TRIP TO EUROPE, ISRAEL & CYPRUS!--Sept.1970-May 1971     DO 2799-2        1971
--21 years ago!
--Dad's Description of Slides!--Part 2!

The German Convent!

         1. This fellow associates with Reds, like this red Arab (Afif in red shirt!), who, despite the fact that he was in a German Catholic convent--the only man in the convent outside of the Father--was very popular with all the girls! Well, he was not a nun, neither was he a monk. He wasn't even a choir boy. He was just rooming & boarding there in this very hospitable German convent in Haifa. The dear little sister there on his left is not German, although it's a German convent, but she was an Arab, a Christian. And of course the boy in the middle in red is an Arab & he had been a Muslim. His name was Afif, the boy who wanted to come to school in America.
         2. And the dear little old lady that looks obviously Jewish standing on his right was Jewish! She looks typically American Jewish, & that's exactly what she was. In fact, she was from Florida. And it turned out we used to know her & she used to know us, sad to say. And it was really quite a breach of security for anybody in such a dangerous business as ours! But she was very friendly & very talkative & she never asked many questions because she did most of the talking. She could talk for three or four hours straight without even drawing a breath. Well, without hardly stopping anyway. And she roomed & boarded at this convent, not because it was such a nice Christian atmosphere or because it was Catholic--because she was Pentecostal--but because it was dirt cheap.
         3. Here's the happy family in the convent! They used to invite us over there for dinner quite often & we often accepted because that meant it was free, & no Jew ever turns down anything that's free! So there we are having dinner with a Jewish Christian, & the man sitting on the other side of the table, a recently converted Muslim, Afif, now in his white turtleneck, a very handsome lady-killer, & our dear little sister under the Christmas tree. This was the Christmas celebration & we were about to have a Christmas party with Father Charles.
         4. Dear Afif was rooming & boarding at the convent, & besides the pretty girls who liked him there, to his dismay he discovered that the dear Father also liked him, & a little too much, & this kind of hurt his faith in Christianity, sad to say. We tried to tell him that you don't have to blame this on religion because that wasn't Jesus' fault, & to still keep his faith in the Lord & not worry about the church. And I think he finally may have gotten the point. He was very fond of this cute little American girl you see there (Maria), & always following her around, trying to do things for her & wanting to go places with her, which she kind of enjoyed.
         5. Here's another picture of the Christmas celebration with the nuns waiting on us at that delicious, delightful Christmas dinner. It really was very enjoyable fellowship because even though there was a mixture of Arabs, Jews & Christians, & Americans, it was kind of a happy time celebrating. They even appreciated Christmas in a foreign country, one where Christmas is almost ignored completely & played down. But here's a guy that's playing it up!--A little Jewish music at Christmas time. He was a Jew, still is a Jew, I guess, & had not accepted Christ as yet. But he was willing to come to the Christmas dinner, because, as I said, what Jew refuses anything that's free!
         6. And this happy threesome happens to be our dear friend Afif again in red--he keeps changing his shirt--& Father Charles--you can see that crafty look in his eye--the local Catholic priest, and behind, that lovely rich-looking American girl with her arms around both of them. (Maria!)
         7. And here's the Jewish threesome giving a Christmas toast! Here, sitting with me we have Father Charles, & then also giving a Christmas toast, a very pretty little bevy of Israeli beauties in the background, all of them Arabs, one Muslim & two Christians. You'll see more of them soon. And here's a typical little mini-skirted American with a couple of others. Here's the Jewish Christian Pentecostal lady in the middle, who got so fed up with Israel while we were there, she said she didn't want to be a prisoner any longer & be treated like a prisoner! She still had her American passport & she was going to get out of that country & never come back. She was very much disappointed in Israel because it was so anti-Christ & anti-Christian & nothing like she had expected it to be. She had gone there to retire. And the little girl beside her is named Saud.
         8. And here we are in the pastor's study having another toast. It seemed like all they did was toast at Christmastime, & a good time was had by all! Afif is always hamming it up, & he loves to do it, as you noticed on that tape we made of him.
         9. That cute little girl right next to our dear Father Charles is ... what was her name? Yes, that's Saud there & she's the Muslim, an Arab, but she lives there so she can go to school at this Christian German convent run by Arab women, nuns, oddly enough, quite a mixture! And that's Waffa right next to her, who was an Orthodox Christian.
         10. Well, ahem, those two are really getting friendly now, those two red-shirted ones (Maria & Afif), & Father Charles looks a little disappointed to be so far away, but he's standing by some pretty girls anyway. Here are the three Arab girls, two Christians & one Muslim. The Muslim is in the long grey coat, the other two are Christians. You can't really tell much difference, they all look pretty sweet, but there was a difference, as you can notice by the gleam in her eye! She is the Muslim, the one with the gleam in her eye.
         11. And here (above) are the two cute little maids who lived there, waitresses who waited on tables & washed the dishes, with another very cute little maid in the middle (Maria)!
         12. And here are those two Arab girls again with that Jew (Dad) in the background underneath the Christmas tree. Now, those are the kind of Christmas presents that would be welcome under any man's tree!
         13. Here they are again. And our little Waffa has consented to play us an Arab tune for Christmas, along with the American tourist (Maria), & Saud & Frieda.
         14. And here Saud is giving this little dance, while Waffa plays & Frieda claps. It was Arab music & this was quite a cute little provocative kind of a Mideastern dance that she did, & they enjoyed doing it for us. Notice the typical Arab souvenirs in the background, the camel, etc. Here she is doing her little dance, which consisted mostly of wiggling her hips around & kind of prancing around on the floor. Very cute. The one dancing is the Muslim, the other two are Christians, as you may be able to tell by the looks in their eyes. They were very sweet girls & we witnessed to them about the Lord & they were very much interested in our way of life, & we're hoping that they may yet get interested enough to come to TSC. Of course, most of these people can't afford to come, it costs too much money. It costs'm a fortune, & almost a double fortune because they have to pay nearly as much tax on the ticket to get out of the country as they do for the ticket!
         15. Here they are looking at some of your pictures, particularly interested in the babies, of course, like most girls, & very interested in the way of life.--Although their life over there out in the country in the villages isn't too much different from the way we live, rather agricultural. They live very naturally & are very sweet girls, wonderful girls, we enjoyed their fellowship. They spoke fairly good English since they were going to high school there, & doing a very good job. Education is almost worshipped by people in those countries because it's their only hope of getting out of the treadmill of virtual slavery of just the most menial kind of tasks, especially for the women.
         16. Aha! A Christmas kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas-time!--And it looks like she's already going limp!

