Tuesdays in Yeruham

Tuesday is market day in Yeruham. One can buy everything from fresh produce to shoes to tools at the weekly outdoor market. Here are some photos of the market that I shot today.

On Tuesday afternoons, we are in a family outing club that takes us to a different place each week. This week, the group went out into the desert a half hour from Yeruham, into the crater where I was last week with my friend David.

The group leader, Yael, told us to scratch the rocks with a nail, and we discovered that the rocks crumbled into fine sand.

She then gave us each a tool and told us to pick up rocks and carve them. Since the rocks were made of compressed sand, they were easy to sculpt.

We all sat around and made stone sculptures.

 Yael explained that this sand was used to make bottles in the bottle factory in Yeruham.

We saw trucks full of sand go by headed for the bottle factory in Yeruham.

We also saw camels go by.

And we saw a scorpion! (We kept our distance.)

We watched the sunset.

Yael cooked us soup on an open fire.

Everyone enjoyed the soup. (It was vegetable soup.)

Then we sat around the fire.

We can hardly wait for next Tuesday!

Into the Desert

This week, I traveled east out of Yeruham into the desert. On the satellite image below, Yeruham appears in the northwest quadrant as an irregular oblong grey patch. The large oval to the east of Yeruham in the center of the map is a large crater in the desert. This crater is the second largest crater in Israel, and is several miles across. It looks like a large bowl formed by mountains. The entire area was originally under the ocean. At some point, the earth rose up and the water receeded, creating a large plateau. The plateau cracked in the middle and water, over thousands of years, through erosion, enlarged the crack, creating the crater. One can see fossilized sea shells in the rocks in the crater, evidence that it was orignally under water.

Here's what the road looks like as it winds east of Yeruham approaching the crater.

As you can see, it is a very narrow, winding road.

Here's the view from the edge of the crater. (The day was overcast, so the view is a little hazy.)

With my friend David Biton, I drove down into the crater and out a ravine that provides the only break in the mountains surrounding the crater. We got out of the car and went for a short hike. Here's what the terrain looks like.

We passed camels.

Here you can see fissures in the ground in this photo. The fissures are formed by water in the rainy season.

We climbed down into one of the fissures. 

Here's what it looked like inside.

Here you can see a small pool of water at the bottom of the fissure. When it rains hard, the fissure fills up with several feel of water and people swim in it.

  

Here's a photo of David.

Steps carved out of the rock led out of the fissure.

Our Adventure Begins

Snowed in at Newark Airport (December 26 & 27, 2010)

Due to two feet of snow, Newark Airport was closed, and we spent two nights in a hotel. Here's the view from our hotel room on the night before we were supposed to leave.

The hotel was so full of stranded passengers, that we had to leave our room after the first night and wait in the lobby during the day for a room for the second night.

We set up a laptop computer and watched a video while we waited for a room. (We finally did get a room for the second night.)

Arrival in Israel (December 29, 2010)

After a ten-hour flight, we arrived in Israel. Here we are collecting our baggage (8 large duffel bags, five backpacks, and a trumpet).

We took a taxi to Yeruham. Here is a view from the taxi.





Getting Settled

Here's our home in Yeruham.

There are no streets in our neighborhood, only clusters of houses built around courtyards. Cars are parked on the periphery of the neighborhood, and then you have to walk in to get to the houses. Here's the view from our front door, looking down on the courtyard.



Here is our living room.

Here's our kitchen.

Here's Margalit's room.

Here's Medad's & Asher's room.

Here's the bathroom. It is divided into two separate rooms (toilet in one, sink & shower in the other).

We dry our laundry out in the sun.

At bedtime, we read books together.

Our Neighborhood

We live next to a big park. It has a playground with giant slides.

The city pool is in the park too. Here's the front entrance.

The pool is closed for the winter. (Winter is 60 degrees at night, 70 degrees in the daytime.)

The park also has outdoor fitness equipment.

There is also an indoor fitness center with a workout room and gymnasium.

Here's the city library, which is across the park from us.

And here's the performing arts center, which is across the street.

And next to the library is the cultural center where they have classes for adults and children in pilates, yoga, ballet, judo, ceramics, painting, drama, dance, etc...

 

The City of Yeruham: A Walk Down the Main Street

Yeruham has a population of 10,000 people. The main street runs from North to South and is about two miles long. From our house, it is a ten minute walk to the center of town, where the supermarket and the children's school are.

Here's what the walk looks like. There are lots of places to sit along the way.

Many people live in apartment buildings like these.

This is the municipal government building.

Here's a local hardware store.

This is the supermarket.

And this is a new neighborhood at the other end of town.

Medad's and Margalit's School

The school that Medad and Margalit attend is called Kol Ya'akov.

The school has many small buildings. Medad's classroom is in the building on the right.

Here is the first grade building where Margalit is in one of three first grade classes.

Here is the central administration building.

 Here's Margalit after school. She is wearing her school sweatshirt.

And here's Medad.

Here's Rachel picking up Margalit & Medad after school.



Outside the school is a felafel stand. Yum!

Asher's Kindergarten

Asher goes to kindergarten four blocks from home. His kindergarten is called Gan Tamar.

Asher eats lunch every day at kindergarten. Today he had roast chicken, couscous, salad, and chocolate cake. Can you find Asher in this picture?



The Desert

Here's what it looks like outside of Yeruham. The nearest city is Dimona, 11 kilometers away.

That's all for now from Yeruham.