Just a few old rocks...
From my new office in Jaffa port (more on this later!), I hear chanting. I look through the key-hole shaped opening to the blue-green water and see Arab men standing on the quay, arms at their sides, hands folded in front of them. They kneel down to kiss the ground, sit up, and bend down again. They repeat this ritual several times. It is the time of prayer. These religious men are the same ones who whistled and leered at me an hour earlier as I walked by. I guess religious devotion here doesn’t mean you have to check your sexuality at the door. And besides that, they can’t help it. They are construction workers. Yes, typical stereotype around the world.They are here excavating an archaeological site. It is a pier, from the days of the Ottoman empire. Parts of the stonewall are still intact and you can see the worn stairs where ship-goers used to come and leave, and the thick metal ring that they tied their boats too. Apparently they will cover it up again in a couple of weeks. They are building a new promenade and are just here doing an inventory of the site. I want to come back with my camera and take pictures before it’s covered over again. Danny’s reaction is, “Why? This isn’t so old. You can see stuff like this and much older everywhere.” Well, not in Canada you can’t…
I am still wide-eyed, in awe, of the history here. Magical stories come-to-life that I read about as a child, myths and fairytales that as an adult, I couldn’t imagine could have a real home. And yet, here I am, working in ancient Jaffa by the sea, a place whose narrative dates back 4000 years. It is hard to wrap your head around, especially so early in the morning.
We came here to go kayaking at sunrise -- nothing short of a small miracle that I managed to get up at 5am to get here. Rony, the owner of the kayak shop guided us on our first mission on the Mediterranean. Danny and I have both kayaked before, but don’t have so much experience in bumpy water, so it felt a bit interesting.
As we paddled, Rony pointed out Andromeda’s rock, and told us the Greek myth of this beautiful young woman, tied to the rock during a terrible storm, to appease the Gods for her mother’s vanity. In the end, she was saved by some Perseus dude and I guess they lived happily ever after. He also reminded us that this was the place where Jonah got swallowed up by a whale. Not exactly a comforting thought when you are out to sea in a teensy little kayak – “crunch, crunch, hmmmm, this one’s got a little extra fibre to it.” Nothing to be too stressed about, and besides, Jonah did get spit back up again.
All in all, it was a great way to start the day. Well, the day really got started after we found some coffee in an eclectic café, in the nearby flea market. Then it was back to the kayak club where I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon working on my laptop. Rony, the owner, is happy to have me work there whenever I want so he can have someone in the office while he runs errands. As for me, I am happy for the view from this magical place and the proximity to really good humus. Good for him and good for me. The only thing I am really left wondering about is, “what did the Ottoman’s ever do without wireless?”
posted by Heather Worosz @ 8:15 AM
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