Israel, and beyond

Its 3.40 am on the 7th september 2011... I am now able to write that I am going home tomorrow.

I have not written anything while in Israel, which is where I have been for the last four months give or take a few days here or there, because I havent been doing anything that I felt I needed or wanted to write about.

But now on this, my last day here, for the time being, I wanted to write something.

As a child I was taught a midrash, a story, about why the Torah was started with the second letter of the hebrew alphabet, a bet.  It looks a bit like a square, with the left hand horizontal side taken away...

The story says that all the letters of the alaphabet came to Gd and asked Gd to start the Torah with it, but Gd choose the bet because when looking at the letter, it is only possible to move in the one direction, forward, through the opening in the square, (hebrew being written from right to left, unlike english).  Up, down, and behind are all blocked by the lines that form the letter.

This has proven itself to be a metaphor for my life... I have never, I don't think, gone backwards... not consciously anyway, nor have I ever had the desire to.  I look only to the future and what lies ahead. 

Going back home, therefore, has proven a tricky concept for me, and one that has made me extend my time in Israel by a month. 

I was asked tonight if I am looking forward to going home... I dont think I can answer that question without first acknowledging that for the five years prior to this one, I spent my time building other people... this year has been about building myself, and in order to do that, I have almost run away from any contact with underprivileged people, whom I may have been expected to build what we, in the mental health field, call a therapeutic relationship, or something of that nature.

The question I find myself asking is, how do I move forward while physically going back?  The answer to the question, 'am I looking forward to going home,' I think can only be answered by time... If I am able to find the balance between going back while still moving forwards, and building both others and myself, then I feel I will have achieved something wonderful. 

My mother has spoken of two times in my life when she saw me grow.. the first was when I was 9 months old and my parents took me on holiday for the first time, and the second was when I was 11 and I went to school by myself for the first time.  I believe that this whole year has been an eye opening experience, and a time of further growth..

To all those I met throughout my journeys, thank you all for helping me see myself in new and wonderful ways.  I will honour you all by holding onto those new images, and living my life accordingly. 

I want to finish now with a word from a friend... he taught me that the numerical value of the word elul, the name of the current hebrew month, is the same as the numerical value for the hebrew word, bina, which means understanding, and the same as the word boneh, to build.   it is in this month, when the King, Gd, is in the fields, among His people, that we build the foundations of the coming year, that is celebrated in the next hebrew month...

it is therefore fitting that I should be returning home in this month, with greater understanding and a desire to build a more whole, meaningful and enjoyable future.

Shanah Tova... happy new year.   
   

The journey home

After much discussion, I decided that a 26 hour journey home from Christchurch to London was not appealing, and as I had made friends in south africa, I would take the unusual route home from christchurch, through sydney, where i had my 75ml toothpaste confiscated because it weighed 110g, (ggrrrrr) to Joburg, where I am now. 

I have left the 5 degrees of the south of new zealand, and come to the 24 degree autumn of this fabulour country...

I have been and continue to be surprised by the the greenery in the city, and the open sapces, and many side walk restaurants.. it is not the way i imagined this city to be...

Only 45 minutes outside the city, I am back in the africa that I know... the bushveld... coarse, tough, dry, and still with a majestic beauty so different from the rolling green hills and snow covered mountains of new zealand...

tomorrow i fly to port elizabeth, to see my second family, where if im lucky, the weather will permit a couple of last dips in the indian ocean, before flying home on thursday see my first family...

People keep telling me that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity... my question is, why must that be the case?  I watched a film this morning about the pilot amelia eckhart, the last line of which was "we all have oceans to fly, if we have the heart to do it. Is it wreckless? Maybe, but what do dreams know of boundaries?"

At almost the end of my maiden voyage, I wonder where my dreams will take me next... 

The South Island

I flew to Queenstown, world renound for its beauty... The lake, the mountains, the trees, with red, yellow, green, orange leaves... yes it was stunning... almost too picturesque to be real... perfect, and so, somehow I found it imperfect... perhaps it was the 5 degree weather i found myself in!

