Pictures of Home

My 6-year old nephew asked me to send a picture of our apartment building.  So Austin...here it is!  All buildings in Jerusalem are required to be built with "Jerusalem Stone".  Our building is older, so the stone looks a lot more worn.  Sidewalks in Old City and many of the streets in the New City are also built with Jerusalem stone.  Beware...it is quite slippery when wet!

And here is a picture of the little garden directly inside the gate of our building.  The old man who tends this garden gives me a true gift each day.  The garden is a green oasis on hot, sunny days ,and it always makes me smile when I walk by it.  There are always blooming flowers, growing vegetables...and last summer he even grew sweet corn!

In front of our apartment (directly to the right of the picture) a new building is currently being constructed.  The building process here takes much longer than in the US!  Last summer when I visited, they were working on this project.  This summer...the work continues.  I'm looking forward to its completion (hopefully by summer's end) as the work creates a lot of dust.  It is interesting to observe how buildings are constructed.  Not a piece of wood is used...only concrete, metal poles, and then Jerusalem stone on the surface. 

The other interesting dynamic is that construction workers tend to be Palestinian or Israeli Arabs.  Seems to be a world-wide societal tendency...to depend on those who are less fortunate to do the needed tasks...but far less appealing tasks.  I am reminded of migrant workers in the US, the predominance of immigrants as nursing assistants in nursing homes, etc. etc. etc.  I don't think America could survive without its immigrant population...nor do I think Israel could survive without the Arab population.  But yet both countries want to solve their "problem".  I certainly don't have an answer...just some simple observations.