Catching up

HALLOWEEN

Halloween fell while the students were in Jordan, so the Sunday before they left, they had a trick-or-treat hour for the kids in the branch. It was a lot of fun. On Halloween eveing, those of us still in the Center, had dinner together and then the kids decorated cookies. More fun.

Last semester, one of our student's parents came for a visit. They asked if we needed them to bring us anything. Halloween decorations was my request: Here is what I got:

 

 

This sign I printed off a website and hung outside my office door. :)

 

 



 

 

On Saturday evening, Oct. 27, Elder and Sister Snow [he is the Church Historian] and 2 of Kent's friends also in the Church's Historical office, arrived at the Jerusalem Center.

 

Part of our job here is to host General Authorities when they come so the following day we took them to sites in the Old City. Unfortunately, the temple mount was not open because it was a Muslim holiday.

 

We did visit the Western Wall. The men's side has more to see and this is a picture that Kent took inside the tunnel that runs next to the Wall.

 

 

 

 

Next we visited one of the Upper Rooms and the Dormition Abbey - I have no pics, sorry.

 

Kent and I have another site for the Upper Room, that we like better. It is in St. Mark's Church. No pictures here either. :(

 

We wandered the streets and did a little shopping and then had lunch.

 

After lunch we went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre:

 

 

This is the big dome in the middle

 

This is looking into the tomb of Jesus. We didn't have time to go in - there is always a really long line to go inside:

There are dozens of small chapels throughout the building and in the basement. Each honoring a sacred event around Christs's death/burial/resurrection.

This is in the basement and is a Catholic chapel where a piece of the cross was found. The first picture is on the wall of the stairway going down to the chapel - covered with crosses that pilgrims carved there:

 This is another chapel in another part of the basement. It is Armenian. 

 

 

  Our last adventure of the day was to walk along part of the Via Dolorosa to Steven's Gate, where we were picked up.

More to come. :)

 

People and life

 

I wanted to show you my heroes: Dave & Jan Peterson. They are the ones who were there through all my broken wrist traumas! What angels they are and how I miss them!

 

 

This is our Branch President and his wife, Bob & Elisabeth Schafer. The day that I found out I was going to have to have surgery, Kent was in Galilee with the new faculty and I was alone and feeling sorry for myself. Schafers had me over for dinner and a nice, cheery chat! Awesome people whom I love!!

 

This is a bad picture - but the best I have right now. This is Norm and Dorene Squires. They have loved me and cheered me up through broken bones etc. Dorene has"been there" and more - she was a good shoulder to cry on! Love the Squires!!!

TOTALLY DIFFERENT SUBJECT :)

The weather has been weird. We should be having cooler temperatures and some clouds - winter is coming. But it has been hot and sunny. Until Sunday evening - we actually had thunder, lightening, and just enough rain to make a mess of everything. See our patio below:

 

 YUK!

The day following the rain we had an all-day field trip to an area called the Shephelah. It was SO hot and HUMID. That is a switch for here. Like I said, the weather has been weird. Anyway, this is a region of 5 valleys that lie between the Judean highlands and the coastal plains. We had several stops where we reviewed the biblical events that took place in this area. Samson/Delilah; David & Goliath; the Babylonian conquest of the children of  Israel. Here are a few pictures of sites.

Bell Caves - nice and cool and great acoustics:

 

This is at a place called Lachish. The last high place guarding the way to Jerusalem - it fell. This is a view of the grape vineyards that were everywhere we went that day. And I can never resist sheep. :)

As I mentioned, Winter is coming. There really isn't much change in the world around us to indicate any kind of Fall season, so I have my own Fall leaves outside our door.

It is also Sukkot here in Jerusalem. That is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the harvest. Families and businesses build sukkots on their roofs or balconys which they eat their meals in for the week of Sukkot and sometimes even sleep in them. My door has Sukkot pictures on it and the lights around the door are little ears of corn. The middle picture is of a sukkot being built. I'm a nut with holidays, I know. :)

This last picture was colored for us by our little next door neighbor, Linda Stratford. She loved the middle of the flower because both colors came from the same pencil. :)

 

Coming up next - more Turkey photos. We were in Turkey from September 16 - 23.

 

Arm update

So, I went back for my 2-week follow-up visit. They removed the huge bandage/cast, took out a few stitches and fitted me with a removable cast. This picture actually looks better than when they first removed the cast. Then, it was very swollen, black and blue, and my hand was stuck in the "cast" position for awhile!