I spent the afternoon at a farm, where i watched a sheep shearing, and sheep dog work, and saw deers.  While everyone was oohing and ahhing at the male deer, i was taken back to my student days, and remembered a friend of mine who spent her third year exploring the roaring of red deer... isnt it amazing how that is considered part of psychology!??

The next day, I travelled to Milford Sound, fyords.  The predicted snow had fallen, so the mountain tops were white, while the remainder glistened silver in the sunshine.  The fyords, the rainforest, the mirror lakes... all were stunning, breath taking.. to the point that I find myself speechless.

We took a boat out on the fyords, and at everyaterfall, we saw a rainbow... just like in the tv programme, the care bears that I used to watch when I was supposed to be sleeping of an afternoon so I could stay up late for dinner...

I never knew such beauty existed... I was filled with an awe that, as I said, goes beyond words...

Wednesday, I took a coach up through the southen alps north, through mount cook, up to christchurch.  .  I have never  been on a tour before when I did not know which side of the coach to look out of...

Christchurch, a city devasted by the earthquake that struck a few weeks ago... 20 or so blocks of the CBD are still closed, with no running water or functioning sewers... no,... i did not visit those areas.  Although on my road, there were a couple of damaged buildings, and not all shops were open for business...

Not wanting to spend the day in the city, I did a tour out to Akaroa, a small village where I hoped to swim in the pacific ocean, (east coast of nz) with hectare dolphins, the smallest dolphins in the world...

when we got to the docks, all tours were cancelled, due to the 40 knot winds, and the 6m swells.... even I did nit mind missing out on that boat trip!! Plus the town was beautiful... picturesque, without the perfect quality of Queenstown, which made it even more appealing to me...

Someone said to me, accurately, that while in Austraia, you have to go looking for beauty, in new zealand, you turn round the corner, and you find something even more beautiful than where you have just been.

So what did i learn in new zealand?
1) two weeks there is not enough
2) the capital is wellington, not auckland
3) it has 24 recordable earthquakes a day, and yes, in christchurch, i did feel one
4) the moreton bay fig tree is the most beautiful tree i have ever seen
and 5) i want to go back there! 

Horse Riding

Monday morning, and Im feeling quite sick with nerves at the thought of spending a week on the back of a horse, when as  child, I couldnt spend 5 minutes on a donkey walking round whitestone pond. 

I am met at the bus stop an hour later by a woman who is to become my teacher... her warm easiness, the cup of tea and biscuits help me relax. 

I learn to groom a horse and pick out its hooves.. not the most pleasant of tasks.. but necessary nonetheless!

After doing some rope exercises which enable me to make the hose move where I want her to go, I am shown how to saddle her up, and then actually get on her!! The day is spent in the paddocks, where I learn to walk, trott, and accidentally canter and  jump.  A natural, I was told... i obviously have the Lunzer genes.. the lunzers having been broguht up on horses!

The next day, after what became the daily grooming and cleaning of the horses, we went to the beach for a beach ride... The west coast of new zealand is called the wild coast, where the sand is black, (i may have already mentioned that, apologies if so),  from the iron..unusual and stunning.

we then rode through the forest, the floor of which is still sandy, showing how high the sand dunes rose as we were, by that point, quite a way baove sea level. 

The next day I learnt some clicker training, which is positive reinforcement for desired behaviour in horses.. i enjoyed this, although found it quite hard to negotiate a clicker, two ropes, a target, food and about three horses all at once!

I then had a pretty gruelling lesson, in which i was encourgaed to ride without holding on, and without stirrups and with my eyes closed.  I was able to manage that, but when the horse then decided to trott towards a barrel, clever selina thought the horse would jump, and therefore sensibly decided to throw herself off the horse to prevent the believed apparant fall off the horse... yes.... well.... that was fun!  Although I didnt look at the horse, apparantly, she looked at me for quite a while before bucking and trottering off to play with her friends!

Thursday and friday were spent doing gentle walks along the beach and throuhg the forest again... the horse, whose name was Toad, and I both seeming to prefer the gentle pace of her walk to the trot, which required much to much concentration and definitiely too the cantor, which made me yank on her reigns to the point that I must have hurt her.  A forgiving horse, I was told, but one with plenty of attitude!!

