Scarborough seniors, under the guidance of Terri Hatt, leader of the Senior With Out Walls program, spent a fascinating day at the Museum of Science in Boston.

The Mugar Omni Theater was our first stop for a showing of the film, “The Greatest Places.” The enormous screen, surround sound, and expert photography immediately made these places come alive. Some locations were familiar – Greenland with its ice pack, musk oxen, dogsleds and kayaks – Tibet with its monks, prayer wheels and yaks – and Madagascar with its lemurs, chameleons and hissing cockroaches. But I had never heard of the Namib dessert, on the west coast of Africa, which extends for 1,200 miles (although only about 70 miles wide), boasts the world’s highest sand dunes, and is home to beetles, adders and scorpions. I also hadn’t heard of the spectacular Iguazu Falls on the Brazil/Paraguay border with its crescent shaped cliff, two and a half miles long, from which water plunges 269 feet to the gorge below and whose roar can be heard for miles around.

It was also great fun visiting the Butterfly Garden – we made our way down a narrow pathway through lush tropical foliage, admiring the butterflies that flew around us in every direction and that often alighted on our clothes long enough for us to exclaim over their vibrant colors and intricate patterns. The dinosaur exhibit was overwhelming – imagine sharing your world with a Giganotosaurus weighing 8 tons, stretching for 45 feet and smiling at you with knife-shaped teeth! I much preferred the peaceful shadow-box panorama depicting Donald McKay’s Shipyard in East Boston in July 1852. In the painted backdrop we could spot the Capitol on Beacon Hill, the Old North Church and the Bunker Hill Monument. In the foreground were models of three extreme clipper ships, the Sovereign of the Seas, the Westward Ho, and the Bald Eagle, sitting on their ways, almost ready for launching.

A large glass case held a model of the luxury yacht Hi-Esmaro, built in Maine at the Bath Iron Works in 1929 for Asbestos King H. Edward Manville for $1.3 million. Manville’s daughter Estelle married Count Folke Bernadotte of the Swedish royal family and consequently the headboards of the beds on board were decorated with gold and ivory replicas of the Swedish crown. Unfortunately, the depression interfered with luxury travel and, with war looming on the horizon, the yacht was sold to the United States Navy in 1940. Converted into the submarine mother ship Niagara, she was bombed by Japanese planes and then sunk by our own forces to prevent capture by the enemy. She ended up at the bottom of the sea off the Solomon Islands.

For 10 years, Partners For Peace, based in Washington, DC, has organized a national tour called “Jerusalem Women Speak.” The three women, who met for the first time upon their arrival in the United States, have joined together to tell their personal stories to American audiences, from Maine to Indiana and from Ohio to Pennsylvania. This year, Piper Shores hosted one of their appearances in our state, welcoming Lucy Talgieh, a Christian from Bethlahem, Julia Chaitin, a Jew from Kibbutz Urimin in Israel, and Enas Muthaffar, a Muslim from Jerusalem. Lucy spoke first, telling of her life in Bethlehem where she works for the Wi-am Center for Conflict Resolution. She has a master’s degree in human rights and democracy, earned in 2008 from Bier Zeit University in Palestine. Now labeled as an Arab peace activist, she needs a permit from the Israelis to travel and will be unable to go to Jerusalem for Christmas or Easter. Her immediate family has suffered greatly at the hands of Israeli soldiers, but she feels strongly that building walls is no solution. She believes building bridges between Arabs and Israelis is the only hope.

Our second speaker was Enas, independent filmmaker with a master’s in media arts and film from the University of London. She explained that she was one of those unfortunate people without a country. She considers herself to be a Palestinian but has nothing to prove it. The United Nations classifies her as a refugee, her Jordanian passport says she is from East Jerusalem and her Israeli travel document says she is a Jordanian living in Jerusalem. Nowhere is she defined as a Palestinian. Her company, Jerusalem First Films has produced three films, “East to West,” “A World Apart in 15 Minutes” and, most recently, “Occupazion”.

Julia spoke last. She was born in the United States in 1952, emmigrated to Israel in 1972, and has three sons, two of whom served in the Israeli Army and one whom became a conscientious objector. She holds a doctorate from Ben Gurion University and is now a senior staffer at the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development. She explained that to her Israel is the cultural and historical homeland of the Jews. Although she herself is not religious, she believes that she belongs to a people who value egalitarianism, democracy and freedom. She explained that many Jews feel that unfriendly governments surround Israel and that millions of Muslims want to get rid of her country. However, she went on to say that 60 years of war was destroying the soul of Israel and that it was time to learn how to share the land in non-violent ways.

In conclusion, all three speakers agreed that Jerusalem must become an international city with free access for everyone – Jews, Christians and Muslims. Settlements should be dismantled, walls and checkpoints removed and the search for non-violent solutions must continue. On the other hand, all three were worried by the lack of responsible leadership in both Israel and the Occupied Territories, and by the seemingly unsolvable problems of water rights and boundaries. One wishes that these ladies could deliver their messages directly to our new president-elect.