Ian Tyson, Ralph Klein, Peter Mansbridge and me

Our American freinds probably won't recognise who these people are, but it is comforting to be back in the land where these are household names. Ralph is the Premier of Alberta(like the governor) and it's good to be back in his quiet jurisdiction. The older of you will probably recognise Ian Tyson, one of Alberta"s favourite sons who penned the song "four strong winds" with his wife Sylvia in the late sixties. The opening line goes " Think I'll go out to Alberta, weathers good there in the fall..." Actually it seems a bit chilly after Israel, but that's ok..it's quiet with tons of space and plenty of elbow room for everyone. Peter Mansbridge is the anchor of the evening news on the good old CBC, and I felt like hugging my tv when he came on tues. night. It's funny how familiar things can seem so good after you have been away for a while.
Of course the best thing about being home is seeing our family and freinds again. Our phone hasn't stopped ringing since we arrived home and it really is overwhelming to find out how many people have been praying for us, and thinking about us. I think things actually look worse on tv than they are in reality, but of course we were on the quieter side of the border. I don't think it would be so great on the Lebanese side. Anyway, if any of you back there are still reading these, we will continue to pray for your safety as the dig continues, and hopefully it will still be a fruitful year of archaeology depite the turmoil. Keep us posted as to how you make out. If anyone back in the states wants to keep in touch our e-mail is: curlingnut@billybob.com and we would love to stay in contact with you. We will try and let you know how our move to Kitimat goes once we are established there. Keep in touch and we will talk to you later eh!!!

that's it time to get out of here

I guess we just aren't quite as resilient as our Israeli counterparts. This morning was enough for us. It is Sunday and we decided to go to church in Haifa. We thought it would be kind of interesting to attend worship in Israel, and especially with all the problems going on. We were pretty sure that current events with Lebanon would dominate the service, and it would be cool to be here and pray for peace with some of the locals. Our choices were limited, and so we decided on an Episcopalian church which began at 10:30. We had breakfast and went out to our local taxi stand to catch a cab to church. In a former blog I mentioned the cool cab driver Danny who rerouted our trip to go and look at the crater the first rocket made. Well who should be waiting at the cab stand but Danny and so we got in. About a block into the drive he asked us if we heard the boom boom of the rockets landing. We hadn't heard this from inside the hotel, and so he explained that just ten minutes earlier 15 rockets had slammed inro Haifa. It was early too soon to assess damage and casualties, but it was becoming apparent that there were many. We made a snap decision, and asked Danny if he could drive us to Tel Aviv. He said he would meet us back at the hotel in 30 minutes. The phone lines were all down and I think he wanted to check on his family. I felt bad asking him to drive us at a time like this, but he seemed willing.
If you have ever heard air raid sirens you will understand how on edge they make you feel. You could hear the air raid sirens all over the city, and the Israeli government had just ordered all citizens of Haifa to go to bomb shelters. We knew our window of opportunity was small and so we packed furiously, all the while an eerie voice was being broadcast in Hebrew over the entire hotel. We didn't know what it was saying (probably a good thing as it was ordering everyone in the hotel to go immediately to the basement and enter the bomb shelter, and when all these guys with guns tell you to do something you do it). We finished packing and grabbed our bags and ran. The elevators had quit working and so we took to the stairs (we were on the 7th floor) and ran to the front doors. The entire hotel was deserted except for the heavily armed guy at the front door who didn't want us to leave the hotel. We explained that we had a cab coming in 5 minutes and convinced him to let us wait.
5 minutes and still no Danny. I breated a quiet prayer that he would show up. Reports kept coming in...apparently the train staition had been hit(this was how we were going to go to Tel Aviv Mon. morning) and things were ungluing at an alarming rate. All of a sudden a taxi came screaming aroud the corner...Danny...I've never been so happy to see someone in my life. There was an eerie haze in the air from all the fires and explosions, and most likely from the train staition, a mere kilometer from our hotel. Some of the rockets apparently went over our hotel and landed beyond it. Danny expertly navigated the panick stricken drivers in Haifa and got us onto the hiway to Tel Aviv. We made it to Tel Aviv and Danny found us a good place to stay, and just in the nick of time as all the hotels in Tel Aviv were being flooded with people fleeing Haifa and looking for refuge beyond the range of the Lebanese rockets.
So what can we say about all of this? I'm sure a little time in between will help to sort all of this out in our minds, but for now I feel mostly pity for all the regular folks on both sides of this. On this trip we have met many Arabs who have been wonderful, from the muslims in Jerusalem to the Druze Arabs in Haifa. One of our cab drivers in Haifa was from Lebanon and he was going back there Saturday night as soon as he dropped us off. He was a really nice guy, but I suspect he was not going home to pay a social call. We met a nice young Jewish boy 17 years old who told us he was scared of having to do his mandatory 3 year stint in the army starting in Sept. And of course Danny who just wants to earn a living and raise his family. None of these people hate eachother but as in all wars (and this is quickly becoming full blown war) people are forced to choose sides and may even find themselves aiming a gun at someone they once called a freind. It is ironic this should happen in Haifa which is the poster child for how these groups can all get along in peace and harmony.
That's it. My brain is dead tonight and it will take a while to digest all of this anyway. Thank you all for your prayers, I feel today was a series of events that were in God's hand and not ours, and so we are grateful indeed. See you soon I hope as long as the airport stays open and there is every reason to think that it will, as Tel Aviv has not been attacked at all. OI Vey... it will be good to get home!!!

