Swell (for a mere 30 seconds) to run across the house to turn on the water (a simple switch) so that she will have hot water to get ready in the morning. Once she announces she is done off it goes. Rinse and repeat.

The joy in living in an occupied territory. Thanks Israel.

The First Day

Our first day of classes today. We took it pretty easy on the kids here - and they really are kids. This is a bachelor degree - much like it is in most of the world (only the US and Canada have doctorate level optometry) so our second year students are probably 19 or 20 and our third year students are 20-21.

We learned a lot today. We didn't teach much today though.

We had three classes. One for second years (an ocular disease class) and two for third years (a disease class and a procedures class). In each of the two disease classes we simply took the time to introduce ourselves complete with pictures like this:





They were very impressed with the one above.






We then went over the syllabus and that was that. Before letting the students leave we took an individual picture of each of them and spelled out their names phonetically in the hope that we can learn all of them before we leave.

In the procedures class we just got a feel for what they already know and then gave them an example of what one of our exams is like.

Very nice students. I am very concerned with their level of knowledge. By our third year of optometry school we were doing complete eye exams on patients. They do not yet know how to determine a prescription or look at the health of the eye. I see no time in their four year schedule where they will be seeing patients. It seems to me that they will graduate with a lot of theoretical knowledge but very little practical experience. I suppose it's difficult to gain practical experience with no equipment.

There are three complete eye exam lanes here. They got them earlier this academic year. There are (between the three classes)about 60 students.

This is a quasi-public school, in that it is not truly private but they receive no funds from the Palestinian government. They depend solely on tuition (not much)and private donations. It is very difficult to convince people to donate to Palestine - after all they are terrorists. This difficulty creates issues with receiving necessary equipment. Earlier in the year they were given a little bit of money which immediately was used to buy the little equipment they have. It's a start.

It will be interesting to see how the students progress this semester. Hopefully the third years will have at least the "finger skills" to conduct an eye exam by the end of the semester.

We're still safe. We are no where near the Gaza Strip which is where all the news is coming from. Don't worry about us.

For some reason the phone number I wrote in the last post doesn't work. I'm not entirely sure why.

The country code for Palestine is 970. Apparently if you use the Israeli country code of 972 you can get a hold of us.

So our number is: 011 972 59 907 6393 and our home phone number is:

011 972 09 234 9525 (I think - I get confused with all these numbers. The cell phone works for sure as we spoke with someone recently who had the initiative, nay, the drive and wisdom to figure out my earlier mistake - Thanks Gilda)

Not much else going on. We still don't have internet at home. We still don't have a washing machine at home - which is going to be a problem soon. I guess we'll have to find a dry cleaner or something. Hope everyone is well. Talk to you soon.

Had some more time

I had a few more minutes before the end of the day (we finished 5 syllabi (sp?) today and will work on trying to get a weeks worth of lectures done by the end of the "weekend")

A few short notes:

We work from 8:00 to 3:15 everyday (Saturday to Wednesday) - it's a hard life.

It is freezing here.

We have radiator "heat". It is cold at home.

We live on a mountain.

We work in the valley between two mountains.

We live in a city that also has Samaritans. They are good.

We have like 1000 channels on the TV. I can understand maybe 15 (12 of which are news channels). Swell can understand 16 as we get Romania TV.

We brought a lot of DVDs. We will watch a lot of DVDs.

If you want to contact us you can phone us at 011 970 59 907 6393 (if that doesn't work try 011 970 059 907 6393). This is our cell phone number. We also have a home number but I don't remember what it is. We have free incoming calls so cell phone/home phone no difference.

PLEASE NOTE: we do NOT live in your time zone.

Mustard, Pa, JDL, BBL, Jill, George, Cami, Cheese, The good one you live in E'Town.
E'town has a 9 hour time difference from us. That means we live in the future. So to figure out what time it is look at your watch SUBTRACT 3 and change am to pm. It is 7 pm at your house. You look at your watch and exclaim: "It is 7 pm at my house!" you then subtract 3. After putting your socks back on you say 7 minus 3 is 4. You then take your 4 and change that pm to am. So at our house it is 4 am. DO NOT CALL WE ARE SLEEPING!

