tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28391005188035227822011-08-29T07:26:04.421-07:00Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.comBlogger361100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-37343886431320755052010-07-22T06:23:00.000-07:002010-07-22T06:23:39.812-07:00

Now I am home and it is time to end this blog. I chose in this year’s not to include my last week in Jerusalem. It takes time to write things up and get pictures ready and even just to think about what might be interesting to write about. But that leaves me with a few experiences, pictures and thoughts that I think are worth sharing. One of the important places that I visited in Jerusalem was

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-15491599041079771502010-07-11T02:08:00.000-07:002010-07-27T10:12:08.944-07:00

The last place that I visited in Jordan was called Jerash. It is a huge archaeological site. We had three hours there. I was not planning on writing much about the visit, but I cannot resist mentioning a few things. One thing that Jordan has is a lot of mosaic floors. This is an example of a skinny elephant mosaic that we saw at Jerash. I think I need to create a mosaic for my patio! The scholars

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-84097809291298365142010-07-10T07:46:00.000-07:002010-07-27T10:19:05.700-07:00

Yesterday was a long day. We went to a place called Petra, which means rock. It has really amazing tombs carved out of huge sandstone cliffs. We walked and walked and it was hot. Some people chose to ride horses, donkeys or chariots! We didn't! We walked. You could also ride a camel, but they didn't go very far. Petra is hard to describe, so I will put lots of pictures in the blog to give you

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-83664090024150490112010-07-09T02:12:00.000-07:002010-07-09T02:13:33.108-07:00

Our friends from Wisconsin wrote a few more questions. I am now sitting in a hotel in Amman, Jordan and reading them. I have a few more posts with pictures of Bethlehem which I want to put up, but I will answer these questions first. I am sorry that I am not with my friends in Bethlehem who would be the experts on the answers. What types of beds do people sleep on? The beds in the house

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-23515615566254004172010-07-08T11:12:00.000-07:002010-07-09T02:42:16.550-07:00

I am writing this at Bet She’an, which is a small town in the Jordan River Valley with a long history and also a huge archaeological site. I left Bethlehem and rejoined the professor yesterday, but I still have a few things to write about to complete the time spent in Bethlehem. The professor and the group of other professors are off looking at the archaeological site and I am sitting in the

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-53741437667070373392010-07-07T11:15:00.001-07:002010-07-23T06:00:01.625-07:00

The Women and their Diplomas I will post pictures as soon as I can. I was not able to take them because I was involved in the celebration. My friend Laura took pictures and will be sending them to me. The Diplomas One of the Women shows her Diploma Gift from the Kids This was a fantastic celebration. I can’t believe that I was only here two weeks and it worked out so well. USAID was very

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-63433631771754738222010-07-07T10:37:00.000-07:002010-07-07T10:37:41.020-07:00

A friend asked, "The earth, the ground looks white and dry... I'd like to know how food is grown, and what is the typical meal like?" It is very dry here most of the time and so the ground is very dry. However, there are farms in different areas that produce many things. Right now it is the season for plums and grapes. I think that cucumber and tomatoes might be grown in hot houses, but they are

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-61384679488630711272010-07-04T02:24:00.000-07:002010-07-04T02:24:00.281-07:00

Today is Saturday and all of the children came for the Children's Summer Program. I decided not to make any plans or give instructions because it is too hard without knowing the language. The kids taught me about a site that has LOTS of Flash games. I am putting a link to it below. The morning started with everyone in a circle singing the Palestinian National Anthem. I am attaching the audio file

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-49665234282198055712010-07-03T07:11:00.000-07:002010-07-03T07:12:54.183-07:00

I am posting too often now to this blog, but I have a few pictures of a trip I took to hear some speakers at the Friend's Meeting House in Ramallah and the Bed and Breakfast where we stayed over night. The main speaker was Dr. Michael Sonnleitner, who is a Ghandi Scholar and then two Palestinians responded. Thuqan K. Qishawi who is working for the American Friends Service Committee as  the

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-62271080475014526242010-07-03T06:23:00.000-07:002010-07-03T06:23:00.799-07:00

  Rachel was a woman from the Bible who is very important. The story goes like this: Jacob wanted to marry a girl named Rachel, but her father said he could not marry her unless he worked for him for 7 years. So he did, but at the wedding the father substituted Leah, her older sister! Jacob had to work another 7 years to marry Rachel also (men married more than one woman back then). Leah had many

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-2694379107976846022010-07-03T05:27:00.000-07:002010-07-03T05:29:14.234-07:00

From Wisconsin:  Here are our answers to your questions - we enjoyed thinking and talking about them. :-) We watched the bread baking video this morning and started to answer the questions below. We talked about how the bread looked like giant bagels (is it challah bread?) and the oven was similar to the pizza ovens in restaurants here. Khader wants to know: Do you have soccer class at the

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-77641956312277806662010-07-02T05:55:00.000-07:002010-07-02T05:55:00.382-07:00

