Yarn, Albino Cookies and Pool Therapy

Sunday:

Today was the best time I've ever had at clinical!!! We had so much fun. I was on the Pediatric unit at Makassed Hospital. Only a few of the nurses spoke English and I only know "thank you" and "I love you" in Arabic so we had quite a few language barriers. We can't really do any nursing skills here since it's a different country, but we observed a lot and I got to do a few pediatric and newborn assessments. 

One little girl was walking down the hall, wide eyed at us white girls and I leaned down to say hi and she grabbed my stethoscope off my neck and put it in her ears so I put it on my heart and she thought it was even cooler!! She followed me around forever and would smile and wave at us. 

There were some teenage Arabic girls there volunteering in the play room. The whole floor is wide open and if you can't find the patient in their room, they're either wandering or in another patient room or they're in the play room. The parents do most of the cares here, even taking vital signs. The nurses just do an admit assessment and medications. That's it. But anyways, these volunteer girls in the play room spoke english and we talked with them for a while. Then after clinical, we students were all in the lobby of the hospital and those girls were leaving too and they came up to me and I thought she was coming in for a hug but she kissed me on each cheek and my first thought was, "i'm hugging a girl that's kissing me..." Then I realized what was happening and kisser her cheeks. They kept saying how nice we were and how much they liked us. They were awesome. I loved them. Such sweethearts! We had so much fun. 

The nurses there were hilarious. They were incredibly nice to us and kept having us come sit down in the nurses lounge with them so they could feed us and ask us questions. They were appalled that nursing was only 2 years at BYUI and we told them how much tuition was and it turned into this crazy discussion between all the nurses about how much that was in shekels and how it compared. It was hard to tell if they were angry or not, I can never tell. The way they talk just sounds like they're always mad. They were sooo funny though. One kept talking about going to New York and she would come up and lovingly flick her finger off our chins like cheer up Charlie. She was so nice. They all were. I loved it!! 

After clinical we walked around and explored the Old City 

Monday:

Monday we went on a field trip down to the Negev desert. Our first stop was at a Bedouin weaving place. It was really neat. They make rugs, blankets, pillows, Christmas ornaments and tons of other things. They were beautiful and take a few weeks to make. I bought some balls of yarn because they had such beautiful colors!! Here’s their website: http://www.bedouinweaving.com/

Then we went down to Beersheba. It was really neat to see the altar there and think about the symbolism. There are four horns around the altar which symbolize the four corners of the Earth. It’s really neat to think about the blood of the sacrifice covering the entire altar to the four horns. We’re all covered by Christ’s atonement and it’s not just for certain people, it’s for EVERYONE!!

Beersheba

This is the giant well and cistern in the city. We hiked down those steep stairs and it was this massive underground cistern that was impossibly huge! It was really neat. We sang “Nearer My God to Thee” in there which sounded beautiful!

It was cool to think about how important water is out there. It’s soooo hot outside in the Negev desert and I thought about how Christ represents water and contemplated if I have wanted Christ in my life as much as I wanted water in that hot desert.

Here's a well at Beersheba

Then we went to Tel Arad which is in eastern Negev. It was a city that tried to stop the Israelites from entering into the Promised Land (Numbers 21:1). There was a massive well there too! Makes sense, it’s a desert.

It was cool to see the temple and the three different rooms with different degrees of glory. The outermost one was for sacrificing and washing. The middle one was where the bread was and incense, representing prayers and the sacrament. The last and smallest room was the Holy of Holies which was where the Priest went to talk with God. It was neat to think about that and to realize that it’s the same church, the same religion that they practiced back then as we do today. Mind boggling!! Even though it was just piles of rocks, you could still feel the Spirit and tell it was a special place. We talked a lot about sacrifice and what we needed to bring to the altar. It was a great time and a really hot and exhausting day!

 

Another giant well!

Tuesday and Wednesday:

These two days I just did homework and classes the whole day. Tuesday was really fun because Jenny, Julie and a few of our friends and I made chocolate chip cookies with the chefs at the Jerusalem center. It was soooo fun! They didn’t have any brown sugar or molasses so we just put normal sugar in! They ended up being albino chocolate chip cookies that tasted like sugar cookies with chocolate chips. But they were really fun to make and delicious. It was a fun break from class. We made over 500! The chefs were sooo fun and a blast to hang out with. We turned on some American music and all danced around as we made them. They were a blast and they’re going to let us make more when we come back from Turkey.

Thursday: Today was a blast at clinical! We got there right at the end of Pool Therapy and jumped in and swam with the disabled kiddos. They were sooo cute. I loved it!! Then Reagan got locked in the bathroom and I almost peed myself because I was laughing so hard. Here's Sister Garbett trying to get her out!

