Aaron

Happy Birthday, Aaron!

We love our seven year old--our strategist and survivalist, planner and manager, reader and sous-chef all rolled up into one. He is such a great part of our family.

Aaron loves to dream up schemes. Big schemes. Schemes big enough that they end in his raising enough money to buy a cabin in the woods near a big lake full of fish. A bit back he was considering being a doctor, although we warned him that medical school, despite the familiar exposure to guts, does not exactly lead one to fishing everyday. (In fact real fisherman, he learned this summer, have a particular distaste for the lawyers and doctors that stir the lake with their speedy weekend boats.) His latest plan of action rose to the surface the other day when Ben and I were talking to him about high school proms, which happened to come up during an early morning conversation in bed. (It is, may I add, tremendous fun to have a kid that can just sit and talk with you for hours!) After listening to our diverging explanations of proms, he succinctly interjected, "Well, I'm not going to go to prom because I will be too busy collecting wild tigers and elephants in Asia and Africa to start a zoo." When asked, he revealed that the purpose for the zoo--an idea inspired by two Williard Price books, South Sea Adventure and Arctic Adventure which he recently read--was, again, to gather enough funds to free him to fish all day.

It follows to note that Aaron has been reading voraciously for the past few months, which we understand as in part a reaction to the significant language gaps that occupy him for the rest of the day at school. While we love it in general, the phrase "Aaron, put the book down!" is pretty common around here. If he starts a book he likes, he won't put it down until it's over or until we make him. Subsequently we have had to develop rules that dictate when he can read and when he can't, because otherwise he would be reading most of the time. Last week, for example, he read Edward Eager's "The Well-Wishers" over the period of about twenty-four hours, on a school day. I wish all the books he read were as good as that one, but unfortunately that is not the case. Not only is it hard to find good books that are both at his reading level and not inane. It can also be hard to find excellent children's books in English in Jerusalem. (We are, as always, open for suggestions for both titles and stores.) A partial list of titles can be found on his GoodReads profile (feel free to 'friend' him if you're interested).

Aaron's best friend here is a seven-year-old American boy in the neighborhood named Joshua. They run through the side streets and woods with smiles on their faces and projects on their minds, building helmets and shields out of cardboard, sculpting animals out of clay, reading books together, making fake animal droppings out of mud and leaving them in conspicuous places, you get the drift. Most everything boys do.

Aaron loves to experiment with jokes, usually following the family tradition of attempting--and that is the key word--a play on words or a paradox. At dinner the other day, for example, he said something along the lines of, "A man wanted some food, so he went to Hungary, then decided to go to Turkey and then to Greece for some more grease." Sometimes he makes up jokes based on things he heard before. Yesterday we were eating breakfast, for example, when Aaron relayed to me the stumper: "I have a joke," Aaron begins. "A kid says to his father, 'Are fathers always smarter than their kids?' and the dad said, 'Yes.' So then the kid says, 'Well, who invented the first steam engine?' And the dad says, 'John Tsiopan.' So the kid says, "Well, why didn't his father invent it? Or his father, or his father, or his father?' You get it? Because fathers can't always be smarter than their kids." Ben, who told him the original joke (which names James Watt the inventor), gets an especially big kick out of this one!

Aaron likes to draw, although he doesn't do it very often. When he does, though, he can get very serious about it. He sits and draws very carefully, erasing extra lines with some meticulousness. When he is finally satisfied, he displays the end product with pride, as he is doing here with this dragon:

Aaron loves anything related to wildlife or the wilderness, a theme that has been an obsession for years now, with some evolution in what that entails but maintaining throughout the basic theme that the best life is a life lived off the land. It all started with apple picking and his inexplicably young preoccupation with persistence hunting in the Kalahari desert (which can be dated to before this post, from Ben's blog). Since then, it has grown to include all bow and arrow hunting, trapping, gardening, wilderness survival, building forts, eating large pieces of meat (preferably ones that look like the animal they came from), and of course that hardy constant, anything that has to do with fishing--talking about fishing, eating fish, gutting fish, reading fishing books, shopping for fishing tackle, watching other people fish, talking with fisherman (an instance in which language barriers prove surprisingly porous), planning, planning, and more planning to go fishing, and sometimes even really going fishing.