 

 

As it turns out, the man that put my original plaster cast on also fits people with removable casts. He met us at the clinic and we purchased it on the spot. Very convenient!

 

 

 

After the "fitting" they sent me down to x-ray. The surgeon was very please with how it looked and we were SHOCKED at how many screws they put in!!!! I made the pic xtra-large so you can count them yourselves!  :)

Here is a picture of the doctor putting the plate in my wrist:

 

 

 

The following morning, Kent drove me to me first visit with the physical therapist. It actually felt mostly good to have him stretch and massage my hand, wrist, and arm. He gave me several stretches to do everyday - multiple times per day.  Things are looking great and I think maybe life will be a little more normal, now?!

3 Days on Mt. Scopus

So 2 weeks plus a couple of days my arm looked like this. Kent was in Galilee with the new faculty, so Dr. Dave and his wife, Jan took me to my follow-up appointment. These are the same people who spent an entire day with me when I first broke my arm. Little did any of us know.

 

We came back here, just not through the emergency doors:

 

 

Here's how the day went. We arrived at 8:15 am. We checked in -- that took two stops to find the correct place. Paid some money and went to see the ortho doctor. I was about 6th in line. The doctor sent me down to get another x-ray. That involves walking to another part of the hospital, paying more money and waiting . . . .

The x-ray hurt -- that wasn't a good sign, huh?

 

We returned to the doctor's office and waited some more. The x-ray showed that, not only had the bones slipped back out of place, they were actually worse than the original break. :(



Several hours, many more shekels, and 4 tests later [around 2 pm], I left with the grand expectations of surgery.

 

Now we are on day two of the Mt. Scopus adventure. In addition to dear Dr. Dave, our new doctor and his wife took Kent and I to the hospital. I was asked to be there at noon for a probable 3:00 pm surgery. ;)

 

I went to the office to check in and pay. The "nice" secretary told me I was supposed to go directly to Day Care [what we call same-day surgery]. So, I led our merry little band in, out, and around to Day Care. Here there really was a nice lady who apologized and sent me back to the original office. She also called the office and explained why I was returning. $14,600 later we all return to Day Care.!!!

 

The docs left at that point and Kent and I sat in the waiting room for about 2 hours. The TV was on -- some kind tarot card readers or something. It was all in Hebrew so . . . . yawn! Finally they called my name and showed me to a room where I could put on my lovely hospital attire:

 

I was anxious to get on with it. The man with the shoulder bag is my surgeon. Unfortunately, there was some mix up with the anesthesiologist. The doctor said it would be a "short" wait -- maybe an hour.

 

 So, they let me recline in this comfy chair. Kent wasn't so lucky. He was sitting on a hard chair, freezing cold, and hadn't had any lunch. Sweet man!!

 

 Two hours later, someone came and took me up to surgery in a wheel chair -- he was steering with one hand and talking on his cell with the other. We got there, however. Then I waited another 30 minutes or so outside of surgery.

 

 

 Finally, they came and got me and I said goodbye to Kent. By this time it is about 5:30. While Kent was waiting for me, the Petersons brought him some pizza from the branch party that we were all missing. They stayed with him. They will, forever, be my heroes!

 

 

I was in a lot of pain when I woke up and it took several shots of morphine to kill it.

 

 By the time I was conscious [sort of] it was after 8, so I spent the night at the hospital. This is the guy wheeling me to my room. He is also talking on his cell phone. According to Kent he would hang up on one phone and a second one would ring in his other pocket -- popular guy!

 

My newest adventure ends on day three on Mt. Scopus -- I return in 2 weeks. Hopefully, there will NOT be a third adventure!!!

Turkey Day 3

Our first stop today was the Anzak beach memorial. It is also known as Galipoli. It is in honor of all those who lost their lives in WWI trying to take this beach from the Turks. I love this huge plaque - showing the words spoken by Ataturk at the dedication of this spot:

Here is the cemetery:

This is in honor of all those who died here but were never identified

I took many pictures of headstones because I was so touched by what they said on them. These are only a few and notice their ages:

I think this was my favorite part of the day. There was a sweet
feeling there.

After lunch we took a ferry across the Dardanelles to the site of Troy.

 Troy

The Trojan Horse. From left to right: Eric Huntsman, Kent, Eran Hayet, Jared Ludlow, Steve Harper

Our hotel this night was on the beach. It was called Hotel Ida Kale. The students had a grand time in the pool and on the beach as well. It was nice way to relax. :)