Mama, Tata, Crina, Matt, April, anyone else who lives in PST. Do the same as above but subtract 2 so when it is 7 pm at your house it is 5 am at our house. STILL DO NOT CALL - WE ARE SLEEPING.

Gilda - you have it easiest. This is necessary because we all know that Romanians can't do math. You just change your am to pm. So you look at your watch and see that it says 7 pm. You then contemplate the tan line that your watch is leaving and say if it is 7 pm at my paradise it must be 7 am in their hell. You can then call. We are not sleeping.

To All. Please strongly consider how you are calling us. Skype may be cheaper (Free if you call our computer but that is for when we have internet at home) or if you find an international calling card that may be cheaper. Find out what works best for you and your budget. WE WILL NOT ACCEPT COLLECT CALLS. WE ARE BROKE.

Call me if you have any questions.

Sheepie and Swell (who is shivering across from me at her desk)

P.S. my abstract was accepted for the South Africa conference so I'll be presenting something there. Wish me luck.

Love all of you deeply - even the lurkers. (Seriously we do even if we don't know you.)

P.P.S please excuse spelling/grammatical errors. I was in a hurry.

A picture of us at the Step Pyramid - the great pyramids older brother (Note size - of the pyramid not me - by looking at the wee tiny people in the bottom right cornerish area of the pyramid):

Contentment Shattered

Sorry for the lack of updates. We've been slow to settle into our new lives here in Nablus.

We arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday January 22 at 4:19 am. The flight from Cairo was only one hour. Very short - very quick. I don't remember anything about the flight, however. I was sleeping from the moment we sat in the plane until the moment we landed in Tel Aviv. Checking in for the flight I do remember.

It took 3 hours.

We flew El Al to and from Cairo. El Al is the Israeli national airline and, therefore, a branch of the Israeli government. They require that you arrive at your departure airport 4 hours! before departure. We needed all four hours.

We arrived at the airport. Our Cairo tour coordinator showed us the proper security gate to go through and we were on our way.

Our luggage was screened by an X-Ray machine. We passed through metal detectors just to gain access to the departures counters. We then stood in the El Al line. The end of the line was marked by a velvet rope. An available representative would open the velvet rope for the next passenger and take them to a music stand where the interrogation would begin.

I am not exaggerating. It was an interrogation.

“How long have you known each other?”

“Why did you visit Egypt?”

“Why are you going to Israel?”

“How did you get to Egypt?”

“Where are you staying in Israel?”

“How long have you known the person you are staying with?”

“Four months in Israel? Why? How do you have the money to do this? Why 4 months in Israel and only 10 days in Egypt?”

“Where did you stay in Egypt?”

“What did you see in Egypt? Do you have pictures?”

And on and on. We answered the same questions for 45 minutes. Swells passport picture is now 8 years old, or so, so they needed to see more ID. Her name is changed from her passport and the US passport people simply typed an amendment in the back of the passport. All of these things caused great concern for our representative so she talked to her superiors multiple times.

When we were deemed non-threatening by this woman (who was kind and considerate by the way) we were sent to special screening so that new folks (also kind and considerate) could go through our luggage. Every single item we packed was removed from our luggage and x-rayed. If it was electronic we needed to show them that it was in working condition. We were questioned about many items. We were in the special screening room for a good 2 hours. We were taken individually to a backroom where we were wanded and pat down. Swell had to remove her pants. (Surprisingly enough the buttons on her pants kept setting the wand off. Apparently in Israel this is of great concern.)

We passed the tests. Our luggage mostly passed. They detained our electric toothbrush, our external camera flash, and the cord that plugs my electric razor in for further questioning. I feel bad for said items as I am sure they are currently being tortured and scrutinized. The toothbrush wouldn’t show that it was charging for some reason so it couldn’t come. The camera flash is old and seldom used; unfortunately there were some batteries in it that had corroded. It failed multiple tests (personally I’ve always been concerned about the flashes friends – an unruly bunch to say the least. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were up to no good. Trying to come to Israel to “flash” people. Pervert. My razor would also not show that it would charge. The cord failed but the razor worked so they let me keep the razor but they detained the cord.

