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Heather's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 8/20/00 -------------------- 8/19/00 8/18/00 8/17/00 8/15/00 8/14/00 8/12/00 8/11/00 8/11/00 8/10/00 8/10/00 8/10/00 8/9/00 8/7/00 8/6/00 8/5/00 -------------------- Heather's Introduction

August 15, 2000

Today I decided to go meet dad in town for lunch. Obviously, we decided on a place in the Old City. It was just inside Jaffa Gate and was called "Nafourah," which means fountain in Arabic. It was a really nice place and the food was wonderful. We decided on the Mezzeh, which usually feeds about three to four people. We figured we could eat it. The Mezzeh is about 10 different dishes, and it allows you to try all the ethnic foods at once! It was great. We had falafel, hummous, Pita, eggplant salad, turkey salad, tahini with mint leaves, tomato and cucumber salad, and much more! We had a great time, and were stuffed when we walked out of there.

On our way out we stopped in to say hi to Jackie and his cousin, quickly. When dad had to head back to work, I decided to hang around the New City for a little while. I still had some shopping to do for some people and so I spent my time looking at gift ideas for them.

I caught a ride back home with dad around 5 p.m. when he got off work. We changed and ate dinner so that we could go down to the Art Fair that was taking place with Raquel. It had just opened the night before. Raquel (who is an artist) had been looking forward to this for quite some time. I am glad that it was happening while I was still there.

We left home at 8 p.m., because that is when it started. It was taking place down in this area called ‘Sultan’s Pool’ which is a huge dry pool just outside the Old City. It sits very low in comparison to the Old City, and the road above it. You have to walk down tons of stairs to get into it. Anyway, it’s hard to describe, if you have never seen something like this. It is much like the pools of Bethesda that I described earlier, only MUCH, MUCH bigger!

The fair had many Israeli artists featuring their work in booths all through the pool and also they had an entire area dedicated to the International Artists that come special just for this fair! I happened upon a booth that had prints of paintings by a local artist. The paintings were mostly of doorways, houses and windows, some of the very things that I LOVE about Jerusalem. I bought a few of his prints as gifts, and one for myself.

One of the first International exhibits that we came upon was from Peru, and it was called ‘The Man from Sipan." We had no idea what the exhibit was about, even though they had been advertising it for the past four months. Apparently, on an excavation, they found the burial ground of the Lord of Sipan, and replicated it for the fair in Israel. I pulled a brochure and read about it. It read: "The Sipan Exhibition, Jerusalem"

"The Lord of Sipan belonged to the Mochica civilization -- An ancient culture that flourished in the northern coastal area of Peru between the 1st and 7th centuries AD. The Lord was presumably a very important character of the region, probably a ruler of great majesty.

His figure with all his jewelry are a representation of how it was believed he dressed in ceremonial occasions, which is why he was buried with these garments. Buried with all the honors, the Lord of Sipan according to beliefs of that time, was accompanied to his next life by his wife (who lies at the feet of the funerary container), the High priest (who is at his left), his personal bodyguard (who lies at his right), the two concubines or mistresses (who lie at his head). His servant was placed on the wall and the tomb guardian’s feet were amputated to symbolize that he can never leave the tomb.

All these characters committed suicide as to honor and accompany the Lord of Sipan on his journey to the after life."

The replicated tomb area was square in shape and you could see how each body was laid out. The purpose in their places was explained in the brochure. He was found with all of his jewelry or possessions, much like the ancient Egyptians in the Pyramids. That is really what it reminded me of. Anyway, it was a really wonderful exhibit, and very informative.

We wandered into a booth that had artwork from Uzbekistan, Russia. Raquel was drawn to a certain painting and wanted to find out how much it is. It was a very interesting painting, with the focal point being a person's face. It was very distinct. We decided to ask the man that was manning the booth, who it was, and he said that it was himself, and he was the artist! He showed us how, in all of his paintings, he incorporated his face, somehow, even if he wasn't painting people. We figured that this may be some type of unique signature for each painting because later we couldn't find his written signature ANYWHERE! After much debate, my dad told my sister he would buy it for her! She was ecstatic.

My dad decided to ask this man for his card because we figured he lived in Israel. He said, "What? You're going to call me in Uzbekistan?" Like, "Are you crazy?" Anyway, we laughed and told him it was a misunderstanding, but it was amazing that he traveled all the way from Russia just for the week-long art fair!

Well, we visited every booth in that fair I think, but the most interesting ones were Kenya, Peru and Morocco. I ended up buying a hand-painted ceramic bowl from the Kenya booth because I love African art, especially Kenyan art! It’s intriguing. Even the booth itself was most interesting. I had dad take a picture of Raquel and I in front of it.

After we finished up there we went back to the China and Thailand booths where they had some type of play going on. Raquel and I wanted to see it, so we stopped for a while. I think they were trying to portray the struggle between good and evil. The woman, representing good, and the man, evil.

We had a blast and came home with our treasures to show mom! It was so much fun.