It would be an understatement to say Aaron is not crazy about posing for pictures, except when it comes to something he is excited about, which is very often animal-related. Here are a few of the related pictures he happily let us take over the past year.

A butcher's shop in the Old City of Jerusalem

Displaying a choice piece of tackle--apparently a pair of gray squids--from Capitol Fishing in NYC

Strawberry picking in Connecticut

Chowing down on a favorite feast--in this case, RIBS--at Grandma Karen and Grandpa LeeR's place in Utah. In preparing for the meal, he must have told grandpa ten times to be careful not to burn the ribs, describing in detail how one can tell they are done so that no mistakes were made.

Can you feel the excitement? Note the location of the rib serving plate.

Trying to spear fish some trout in our friend's backyard lake. Aaron asked the owner if he could try to catch some fish and the man said, "Well, I don't think that's a good idea." Aaron looked at him and said, in all earnestness, "So... can I or not?" We all laughed, but Aaron really did not understand what was so funny. Harry looked at him and said, "No. Well, actually, go ahead. Knock yourself out." So Aaron stripped down, found a sharp stick, and went at it.

A successful boat fishing trip--rare both for its success and its advanced fishing technology (you know, boats, bait, and people who know what they are doing)--in Utah last summer. Aaron looked forward to this trip for months and was not disappointed.

Along those lines, food is very important to Aaron. He loves to cook, and has gotten to the point where he can cook delicious food entirely by himself. Some things he has prepared on his own include roasted chicken, whole fish, an apple pie, pancakes, scrambled eggs, french toast, cookies, and others. This is not to say that each of these dishes were perfect--for lunch today Aaron prepared what he thought was cream of wheat by boiling sesame seeds. Nonetheless, some of his meals turn out very fine. He often prefers to make his own version of whatever I am making instead of helping me cook. Sometimes he gets so passionate about how things should be done that I have to excuse him from the kitchen so that I can finish the cooking. Of all the steps in food preparation, one of his favorite is to plan a feast shared with friends. Aaron is not a generally excitable kid, but when it comes to delicious food, he is as likely to hyperventilate as much--or almost as much--as when it comes to fishing.

Making a small castle cake for Elliot's birthday

Excited about the hugeness of the first batch of affordable strawberries in Israel

I can imagine a picture of Aaron making cookies with his Grandma Marsha last summer in Iowa, but I can't seem to find it. Imagine it here though, and if we find one, we will add it in.

Aaron's passion for eating animals has recently metamorphosed into the possibility of keeping animals not only as game and stock but also as pets, as beings whose purpose is to live and be loved, not to die. It is a heartening change. At the moment he is angling (sorry but true!) for, among others, a kitten, a hamster, a gerbil, and a rabbit, but would probably settle for anything. We have come close to getting him each of these, but decided against it since, among other reasons, we wouldn't know what to do with them when we move. So instead of having his own, he has become attached to other people's pets, especially our friends' cats, Monster and Milo (pictures forthcoming).

Holding my sister Kelcie's dog Dexter, last summer in Utah

Aaron tells us that he would like to run a marathon one day, and gets excited about the prospect of being able to go on runs with me. When we lived in NYC, he would often run around the block with me a few times, asking about whether or not I thought he would be ready for a marathon when he is fifteen. He also wants to do triathlons, but, like his Dad and other reasonable non-amphibian people, has a hard time imagining swimming for that long.

Aaron after the "Run for Haiti" in Central Park

Happy 7th Birthday, Aaron! We love you so much!

___________________________________________________________

Personal Interest Survey with Aaron, conducted in October 2010

[Aaron's responses verbatim]

Name: Aaron

Favorite Color: Turquoise

Favorite Food: Corn on the cob and juicy ribs

Favorite thing to do: Fishing

Favorite thing to do in Jerusalem: Hoping to catch lizards

Favorite thing done in Israel: Catching a crab

Favorite song: Random songs, songs I make up

Favorite movie: Swiss Family Robinson

Favorite book: My two fishing encyclopedias and Hatchet, or all the Brian books

What do you miss most about living in the United States? Fishing, chasing deer, and the library on the next block in New York.