They promise to ship us the remaining items by ground so hopefully they make it soon. I miss my toothbrush. Once you go electric you can’t go back to regular. It just isn’t right.

When we arrived in Tel Aviv we were met by a driver (we met him the last time we were in Tel Aviv – before our flight to Cairo) who was to take us to Nablus – about a 45 minute drive.

We arrived at the final Israeli check stop into Nablus at 6:15 am. They wouldn’t let us in as the check stop was yet to be open to vehicular traffic. You could pass on foot but not by car.

Our driver, to help pass the time, took us to a café for breakfast. Swell was in heaven. Eating, drinking – generally being merry.

After breakfast we tried the check stop again. Closed. The driver drives people around for a living and is quite adept and getting in and out of Palestine so he found an Israeli army dude that he knows who led us through the still closed check stop. People were everywhere. Palestinians trying to get to Israel or other parts of Palestine to go to work or school were milling about trying to get permission to live their lives. Permission is often denied or the people are detained for hours. We have been told stories of students who want to go home for the weekend – a mere 10 minutes away who take 3 or 4 hours to get home due to harassment at the check points. Due to the presence of the check points most students rent apartments near the university (many students per residence) in order to avoid having to go through the check points. Quite an expense.

We eventually arrived in Nablus and were taken to meet the dean of the optometry school and were given a tour of the old campus where we met the University President, Vice-President, directors, etc. So many people. So many names. Don’t remember any of them.

One fellow we met gave us a tour of the library and other buildings in the old campus. (The school has two main campuses in Nablus old and new – named after their age). He was very nice and kept making Swell cry and me. He constantly told us that we are a gift to the people here. That above all we will help the students, who often suffer from depression, know that they are not alone in the world. We will show them that they are not forgotten by everyone and that people do care for them. He mentioned that students often have very low self-esteem/self-worth due to the occupation and that it is very helpful for foreign visitors just to listen to the students – to be friends with them. It was very humbling to listen to him. An experience not to be forgotten.

We were shown that flat that we will use for the next four months as well. A small place. Only three bedrooms, three bathrooms, dining room, living room, kitchen. In all seriousness you could fit our condo in the living room, dining room area. Far too big for us but we’ll take it – and the satellite TV, and the soon to be set up internet, and the coming washing machine, and the weekly maid service, and the first set of groceries.

All in all our first day here was a great day. We enjoyed meeting the people. We enjoyed seeing the city.

We didn’t enjoy hearing gunshots (a stupid police/security kid firing into the air) and seeing our driver and everyone else in the van ducking for cover.

We didn’t enjoy last nights wind storm.

We didn’t enjoy being without hot water on our first day, and without water on our second. (Swell still hasn’t had a shower – I’ve had two.)

We didn’t enjoy having to end our shopping for supplies because: “The Israelis have entered Nablus” (turned out to be an idiot French diplomat who came to Nablus with armed security but didn’t tell the Palestinian authorities so they thought it was Israeli security).

We didn’t enjoy hearing last nights gun battle – VERY FAR FROM OUR VERY SHELTERED HOME – WITH BULLET PROOF SHADES!!

Now we’re working on syllabi for the five courses we will teach. Met some of the students. Very nice – very young.

We’ll write more in the near future. It may be a couple of days because we don’t have internet at home yet and it is the weekend on Thursday and Friday.

I’ll also have contact information for all of you soon.

Typical Tourists

So yesterday we were the stereotypical bad tourists. We were scammed (more later but to put your mind at ease no money or valuables were lost), we ate at a non-Egyptian restaurant, and we yelled at the locals.

1) Everywhere we read about travelling in Egypt mentioned scams. The particular scam we fell prey to was the one I read about the most. I fell for it. Swell did not. She tagged along with me so that she could mock me for the rest of our life.

You see we started today being adventurous tourists. We set out in the early afternoon to find a Falafel stand. Falafel in Egypt is different from what I am used to and probably what most of you are used to. Rather than being made for Chickpeas it is made with some other type of bean (Fava?) and is more moist here. It is delicious and we set out to find a very cheap and filling meal. As we wandered the streets of Cairo a very friendly fellow stopped to talk to us and asked us where we are from. We say Canada (to which the locals all respond as if prompted by God himself - CANADA - CANADA DRY!!) and he proceeds to talk to us a little. He asks if we are staying at hotel X. We reply surprised "why yes we are"! He tells us that he works there and just got off of his shift and is on his way home. "What are we looking for?"

