Life on the Other Side of the World

Jon Here!

Hello All :D I know the whole shpeel in Jerusalem has settled down A LOT (at least for us here... I don't know what the news is still telling you). I guess I could check, but I don't want to. I just wanted to tell all you what was going on over here (I'm sure the news is telling everything, but what better way to hear from Jon, me, a first hand account) :P

OK! There is this synagogue in the Old City in the Jewish quarter that holds a lot of sentimental and religious value to the Jews. It was built around 1700 and destroyed 3 times since. This is there 3rd time rebuilding it. In rebuilding it, for some reason or another, they had to dig under ground (I don't know why, but probably for architectural reasons, OR they found remains of the old synagogue). Anyway... the tunnel was being dug toward the Temple Mount (The Dome of the Rock).

So the Palestinians started throwing a fit, and it started this religious rioting. However, let it be known that if this were switched where the Palestinians started building something, the Jews would more than likely throw a fit as well. It is very easy to just blame the Palestinians and root for the Jews :P But if you look at the political side of this country you will see that both sides are to blame for things done, both sides have been treated unfairly, etc...

Read this if you are more interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Israeli_Conflict

Right away, Clinton and Obama got involved pretty much saying that they shouldn't have built. Israel wrote back saying that this land has been theirs for 3000 years (Since King David) and that they are descendants of King David and they have the "religious right" to take over the country, and they will build where ever they want.

The main rioters were bedouin from the desert (mostly teenagers) and they threw rocks and sticks and stuff in protest, while the Israeli army had giant guns... so to be honest they would have to be idiots to do anything really serious to tick off the Israeli army.

3000 soldiers and police men were put into the Old City for the past week (it was pretty cool). It was completely safe if you stayed on the northwestern side, outside of the Old City (where I walked everyday). Things have calmed down for now, but they are said to pick up again in mid-April, where another protest from the Palestinians is planned to take place again.

Everything is going alright. Kasey and I are doing very well :) School is going alright. Polly is getting fat (we started to feed her less).

A couple of cools things happened in the last week for Kasey and I :) Both of us wanted a big rug and a small rug for the entrance way and for our kitchen. And believe it or not we were given a really nice big rug for our entry way and a small rug for our kitchen without even asking anyone :D God provided for us, even though in a small way, it was a very cool miracle :)

Tonight I am going with a friend to Tel Aviv to a sports BBQ. I am thinking about suggesting a swim team/lesson that I could lead... but I'm kind of hesitant about it because of my education (can't let anything get in the way). We'll see what happens. I will most likely just eat and chat and then go back home :P

AND!! Kasey and I and a few friends decided to take a vacation (I know I know, we are already in Israel, hahaha) but we have booked a Hostel in Dahab, Egypt on the Red Sea in the Sinai Peninsula. We are praying for amazing weather :) We will be saying there for 4 nights and God willing have an amazing time :)

Thank you for all your continuous prayers. Please do not stop :)

Hello! A new blog will be posted soon :)

Praise item:

-Jon received a $1000 scholarship for the Spring Semester :)

Boom Baby! I'z gotz my drivers a-license :D Maybe Tel-Aviv this weekend? NO Haifa!? NO Ashdod!! (all beaches btw).

It's too cold to swim (I would probably swim though)

-Jon

Electricity and Anemia.

Hello, Blog Followers. Kasey here.

Thought it was about time for at least a teeny update.

School is going well for me. I've gotten into the groove of things and REALLY enjoy teaching.

Everything in our house has a fine layer of dirt on it at the moment, because when the guys who wired the electricity in our house originally set it up, they decided that the 4 apartments on our floor... well, obviously we don't need electricity enough for 4 apartments, but instead we can share one breaker that's meant for one apartment. Smart, huh?

Mr. Ross (superintendent) just found out about this and immediately got the electric company to come back in and fix it. They've spent the last two days lining the corners of our ceilings with tracks for the wiring. Mr. Ross came in today, said it was unacceptable, and now they have to put it in the walls. There's a giant chunk of stone cut out of one of our walls, and dirt everywhere. They're going to take probably about a week to finish it now. *sigh*

So that's the electrical side of things.

Saturday I came down with what felt like a very bad cold. On Friday we went out with some friends and wandered around the Old City and Ben Yehuda (a street near the Old City). By the end of the day I had an extremely bad headache. We got home after dark, and found that one of our volunteer couples had to move into our building immediately -- problems with the landlords and their papers -- so we rushed around packing their house up and moving them down. After that we went to the girls' apartment and all sat around drinking tea and talking. Jon and I went to Anna's apartment (Anna is our new awesome friend who just got here) for a little while, and then went home and to bed. My headache had subsided with the tea but came back as soon as we left.

In my experience, sleep fixes everything, so I expected to be all better on Saturday morning. Except I woke up with what seemed like a very bad cold with a headache, and that induced a migraine. I had to skip work and tried to sleep it off. Sunday I felt a little worse, and Monday I threw up first thing in the morning.

When I still wasn't any better today, Jon decided to take me to the doctor's. The doctor noticed right away that there was something very wrong, and he did some basic blood work to test my hemoglobin and my white blood cell count. My blood pressure was already extremely low. When they tried to draw blood from a vein in my right arm, they couldn't find the vein, even after some poking around. That's not totally unusual for me, so I didn't find it weird. But when they found a large vein and tapped into it... the vein filled up half a vial and then quit. Which I DO think is weird.

Turns out I have a white blood cell count of 7000. I can't remember my hemoglobin, but apparently it wasn't good. Apparently I'm extremely anemic and have a viral infection. The doctor gave me two injections, some iron pills, and a couple other pills for the infection. Woot woot. He also told me I HAVE to eat red meat.

Just so we're clear, my doctors have told me to eat lots of salt and red meat. I would laugh in your faces if the anemia didn't make me so tired.

So hopefully the injections will help me feel good enough tomorrow to go into work.

On a better note, Jon just found out he got a 95% on his final history paper from last semester!!! :D YEY!

We really suck at this thing...

-Jon

One Week Before Christmas :)

Hello! Jon Here...

So there is one more week till Kasey and mine? Mines? My? I? Anyway, one more week till OUR first christmas together :) I've finished my 2nd week of break and it's been going well. I have organized A LOT of photos and hope to be done by the middle of next week. Then I will start on other things. I've also been watching a lot of Star Gate SG-1... very fun TV show.

Kasey has had the last 2 days off and is enjoying them to the fullest :P We both stayed up till about 3 am both nights! As a result Kasey slept for about 13 hours today :P Well earned rest though. Yesterday we had a web cam date with Jamie :D Really fun talking to her and seeing her. She stayed up till about 2:30 am in order to talk to us so I guess we owe her something, but then again seeing our faces was probably good enough :P

Now that Polly is ring worm free we have now opened our bedroom door for her to wander in and out. Although she usually stays in. Last night she slept near Kasey's head, but sprawled out on my pillow. I woke up and I was literally on the edge of the bed and my pillow and Polly was stretched out on it. So I showed her who was boss and pushed her over and used her as a pillow.

Kasey has to go back to work for one day tomorrow where the students will just be taking exams. And then she goes back for Monday and Tuesday for exams and THEN she gets 2.5 weeks off. Right now we are watching the movie Elf. We have decided that Elf will be a "classic" christmas movie later in life.

As you have probably guessed I have run out of things to say to you so I am just blabbing on now...

Thank you for your prayers and please continue for God's provision and our relationship to Him to grow.