Local Arab Caf!

         17. And here we have quite an interesting group in the local Arab caf! We consorted mainly with Arabs because they are the poor downtrodden underdogs of Israel and the most friendly and hospitable, and they arouse your sympathy more than anybody, and also because nearly all of them are Christians; therefore they are very friendly. Most of them speak English, having been to schools where they could learn it, and the little boy beside the American tourist in the background was the dishwasher. It's nothing uncommon for young boys of 10, 12 or 13 years of age to be working hard all day mopping floors, washing dishes, cleaning off tables, etc. They don't know anything about child labour laws in that part of the World, or if they have any, they don't pay much attention to them.
         18. As you can see by his stance, the gentleman in the foreground in his lovely sweater is the owner of the caf along with his brother, whose name was Moshe, meaning Moses. They were both Arabs and Christians, what they call Greek Orthodox Christians. The young man in the center background next to the little boy, his name was Robert. He spoke very good English and had worked with American tourists a great deal. He was very interested in our School and very anxious to come to the U.S. if he could ever earn enough money; but he wasn't doing very well, working just as a dishwasher also.
         19. But the other boy, Anami, the very handsome young man in the coat & the white turtleneck, was very sweet and very friendly and very intelligent. He is very interested also in our schools and he claimed to be a Christian and seemed very sweet. He was interested, but there's so little hope for them ever being able to get out of Israel, that it is almost a hopeless affair. They're kept there virtually as prisoners, they can't leave unless they get a permit to go, and they can't go unless they've got a very good reason, like to go to study at some good school, something that will be good for Israel. And even then they can't afford to go unless they have an awful lot of money to pay for all those heavy taxes on their tickets, etc.

Some Arab Families

         20. Here are some Arab children sitting on the ground playing in front of their little Arab shack. And we never could quite figure out this little shanty here, it seemed to have several women living there with one man, & of course the Arabs, particularly the Muslims, are permitted to have more than one wife, & this is legal in Israel. They claim some of them were just friends, but I don't know. There's a sexy older girl in the background there with the holes in her stockings, sitting out front making eyes at us! I had a funny feeling like they had more business in that little hut than met the eye!
         21. But we did meet a little girl that came over to visit who turned out to be a Christian. I don't know if she is in here or not. But the girl who came over to visit us there, I forgot her name, she spoke fluent English--sorry, she's not in the picture--she had been trained in a Baptist school & was very much interested in what we had to say about our way of life, etc., & already claimed to know the Lord.
         22. This family of 23 live in this small house of not much more than a room! An Arab family, of course. Jews don't treat their own that way. They do that to the Arabs over there. And the Arabs are thankful to get whatever they can get. As you can see, they seem to be fairly happy in spite of it all, & very friendly, very sweet. Even though most of them couldn't speak English, because they were apparently not educated where they could learn English, they always tried to be so hospitable & loved to have their pictures taken. Nearly all the women & the children that were at home came out for their pictures to be taken.