"Falafel! I can show you a great Falafel place it just across this very, very busy street. Come with me."

We follow, albeit a bit reluctantly as we had no desire to cross this crazy street. He points out the restaurant down the street and puts his scam into full effect.

"The restaurant is closed for the next 30 minutes as they are cleaning it out and getting ready for the lunch." (Everywhere you read they mention that this is how the scam starts. Something is always closed. It never really is.)

"While you're waiting for the restaurant to open again why don't you come into my brother's shop?"

I am far too polite and can't say no. So in we go. We are told that we can just sit and wait but while we're waiting they'll tell us about Egypt and the goods they have to sell. Scam continues. Swell says over and over we are not buying anything. The man (the "brother" of the previous man starts to get angry - telling us that not all Egyptian hassle the tourists. We are friends and he just wants to show us his goods. If we don't want them - fine. The pressure mounts throughout our time in his shop and Swell eventually walks out leaving me to thank the man for his hospitality and kindness.) We escape but ended up falling prey to the oldest scam in Egypt. At least we didn't buy anything.

2) We ate at McDonald's yesterday. I'm sorry. We ended up buying Falafel for lunch but ate McDonald's for lunch. I know many of you who read this will be so upset to hear that we ate at an American restaurant while in a foreign land. I do apologize but I did have something not available in the US. I had a Big Mac Chicken. It is exactly like a Big Mac but with chicken. It was ok.

3) We only did one site yesterday. We went back to the Giza pyramids in the evening for a sound and light show (laser and dialogue show that lights up the pyramids and sphinx and talks about their history). Our travel representative arranged for a car to pick us up and take us to the show. We know from our guide book that tickets to the show cost 30 Egyptian pounds ($6 US) and a taxi for the day only costs 120 Egyptian pounds (~$25 US) so when the tour operator told us to bring 100 we assumed it was pounds. We were wrong. When he asked for $100 US Swell went insane. I have never seen her like this before and don't desire it again. She basically called the guy a liar and a thief. It was not a pretty sight. I was able to calm her down and convince her to just go along with it. We got to the show and Swell wanted to go to a particular cafe to get something to drink while waiting. The tour operator stopped at a different cafe (Swell knowing that anytime a guide or operator takes you anywhere specific there is probably some type of commission given to them insisted to go elsewhere.) When we got to her desired location we were unable to get in so we went back to the original one. We sat with the operator for an uncomfortable 45 minutes asking about life in Egypt. He was kind enough to talk to us despite being called a thief and a liar. Swell felt worse and worse about the Romanian in her coming to the surface (her words not mine).

We ended up going to the (obviously) outdoor show where we sat through a wind storm, dust storm, and rain. All in all not worth the money but an experience none-the-less.

We leave tonight to start the real reason for our trip. Hopefully we will have more dependable Internet access and won't have to wander the streets for an hour searching for Internet like we did today. So I'll leave you with that - and the knowledge that as I sit here typing this I am drinking a Strawberry milkshake - from McDonalds

The Pain of Finding Internet in Egypt

nWe're sitting in an internet cafe in Aswan Egypt. Next to us sits a five year old Egyptian boy playing Counter Strike online against someone from who knows where. He can barely see over the counter top to see the screen. Interesting sight.

We sailed to Aswan (from Luxor) over the past four days. We sailed in a caravan of cruise "ships". There are 300 odd ships that sail the short distance from Luxor to Aswan. They vary in their quality - some are five star hotels on the water - others look quite shabby. Ours was somewhere in the middle. It was nice enough but not something you would want to live on for the rest of forever.

