Pen Pals and Olive Wood
Shared by Carol Paster
Photos shared by Tricia Ginis
What started out as a simple Facebook post by a fellow woodworker remarking that he was lucky to find a small olive tree branch on the side of the road became an international trades deal thanks to the kindness of strangers. Realizing that olive trees aren’t native to the east coast, I did a little research and found that this wood was from Jerusalem.
I immediately contacted Yosef who said he’d be happy to trade his olive wood for something less available in Israel. After 3 months of exchanging ‘pen pal letters’, I had all but given up hope on finding a way to meet Yosef. But leave it to Batya, our incredible tour guide, to arrange for Yosef to meet our bus as we passed by his town.