George the Glasses Maker!

         23. Well, here is a bad-looking Jew (Dad) with a good-looking guy whose business is looking good! What was his name?--George! The guy without the glasses is George. But the guy without the glasses makes glasses, & that's why he's such a good looker & helps you to be good-looking, too. And he made us a nice pair of glasses to read all that fine print you were writing us for only $10, the equivalent of $10, which is fairly reasonable for a pair of glasses. He had a little sidewalk shop right out there on the sidewalk, no fancy equipment, no big chairs or optometric equipment, etc., he just would try on different pairs of glasses. First of all he had a little thing that fitted on a pair of glasses that he changed lenses on till he found the right lens that you could read comfortably by on this little paper chart, & then he picked out that particular lens & made you a pair of glasses out of them. Very simple. Very cheap. He turned out to be a Spanish Jew, believe it or not, & was very friendly. He wanted us to come up & see him at his home, but we didn't have time because we were about to leave.

Walking Water!

         24. You've heard about walking on the water in Israel? Well, here's some walking water! This lady apparently was carrying a bucket of water to her domicile not far away, because some of the Arabs live in rather primitive conditions, although Israel is very industrious, trying to work things out so that everybody will have some housing. They always give the Arabs the worst of everything.

Meals in Israel!

         25. Well, here we are, back up at breakfast again, eating our hot cereal made with hot water & a little mush & everything thrown into it. Oh, no, this is supper! Yes, I can see by the cans, we're eating our delicious little supper made out of canned corned beef & canned corn & mashed potatoes. We just mixed'm all up in the same tin can & made a very delicious, sumptuous Jewish dinner--very Jewish because it was so damn cheap! Thank God! And that Jew in the striped pants there (Dad), he's looking rather skeptically at his dinner, but he enjoyed it! That was the way we ate most of our dinners there because it was so cheap to eat that way.
         26. Here we are eating a typical Arab hamburger! Only that is not hamburger, that is what is known as a felafel!--That he's got his big mouth open ready to take a hunk out of! Those little nutballs are made out of ground chick peas stuffed with green parsley, & then deep fried real fast, real crisp, & they're absolutely delicious! And this pita, which is a kind of large hollow bun, is filled up with all kinds of delicious salad and hummus, which is another kind of a ground paste like a peanut butter, only made out of cooked chick peas, olive oil, garlic and crushed sesame seeds. And oh, the stuff was just absolutely delicious!--Makes my mouth water to even think about it right now! Besides the fact that these were so delicious, they were so cheap! They only cost about 10-20 Cents!--And really delicious!

Cyprus!
         27. Well, here we've run into that mysterious character again! (Dad!) This time he seems to be disguised as a Cypriot, although he doesn't seem to look too much different even with that blue jacket on and those cheap green Israeli trousers that he bought for only five bucks! You see the stuff nearly falling out of the pockets all the time. I see my wallet ready to fall, and I almost lost it several times until someone fixed it with a couple of buttons. But anyhow, the beautiful water that you see there is the gorgeous blue Mediterranean of Cyprus, where the Apostle Paul went for a stop on his first missionary journey. And this guy is not the Apostle Paul, not by any means. He never could be, according to Paul's writings. He's fonder of women and thinks more highly of them.
         28. As you can see here, it says "Welcome to the Turkish Old City of Famagusta," & that's where those American tourists stopped over while they were passing through. Only this guy, this very handsome, dark-haired, typical Mideasterner is not a tourist, nor an American, he happens to be a genuine full-blooded handsome Turkish policeman in plain clothes by the name of Mustafa.--In fact, Mustafa Ali, which, of course, is a very amazing rare name to you, but is the name of almost every Turk you meet in Cyprus--Mustafa Ali. Mustafa Ali Something-Else.
         29. This is the very sweet & friendly, hospitable, handsome Turkish policeman, plainclothesman, who gave us a tour of the Old City of Famagusta. Now actually, only the city within these great walls that you see is the actual city of Famagusta. The other modern city outside the walls is really supposed to be Varosha, but everybody calls the whole thing Famagusta now.
         30. This young man met us as we were trying to find a way to get through the walls, in fact, trying to find a way to cross the moat! And we couldn't find any way & he talked to us in very good English, & was so friendly. He had his little boy with him & little girl in his arms, & I'm sorry we didn't get a good picture of the family. But the girl was sick & we prayed for her & she was better, thank the Lord. And the little boy was very interested in things we were telling them about America. Everybody thinks America is Heaven on Earth, & it's their goal & dreamland! Everybody in the World wants to go to America.
         31. He took us on three days of tours of that old city & around the old walls & everything, three different afternoons. We'd always take a walk in the afternoon, we'd come over & he'd meet us & take us around. And he was so nice & never wanted a penny. Well, we just couldn't give him any money, he'd refuse because he'd be insulted. He did it as a friendly thing. But he did say, "If you ever find any books about America that are easy for my little boy to read, that's what we'd appreciate most." So we went & bought a whole bunch of books, one or two about America, mostly about Bible stories & about little boys in the Bible, etc., & gave them to his son, & I'm sure they were greatly appreciated.
         32. There's our shy little American tourist (Maria) sitting next to this handsome Turk! (See pic on page 8.) They are really something, these people! They are so handsome! They've got that rich colour, that tan skin, & that beautiful thick black hair & those gorgeous brown eyes & those beaming smiles, enough to make any little girl's heart go a-twitter!

