We arrived early at Jetta's apartment to continue painting her kitchen and bathrooms. Jetta has a caretaker that lives with her since she is in the beginning stages of Alzheimers. The caretaker, Lydia, is from Romania and can speak Jetta's mother tongue. She left a husband and two children to come to Israel to work as a caretaker to earn money for her family. She said life is very hard at home. She can earn in 3 years, working in Israel, what she would earn at home in 10 years. She showed us pictures of her family. She was very kind and long suffering as she helped Jetta while we were there. She works in Israel for two years at a time and then gets 2 months to go back home. She has been doing this for five years.
We finished painting the kitchen, bathroom and one other small room. While we worked a social worker came by to check on Jetta. She sat with her and talked for about an hour. She gave Jetta time to talk about herself and her past life in Israel. As they sat together the social worker asked Jetta if she had family in Israel. This is a common question in Israel. Some people immigrate here leaving family behind in another country and others have all their family here with them. It was just a simple social question to get to know Jetta better. When she asked if she had family here Jetta replied in a small voice, "I have no one left in the whole world." That reply struck us as very sad even though she does have the caretaker who shows her a great deal of love and also Christine, the lady who contacted us about working in her apartment.
When we finished working we were packing up our supplies and Jetta told David she would like us to come again but not to work. She wanted us to come and have coffee and talk. We realized she loved getting her picture taken. We got a few more pictures of her and her dog. She is never without her dog. The dog is always in her lap, even when they are both napping.
Christine was so happy with our work when she saw the finished product. She knows many more poor elderly people living in the surrounding apartment buildings and is already planning our work for the next trip. She showed us a very long hand railing on the outside of the building that is rusted and needs painting. She asked if we could do that, possibly our next trip. When the elderly walk along holding on to the hand rail they get splinters in their hands from the paint chipping off. So, we have pictures of possibly our next job. Hope this excites you to come and work!!


We will not be able to work at Jetta's tomorrow. She has a leak in the pipes in the wall of her bathroom and workers will be there to tear out the bedroom wall next to the bathroom to find the problem. Water has leaked down on the tenants below. So our second plan: we will be going to help cook and feed people at a shelter for the poor in town. Volunteers are always welcome there to peel potatoes, serve the food and clean up after the meal.
Traffic in Jerusalem is always a sight to behold!!