Sowing Smiles: Proceed with Poles

My Polish friends Elona and Rouja (unsure about the spelling) are physical therapists working with me at the children's home. Two weekends ago, we were together in Nazareth. Wow. I've got pictures for you at the end of this post.

Bartering is part of Middle Eastern culture, and I'm out of practice. The Polish girls, however, were in fine form in Nazareth. A priest told us it would cost 100 shekels to take a cab from Nazareth to Sephora, where we spent the night on site of the childhood home of the Blessed Virgin Mary (yeah, no big deal). Rouja approached the cab, chatted with the driver, told us to get in, and we paid 60 shekels total. No problem.

The next day, we were traveling to the Sea of Galilee and the surrounding area and were planning on taking a bus. A taxi driver approached us at the bus stop and offered a deal of 500 shekels for a cab to Tiberius, around the Sea while stopping at the notable events in the life of Jesus, and back to Nazareth. Elona promptly told him to go away because we weren't tourists, we had no money, and basically that he was wasting his time with us. Within the next 30 minutes, he had approached us two more times with different offers, and Rouja managed to get the price to 250 shekels if he left us in Tiberius so that we could catch a bus there. So we went to Capernaum to see the home of Peter and the site of a synagogue where Jesus taught. We prayed at the site of the Sermon on the Mount, where the Beatitudes were proclaimed. We also stepped into the Benedictine monastery on the site where Jesus fed the 5000 and relayed the Bread of Life discourses. Awesome, in the truest and most Angus-sense of the word.

On another occasion, I was with Elona in Bethlehem. She wanted to walk to The Bethlehem Hotel to seek out some Polish people she had met to see if she might be able to tour with them. Really, she and Rouja wanted to go to the Dead Sea the next day. The two of us walked 20 minutes from where we were staying after dark for her to get to the hotel reception desk and literally ask which rooms the Polish priests were staying in. Of course, the concierge didn't feel comfortable giving out that information, but he did suggest the hotel restaurant on the third floor. We actually stopped at the cafe/bar on the second floor because, according to Elona, she was just going to walk around and listen for the Polish language. And lo and behold! there it was. These Poles were not part of the group she had met previously, but wouldn't you know, their itinerary included going to the Dead Sea the next morning. So she and Rouja got their chance (probably for free) to see those sites. Unfortunately, I had to be back to work the next day, but the moral of the story is: When traveling, don't forget to take your Poles.