Left,After several months of preparation, the group finally met with representatives of the travel agency to learn about the weather, travel conditions, etc., in our destinations.  Right, the group will wear similar shirts and have red caps to make us more easily recognizable to each other in crowds.

PILGRIMAGE ITINERARY
18 July	Fly Hong Kong to Rome Fly Rome to Tel Aviv, Israel Bus to Tiberias
19-23 July	Israel Tiberias, Capernaum, Nazareth, Cana, Mount Tabor Mount of Beatitudes, Yardenit, Dead Sea Jerusalem: Wailing Wall, Holy Sepulcure, Mount of Olives,Gethsemani, Place of Last Supper Bethlehem
23-27 July	France Paris: Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower Lourdes
27 July - 1 Aug	Italy Rome: St. John Lateran, Holy Stairs, St. Mary Major, Catacombs, Audience with Pope, St. Peter's Basilica, Spanish Stairs, Trevi Fountain, Coloseum, Pantheon, St. Paul outside the Walls Rome: meeting with Rome deaf people Assisi
2 August	Arrive in Hong Kong

Flight to Israel--While we were at the Rome airport, awaiting our flight to Tel Aviv, we noticed a group of policemen gathering nearby. We were standing in line at the counter for a security check-in for the flight to Israel, and the officers had found a large carry-on bag just left on the floor. Because there was no owner nearby and because of the ever-present threat of attacks against Israeli interests, they called in a police woman who knelt by the bag and used a large knife to gently slit it open around the bottom. Fortunately, it turned out to be nothing but someone's clothes, but all of us were wondering, if they took the bomb threat seriously, why did they leave all of us standing ten feet away?

Kibbutz Lavi--We arrived in Israel Saturday afternoon and had a three-hour bus ride north to Tiberias where we were to stay in an Israeli religious kibbutz. A kibbutz is a small village, as self-contained as possible, with farms, factories, schools, etc. This one has 650 residents and 125 families. In a religious kibbutz, Jewish religious law is strictly followed, so when we arrived at 6:30 PM on Saturday, the Sabbath, the gate was closed and our bus was not allowed to drive in. The guard at the gate called the manager of the hotel and he said we could walk in and wait in the hotel, but they couldn't serve us until about 8:30 PM when the Sabbath had officially ended. (Officially the Sabbath is over after sunset when the first three stars are visible.) We left our luggage in the bus and went to the hotel lobby where they served us grapefruit and orange juice and some pastries. Then a young woman took us on a walking tour of the kibbutz, being warned by the manager not to bring us back until about 9:15 PM so the hotel kitchen would have time to prepare us dinner since their laws against working on the Sabbath do not allow them to cook.

