Travels with Three Brothers

Yesterday I took off work to just hang with Hubby's brothers. We drove up the Jordan Valley road to Tiberias. The road was pretty desolate and our asses were starting to hurt a couple of hours into the drive until we passed two camels humping. None of us had ever come across that scene before and we quickly decided to turn around and photograph the happy couple. The male seemed young and inexperienced. He was pretty slow in getting it on and his female companion had alot of patience. After 5 minutes of getting our National Geographic-type shots, we headed back on.

Hubby's oldest brother met his wife 30 years ago on Kibbutz Mesilot and we drove into the kibbutz which looked alot more run-down than he remembered. But it was touching to hear him reminisce about where "they" walked, partied and ate.

We took a break in Tiberias for a coffee and felafel. The Canuck brothers didn't want to sit down for eggs and salads - they wanted more Middle Eastern fare. So greasy falafels is what they got. We saw Mt. Hermon in the distance, beautiful, large and snow capped.

Our next stop was the Galilee town of Karmiel where we stopped off at the local cemetery to see the brother's wife's parents' graves. It wasn't too difficult to find - it's the only cemetery in town. We walked in and the caretaker offered to say the prayers for us. I sensed if he started praying, he would ask for some kind of payment. I'd do it for free, which I did. The deceased couple didn't have any visitors for over 4 years and I felt pretty joyful in this place, knowing they were enjoying our visit from the "other world". The cemetery was predominantly Russian. It looked alot different from other cemeteries in that nearly every grave was decorated with flowers - some fresh and most with silk arrangements. Some had gardens around the grave. It was the most colorful cemetery I'd ever seen. The caretaker told me it wasn't a Jewish custom to decorate a grave with flowers, but the Russians seemed to not mind this non-Jewish custom.

After our graveyard shift, we moved on to the Druze village of Daliat Al Karmel. I had a friend there from my Interfaith group and she gladly invited us into her home after I called her for directions and she directed me from the village entrance. As my brother-in-laws said - they feed you to death - which she did. Something called Kishq filled with goat cheese and pomegrants showed up on the table, as did pickled radishes, homemade humous, pitas, olives, hot coffee and other stuff. When we didn't finish it all - she put it all in a plastic bag and made me take it home to my kids. I didn't need too much convincing. If someone wants to kill me by feeding me to death, it's a good thing. It really is. But it was a good experience for the Great White Northerners who had never met any Druze before. Her teenage daughter helped with the hosting. "I couldn't get up because I got a boner looking at her and she would've seen it." said my gay brother-in-law and we looked at him strange.

"traitor!" I told him. "You'll upset your partner with this news."

"Oh, you just want me to stay gay so that you could say to your friends that you've got a gay relative. It's a novelty for you."

Yes, yes and more yes. I didn't need to tell anyone about him, since he did all the telling - especially to all 3 of my daughters' boyfriends. When we got back home, the house was lively and crowded and I didn't want to go to sleep and face a day of errands before my son's bar mitzvah on Thursday. I think I'm going to kidnap my brother-in-laws and have them stay a bit longer....