The week ended and I returned to auckland with sore shoulders, back and legs... but I could still move so I thoight that was an achievemnt! 

I went back to the synagogue next door to where I wa staying, that despite being the furthest i ever was from home, reminded me so much of my own synagogue that I felt quite comfortable... and I had the added bonus of being invited out to lunch which was lovely.  The poeple i went to had a labradooddle, much like our own at home, so again, i felt very much at home! 

Auckland, the City of Sails

New Zealand, described as the youngest country on earth...

its a strange phenomena, and Im not sure how it happens, but some places in the world have a quality....

Much as I did in Ayers Rock, I got off the airoplane in auckland, so called the city of sails because more people here than anywhere in the world have boats, with a smile on my face...

It was dark, and I could see nothing of the city, and still, I smiled...

The home of my childhood heroine, I feel like everywhere I go, I am walking in her footsteps, and so I feel safe.

I am staying in a place next door to what I believed was the only orthodox synagogue in the city, so I went in on friday, the day after I arrived, to make sure I would be able to attend the services. A south african, who now lives here, told me that people come to new zealand when they want to get away from the hectic life of the rest of the world... people are pretty easy going, crime is low, and the city is a pretty safe one...

While the Brits sent the convivts to Australia, they sent the middle class to new zealand.  And when faced with rain forest, they had to work together to make the land habitable... men and women were treated as equals, which has made new zealnad a leader in womens rights, and equality... even the whites and the local mauris agreed to live here as equals...

I spent friday afternoon looking out at the city from the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, so high that it would take 24 minutes to climb the over a thousand stairs... luckily there was a lift!!!

 I had a wuick whisk round the Auckland museum before heading back to prepare for what was a very quiet and peaceful sabbath...

On sunday, today, I did a tour to Piha beach, which, because of the iron, from the volcano there, has black sand.

we then walked through the rainforest, full of silver ferns, and kauru trees, the oldest of which (which I did not see, as it further north), is 2000 yrs old, 50 metres tall and 18 metres in diameter... I saw trees half this tall, and they were impressive to look at, so that one must be beyond words...

We climbed the rain forest path to the top of the waterfall, where I was encouraged to go swimming... because I am that crazy, I did... in the freezing water, on a cool day...It was actually quite invigorating.. although I was pleased to get dressed again afterwards!!

and so ended my few days in auckland, before I head north to do this horse riding course for the next few days... now we'll see how crazy I really am, and how well my legs can survive this of all experiences....

more from the other side of what may be agony!     

Melbourne, my last Ozzie stop

On monday I took yet another plane to Melbourne, the capital of Victoria. 

I was met almost instantly I landed by a friend's grandmother, who took me around town.  We went to Melbourne Port, and had a coffee looking out at the harbour, on what Im pretty sure is the Tasman Sea cost, as the boat that goes to Tasmania leaves from there.

It was a lovely and relaxed introduction to life in Melbourne, which is known as the cultural centre of Australia.  Melbourne was described to me as being quite European, and it is true that I did not have much time in the city, but it did not feel too European to me.

After that first day, I left the city, and headed out on a tour of the Great Ocean Rd.

Our first stop was at the Rockery, where we told we were going for a walk.  Now, given the previous walks I had been on, I decided it would be sensible to swap my flip flops for my trainers.  After doing this, and beginning the walk down the many steps to the beach, to look at these rock formations in the middle of the Southern Ocean, I realised that perhaps me flip flops would have been sufficient foot wear.  Nonetheless, I carried on my journey.

Now, those who know me will know that I cannot resist the feel of sand between my toes, and so, of course, I took off my shoes and socks and felt the sand in between my toes.  Now the Southern Ocean is a powerful ocean, and the tide seemed to be coming in.  A few times, we had to run up from the waters edge, but I generally managed to stay dry.  Until....

I put my shoes, with my socks, down on the sand to take a picture, when a big wave came up, and not only soaked me to my knees, but also almost washed my shoes out to sea.  I had a heart sinking moment when the water subsided and I could only see one shoe, but luckily, a moment on my hands and knees meant that I was able to see and grab the other shoe!  Need less to say, I didnt put my shoes down again!!!