The Walled City of Famagusta
         33. Here is one of the World's most famous & best-preserved walled cities, & one of the few in the World which is still occupied by a population, in this case, entirely Turkish!--Totally Turkish! This walled city had a population of about 5-6,000, all Turks, due to the fact that they had a civil war in Cyprus some years back. First of all the Cypriots fought a war against the British, who at that time owned Cyprus, having gotten it from the Turks years before. It was inhabited at the time by about 80% Greeks & about 20% Turks.
         34. As long as the British were in control they kept peace between them, but then the Greeks began to fight against the British being there at all, trying to throw out the British & get their own independent government, & they finally succeeded. In the meantime, when the British began to lose control, the Turks & the Greeks began to fight amongst themselves & they had a terrible war! It was just like neighbours fighting neighbours 'cause it's such a small country, almost everybody knows everybody. Incidentally, you can't tell a Greek from a Turk by the looks of them, only by the language. They all look alike.
         35. Oh yes, notice the Turkish flag flying? It means this was an enclave, strictly Turkish territory, a warning to any Greeks to stay out. These areas where you see the red flag are strictly Turkish & no Greeks are allowed to enter. In fact, they might get shot if they do. The war has not ended, but there's a kind of truce between the Greeks & the Turks in which they have agreed to stop fighting, but the Turks within these walls are a law unto themselves. Not even the Greek police can enter, even to chase criminals. Drugs are widely sold, & that's why all the hippies go into the walled city of Famagusta to get their drugs & live there where it is very cheap. You can get a room for five Shillings a night, which is about 60 Cents, & they can smoke hashish.
         36. You don't see any women on the streets. Hardly any self-respecting woman in Cyprus would get caught walking down the street alone, she would be considered a bad woman. They hardly ever let the women out of their houses, except in the daytime to go shopping or something.
         37. That's the moat down below. You notice the moat, down there, the green part? It has a ditch in the bottom. Now this originally was filled up with water. You see that gateway, that big arched doorway there? That was where the drawbridge was. The bridge came across almost to there and ended, unless they let down the drawbridge by a mechanism which was inside. And that big ditch in the bottom was to keep people from trying to walk across the moat. If they did, they suddenly came to a spot where there wasn't anything to step on and would sink and drown, because it used to be filled with water in the days when it was defended.
         38. And here in the next photo is a knight in armour with his lance in hand ready to joust & defend the ancient walled city of Famagusta! (Dad!) He's in the bottom of the moat with his fencing jacket on. The little road running around through there was very beautiful, just like a park, & he's standing up against the wall, to show you what the wall was like. It's 50, 60, 75 feet high in places. You can get very dizzy looking down when you're on top, but it's very beautiful there, just like a park all the way around the city. This had been the Turks' defense against being far outnumbered by the Greeks, & that was the only way they managed to save their lives, because they were in a total war of extermination. The Greeks were going to completely wipe the Turks off the island, just absolutely massacre them, sad to say! Notice those beautiful trees bent the way the wind blows from the sea. That arched passageway you see in the distance is the walkway, the bridge across the moat into the city.
         39. Here he's pointing at a cannon ball embedded in the wall. If you look close enough, just above the point of his foil (umbrella) is a huge cannon ball about 8-10 inches in diameter, embedded in the wall right near that palm tree. This is what the walled cities looked like in ancient times. This one was built hundreds of years ago. First the French controlled it, then the Venetians, & later the Turks captured it. The French kings built this beautiful city during the Crusades as one of their bastions or stopover places, kind of a headquarters on their way to Israel to try to take the land of Israel away from the heathen, the Saracens & the Turks, etc.
         40. The Lord told me I could have learned more about this city from Him, if we wanted to, but somehow or another we never seemed to get back there after that to find out more about its history. But it was a fascinating old city & a beautiful example of the walls of ancient times. The city was rebuilt in the 1400's, clear back in the days when Columbus was just discovering America.
         41. Inside those walls are barracks for soldiers, officers' quarters, mess halls, etc. That wall is not just a wall! It's about two miles all the way around the city & it is actually a building in itself, full of passageways & prison cells & torture chambers, & all kinds of interesting places.--A beautiful example of excellent security. Richard the Lionhearted came to Cyprus on one of his Crusades (about 1190 A.D.), & many other famous characters of history have stopped here, including the one that you see in the picture! (Dad!)
         42. This next photo is not of a spook or a ghost of the ancient city of Famagusta, neither is it a monk, it's Maria in her raincoat! And right above her head is a plaque. I don't know whether we can see it well enough or not, to see that date, but the date was when the plaque was hung up there by the Venetians, when they rebuilt the city & the walls, etc., in 1485, & that big building is still standing there.
         43. And here's the view through one of the gun ports. Each gun port was focused in such a way that it commanded every approach to the walls possible, so that they could shoot in any direction to defend the city. You're looking about 50-75 feet down into the moat & along the moat, which was very beautiful & green. And of course in the days when it was a defended city, the moat was full of sea water. They had an inlet open to the sea, which filled the moat. It was their port, incidentally, & to this very day it is the best port in all the island & the only port where the steamships can come right up to the docks & you get right off on the land. Otherwise you have to get in a little dinghy to go ashore at the other ports. But they used to flood this moat with sea water so that the soldiers trying to get across would drown, & with a big ditch right in the middle of the moat so they'd fall in the ditch & drown if they tried to swim across.

