Sad Day In Jlem.

Hi all,

Before I write about how much fun I had in Eilat I thought I would do a seperate posting on something that isn't so pleasant and keep this seperate from the rest of my trip.  As many of you know there was a bomb that went off next to two buses yesterday and injured 39 people and killed 1.  This was the first bombing in Jerusalem in 4 years.  This morning we were saddened to find out that the 1 killed was an older woman from my hebrew class, Mary. She was a bible translator who had lived all over the world but spent most of her university years in Scotland, and she was possibly the sweetest woman on the planet.

As if the bombing wasn't sad enough, the void in our already small hebrew class was pretty upsetting.  This woman always had a smile, in fact we were joking that we never saw her without one.  Shiri and I were talking about her on the way home and I wanted to share a cute story, the last story we have about her.

Last time we were in class the teacher was asking (in hebrew of course) about things that we can do... we were learning the verb "can".  Jokingly she asked Mary if she could stand on her hands, and Mary didn't quite understand and said yes... now keep in mind Mary was a fragile tiny older woman.  So we all kind of looked at each other confused and giggled until someone asked her in English if she really could stand on her hands... she laughed when she understood what she had said! It was probably one of the cutest moments in hebrew class.

Like the work I am doing for my independent study I got to see first hand how Israel responds.  We talked about it for the first 10 min of class and then we got on with our lesson, people were quiet and somber but the teacher kept teaching.  The last 5 min the provost came in and talked to us and helped give some tips on how to respond.

We have to remember that a terror attack is meant to throw off our routine and to make us fear normal life, and that usually an incident like this is isolated and meant to do just that.  Going on and doing regular routines is how you combat terror acts like this.  We were also told that as hard as it is for us here, it may be even harder for our friends and family who are worried and unsure of what is happening.

So for everyone reading, I am doing just fine and I don't feel threatened and we are going about our routine like normal.  After class I went to the school to help teach English and the kids really helped cheer me up even though they had no idea what I had just learned.

The day started out sad and gloomy, but just as I was thinking about Mary the rain cleared and the sun came out shining and there was a beautiful giant rainbow above Jerusalem.  You can't have the rainbow without the rain...

I love all of my friends and family so much and I miss you all!  In just two months I will be heading back and I can't wait to give you all hugs! 

-B