Monday 28 October 2014 Ramla

We drove to Ramla which is near Tel Aviv to visit the Lemon Tree house.  The Lemon Tree, written by Sandy Tolan, is a book about a Palestinian family that was forced from their home in Ramla during the War of 1948.  A Jewish family moved into the home. After  the War of 1967,  a child from the Palestinian family went back to the home and became friends with the Jewish people who  lived there.  It's an interesting story.  The house is now a day care called Open House.  The director of the day care knew the story and showed us around the house and in the back yard.  She is standing where the lemon tree had been planted, thus the name of the book.  They have since planted a new lemon tree in the front yard.

The backyard had colorful murals and an open space to play.

The rooms were set up for day care.

Donna Funk, Ron and Jill Anderson and Linda in front of the house.

After visiting Open House we went to the local market which had beautiful produce.

We then went to the church and the Terra Sancta School near the market.



We then went to a local mosque.  Before you enter the mosque, there is a fountain to wash your feet, hands, face, etc.  Mostly men pray at the mosque.  Women usually pray at home.

Blaine and Ron went in the Karaite church. There are 30,000-50,000 Karaites and they are separate from Rabbinical Jews. Karaites date to the 7th century and perhaps as far back as the Saduccees.

The Pool of Arches is a subterranean water pool built in 789 AD.  The pool was probably fed by a small spring, rainwater, and an aqueduct.  The pool's ceiling is supported by gigantic stone pillars and arches. 

Donna, Linda, and Blaine paddled our way through the pool.

Notice the big arches spanning the pools.