It has been an interesting trip. We've loved the Egyptian sites. They are more than we imagined and worth seeing sometime in your lifetime. Actually worth seeing more than once. We vacation poorly, however. Everywhere we go Swell and I note the poverty rather than just the historical stuff. It is a surreal experience to float down the Nile in a relatively luxurious boat with all the food and drink you can eat. We have 70 or so staff on the boat - there are probably 50 tourists. On either side of the Nile sit hovels barely fit for habitation. So the wealth of the world floats idly by the poor on either side of the Nile. The passengers on the boats do their best to ignore the poverty. Instead of saying: "Oh my! Look at these poor people washing their clothes in the polluted Nile/look at them collect water to take back to their homes/look at them fishing for food/look at their unfinished homes" the tourists visit while drinking $5 beers wearing nothing but their underwear.

That was quite a site. Women of the world your bra is not an outdoor outfit especially in a Muslim country where the women are covered from head to toe. Women who weigh more than 200 pounds please invest in a nice one piece swim suit rather than your jeans and a bra.

We do a good job of ignoring the poor. While in Egypt we ignore them as we walk past their shops, we ignore them as we walk past them trying to sell us flowers they just picked from the side of the road. We ignore their offers to show us the "best picture" all for the hopes of baksheesh (tip). On a grander scale the poor are ignored by our governments and in our day to day purchasing/lifestyle choices.

I haven't travelled a lot - let alone in such a touristy fashion as we are this week - but everywhere I've travelled I've seen more of the same. People just trying to eek out a life. Growing their food in rural Romania even at the age of 70, suffering - even in childbirth in very rural Honduras for lack of transportation.

Its interesting to make these observations but even when you make them while visiting the country it is difficult - I would say impossible - to truly understand what the people experience. It takes "walking a mile" in their shoes to see what it is like to live after the ravages of communism, to live in an area ignored by world leaders, to live with under $2 a day, to live without access to an improved water source/sanitation. While we won't be doing these things in our time in Nablus it is one step closer to experiencing life the way the vast majority of our brothers and sisters live - poor and hopeless but content in their community experience. Perhaps living this life will give us the knowledge of how better to pursue equality and justice for all when we move back home. Perhaps it will give us the knowledge to make better life choices so next time we visit an underdeveloped country we will see progress rather than economic/health care stagnation.

We promise to post about our trip (the sites) but want to do so with pictures and that will have to wait until we have access to our own computers.

'Till then I'm going to go get a little more sun.

Sheepie

P.S. It seems to me that my title makes no sense to the post. I was going to write something different because the above post was written much better yesterday in my journal. I forgot said journal at the boat and I was going to wait to write it later. I couldn't so the title doesn't match. "Why didn't you just change the title then?" Shut up.

In Egypt not Dead

We are currently in Luxor which is the starting point for our four day Nile cruise. The boat is acceptable - about what one would expect in Egypt - which means it is tolerable. It has a warm shower and that in itself is nice. We have a lot of stories but we just happened across this internet cafe and don't have much time to write them.

We arrived in Luxor via an overnight "sleeper" train. Not much sleeping possible what with nearly falling off the bed every 10 minutes. Noisy, smelly, and really shakey. It was an experience I wouldn't want to repeat.... oh crap... we'll be repeating the experience in four days.

Pyramids were awesome, Egyptian museum was really cool. We had a great guide.

Swell is well but did have a day where she passed up shopping and food! Now that's a story.

We'll be in touch.

Good flights but bad trip. Here and Nicole's already crying...

We had really nice flights. British airways is a good airline. We had a half of an upgrade - not all the way from cattle-people class to first class but from cattle-people to slightly better. We'll write about that later. (We're about to be picked up to go back to the airport to go to Egypt.) The bad part of our trip was the 12 hour layover in London! more about that later as well.

Nicole has been here for less than 12 hours. She has already cried twice.



The first was when she saw the breakfast buffet at our hotel. She was in heaven. Tears of gastronomical joy covered her face.

The second set of tears came after our 9 hour mid-day nap. They came because of the awesome dinner we just had. Nicole will be a whole new person when this is all done. I predict a 15 pound weight gain.

Short update 'cause we're short on time but we're here, we're happy, and we're safe.

Three things:

1) Swell is no longer swollen. The treatment seems to have worked. Her first dose didn't seem to do anything but the second dose made some rapid improvements. She is still in some pain - different pain from swollen pain though. We think its just from being swollen for a number of hours. She is no longer nauseous which is great. She should be good to go by tomorrow.