Don't worry be happy

This has been a trip of firsts, but I never thought I would see this when we signed up for this adventure. It seems that the Israelis do indeed have the genes of their forefathers, and are quite happy to make light of a couple of mere rocket attacks. We find ourselves in Haifa for our last weekend and wouldn't you know it, the day we come here Haifa is attacked by a couple of rockets lobbed over the border by Hezbollah millitants. Now before anyone becomes alarmed, these are not scud missles or anything, they are of the variety of a katusha rocket only with a slightly longer range. I will tell the truth that we stubble jumpers from the prairies of Canada were a bit rattled that we were in a city that had just been attacked. This doesn't happen every day in Alberta. But a funny thing started to happen as we began moving around the city. Everyone seemed determined to just get on with life and not be the slightest bit rattled by any of this. From the taxi driver to the waitress at supper last night the sttitude was the same. "Don't worry be happy." Our driver said one piece of advice I can give you, don't let this affect anything you were going to do. Have fun and enjoy our city. Wow! I wonder if the cab drivers in Edmonton would think the same if they were under rocket attack.
We went out today to see Mount Crmel and a couple of Old testament sites relating to Elijah's time spent here, and our cab driver actually took us us on a detour to go and see where one of the rockets crashed hrmlessly into the side of Mt. Carmel. We joined the throng of other Israelis taking pictures and looking at the crater left in the side of the hill. Traffic was backed up because of all the hubub and horns were honking with impatient drivers wanting to get somewhere. I think for this day the crater became the most popular site in Haifa, and Elijah"s cave played second fiddle.
It's all a bit surreal as we relax in our comfortable seaside hotel listening to the waves, and the roar of jets flying missions overhead to go and pulverize Lebanon, all mixed together in what could only be an experience one could have in this part of the world. Truthfully, one could wax political about who is right and who is wrong here, but for now it feels good to be safe, and be on this side of the border. Our cab driver eloquently put it today, "No be fraid in Israel, but in Lebanon be fraid." Shalom.

Last day of the dig

This entry will be short as we are done up at Hippos and are readying ourselves to catch a taxi to Haifa. We will be staying there until Monday morning and we hope to have as relaxing time as possible. Things have kind of gone crazy here in Israel and today up at the dig the sound of heavy bombing was almost constant. We have been assured that Lebanon cannot reach us here with their Katusha rockets, and the Israeli army is pushing the Hezbolla fighters even farther back. Wow we didn't expect to be in a war zone. It is one thing to have the threat of an occational suicide bomber, but this is something different again. It's funny how calm the locals are about all of this. I can't help but wonder what the reaction would be if this was going on in Canada. Here they just shrug and go about their daily buisness. I know I should writs more about the dig but these recent developments have overshadowed things I'm afraid. We will always have good memories of this place even with all this at the end. It's been a wonderful experience and we can't wait to see you all Bye for now

about those jets we saw

The jets we saw flying up the Jordan valley in my last blog have now become an everyday occurrence, with a slight difference. Now we can hear the rumblings of bombs exploding after they go past us. We assumed that these explosions were training exercises, as there is apparently a bombing range just up and over our position to the east in the Golan Heights.
When we are home we watch the good old national news with Peter Mansbridge almost every night, but here of course we are greatly out of touch with what is going on in the world as our access to tv is mostly limited to a couple of Hebrew language staitions. And of course we just don't have time...so we go along each day in our little archaeological corner of the world with nary a concern as to what is going on elsewhere.
Today that changed. Dr. Shuler took us aside as a group and told us in sketchy details that a couple of Israeli soldiers had been abducted in the north by Lebanon and we were to keep an extremely low profile for a while. I now needed to know what was going on, and tuned into cbc on the internet, to discover that Israel had invaded southern Lebanon, and was considering the kidnappings as an act of war between two sovereign nations. Oh boy...so I guess those jets we now see almost hourly aren't going on training missions.
We are going to Haifa tomorrow to stay until Monday morning when our plane leaves. Pray for our protection and the protection of all the dig team, and god-willing we will be fine. Dr. Schuler said the airport and checkstops will be at the highest alert possible, and so we may have some delays in getting around and leaving etc.
We have no idea how blessed we are to live in a peaceful country like Canada. Ive never been in a war zone before, but let me tell you that this is a long way from Leduc or Carstairs. One more day up the hill and our part is over. It's been great and we can hardly wait to get home and tell you all our stories.

