Sorry for the Delay

Finally a new post since I have yet to post since I arrived back in Jerusalem. Matt seems to be holding down the fort in DC and has started his new job this week. Yeah! I'm again traveling daily to Ramallah and thankfully have not run into any problems at the checkpoints. The country manager has come up with a plan - our CDM magnetic stickers go on the truck and I remove my sunglasses when approaching the soldiers....sometimes I wink at them:) Just kidding but I tease Bruce, our country manager about it. When we have a little trouble I tell him that I flipped off the soldiers. Ha ha! Right now it is Ramadan. It started yesterday and by default we have all be following it - not on purpose but because we have been too busy to eat! So each night we have an iftar...when you break the fast. Tonight we ate at the hotel and they set up a HUGE buffet worth $30. Now I'm used to the Bonanza buffet and this was much smaller in scale so I decided that I would rather spend $30 on wine then food, even after fasting all day. I had this fabulous fish instead and of course...HUMMUS! Can't go a meal without fabulous olives and hummus. The other highlights of my trip have been to the American Embassy to apply for my 2nd passport, as I don't get my passport stamped when I travel here because I will be traveling to places such as Libya that won't allow me in their country with an Israeli stamp. I should have it sometime this coming week - or at least we hope before I return home! When I first arrived, I went to Herodian with Bruce which was nice but no other travels to write home about - just the hotel and work. I did get to view a french film with english subtitles but the entire time I felt like my high school French teacher was watching me to see if I was reading the subtitles or if I understood the film. I'm proud to say that I understood a lot more than I anticipated and didn't read as much as I thought that I would have. The two films were HORRIBLE - about 1 and a half hours of my life I can never get back, but a fun experience.

My first local friend, Telel

Herodian Mountain, King Herod's Summer Home

Aquaducts at Herodian, which were later used by the Jews to hide from the Romans

CDM team, Bruce our Country Manager and my boss Tony in the "camel tent" at our hotel