Here’s a picture of the whale fountain in Jaffa, Israel.

In the Even Shoshan area, go find the intersection one corner of which is where you will see the famous Victory Ice Cream House.

Enter the street opposite the ice cream parlor, go straight through it and you will not miss (hopefully) this gargantuan stone model of the biblical whale. (Go straight further and you will reach the Jaffa Port area.)

I call the whale Jonas, which of course is a name of whale's co-protagonist in their own biblical story.

Still I am naming the whale Jonas just the same since the prophet himself does not have his own statue anyway (here in Jaffa at least).

Is the sea setting in the story of Jonas and the whale the Mediteranean sea near Jaffa?

In celebration of the Philippine Independence day last June 12, 2006, the Embassy hosted an event called the Sagala or Parade of Traditional Costumes and Food Bazaar at the Hayarkon Park, in Tel Aviv.

The Parade showcased various traditional costumes grouped into tribal, pre-colonial and colonial, and the socio-cultural types. Members of various Filipino communities in Israel participated in the parade, most of them from the Asian Ladies, the Jerusalem Group, and the Viz-Min Association of Israel. Even our Filipino agricultural students training at the Arava International Center for Agricultural Training in Arava, Israel arrived for the affair.

All tried to outdo each other, doing their best in presenting the costumes assigned to them. And why wouldn’t they? Prizes for the groups with the best presentation of costumes are dinners with the Ambassador Antonio Modena and Consul General Norman Uriel Garibay, not to mention cool audio appliances.

The parade covered much of the park in front of the Embassy, and many Israelis likewise got to witness the event, and were impressed with how colorful and festive Filipinos celebrate their holidays.

I finished my high school at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. Most would say that a person’s happiest years – some of those were spent during high school. It was also true in my case. For me, High School was not so much about learning, but more of an exciting part of a young person’s formative years. I was never a serious academic student then, but was instead more leaning on the extracurricular activities that high school offered. High School afforded me great opportunities to build lasting friendships and relationships, which I took full advantage.

As a Catholic School, UST HS has in its curriculum religion subjects, this apart from the weekly Bible Studies that students have to attend as well as the weekly hearing of masses. We students have our hands full of religious activities during the month of October, which is the Rosary Month, and the time when the procession of La Naval is held.

I remember our religion classes tackling everything about Catholicism such as Seven Holy Sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation and so on), heaven and hell, The Holy Trinity, The Blessed Virgin Mary, The Holy Spirit (notice the “Holy” word is quite frequently used), Jesus Christ, the angels, the devils, Satan. And oh, heaven and hell wouldn’t be without Purgatory.

I wrote on this topic because I was really wondering on whether we also discussed even if broadly about Judaism and Israel. Did we? Because we are Catholics - and Judaism is whole different religion.

But if I were to think now about anything that I might have learned about them in High School, the term Israelites first comes into my mind, and how as a people they were forced to go to exile. And that they were led by Moses away from the hardship in Egypt.

I also knew from our Bible lessons that Jacob was given the new name of Israel. I also remember about the 12 tribes of Israel. Which were actually the 12 sons of Jacob, the most popular (I think, as they are the ones I can remember for now) of which were Joseph and Benjamin.

Another is that Jesus Christ was often referred to as the King of the Jews. I thought then that the Jews must be so very special – they have Jesus only for themselves. And who would think otherwise, with all the miracles and blessings as well as the protection God provided them from the plagues and in their exodus from Egypt – the Israelites are indeed the Chosen Ones.

Come to think of it, Moses is a Jew, right? And so is Jesus (He is King of the Jews, so definitely He is one). And the apostles and disciples, they are Jews too.

So indeed, in all the religion subjects of my four years in High School, we did discuss so much about the Jews albeit not really delve into the Jewish religion. We have to learn about them because, they were there – I mean the Biblical characters are Jews. (Which leads me to another question – were there already Catholics during the time of Jesus?)

Sorting through some of my Jerusalem pics, I discovered that I have yet to post any of my pics of the Safra Square in West Jerusalem.

The plaza was dominantly of polished stone - - there was a stone flatform at one end of the squre. It was very spacious, which was seemingly more evident the time we were there as the area was devoid of people and only had our group loitering around. We literally had the square all for ourselves.

Within the square area, we chanced upon the Pears and Apples Restaurant. And upon inquiring if shawarma is in their menu, we learned that it was only serving Italian (pasta) dishes. Surprisingly I noticed there were more people inside Pears and Apples than the square itself.

In front of the square is the Jerusalem Municipal building, the City Hall - while a sizable part of the square is planted with tall palm trees.

The city hall, with all its magnificence in size and stature, was so quiet and projected a rather melancholic image – perhaps because the place was close as we visited on a non-working day. Nonetheless, I am sure that normal days see the building filled with the locals of Jerusalem doing personal, business or other related transactions with the city hall.