Just another day

Just another day...nothing remarkable. Just another day searching for buried treasure in a 2000 year old city on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Its funny how even the most remarkable things can become routine and ordinary. In all of this I dont think that we have told you about our regular routine.
It goes like this. 4:00 the alarm goes off. We have a half of an hour to go to the bathroom, munch down a granola bar, put on our work clothes and have a cup of good old instant coffee while we chat to our roommates. 4:30 its off across the kibbutz to catch the bus that takes us up Sussita mountain at 4:45. Joyce likes to arrive early enough to ensure that we sit on the passenger side of the bus so that she doesnt have to look over the sheer drop-off when we get to the hair-pin turn. The bus dropps us off at 4:55 and we begin ou one and a half mile hike straight up the mountain path lined on both sides by mine fields. We work until 8:30 when we stop for breakfast of boiled eggs, tomato cucumber salad and bread. This marks the end of the cool part of the day. We then go back to work until 11:40 (stopping every 20 minutes for a mandatory water break, at which time we pack up and catch the bus back to the kibbutz at noon.
We go to the room and shower up and march back to the dining hall for lunch, the big meal of the day. A nap immediately follows lunch until 3:00 or so at which time I file these reports. Pottery cleaning is from 4:30 to 5:30, a little break...supper at 6:30 and then lectures at 7:30. Devotions at 8:30 and then off to bed to get up again at 4:00.
Routine...even here we have routine and one falls into it unconsciously. When we get home and look back on this it will seem anything but routine, but for now its just another day... Oh that is except for all the fighter jets that were flying up the Jordan valley and then popping up over the Golan Heights on a mission to Syria. Other than that...it was just another day.

There's gold in them there ruins

Gold...it has started wars, created klondike fever, and has been something that mankind has sought after since the beginning of time. The Israelites built a calf out of gold and worshipped it when Moses took too long to come down from the mountain, and Paul speaks of God's faithfulness and gifts to us that will not tarnish, and are better than refiners gold. We have envisioned heaven as a place where the streets are paved with gold, and so it was with much hoopla that Cameron emerged from the depths of the cistern up at Hippos yesterday and announced to everyone..."Gold, I found gold!!" and so he did. What he found down there was a clasp that would be used to hold the top of a woman's dress together, made out of pure gold. What is even more remarkable about this is that it looks as if someone could have gone down to the mall and just purchased this piece at a jewellery shop. If this clasp is 1500 years or older, then it is remarkably well preserved, and we can marvel even more at Paul's annalogy.
The crypt crew are a bit dissapointed I think due to the fact that they didn't find more under the sarcophagus. They did find some more bones though, and Glen isn't giving up yet on finding something else. Our mosaic floor recovery team of which Joyce and myself are a part are scraping away at the mosaic floor to find Dr. Schuler an inscription that may be carved there which might answer a number of questions regarding who these burial chambers belong to, or at the least who donated the money to build the church as was the custom of the day...kind of like getting a library named after you these days.
We are in the final week of the dig for our Canadian crew and 6 others from the states. The rest will be staying on to finish the dig season and will be joined by a few more replacements. Already I understand what it is that draws these people back here year after year. Some have been here every year since the beginning, some 3 years, some two and others like ourselves who have come for their first year. The work is brutal, the hours are terrible (5am-noon), the sun is unrelenting, and the kibbutz food is, well...Yet once you have been up there it becoms a part of you. You are always anticipating what will be found next that will help to fill in the pieces, and the shear scope of the history of what we are doing all contribute to this thing being like a drug that you get hooked on. I know that with our path to the ministry it is highly unlikely that we will be able to return...but it is a part of us now, and we will follow this dig on the internet and through all the great friends we have made here for as long as it continues.
That being said, thoughts are beginning to turn homeward and linden's wedding, and then our move to Kitimat. We miss our kids terribly, and I think I will even be happy to see George again when we arrive. Dan is ready to go now, and so is Doctor Chambers I think, but we will march up that hill three more times before coming home...We need to find that inscription before we leave!!!