Tiberias--On Sunday we had our first day of touring, visiting the sites where Jesus taught the Beatitudes, where he fed the five thousand with the loaves and fishes, where he proclaimed Peter as the Rock upon which the church would be built, and then on to Nazareth and Mount Tabor, the site of the Transfiguration. Poriya One of the young deaf men had several nose bleeds during that first day and started coughing blood so when we returned to the hotel, we called the hotel doctor who told us to take him to Poriya Hospital emergency room.  We got there about 10:00 PM and he was admitted.  I stayed overnight with him because he did not know English or Hebrew and the nurse did not know any Chinese. At 6:30 AM, I went back to the hotel at Kibbutz Lavi to see the group who were leaving for Jerusalem that morning.  After they left, I took a shower and went back to the hospital to be present for the doctors' further examination of our patient.  They said that he would have to wait until the bleeding (from the back of his nose, trickling into his lungs) would stop, and then wait another 24 hours before he could leave. It turned out the bleeding didn't stop until Thursday.  Meanwhile, the deaf man--who wasn't sick and felt OK--was getting very bored and restless. I would try to get him out of the hospital and walk around the grounds, but it was too hot for much of that. I stayed with him every day from about 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, and then would leave him a handful of shekels so he could buy cokes and ice cream from the machines during the night. I had to take a taxi each morning and evening to and from the kibbutz, and after a day or so, the taxi drivers (with mobile phones in their Mercedes) would answer: "Ah, is that you Charlie? I'll be right there!" The packing was removed from the deaf man's nose on Thursday, but then the doctors said he could not fly without a doctor accompanying him because the low pressure in the plane cabins aggravated the bleeding. We contacted a medical evacuation service and arranged for a doctor from Hong Kong to accompany the deaf man and I back to Hong Kong. In the meanwhile, the deaf pilgrimage group had already gone on to Lourdes in France. On Saturday the doctor arrived and I took him to the hospital to see the patient and get acquainted. On Sunday morning I went back to the hospital and did all the paperwork to check him out. The hospital wouldn't accept his Blue Cross travel insurance so I put the $5300 bill on my MasterCard, not having any idea what kind of limit I had on it! At 4:00 PM, the doctor and I picked up the patient at the hospital and drove him a van to the Tel Aviv airport for an El Al flight to Hong Kong via Bombay. The doctor was wearing his medical evac shirt and that got us through the really tough security quickly. The plane left at 10:00 PM. We were in business class so the doctor would have room to work, if need be. We got to Bombay at 6:45 AM and had only an hour on the ground so no one was allowed to leave the plane. One of the cabin crew forgot to disarm the automatic escape system on the door in business class, and when the pilot threw the switch during the shutdown procedures, the door blew open and the escape slide inflated. I was standing right by the door and got quite a surprise! Probably under US FAA rules the plane would not have been allowed to continue without a slide, but the crew decided just to detach and leave the inflated slide and replace it in HK. When we got to HK on Monday evening, the evac service had another van waiting for us and we went straight to a HK hospital emergency room for a routine check. The deaf man was doing OK and his mother was there, so I only stayed thirty minutes and then went back to the airport where a travel agent was waiting with another ticket for me. I got on a flight to Zurich and landed there on Tuesday morning and changed planes for Rome where I arrived at 11:30 AM. The travel agent had someone meet me and take me to the hotel for a shower, and at 2:15 PM, the deaf group's tour bus came by and picked me up for a mass at St. John Lateran. Quite a trip--I flew almost continuously Tel Aviv/Bombay/Hong Kong/Zurich/Rome in 39 hours.

Kibbutz Lavi--The Jewish community at Kibbutz Lavi could not have been any nicer to me during my week with them. One morning they sent flowers to the deaf man in the hospital, then a basket of fruit, and each night they would inquire about him and ask if they could hlep me in any way. They went out of their way to make rooms available for me and the doctor because normally they would be fully booked on the Sabbath for the religious services. The Sabbath begins on Friday evening with a candle-lighting service for the women and a ceremony in the synagogue, followed by a meal cooked earlier. The hotel phones are not answered during the Sabbath and at midnight all electricity is cut off except in the bathrooms. Luckily, outsiders are able to dial on a special number directly to guest rooms so I was able to receive the doctor's phone call when he arrived from Tel Aviv, and I went to meet him at the main gate where his van had to wait. On Saturday evening, there are more services to end the Sabbath followed by an all-dairy products meal. It was a really fortunate opportunity for me to be able to stay the full week with this wonderful group of people and learn more of their history, traditions, and practices. If you ever plan to visit Israel and stay in the Tiberias area, plan to stay at Kibbutz Lavi. In 1996 I stayed at the Tiberias Holiday Inn when on sabbatical there, and there is no comparison! If you can't go there personally, at least look at their home page.

Jerusalem--I never made it to Jerusalem myself on this trip, but before leaving HK, I had contacted a Jewish deaf friend there and arranged for the group to visit the Jerusalem deaf club their last night there. I'm sorry I missed that because the group told me they really enjoyed the experience, learning each other's sign language, meeting new friends, etc.

Lourdes--I have never been to Lourdes and was looking forward to this opportunity but by the time I got the deaf man back to HK, the pilgrimage group was making its way to Rome at the same time I was. They had an exceptionally good experience at Lourdes. A calm, peaceful, spiritual experience. I would love to have shared it with them.