From the Charlotte airport New Year’s Eve, it took about 18hours to reach our destination, Ecce Homo guest house in Jerusalem – 8 and ½ hours to Munich, a 4-hour layover, 3 and ½ hour flight to Tel Aviv, shuttle ride to the Damascus Gate,wheeling our luggage over the bumpy cobblestones of the Via Dolorosa at nightfall, noticing Hebrew letters on a flashing green traffic signal. My suitcase and Mike’s duffel bag each weighed exactly the allowed 50 pounds, our backpacks almost the allowed 17 pounds.
During those hours in cramped airplane seats, we each got less than four hours of sleep. At midnight Eastern time — I assume somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean — Mike leaned over, kissed me, and said, “Happy New Year!” When we finally climbed the high steps leading up to the Ecce Homo back doorway and pressed the doorbell, we entered the building – and our new lives for the next three months – with great relief.
Sister Rita, the Canadian Sister of Sion director of volunteers, and two volunteers we were succeeding, Amy from California and Janet from Canada, gave us a warm welcome and showed us to our room. Soon we joined other sisters (nuns) – Bernadettefrom Australia and Erika from Brazil – and another new volunteer, Erik from Norway, at dinner. There was delicious soup we all guessed was carrot (the chef would later tell me it was pumpkin), homemade croutons, and bread. I had read an Ecce Homo online review describing dinner as “simple, home cooked and good” so I thought, Maybe dinner is just this soup and bread. which would be fine.
Mais non! Next the server, a young French woman, brought salad, chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and roasted carrots. Everything was scrumptious! Then came homemade brownies. So much for my hope of losing weight during these three months.
Sister Rita gave Mike and me the week’s work schedule. I looked at my duties for the next day, highlighted in pink: breakfast ‘wash up” and reception desk training.
Mike and I got ready for bed. Our room has no central heat. Instead, in the bedroom, there’s a space heater on the floor and fan mounted on the wall, and in the bathroom, a wall-mounted water heater. The Old City plumbing, as we experienced in India, can’t handle toilet paper, so one puts one used toilet paper in a small covered wastebasket. Also, as in India, it would be safer for us to drink bottled or filtered water than from the tap. Especially in my sleep-deprived mode, it was a bit to remember:don’t flush paper, don’t drink tap water.
Even though we’d be in a stone building built in the 1800s, I had wondered if it was overkill to pack my heavier winter nightgown. Again, mais non! I went to bed wearing layers and socks, covered by a comforter, bedspread, and heavy blanket. Even so, my nose was cold. We would later learn how to turn the heater dial to a higher setting.
The next day would hold surprises, both good and challenging. But for tonight, I was giddy with gratitude to God for safe travel and for the bliss of being able to stretch out on a mattress. We prayed for loved ones. And then we slept like a rock.
Community with Living Stones 