Artists’ area, street mall, open-air concert area – these are some of the descriptions tagged to the Nachalat Binyamin Street in Tel-Aviv. Everyday except Tuesday and Friday, the Nachalat is like any other ordinary streets in Tel-Aviv.

But the claustrophobics be warned, avoid going on any of these two days, as the street become totally crowded with Israelis and tourists alike. Nachalat Binyamin becomes alive with stalls lining up both sides, selling all sorts of art items such as handicrafts, bottles molded and transformed into clocks, wooden blocks and puzzles, glass figurines, paintings, and musical instruments, to name some.

Just wander around the area and you will enjoy pantomime performers, Latino band, jugglers, and clown and comic acts – these are regulars at Nachalat.

It is easy to get to Nachalat – you can enter it through Allenby Street. It is also parallel to the Carmel Street. This is the reason why we do our market chores either Tuesday or Friday. We really enjoy roaming around Nachalat Binyamin - there is just so much to see.

Last week saw the meeting of the Asian Ladies, a small and informal gathering of a group of Asian women diplomats and officers, wives of diplomat, and lady workers in Israel.

The meeting is a monthly affair, with every country given its turn to host the event and also be able to showcase its unique culture. While in the past, the ladies meet at Tel Aviv, now the gathering was held at Hod Hasharon, a city located at the Central District of Israel. And because it is the Philippines' turn to be the host country, many of our caregivers attended, some coming from as far as the cities of Jerusalem and Haifa.

The highlight of the country's cultural presentation is a feature of some of the country's ethnic dances as performed by the Jerusalem dancers. Everyone was also treated to a mini fashion show on native costumes and gowns. There was also a display and sale of jewelries, mostly mother-of-pearl pieces.

The Asian Ladies, thru their regular meetings, aim to foster and strengthen solidarity among the Asian women in Israel.

Posted here are some more pictures taken as the embassy group and I went up the Temptation Mountain. We were told that the cable cars that transport tourists to and from the mountain “regularly” go out of order. So I guess we were quite lucky that the cable cars were running during our visit. Otherwise, we would not be able to check on the sites in the mountain, especially the monastery – as no one would dare go up via the mountain trail.

It was a long climb up the Mountain of Temptation just to reach the monastery. Its site supposed to be the place where Jesus stayed for a period of prayer and fasting. It is also where Jesus was tempted and seduced by the devil, to no avail. From the monastery, we had a great view of the city of Jericho.

While I was at Jericho, I did feel the place proudly living up to its label of being the oldest city of the world. I appreciate it so much how the city is secure in presenting (and preserving) a laid-back and rustic image – so unlike the modern and more fast-paced cities in Israel such as Tel-Aviv and even Jerusalem.

I was pleasantly surprised with the attention we got in Temptation Mountain from the Palestinian youth, especially the young school girls.

Most trained their eyes on us - delighted, fascinated even to see the unfamiliar faces in us. While some were content in throwing glances of wonder and apparent admiration(albeit I thought we are being observed critically), others were bold enough to introduce themselves and ask for our names and where we came from. We obliged to some requests to have our pictures.

The Palestinian children are one happy lot. Most are going their normal way. This despite the continuing conflict existing between their country and Israel, making them easy target of violence and hardship. These children are seemingly oblivious to this kind of reality that embraces them (or perhaps have come to accept it).

I have to say that my brief encounter with them made me realize that the conflict between Palestine and Israel is an exigency that must be resolved as soon as possible. For the sake of the Palestinian youth, and the youth of Israel.

Jericho may be the City of Palm Trees. But it is not a palm tree that we went to visit before leaving for Tel Aviv – but a sycamore tree.

The Bible tells the story of how Zaccheus, being short and could not see through the crowd, climbed up the sycamore tree just to see Jesus as He passed through Jericho before going to Jerusalem. Jericho saw Zaccheus' effort and decided to accept the invitation to dine with the tax collector in his house. Zaccheus was a sinner and cheated people of their money. His encounter with Jesus made him repent and give up his riches to the poor.

Upon arriving at the place, everyone rushed to get off the bus to have the first check of the fabled tree. There was a marker with the biblical claims. So does this make the sycamore tree the distinction of being the sole living witness to Jesus during His life on earth?

I would have asked the caretaker of the tree about the validity of the claims but he was busy trying to sell sycamore tree postcards to us for 5 shekels (but made some sale only when he lowered the price to 2).

The sun was hot and beating up real hard, I decided not to insist on a quick stop to Jerusalem, which would otherwise have made my day. Nonetheless, with Jericho and its sites, and the surprisingly hospitable and good-natured locals – it was a very enriching day for everyone.