Favorite thing to do with Mom: Go on bike rides

Favorite thing to do with Tato: Adventure in mountain

Favorite thing to do with Elliot: Watergun fights

Favorite thing to do with Libbie: When she punches me in the face at 5 am in the morning, tells me secrets and snuggles

What does Tato do? Write

What does Mama do? Play with kids

What do you want to be when you grow up? A fisherman, live in a cabin in the woods, a hunter without guns, and a newspaper delivery boy (for money)

What are some of your goals? To live by the ocean, to be able to go fishing a lot, and to catch a bluefin tuna.

(Aaron's question to himself) What is the biggest fish you are going to catch? A bluefin tuna, 108 pounds

Walking Home

Walking the kids to school (all downhill) takes between eight and fifteen minutes. Walking home takes about an hour.

Aaron loves to stop to pick up sticks, build forts, and try to convince me to let him sleep out there all night. He like to brainstorm for scenarios in which I would allow him to stay out all night. They are usually things like, "If I catch a sheep and make a fire from rubbing two sticks together, then will you let me?" 

Surprisingly, the walk home actually goes by faster when Aaron walks like this (since he keeps moving)...

He is tearing through these little books lately (Magic Tree House, etc). Anyone have any recommendations for good second-grade reading level books?

Sunday Run

We had a wonderfully exhausting district conference at church today, where all the members in Israel gathered together here in Jerusalem. Ben coordinated Spanish and Russian translation so it was a long day for us.

Tomorrow is Sunday, which means, for me, a long morning run. I love running here because I get to pass through a variety of scenery and communities. I often take a little path that winds around a hill, with the outskirts of East Jerusalem at the bottom and Hebrew University at the top.

The edge of East Jerusalem at the bottom of the hill

Reverse angle, more East Jerusalem and clouds

Looking up toward the university

Begging to be run on.

Sometimes sheep graze to the right.

Even stunning shots like this do not do the site justice.

And then, after a two minute jog...

You can see the walls of the Old City towards the back left of this photo.

Look for the golden cupola of the Dome of the Rock.

To the right of the shot above.

The center of Jerusalem on the horizon.

Trip to Galilee and Haifa

Ben has accepted (with my support) the responsibility of attending to the Russian-speaking church members throughout Israel. Most of the church members here are, like most of Israel, emigres from different countries around the world, many from Russia or Latin America. Unfortunately, many of the Russian-speaking members have stopped coming to church because of a felt lack of community and understandable language struggles. Ben's job is to figure out who these members are and what their needs are. He has spent a lot of time on the phone, talking with members, although some of his work has been in taking trips--most recently to the branch in the Galilee area, and this time, fortunately, we got to go along. 

The Galilee branch has several members who speak Spanish and no English, so they asked me to give a talk in Spanish in addition to Ben's talk in Russian. You should have seen me and Ben the night before, practicing our talks. I gave mine first in Spanish, before summarizing it in English and Russian. We laughed so hard as we--and especially I--tried to switch language gears, working really hard to filter out the words that came to mind that weren't in the right language for the moment. Ben was so sweet, sitting there just smiling at me contentedly, seemingly falling in love all over again, and only slightly raising a suspicious eyebrow when a "como" or "si" slipped into my Russian portion. Similarly, when it was Ben's turn to practice his talk in Russian, I sat there completely floored by his ability to construct sentences in Russian that are almost as complicated as his English. Ben is not afraid to build complex thoughts together in Russian, whereas I tend to take a lot of shortcuts, cutting out extra words whenever possible. I batted my eyes at him admiringly, although I had my own giggle spell at his attempt to summarize his thoughts in Spanish. 

Delivering our talks the next day was almost as much fun as practicing them. No Russian speakers actually came to the meeting, but the audience indulged us as Ben delivered his talk in Russian anyway, just to get it out there and get people used to Russian being spoken in church again. I was the only person in the congregation who understood his talk, yet I was also the only one changing Libbie's third messy diaper of the hour (Ben took the other two). No loss though: we got to use our Russian with some Russian speakers who showed up for the potluck after church.

