criplomats

Last Sunday afternoon, my friend from work, Issa, took me to a center here in Tel Aviv for Sudanese and Eritrean refugees. It was like walking into a different world. I see some Africans on the streets of Tel Aviv and in the Embassy occasionally, but the refugee center is in a part of town dominated by them. I had no idea that there are around 30,000 refugees in Israel.

Their status here is largely undefined. The Israeli government doesn’t want to give them true refugee status. They are not really supposed to work, but the government generally turns a blind eye.

My friend Issa has volunteered with that community since high school, and I appreciate him introducing me to the people at the center and showing me the neighborhood.

Thursday night, I went to book club here for the first time. It’s a women’s group, and we discussed “The Good Earth,” by Pearl Buck. It was a good discussion and a fun evening.

John took me out to dinner one night, to our favorite restaurant, Whitehall. It’s nice to have  a place where they know you and treat you well.

Speaking of that, we heard last night that there was a shooting at our favorite restaurant in Juarez, very near our old house there. We immediately thought of the manager and waiters there who were always so nice to us, and we hope they are OK. It seems that the violence there just keeps getting worse.

Today is Mom’s birthday! I’ll call her later tonight – we are 8 hours ahead of Arkansas, so I’ll have to wait. From what I hear, she has probably been snowed in since last Thursday.

It’s sunny and cool today here in Tel Aviv.  John and I went back to Hertzliyya this morning for an appointment, with an obligatory breakfast at Benedict’s up there. I had a delicious spinach omelette.

Last Monday night after work, we went to our DCM’s home for an NPA meeting; we had a guest speaker, Barry Rubin. He is a fairly well known author and Middle East expert. It was interesting to hear his take on the events in Egypt.

The week was pretty quiet around here – just work as usual. I was very happy last Sunday afternoon to find an excellent nail salon. I had let my nails go and they were in terrible shape. I’ve been intimidated about going to a salon here – silly, I know. But this place is great and I will definitely be back there this week.

We stayed in on Saturday, which was nice. I needed to get organized with our taxes, so I spent several hours with that. I finished reading an excellent book, “A Simple Plan” (you may remember the movie with Billy Bob Thornton), and we watched “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.”

The big news of the week is the civil unrest in Egypt. Two of our co-workers went to Cairo to help with the evacuation of Americans there. The rest of us got Egyptians visas in our passports, on the off-chance that we will be needed, too. Many of us also worked on the task force several evenings this week, entering data from emails from concerned Americans into a data base.

Last Saturday was a nice day. I spent the morning watching the Australian Open Women’s Final, then we met our friends Ben and Jen for a nice dinner at Kimmel. I had a seafood in cream sauce that was out of this world.

Sunday I went with my manager to Jerusalem to represent the US Embassy at an event honoring volunteers in Israel. It was a fun afternoon. Thousands of kids, especially from Germany, come to Israel for 3 – 12 months to volunteer with local groups. Many of them are not Jewish, but come to work with Holocaust survivors here. This was a ceremony to honor them and we learned about their work.

We had a nice time Friday night with Petite, Howard, Mike and Katie. We had a good dinner at Whitehall, then came back to our place for nightcaps.

Yesterday was quiet; we stayed home and watched a couple of movies, then ventured out in the evening to a party for co-workers. We had a couple of drinks and visited with everyone; it was a nice night to be out walking there and back.

This morning we drove up to Hertzliya. It was a beautiful morning and we had a nice breakfast at Benedict’s and walked around a bit. I tried to get diplomatic plates for my car, but they had to order a special size for me, so I’ll have to wait for that.

Last Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day in Tel Aviv. John and I went with our neighbors Bill and Diane to breakfast at Benedict’s, where we had another wonderful meal.

Afterwards, I just couldn’t stand the thought of staying inside on such a pretty day, so I set off for a neat little neighborhood not too far from the apartment, called Neve Tzedek (which I think translates as “oasis of justice” or something like that). It was one of the original neighborhoods of Tel Aviv and has been revitalized and yuppified. Lots of neat restaurants, coffee shops, and upscale jewelry and clothing stores. There’s not a lot of street traffic there, so it was peaceful, too. I thoroughly enjoyed mosying along, going from shop to shop.

We watched a great movie last weekend, “Winter’s Bone.” We didn’t know when we watched it that it would be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, but it was really good (if you like sort of creepy movies about people making meth in the Ozarks).

Yesterday at work, we had a mini happy hour in the office to announce winners of Extra Mile awards. I got one for working on a Sunday in December to get some emergency visas printed. It was nice of my bosses to give the award to me.

On Thursday, there was an Embassy-wide awards ceremony, held in a local hotel’s ballroom (because we don’t have a space big enough at the Embassy). It was fun to see folks get rewarded for good work, like our American Citizens Services group who helped with the flotilla incident last May.

John took me out for a nice dinner at Whitehall on Wednesday night. We had stayed late with our manager, watching a webinar on writing good evaluations. Ours will be coming up soon.

I stayed a bit late on Thursday to print emergency visas for a newborn and his family who were heading  to the U.S. for emergency surgery for the baby. Like the case I worked on in December, it’s nice to know that you can help in a small way.

If anyone wants recipes from last week’s baking trip to Nazareth, I added a link to this page, or click here.

Last night as I was putzing around the kitchen, I realized that I have three things that I use constantly: a wooden spoon and a cutting board that Jack Muse (Ann’s dad) made for me. Another is a bowl that my college pottery teacher Mr. Hawes was going to throw away and I rescued. I love the utility of these things, plus I love the memories they invoke.

Bowl, spoon and cutting board

Making pastries in Nazareth

Today was a lot of fun – I went with friends Jen and Naz to an Arab woman’s home in Nazareth to bake traditional Arab pastries. It was an outing organized by a woman here in Israel who is a foodie and writing a book about food in Israel. She is especially interested in families who grow organic food and keep traditional ways of cooking.

She took us to the home of Balkes (‘bal-keys’). A very modest home with Arabic writing sprinkled around. We sat around a long table in the living room and watched Balkes make two kinds of cookies: one a butter cookie filled with pistachios and another filled with dates. She made the dough, then gave it to us to roll, pinch, fill, etc. Then we made two kinds of savory pastries: one filled with a fresh spinach mixture and another filled with fresh homemade goat cheese. Everything was just incredible and we enjoyed them over a delicious lunch of salad, pita, okra in tomato sauce and a lentil-bulgar mixture. Thanks to Jen for motivating us to go!

Click for more baking photos.

Last Monday, John and I were off work for Martin Luther King Day. We went to Benedict’s, a 24 hour restaurant known for its breakfast. It was wonderful, especially with the glass of champagne they serve with it!

We went to two happy hours this week. The New Professionals Association had happy hour at Gordo’s on the beach Wednesday night, then on Friday, the CLO (Community Liaison Office) sponsored a happy hour at the bar/restaurant next to the Embassy. Both were fun.

I also got some good work done this week, wrapping up some projects. Feels good to get things off of my desk!