Life on the hill

Take an ancient city, a mission job there, a nice camera and a laptop computer and you’d think you have the perfect recipe for an exciting blog.

Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. I guess what I didn’t count on is being overwhelmed with blog material to the point of paralysis. There’s so much to say about this place that I don’t know where to begin. So I’ll start here. It’s been more difficult adjusting to life here than I expected. Unlike the other places I’ve visited overseas, I didn’t spend any time longing for and dreaming about living in Jerusalem – thus, I’ve not started out with the usual infatuation I feel in new cultures. You’d think that’d be a good thing. But I think it’s prevented me with “bonding” with the place. Maybe it’s better for that to happen slowly, over time. I’ll let you know in 20 months!

So I’ll start with something basic. I live in a small apartment in the guest house of the Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem. If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, you can zoom in on the guest house and see where it is in relation to the rest of Jerusalem. (Here I could complicate things with a discussion about what constitutes “Jerusalem.” But I’ll save that for later.)

The hospital has been around for nearly 100 years, starting in 1910 as a hospice and rest home. Since 1950 it’s operated mainly as a hospital for refugee or needy Palestinians. The guest house has served various purposes over the years, but right now it houses about 25 people who are serving with various humanitarian projects in the area. Other buildings on the campus provide office space and housing for other faith-based missions, such as World Vision. Also within the walls are 800 olive trees, the oil from which provides money for the hospital’s “poor fund.” The fund pays for medical treatment for those who can’t pay for it themselves. The hospital sits atop the Mount of Olives (“Jabal al-Zaytoon” in Arabic); the chapel’s bell tower is a prominent landmark and can be seen for miles around. The hospital campus also includes a little store where you can get all the basics like milk, peanut butter, hummus and ice cream bars.

My apartment is basically two rooms: a bedroom with two single beds and another room that serves as living/dining/office, with a closet-sized kitchen to one side, and two bathrooms. The apartment is at least twice the size of any of the other rooms here and is the only one with a kitchen. The rest of the residents have a shared kitchen/TV room. So mine feels pretty luxurious by comparison!
Speaking of residents, there is a group of campus residents to whom I’m particularly attached. There are lots of photos of these feline friends on my picture website (www.punky215.dotphoto.com). They are my surrogate animal children, since I had to leave my kitty King behind.

So, there you have it – life at Augusta Victoria guest house. It would be a big help to me if readers would ask specific questions about life in Jerusalem for me to answer on the blog. Otherwise, it’s hard to narrow down possible topics.

And so, because my dad has asked multiple times for me to tell him what prices are like, that’s what I hope to write about next. Guess I’d better get out the grocery receipts!

Election night 2008

There are lots of reasons why I'll always remember election night 2008 -- not the least of which is that "my" candidate won. But it won't be because I voted by absentee ballot because I was out of the country. I cast my vote for Bill Clinton ahead of time in 1996 in order to spend November and December in Russia. This time I applied for an absentee ballot, which I received and completed while I was in Jerusalem. Nor will it be for the fun I had staying up all night waiting for results with the group you see at the left. It won't even be because of all the emotions I felt at the incredible result -- relief, hope, joy.

Instead, I hope it will be because I intend to fulfill a realization I made that night. Obama's victory for me did not signal the successful end of a campaign. For me it was the beginning -- the beginning of my holding my president-elect to his promises, of my demanding accountability from Obama for how he governs our country. I made a choice, I placed my trust in him, based on him putting himself forward as an ethical, intelligent, responsible leader. His job is to live up to his pledges; mine is to hold him to it. I intend to be every bit as critical of him as I was of his GOP predecessor. Now the work begins.