Turkish Family!

         44. Here we are in the beautiful Cypriot sunshine, & this little family was down there picking mint for their tea & cooking. A lovely Turkish family, & this little David is showing us how he was shooting his little sling. This is the very kind of little sling that David in the Bible used, made of leather & thong, which he would sling around his head & let loose the stones. He practiced with it & showed us how he did it. Not one of these folks could speak any English, they were all Turks, but charming, as you can see, & pretty girls are pretty girls the World around! Hallelujah!
         45. And here's another little boy with his very timid little sister. We almost didn't get this picture. I thought I'd give you a few personality shots so you can see what the Turks look like. I can't really tell'm from the Greeks, all those Eastern Mediterranean people look alike, including the Turks, the Jews, the Greeks & the Arabs. They're all so mixed up that I don't really think there is much difference. The major difference seems to be in language & religion.
         46. Here they are in the bottom of the moat. Notice the ditch right behind them? And this little girl, her brother had to go catch her & pull her out from behind a tree for me to take her picture!

Costume Contest!

         47. We happened to be passing this building one day, & we heard music so we walked in, & here is what we saw--a little Eve!--The littlest Eve of all! She was taking part in a costume competition in order to try to win a contest during the Mardi Gras--or the local festival that they have there about Mardi Gras time just like they have so many places in the World. This Mardi Gras thing seems to be an old Catholic or Orthodox hangover of some ancient Roman festival, & they celebrate it all over the World at this time of year, in the Spring.
         48. And this little girl was one of the winners of the costume contests for having as little costume as possible, which is quite amazing when you consider how ultra-conservative the Cypriots are! They hardly ever will let a girl even walk down the street by herself, never unattended by a member of the family, always kept at home. We'd go to a public auditorium & usually find maybe a thousand men & half-a-dozen girls--& of questionable character at that, you always figured, because only girls like that ever went out! But here they were letting their child walk virtually naked to win the contest! When it comes to beauty, art, dancing, music, they were very liberal.
         49. And here was another Eve, a middle-sized Eve! She was there with her brother. One of her brothers was the Devil & the other was the Apple, & the three of them together won one of the prizes. But I just happened to catch her here with a nice little Southern Belle, all in a pretty little white costume, very beautiful, & these are all Greeks that you're seeing now. The older one looks almost Indian, doesn't she? And sure enough, that girl, the middle-sized Eve, didn't have anything on but a fig leaf & a body stocking.

(To be continued!)