2) Swell wanted me to post our Egypt itinerary so that people know where we are and when we are there. She also wants to rub it in that we will be in Egypt and all y'all will be at work - working.

Jan. 12^th (Friday) – Arrive Cairo: 01:15 a.m. Arrive Cairo Transfer to Pyramisa Hotel .
Tel # (02) 3367000 Fax # (02) 3605347

Jan. 13^th (Saturday) – Cairo:
Pick up from hotel & meet your guide .
Full day tour to visit the Pyramids of Giza , Sphinx , Memphis & Sakkara .

Jan. 14^th (Sunday) – Cairo / Luxor:
Full day tour to visit the Egyptian Museum , Citadel & Khan El Khalili Bazaar
Dinner & overnight on board the sleeper train (1 Twin compartment) .
Jan. 15^th (Monday) – Luxor:
Transfer to M/S Sherry Boat . Tel # (012 2165947) .P.M.
Visit Karnak Temple & Luxor Temple .

Jan. 16^th (Tuesday) – Luxor / Esna:
A.M. Visit the West Bank (valley of the Kings , Hatshepsut Temple & Colossi of Memnon) .

Jan. 17^th (Wednesday) – Esna / Edfu / Kom Ombo / Aswan:
A.M. Visit Horus Temple in Edfu . Sail to Kom Ombo .
P.M. Visit Kom Ombo Temple . Sail to Aswan.

Jan. 18^th (Thursday) – Aswan:
A.M. Visit the High Dam , Unfinished Obelisk & Temple of Philae .
P.M. Free at leisure .

Jan. 19^th (Friday) – Aswan / Cairo:
A.M. Felucca sailing trip to view Elephantine Island & Agha Khan Mausoleu
Dinner & overnight on board the sleeper train

Jan. 20^th (Saturday) – Cairo:
06:45 a.m. Arrive Cairo Train Station .
Transfer to Pyramisa Hotel . Tel # (02) 3367000 Fax # (02) 3605347
Free day at leisure

Jan. 21^st (Sunday) – Cairo:
Free day at leisure. Overnight at Pyramisa Hotel .

Jan. 22^nd (Monday) – Depart Cairo:
03:20 a.m. Board your flight to Tel Aviv.

3) We are still hearing a lot of concern about our decision to do what we are doing. Most of that concern is for one of two reasons: i) Location ii) That we are working with Muslim/Arab people.

I can't guarantee our safety in Palestine. I wouldn't be able to guarantee our safety in Africa, Asia or anywhere in the US either. I trust that we will be safe. I don't see this move as being us taking an obscene risk with our lives. If we're hurt it will be an accident, just like it was an "accident" that my idiot brother-in-law drove Jill and I into a moose. Just like it was an accident that some stupid old lady ran me over with her car. Just like it was an accident that one of my Optometry school roommates tried to have us killed by driving in front of a speeding truck. I should be dead/permanently injured a great number of times over.

It's time for me to put actions to the words I've spoken for so long. I've long ranted against the poverty that exists in the world, the injustice that plagues developing countries, and the unfair burden of illness in the impoverished world. Do I truly think that teaching optometry to 13 students in the occupied territories of Palestine will solve world poverty, injustice, or bring health equality in the world? No. It will however help a government reach its VISION 2020 goals which should help them decrease the incidence/prevalence of preventable blindness in their communities. That, for me, is a start down what I hope is a long road for me.

It's time for me to stop delaying my work in the world and put actions to my long, boring, and tiresome rants. I want to work with the poor, the distraught - the orphan and the widow. My skills are limited. I am an optometrist. I think I can teach. So I will.

"But why are you going to Palestine? Why are you going to work with Muslims?"

We're not going so that we can work with Muslims. We're going so that we can work with our brothers and sisters who may or may not be Muslim. We're going to work with people - to share, to the best of our ability - our knowledge of optometry with 13 students. We are going in order to help a lone Israeli citizen who is the dean of the optometry school. We hope to decrease the amount of work this one woman has to do by taking away some of her teaching duties. We are going because we were asked. We didn't look through classifieds to find this opportunity. We didn't choose this over other opportunities. We were presented with one choice. Palestine or stay in the USA.