 Then Lindsay realized she didn't bring underwear or anything to change into. Oh gosh, I gave her so much crap for that. Then we had music therapy which was pretty much just organized chaos and everyone had jingle bells and shook them like crazy. Then they finger painted which was really an awful idea for disabled kids. Paint everywhere. Then they all ran around and we all played and jumped on things and played with the parachute and down the slide. The kids would come up and blow us kisses and wave all the time. They were so sweet. Their moms were there the whole time which was an awesome example. It was neat to see the love the mom's had for these kids. They're so perfect in their little bodies and I wish I could tell them all about the Resurrection and their bodies being restored. It gave me a much better understanding and example of love as a mother. It was really touching to see that. This hospital is set up so that they spend all week there and go home to the West Bank on weekends for a few weeks.

This is the outdoor court for recess

They have murals all over the hospital that BYU Jerusalem students have painted in previous semesters

Friday:

Today was the best. I had classes all morning but they weren't too bad. I kept myself entertained by counting how many times our Palestine teacher said "My friends" throughout the two hour class and then I collected bets. Ryan won with the guess of 52. Our teacher said it 47 times. It was great and the only way I stayed awake. We were done with classes at 3 so I went out to West Jerusalem and the Old City with Jenny, Julie and our other friends James, Michael, Aaron and Cam. Holy cow it was a blast!!!! We got to West Jerusalem which is the Jewish side of the city and most of it was shut down because tonight is the start of Sabbath and Sukkot which is a Jewish holiday where they build little huts outside their houses to remember the wanderings in the wilderness of the Israelites. But the one open place was a gelato shop. I don't even like ice cream too much but I ended up with chocolate ALL OVER my face!! It was pretty good. Then we went to the Old City and shopped/wandered forever. It was sooo fun! Jenny and I bought some skirts and talked the guy down to 50 shekels which was good. We've learned to block out everyone whistling or clicking their tongues or yelling Mormon or Pretty Lady but Jenny, of course, went into a shop and so I stopped to get her back. The guys were really nice and funny. They spoke really good english and are good friends with the Jerusalem Center people. I bought some earrings for 8 shekels and then went inside the shop to save Jenny. She was stuck talking to the owner guy. When he saw me he ran up and said, "You beautiful woman! You have husband?" I said no and he put his arm around me and said "Such pretty eyes. Such pretty eyes!" Jenny and I were laughing and he said, "I always have a gift for the Sarah's who come into my shop." I said, "Well that's a bummer, I'm Cali, not Sarah." So he excitedly said, "Oh good! I have gifts for Cali's who come into my shop too!" Then he grabbed a scarf and wrapped it all around me. I told him thank you and he kept saying how pretty I was and how beautiful my eyes were. I told him to stop because I was blushing and then he turned to Jenny and said, "I give you 20 camels for her!" Jenny said, "I won't settle for anything less than 50!" So he offered 50 camels! It was hilarious. You guys almost got 50 camels instead of me. Then we wandered a little more and we were walking down a pretty empty street laughing about what had happened and a guy overheard us talking about camels and he said, "Man offer 50 camels for her?! NO, no no!! I give you 100 camels for her!" We just laughed and kept walking. It was a pretty great time. I'm not quite sure the exchange rate for camels to cows but I really hope 100 camels is equal to an 8 cow woman. It was so fun. We had no plans really so we just wandered and explored and that was the most fun time of my life!!!! It was soooo nice compared to when I go out with nursing and we only have a few hours so we just hustle and bustle about with no time to just go out with no plans and explore. So this was my day from heaven. Plus this was the first time I got to go out with Jenny and Julie. Sooo fun!! 

Here's where we got gelato!

West Jerusalem

This is a hut outside for the Jews to celebrate Sukkot and live in to remember the travelings of the Israelites in the wilderness.

After that we came back for dinner and watched a beautiful sunset over the city and our neighbors lit of fireworks which was way nice. Then we came in and everyone sat in the stairwell and played songs and sang. Jenny, Julie and I played Rivers and Roads on the guitar and ukelele. I was shocked with myself. I hate singing in front of people but i sang in front of 80 tonight and played the guitar for them! It was so fun. After an hour of that we played volleyball for the next three hours. We just got done. I'm sooo sweaty and gross. They don't believe in AC in the gym. But it was fun!! I was between the two tallest guys here, Ryan and Lee. That pretty much meant I spiked it like crazy which was hilarious because they're half my height. We were all three out at the same time and decided to do a brilliant green giant plan where they put me on each shoulder and we served it and tried to spike it from there. It was hilarious and i can't believe I didn't die! They almost dropped me so much and they were sooo sweaty and gross. I was soaked in their sweat. Nasty!! We had a great time!! They also did a Cali Press competition which is where they see who can bench press me the most. I'm glad I can be of some service while I'm here!

I'm picking my spanish back up here because there's a lot of guys that served Spanish speaking so they only talk to me  in Spanish. It's been good! I'm trying to get over my fears and get it back. I've been doing pretty good so that makes me happy! 

That was my day! It was fun!