"We must be over the rainbow!"

The most famous scene in the Wizard of OZ introduces the world of black and white to the world of Technicolor. 

After the cyclone stops, Dorothys' house settles onto solid land. She climbs off of her disheveled bed, holding Toto close to her heart. Stepping over the topsy-turvy mess that the cyclone made, she cautiously moves toward the door to see where her house was plopped down. She quickly reaches for the front door knob, turns it, and then slowly opens it.  As she opens it, she is met with the overwhelming experience of color, sound, smell, sight, and imagination. In the true fashion of filmmaking, the camera pans in on her face as she takes in the land of OZ.  Her face is one of awe, disbelief, and astonishment.  She steps down from her black and white house and enters the world of Technicolor. She is also in Technicolor, donning that famous blue and white gingham dress. Faintly in the background Somewhere Over the Rainbow is being played. She begins to walk slowly down the yellow-brick-road and toward the most precious looking little bridge, her face still showing awe and overwhelming astonishment. She then speaks her first words in the land of OZ: "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore". Following that statement, she invites all who have or ever will watch the movie to join her in her discovery of her greatest imagination. Pulling Toto close and rubbing his little fuzzy head, her face is filled with joy and excitement, she says this, "We must be over the rainbow!!".

Like anyone, I imagined what Israel would be like. Before I moved here, I pictured what I thought it might look like. Originally, I had a ridiculously, unrealistic idea about what it was like.  Growing up going to church, any Biblical story was told with felt characters. These felt characters were placed on a flannel graph to depict the story. A flannel graph is basically a huge board, covered with felt/flannel.  The cut-out felt Biblical characters were in long dress/smocks and wore woven sandals.  Most had a belted sash. Since most of the Biblical accounts took place in or around Israel, I just assumed that Israel was stuck in flannel graph times and everyone would be wearing sandals that they had woven themselves. I knew this wasn't the case, but the little girl in me remembered the stories and related them to present day.  People in smocks, walking on dusty, unpaved roads, living in the vast and barren desert.

Well, folks I was wrong. I was wrong about a whole lot. In fact, I was mostly wrong.  I feel like Dorothy as she entered the land of OZ.  This land and the people here are beautiful and my imagination could not have dreamed up a more spectacular place and a more normal place.  To get the "normal" part out of the way, this is what I mean.  There are normal, everyday life happenings all around.  Cars are driving, people are in a hurry, there are multi-lane freeways that get clogged in rush hour, there is smog, there are the rich and poor, there is trash on the side of the road, there are giant shopping malls filled with people buying and selling, kids are playing on the neighborhood playground, school is in session, the garbage person comes and goes, etc.  Just like any place, when you add humans, human activity ensues.

Now for the land, people, beauty and the failings of my imagination.  I have done a lot of travelling and have seen many different types of beauty but nothing can compare to this land. Any thing, item, flower, tree, building, body of water, food, amount of history, faces of people and children, rock, bird, sound, sight, smell, orchard or any other thing I didn't mention, have far exceeded the failings of my imagination.  Any picture or multiply-descriptive, run-on sentence I could write would pale in comparison to what is really here. It IS the land of OZ. Without any ounce of exaggeration, this is fully true: the air smells of fresh cantaloupe and lilac, fragrant roses and flowering orange blossoms, fresh spices and basil.  It is almost not believable, but I am speaking honestly.  When I exit my little apartment, I am overwhelmed with these smells. The people here are beautiful, as a whole.  With their dark eyes and hair, it is so different than America. This, of course, is a generalization.  There are many different types of people here who are also lovely. The land and its beauty cannot be described with words. It is green and colorful with flowers blooming everywhere and with colors I have not seen before. One of the innumerable surprises were the birds. For those of you who know, I am somewhat (okay, BIG) of a bird-nerd.  The birds here are lovely and their music wakes me, sings to me during the daylight hours and lulls me to sleep. The songs of the birds in this country are not ones I have heard before.  Like most everything else, they are beyond imagination.  There are a group of green and blue parrots/parakeets that fly in and out of the neighbors yard. I am living a birders dream. I have "my own" bird sanctuary. I hope to never take for granted the opportunity of inspiration and loveliness that I have been given while I am here.

I truly am over the rainbow with awe and gratefulness.

 

 Notice the kumquat trees above!

This is the/my front garden (yard). It's not grass. Any guesses?

Those are little mangos!