We chose Palestine because we are tired of the materialism that grips our lives here. We chose Palestine because we see a country that needs help in building healthcare infrastructure. We chose Palestine because both Swell and I have a heart for the suffering and there is a lot of suffering in Palestine. We don't know what our time there will bring. We just know that we want to have some time there.

You will gain more insight into our thoughts and beliefs if you choose to continue to read about our adventures in Nablus. Feel free to comment and challenge our beliefs. I hope that you consider your own when you read our ramblings.

Always pursuing peace, love, and justice - and now hoping that our actions lead to more of the three,
Sheepie and Swell

HAE rears its ugly head.

We thought we made it.

We thought we survived.

We thought Swell wouldn't get sick this year.

We were wrong.

She woke up this morning with an abdominal swelling and is currently at the study center being treated. The study she is participating in is a double blind treatment. She had a 66% chance of receiving medication rather than placebo.

Three hours after dosage she feels "the same" - which is actually good. She could be feeling worse.

This study gives you either placebo, half a dose, full dose. After four hours you get either placebo (if you had full dose initially), half dose (if you had half dose to begin with), or full dose (if you got placebo initially). You then have to wait another four hours before you're allowed to leave. She will be there until 7:30 or so. I'm home because someone had to clean the house. I took her. Hung out with her a bit. Did a few errands. Went back. Hung out a bit. Now I'm home and will go get her in a couple of hours.

For those that don't know HAE is Hereditary AngioEdema. Basically an HAE person is missing an enzyme that brings the complement system to a halt. Therefore, Swell, when having an attack can't stop saying what a great guy I am, how nice I am, how attractive I am, how smart I am, and what a great provider I am... wait... no... that would be a defect in the compliment system. She has a complement defect - I always get those two confused.

The complement system is involved in fighting infection and brings about inflammation - among other things. So when she has an attack the complement system over-acts and she gets uncontrolled inflammation. The abdomen is the most painful/annoying area to have an attack. The throat the most dangerous.

The treatment is a blood product that replaces the enzyme she is missing. Hopefully it works and she's better tomorrow for our 6:30 pm flight.

Happy Birthdays!

In honour of JL's Birthday:



In honour of Pa's B-day...One half of this year's champions!


Happy Birthday to you both. Hope you had wonderful days.

I HATE PACKING!!!

Maybe someone can be hired to come do our packing, while ensuring we are well underweight while maintaining all the supplies we think we'll need. It's been an awful, torturous last 2 days of trying to fit everything we want to take. It makes it harder since we are packing for Egypt separately since we leave within 24 hours of our arrival. A few hours ago we thought we were done... then Sheepie gets the bright idea to check the El Al flight restrictions and lo and behold we had to begin again. You see, they allow us to check-in luggage of up to 70 lb on British Air, but just 1 check in of 40 lb on El Al! That would've been okay since we are planning on dropping off most of our stuff in Israel before we leave... but we only packed one bag of 70 lbs for both of us for Egypt... so Sheepie gets another bright idea of packing half of our stuff for Egypt into another backpack and putting that bag into the big suit case and we'll just split it later! Horray.. this just might work. So we are now at 4 bags total, each weighing the limited 70 lbs. And for our carry ons we are just allowed ONE bag. For Sheepie the huge camera bag (2 cameras, 3 lenses, tons of accessories); for Swell her backpack. Nobody probably wanted to hear all this, but I wanted you all to share in my pain. I just took out some of the clothes I was going to pack... but it will be okay.... just 6 months... and they do have malls there somewhere...We must lose some stuff along the way if we are to bring anything back with us though! Or maybe just ship stuff back.

I wanted to add some pictures from my camera from the sledding. It was so much fun. Thanks to all who came! I enjoyed it so much...just wish it didn't have to be so darn cold! It's hard to eat hot dogs with gloves on!

It sure was cold...



Yummy food and warm fire.




Sheepie and his brother playing in the snow!

Well, we should go to bed soon. Tomorrow will be our last full day in the US for a while! So we should do something really American! Like what? I'll have to work on that. I'll make sure I get my grande carmel macchiato though; and it better me made well!