It has been very hot here and so there are a lot of problems with water. Some people have not had water for several days. The way water works here in Bethlehem is that the water comes through pipes in the ground like we have at home, but it does not come every day, so people have tanks on their roofs to collect the water when it is running. In cool weather it works well, but when it is hot there

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-2368302154915342092010-07-01T05:51:00.000-07:002010-06-30T10:38:21.080-07:00

We finished our first videos today and put them on YouTube!  I am embedding one here.  I will try to embed one each day! I thought you might like to know what I have been eating for lunch. Most days I work with children and women in the morning and then at lunch there is someone here who collects our money and brings back some food for us all.  Yesterday we had Shwarma. This is sort of a

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-51343942857496464932010-07-01T02:25:00.000-07:002010-07-01T02:56:32.800-07:00

We have a few more questions for our friends in Bethlehem. I hope that when they answer they also tell us a little bit about themselves and also send us a picture. You can email a picture to janicef@jfriesen.net and I will put it up on the blog. More Questions Khader wants to know: Do you have soccer class at the school? Sometimes the boys at our school fight. (The boys who fight get

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-65850847820950364122010-06-30T05:23:00.000-07:002010-07-04T07:15:05.447-07:00

Our friends from Wisconsin answered our questions in a comment, but I am copying it here so that everyone can see it. Please send us a picture of your class so that we can put it into the blog! Your teacher can email it to janicef@jfriesen.net. Those are some great questions - the class talked about the answers and here's what they said... Michlin wants to know:Which day is the best day of the

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-32022860839710166812010-06-29T05:32:00.000-07:002010-07-01T02:02:35.057-07:00

Sister Susie (who is my real sister!) asked some questions. Some of them are answered in the comments, but others I will put in the post so that more people see them. Here is her reaction to what the kids said about their school days:  Those kids have a long day and only 30 minutes for lunch/recess. They have to work a lot harder than I did at that age. Do the adults work the same hours? 7:30

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-25216475414394837382010-06-28T23:47:00.000-07:002010-07-01T02:03:44.104-07:00

In the summer the children are out of school, but they do not have much to do. At the Wi'am Center they have a program for children where they do crafts and games and play together. These girls are some of the older ones. They are making a mosaic out of glass.  They just put in some playground equipment and it is in constant use! Kids from the neighborhood even climb over their fence to get to

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-76673741954817276142010-06-27T20:54:00.000-07:002010-07-01T02:16:21.761-07:00

Today was my first Sunday here and since I am working with Christians and this is their day off. We worked a half day on Saturday. Often when people think of Palestinians they think of Arabs and assume that they are Muslim. Palestinians are not all Muslim, in fact many of them are Christian. On Sunday at the Church of the Nativity several different groups worship. This morning I attended the

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-4308212325904212922010-06-26T05:29:00.000-07:002010-07-01T02:17:26.645-07:00

After reading the questions from the kids in Wisconsin we have some questions here that we hope they can answer. Each person had more than one question, so we are going to send them a few at a time. They are very curious about how your lives are the same and different. Their questions are in the same order of their pictures from left to right. Michlin wants to know:Which day is the best day

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-40526962923121677992010-06-25T03:10:00.000-07:002010-06-25T03:10:41.644-07:00

First I want to show you a calendar. Can you tell me what is wrong with this calender and why it is that way?  If you want to, write a comment under the blog with the answer! Yesterday I started working with the Women's Group at Wi'am teaching computer. It is so much fun! Some of the women have never used a mouse and others have Facebook Accounts. Most of them have children who use computers

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-71998936168844816322010-06-25T01:00:00.000-07:002010-07-01T02:18:08.516-07:00

IMPORTANT: CHECK FOR ANSWERS TO ALL OF THE QUESTIONS IN THE EARLIER POSTING!!   One of the things that is changing in Palestinian society is how people meet and get married. I am staying with a woman close to my age who was married when she was 17!  She describes how when she was still in High School her current husband saw her in her father’s shop and liked her and wanted to marry her. He came

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-78962947496286407622010-06-23T01:13:00.000-07:002010-07-04T07:08:19.612-07:00

It is hard to find time to write because everyone is so friendly. I am sitting at the Wi'am Center table and people keep stopping by and talking. I have so much to write about!! First of all I was so excited to hear from my friends in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. There is a summer school class there that sent me some interesting questions about school here. How many hours do students go to school?