We got an early start on Saturday morning for the 2.5 hour drive, with unintended detours through Jericho, to Tiberius, on the Sea of Galilee.

There is, it should surprise few to learn, a lot of desert between Jerusalem and Galilee. The barren landscape was occasionally interrupted by bedouin tents. 

It's hard to tell whether Aaron or Libbie gets more joy from Libbie reading Aaron's fishing encyclopedia. Aaron likes to find the rainbow trout for her, since he claims their reddish tint is her favorite color.

I was confused by the presence of a lush palm tree forest in the middle of the desert--a lush forest of date palm trees, as it turns out. 

I was impressed by the straightness of the rows.

Our suspicions that we had taken a wrong turn were confirmed when we almost ran into this pile of rubble cutting off our road. Even though we could see the highway we wanted to be on just ahead of us, we had to drive all the way around Jericho and back to the main highway by the Dead Sea in order to get there (asking directions in a mix of Russian, English, and Arabic two or three times before actually finding the correct road).

Elevation: -150 meters

(The Dead Sea is actually -400 meters, 

but that picture will have to wait for, *clears throat*, visitors.)

Aaron never misses an opportunity to explore the woods for evidence of wildlife, even--and perhaps especially--when his parents are rushing off to a church meeting.

The back porch of the beautiful Galilee meeting house--established under President Gary Browning in 2007, a former Slavic professor of ours at BYU--overlooking the Sea of Galilee. It shouldn't take much to imagine what Aaron was thinking about while staring at the sea for half an hour.

My favorite part about the meetinghouse: hymn placards for the English, Spanish, Russian, and Hebrew hymnals. Galilee branch, props for the multilingual equality (at least in theory)! 

They knew I was coming on my birthday, so they baked me a cake. This "Happy Birthday" song was one of the most touching in my life... all singing the same words, but you couldn't count the number of different accents that filled the room. Unforgettable. 

Branch members and visitors. Aaron, as usual, is hiding.

On the way from Galilee to Haifa, we stopped at Mt. Carmel to see the place where Elijah had his spectacular showdown with the priests of Baal. Peace and love, those show up in a later episode. This is Rambo, Old Testament-style.  

Checking out the amazing viewpoint from the top of Mt. Carmel, from which, Ben says, you can see the famed Jezreel valley and the landing strip of an underground Israeli aircraft hanger. (At this point, I think I was downstairs in the gift shop, avoiding the eyes of the aghast Catholic tourists as I tried to remove a novelty crucifix from Elliot's lunging hand, working hard to convince him that, despite appearances, that was not a basket full of small wooden swords for the kids' fencing pleasure.)

Unfortunately, the love and adoration of these sweet ladies, gathered for an evening church meeting in Haifa, was not requited by our little girl.

There are so many individual stories involved in these encounters. Each person has his/her own story of how he/she came to Israel. Most of the permanent residents were able to come here because they have Jewish ancestry, some came from poor economic conditions to work to support more affluent families, but each person has a different story of daily life. There's the Russian mom and daughter combo who have both actually moved out of the country (to Canada and Belarus), but still meet up in Israel every year. There's Marina, the Argentine who is mistaken for a Russian everyday in her neighborhood because of her name. There are the older American couples who leave their kids and grandkids to come and serve the people here. The Filipina women who are here only for a short time, working full time, sending everything possible to their families at home. Sitting there in that small group meeting in Haifa, I was struck by how much the church invests in individuals. It is inefficient for missionaries to drive one member 1.5 hours to meet with the branch in the Galilee. It is inefficient to have these same missionaries attend and conduct the Haifa meeting, where only a few women come to worship. And yet: inefficiencies notwithstanding, the church leaders, and the members who make decisions locally, are dedicated to the people, to meeting individual needs. Maybe inefficiency and love, in this way, hang together, which is interesting to me because I think that many of my decisions tend to lean toward efficiency rather than love. Something to think about.

Here is another perspective of our trip, written by the service missionary who drove us there and back.