We saw the 12 Apostles, more rock formations, that were once called the Sow and Piglets, London Bridge, another rock formation, although the bridge has now fallen down, went to the sight of many a ship wreck, and walked, in my sodden trainers through a rain forest...

We spent the night in a small town, the name of which I have forgotten, and started the following day feeding wild King parrots in a national park.  they are surpisingly gentle as they kling to your hands, hair, or head and eat the seeds we held.. we saw wild koala, which is much more satisfying than seeing them in a zoo. 

We drove the Great ocean rd, which was beautiful, with its green rolling hills that meet the blue ocean.. we spent the afternoon in a wildlife park, and then went to penguin island, which is the home of the smallest penguin in the world, known as the little penguin, which is only 17 cm tall.

On the way there, we saw wild wallabies, again, much nicer than seeing them in a zoo...  As night fell, we filled the stalls on the beach to watch the penguins come in from their 3/4 day journey to find food at sea... on some nights, over a thousand penguins come in, on this night, however, only about 50 came in, but nonetheless, it was a pretty remarkable sight.

we returned to melbourne at about 11.30pm, and after a quick drink at the casino, where i betted away someone else's money, (at his insistence), I called it a night, and went back to my room, to pack my bag yet again, for yet another airoplane!

As I leave australia, I contemplate what I learnt:
1) Perth is to Western Australia, what Sydney is to New South wales, and Melbourne is to Victoria, (capital cities)
2) Perth is by far the prettiest of those cities
3) I had to contend with more bugs in australia than I did in the african bush
4) australian vegetation seems to survive any disaster, including bush fires...  

Sydney, On the Pacific Ocean or the Tasman Sea? The map says Tasman, the locals say Pacific...mmmm

Three hours on an airoplane and I was in a different world...

The east coast of Australia.  I should comment, that leaving the Red Centre took at least an hour and a half of the flight...

So, after nearly four months of being in isolation with nature, or in smaller cities, I found arriving in Sydney quite a shock... the landscape was green, the city was big, the sky was grey... it could have been London....only its about 23 hours flight away from London...

Arriving in Sydney brought the joy of seeing a most beloved friend.  I dont think I have appreciated this joy before...and it only took four months of being away from all, and everyone I know!

The first evening was spent in the Harbour, enjoyng the sights of the Opera House and the bridge, which i sadly did not endeavour to climb, although I heard that harnesses were involved!

The second day, I raced off to see the Blue Mountains. On a sunny day, the mountains appear blue because of the way the light refracts off the oils the eucalyptus trees give off... on this thursday however, the sky was grey, again, and so there was no blue in sight.  For most of the morning, the mist covered most of the view, but wiht some positive thinking, by the afternoon, the mist began to lift, and we were able to see some of the mountains magnificance!

We took a cable car down the mountain, and as we went below the mist, we were able to see the apparently famous three sisters formation, the orphan, and some others whose names I've forgotten.  Like Ayers rock, these formations all have aboriginal stories connected to them.  We then took the steepest train in the world I think back up the mountain, and that is an experience not to be missed.. though I have to say, with no side and no seat belt, I did think i would fall out of the carriage! 

We also went to an animal sanctuary, where I got to touch a koala, and see a wombat which was very exciting because I dont think I've ever even seen a picture of one!

The day finished with a ferry ride back into the harbour, so i got to see sydney harbour from the sea.

Friday was spent at the zoo, which prides itself of being the zoo with the best view in the world... and it is a fab view over sydney harbour. 

Saturday, the sabbath, was spent with a family in Bondi.. where we all got wet by the rain which pelted down from friday afternoon til I left today... people think that coming from England I should be used to it, but Im not!!! That was some rain!  At least I didnt feel too bad about having a shower!

Sunday was the jewish festival of purim, and amidst the festivities of the day, I was able to while away a few hours on the famous Bondi Beach with my friend... and the sun even came out to play with us for a bit!!

So, did I escape the bugs?? Predominantly yes, although I did have to share my room with a cockroach last night... but thank Gd not my bed... and I didn't squeal! 

And today, monday, I am here, in melbourne... so more from me top side of this tour that Im doing tomorrow along the Great Ocean Rd,... Im off to pack.....again