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-34048940425190517452010-06-21T08:42:00.000-07:002010-06-21T08:43:33.944-07:00

IMPORTANT NOTE:  I found out that all of you readers were not able to comment without logging in. It was a setting that I had not changed. Now it is changed, so I hope you will all comment! Well, I made it here. I am writing in the exact lab pictured in an earlier post. We took the bus this morning from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and then we were picked up by a taxi at the bus station in Jerusalem and

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-47699859906532927532010-06-20T07:54:00.000-07:002010-06-20T10:08:43.563-07:00

I am so lucky to have met Ruti Hotzen, who is my hostess here with her husband Ehud. They picked us up at the airport and have fed us and given us a very comfortable place to stay and shown us around. We are seeing and learning so much. Ruti is the country representative for iEARN which is an international organization connecting teachers from different countries who are doing projects. I learned

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-4164504225692192922010-06-19T07:47:00.000-07:002010-06-19T08:46:27.276-07:00

I have a theory that you ALWAYS forget something when traveling. There is just too much to remember. So, what really matters is that you forget something less important. Things like your passport, appropriate clothes, and electric converters are hard to live without and may cause you problems.What I forgot this trip (and then remembered AT the airport) falls in the category of something you can

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-35171307463310768022010-06-17T18:17:00.001-07:002010-06-19T08:45:38.310-07:00

I may be out of contact for a few days. Tomorrow we leave early in the morning. Today has been a day of finding one thing after another that MUST be done before we leave. It is 8 pm and I just ordered sandwiches from a local deli because our refrigerator is totally empty!So, the next time I write it will be from Tel Aviv!Shalom!

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-32386256128491776132010-06-16T17:41:00.000-07:002010-07-01T02:19:00.382-07:00

With only two days left I decided it is time to show you a map of where the airplane will take us on Friday. When I started doing it I could not remember how I did it. I remembered that last year I put a map into the blog. I had to go back and look at it to figure it out. http://2009-odyssey.blogspot.com. I found out that the map is in Google Maps, not Google Earth. If you click on the link at

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-28243894054954422612010-06-15T20:04:00.001-07:002010-06-15T20:14:25.178-07:00

Tomorrow check back for the Google Map showing where my plane will be flying. I hope some of you will want to Skype with me while I am traveling. My Skype name is janicefaustin. Here is a link to an international clock so that you can check the time differences.http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=110

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-77031247926957772232010-06-14T09:02:00.000-07:002010-06-15T05:24:13.446-07:00

At church this morning the kids at Sunday School asked me lots of questions. I could answer some of them, but there were others that I could not answer. Here are the questions.1. Do you have a passport? YES2. How big is Israel? It is pretty small. Here is a picture of the size of Israel compared to the USA. 3. What language do they speak? In Israel they speak Hebrew. One Hebrew word is Shalom.

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-50914623407818934322010-06-13T05:54:00.000-07:002010-06-13T06:48:26.933-07:00

This year I am having trouble knowing what to write as the countdown happens and time is flying by! Yesterday we worked on shopping for things we need to bring and packing. I am also working hard at planning training that I have to present on Monday and Tuesday for my school district. I am training on SchoolFusion which is the program that teachers use to make their web pages (http://

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-8536400065508676672010-06-11T07:29:00.000-07:002010-06-13T06:49:48.368-07:00

See how fast time is passing! It is day 7 - ONE week from departure and I did not count day 8! Tonight we are going to the Republic of Texas Motorcycle Rally! I will add a picture.

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-33348728755420116872010-06-09T18:15:00.000-07:002010-06-09T18:26:14.702-07:00

There are nine more days until we leave. At the Wi'am Center I hope to be visiting and working with kids to make videos about their lives. I hope you will see some of them here. The Wi'am Center has a YouTube channel, so you can look to see a little bit about what it is like. I watched the videos this morning to help me plan what to wear when I visit! http://www.youtube.com/user/wiamcentre#p/a/u/

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-68404790379443723852010-06-08T18:48:00.000-07:002010-06-08T20:08:37.416-07:00

Today begins the official countdown for the trip to Israel. I am looking forward to hearing from all of you! One thing I have been doing to prepare that is fun is trying out the Flip Video cameras to make sure I know how they work. I am hoping to post a video to this blog soon. They are so easy and fun!

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-89486196265157087462010-05-28T00:25:00.000-07:002010-06-08T17:25:24.150-07:00

One place I am looking forward to visiting has been nominated for the World Vision Peace Prize!"The purpose of the World Vision International Peace Prize is to annually recognise and honour one individual who is a catalyst for peacemaking and one organisation which champions the integration of peacebuilding into relief, development and advocacy programmes."There are two prizes and they have been

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-14636337750841967162010-05-27T23:10:00.000-07:002010-05-27T23:49:41.383-07:00

Someone I have known a long time online, but never in person has guessed that I might be going to the island that is in the middle of the picture in the first post (see below). The island is Cyprus. I looked at the map from the last post and can see why it is a good guess. I learned a lot about the sad history of conflict on the island of Cyprus by looking at the YouTube slideshow and reading the

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2839100518803522782.post-65863252761914468772010-05-12T17:04:00.000-07:002010-05-12T17:16:37.267-07:00

The trip this summer will take me to meet new people and to see people that I met last summer. I will be going to a small, but very important country. See if you can guess which one it is! I will put a map here. Each day I will add a few more details until you can guess where I am going! This year the professor is going to be visiting archaeological sites while I help out with a summer program

Janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402930464529388785noreply@blogger.com3