Category Archives: Israel

Desert Storm

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A climbing camp to Jordan was a great excuse for me to escape the stifling Jewish holiday of Passover. If my ancestors supposedly spent 40 years in the desert after escaping captivity in Egypt then spending a week in the desert to commemorate that, makes much more sense than obsessively cleaning the house from bread crumbs and starving for a week (although actual history probably has little to do with this fairy tale). Anyway, read on!

Go Pro Pic by Kfir Amir

Go Pro Pic by Kfir Amir

Passing the border was a long and tedious affair on both sides. The Israelis want you to pay 100 NIS to leave the country and the Jordanians want you to be registered with a ‘guide’. Luckily the organizers of the camp had everything under control so after standing on lines in the heat for a few hours we were on our way.

The small Bedouin village in the Wadi Ram desert seemed to have gone through a zombie apocalypse of sorts. One story half destroyed houses covered with graffiti and littered with junk, spread out in the middle of nowhere. Women clad all in black, only their eyes peeking behind their veil, darted around in the background, quickly disappearing whenever someone saw them. An occasional man on a camel or jeep could be seen passing through.

Some boys playing soccer in a makeshift playground proved that there was some life in this seemingly dead village. A few young girls, still unveiled, were playing in the dirt at the outskirts of the playground. They waved to me and smiled. I did the same hoping that perhaps seeing a grown ‘free woman’ will help them change their future even though I know it won’t.

A few moments before we nearly flipped over. Go pro pic by Kfir Amir:

A few moments before we nearly flipped over.
Go pro pic by Kfir Amir

On the way to the local store I got a marriage offer from one of the young men. No, I didn’t asked how many camels I was worth. The store itself was pretty basic but did have snickers chocolate bars which are turning out to be the one constant food source I’m encountering everywhere I go!

The rock cliffs and canyons are massive and beautiful but the sand stone is crumbly and some holds literally fall to pieces in your hand or under your feet so it’s not for the faint of heart. It is also only Trad climbing and I couldn’t really find people to climb with so I only went climbing for one day and spent the rest of the time bouldering or hiking.

The most popular thing to do in the area is Jeep trips and a few days into the camp we took a jeep into the middle of the desert to camp out there for the night.

The jeep driver was probably 70+ and seemed half blind and deaf. He almost flipped the jeep over trying to reverse down a steep sand dune. Some of us managed to jump out and he just kept driving without noticing he’d left us behind! The rest of the group banging on his window was the only thing that saved us from being stranded there.

The desert seemed endless and empty but actually walking for only a few minutes brought me in contact with other groups or jeeps jumping traversing through the area.

The next day I awoke to a sand storm, rain and an upset stomach, so I cut my trip short by a day and hitchhiked from the Israeli border in Eilat back to Jerusalem which is always a great way to travel.

 

I Met Kfir and some other High lingers so I have these cool pics that he took.

I Met Kfir Amir and some other High liners so I have these cool pics that he took.

 

 

Everything Changes Everything Stays The Same

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An interference pattern of overlapping images form in my brain as I walk through the places I used to call home, the places I ran away from a year and three months ago.  I was afraid of this moment but it’s turning out to be a much more interesting experience than I thought.

overlap

As you can see my camera got pretty messed up during my travels…

New houses on the street

New houses on the street

Then and now, my brain is playing find the differences like those newspaper pictures. There are new houses in the street, many of the trees have died in the crazy snow storm, there is a kitchen where I used to sleep in my mom’s house. People have started new jobs, moved cities, broken up with loved ones or are getting married.  Some look older, some actually look younger and some look exactly the same.

It’s like stepping back into old shoes, the first second might feel strange but the patterns of the past are so strong that in a few seconds time the comfort returns. Opening the fridge door, turning off the alarm, driving a car! The second time around is not the second it’s the millionth and one.

 

Ok most of the clothing (except the karate stuff) is my sisters but still too hard to choose from...

Ok most of the clothing (except the karate stuff) is my sister’s but still too hard to choose from…

There is a gap in which I manage to feel both the strength of the memories and their distance from the present, until once again they become the present.

There are some ‘comforts’ that are taking me longer to get used to, like trying to choose clothing from a packed closet after a year with only a small backpack, or detaching myself from google maps even though I know where I am.

During my travels I met some awesome Israeli’s and meeting up with them here is helping me keep the laughter and fun from the trip alive and well. So, so far, uncharacteristically for me, I’m not complaining 🙂

The Walking not Dead

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Walking 20 km a day gives one a lot of time. The first day I mostly talked to others but the next day I took upon myself the role of scout, walking in front of everyone with a bright yellow vest, just in case any car came by. (Yes this is still Australia with the ‘safety first’- over protective mentality I find everywhere).

the path that never ends

the path that never ends

Anyway, it gave me a lot of time to think. And with all the talk about ancestral grounds I began thinking of my ancestors, who as the tale goes, walked through a different desert for 40 years after escaping slavery in Egypt.
Anyone who knows a little geography has to ask why the hell did it take them 40 years to cross a small desert? Well the biblical story tells us that it is a punishment. Most of the Israeli people still had the slave mentality they left Egypt with and did not believe they could conquer the land. That is why they wandered the desert for 40 years waiting for the older generation to die.

Even the flies couldn't stop me from getting all philosophical

Even the flies couldn’t stop me from getting all philosophical

I started thinking what would have happened if the Israeli people escaping the holocaust would have waited 40 years for the post trauma to fade? Of cause it wasn’t much of an option to the millions of refugees but ‘what if?’
I began thinking of the ‘jewish’ people as a collective ‘meme’ with it’s own propagating agenda.

Many people suffering from abuse as children grow up to recreate these patterns. Abused become abusers or else ever remain with a ‘victim’ mentality staying in abusive situations because that is all that they know. If people act that way, why not entire countries?

No one can doubt the suffering that the aboriginal people have gone through. Yet, the people I met (by no means a representative sample), were preaching a philosophy of ‘we are all one people’. They are teaching their children that they are citizens of the world with equal rights, while still being very adamant on preserving their heritage and knowledge. I was happy to discover that there were rangers that were accepted to the group even if they weren’t from aboriginal descent.

The police came to visit on our walk. warning us of the upcoming storm.

The police came to visit on our walk. warning us of the upcoming storm.

 

 

Why the hell can’t Israel do the same? Is there any chance the Israeli nation can escape the ‘battered person’ syndrome I believe it is suffering from? And if so would there even be an Israel? Well, just because I’m asking questions doesn’t mean have answers. But if you do, let me know what you think.