Cheaper than falafel

I was shopping in the shuk today - things are so much cheaper today than they are on Fridays before the Sabbath. My daughter's boyfriend's family owns an equivalent of a dollar store (the only one in the shuk) and today their merchandise was selling like hotcakes or falafel or whatever. The younger brother was standing outside the store in the middle of the thoroughfare yelling - Slippers for 5 shekels ($1.25) SLIPPERS FOR 5 SHEKELS. THEY'RE CHEAPER THAN FALAFEL. THEY'RE CHEAPER THAN FALAFEL. Every pensioner headed in their direction and people were grabbing them by the dozens. I thought they were ugly and would rather go barefoot than buy something that would make me depressed.

I was supposed to be interviewed today by a Jerusalem paper interested in my interfaith work, but we pushed it off until Thursday. Got all dressed up for nothing. What a drag. Meanwhile, this guy I went olive picking with sent out a newsletter to peace groups talking about me in the newsletter. Apparently they don't get too many volunteers who live over the "green line" harvesting olives with Palestinians and mentioned that they were quite surprised by my revelation. But he wrote that I'm Australian. Usually Australians in Israel get taken for Americans, as do most English speakers from anywhere. I remember my South African friends having a run-in with neighbors who called them "You Americans." They tried to explain that although they speak English they've never even been to America. Didn't matter. They were Americans as far as the Israeli family was concerned.