After traveling non-stop for several years, we paused to restock the financial cupboards in Greensboro, North Carolina, where Brent worked as a contract engineer on commercial aircraft modifications. In July of 1999, Brent got a job offer to go to Israel to work on the same project, but as the Project Engineer. Since we had already planned on leaving North Carolina the next spring to head up the East Coast and continue our travels, why not take our travels overseas?
Okay, the trailer doesn’t float or fly very well, so we had to pack it up and put it in storage. Originally we planned to store it in North Carolina, but things got complicated and crazy, so we hauled it cross country to Oklahoma, where Brent’s parents could keep an eye on it. For the six weeks from the first offer to boarding the plane, it was a crazy six weeks as we packed up our life on the road and raced across the US to jump on a plane to Israel. Four years later, we are still living in Israel and the temporary job keeps going on.
Where is Israel? We had to look it up, too. Israel is on the east end of the Mediterranean Sea just below Lebanon and Turkey. Lebanon is to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east and south, Egypt to the south. Pieces of Israel are “set aside” as part of the Palestinian area under Israel “protection” and control. The capital of Israel is Jerusalem, but Tel Aviv, where we live, hosts much of the business entities in Israel.
In world history, it is a “new” nation, getting official recognition in 1948. There is a lot of talk and some action to make peace between Israel and Palestine. When you watch the news it looks like horrible things are happening in Israel. From our perspective, it might as well be happening in New York when we lived in Seattle. Even though there may be protests, bomb threats, or other disturbances, they are far from us and we often don’t even know about them until days later. Israel is one of the safest places we’ve lived. You can walk the streets just about anywhere in the city at any time of night without fear. For the most part, the people can be really helpful and wonderful individually. We have a lot of stories to share about our adventures in Israel in our Telling Zone.