do you love me?

i am not related to guta by blood.  her late husband was my grandfather's cousin.  still, she insists she loves me.  guta was 16 when she & her 6 siblings were put in concentration camps.  after the war she went briefly to switzerland, where she married a friend's brother so she could emigrate to palestine.  they never even kissed, "it was a fiction" she says of their marriage.

today she lives in an apartment in tel aviv.  last tuesday night i watched obama's inauguration on television with her.  she approves of our new president.

my favorite line from his speech was, "if you will unclench your fist, we will extend our hand"

after watching the inauguration i accompanied guta to her song group.  it is a group of elderly israelis who get together once a week to sing old yiddish, hebrew, & a sprinkling of other types of folk songs (italian, swedish, german).  guta, at 86 is the eldest member of the group, & obviously the darling.  she was the only member to have a solo with the microphone, singing one of the few yiddish songs i was familiar with.  the chorus goes "chiribiribiri bim bom bim" it is really quite fun...

i hope to learn a few of the other songs on my guitar; one about how we are either laughing or weeping, & another about a thousand kisses...

as we got out of the taxi on the way to her song group, guta grabbed my arm & asked me with wide eyes, "do you love me?"

"yes ofcourse guta!"

& she gave me several kisses & touched my face.  she likes to touch my face.

after the song group i went to a very well decorated inauguration party full of americans & hard liquor.  i had a few shots & danced a few dances before going back to a friend of a friend's apartment for the night.  to my delight, my friend's friend, emily, has an old classical guitar that used to belong to her mother.  i had been missing playing & singing terribly for the past few weeks of traveling.  concluding the night with chamomile tea drinking & lullaby song singing was heavenly.

emily is a human rights lawyer who defends palestinians.  the main case she worked on wednesday concerned 8 israeli soldiers who attacked & killed a palestinian man in front of his 6 year old son.