Swell
(I miss the mood bears)

Tidying up a few loose ends

70 pounds.

Not a lot of weight but when you're trying to keep your luggage to under 70 pounds it becomes a magic - almost celestial number.

So far I'm doing well packing - swell, not so much. I've kept two bags containing 80% of our things and most of my clothes to under 70 pounds. Swell is still crying about what to take and what to leave behind.

We are taking four bags - our allotment as cattle-people who buy economy tickets. Had we purchased first class tickets we would be allowed to take three bags each and two carry-ons. Rich people have privileges, they control the world's oil supply, they make the world's laws, they choose what we can view on television and they can carry excess luggage. In the words of the immortal and aurally pleasing Thee Pirates: "Bourgeoisie you make me sick".

Part of the problem of keeping our luggage to under 70 pounds is the fact that we're taking 40 pounds of notes and books. You read that right. 40 Pounds! I did, in fact, weigh our books and notes.

I was asked by a certain someone to take time out of my busy schedule (read: watching football) to put up a few pictures of the sleigh ride we had back in E'town. I have no preamble for these pictures - other than my shin is killing me. It doesn't hurt. It's just at that irritated-itchy-scabby-bruised stage. For those that don't know the story. I jumped off the sleigh because I was stuck in a bad spot and couldn't get past people. While trying to heave my obese self back onto the sleigh I stepped in soft snow just as the sleigh took a downward dip, thereby exposing my shin to a good sleigh-scraping-down-one's-shin. I was left battered and bruised.

Anyway onto the pictures:

The sleigh when it was empty.


The back of the sleigh with some people on it:


One shot of the scenery:


A picture of the post-sleigh ride hot dog roast. Good fun. Haven't done that in years!


My beautiful-easily-chilled-stress-filled wife.

I didn't take a lot of pictures because I was busy throwing my brother in the snow...and then tackling him in the snow...and then dodging his attempt at tackling me into the snow.

FUN!

Thank Goodness!

Today was supposed to be the day that we left for Nablus. We would not have been ready. We'll be lucky if we are ready by Tuesday - our new departure day.

We bought a few more things that we require for our trip today - the complete West Wing series for one - and we learned about the Egypt tour that we signed up for. Our itinerary includes the following:
The pyramids - of course
The sphinx - of course
All the other good stuff in that area
A four day Nile cruise
A sleeper train ride for two nights

I'll write more about the trip as it approaches. Needless to say we are very excited. Very excited.

Not much going on other than boring preparations. I'm finally loading Swell's Ipod with the music she wants - she has been very bad about telling me what she wants on it.

We're living very boring lives. We'll fill your lives with exciting stories soon.

Home Sweet Home

We made it home. Swell worked. I spent money. We bought tickets to Egypt. We arrive in Tel Aviv on Jan. 11 at 5:25 am. We leave for Cairo at 1:15 am on the 12th. That means we'll only be in Israel for less than 24 hours. Should be good times.

Now we're trying to book a tour. Will update more soon.

Happy New Year

So it's 11:35 pm Pacific Time as I write this. I'm not going to make it to midnight. We have a 6:45 am flight tomorrow and won't get to the ATL until 7:30 pm Eastern. New Years is a big whatever in my book. So the calander changes a year. Yippee! I'll still be writing 2006 for the next month or so - cause I can't remember to write the correct year for most of Jan. usually.

We're having some major weight issues with our luggage. We are bringing some long forgotten notes with us. Major jettison of gifts occurring. No new books for Swell. She's crying. No candles for Swell. She's bawling. No new remote control bus for me. I'll cry about it later. We'll see if we have to leave anything else behind when we get to the airport. I broke the scale yesterday so I can't weigh the bags. (I'll leave the "He broke the scale" jokes to you - the true story is I accidentally stepped on it while getting off the ladder with a 50 pound box of books and notes.)

Also having major problems with British Airways. We're only allowed a single carry on bag... that causes a big kink in our plans. I'll do some figuring on that front next week.

Any way. I hope everyone has a fantastic year. Here's to new beginnings - let's all go on a diet.