It's a good thing they don't put a limit on fun on this cross-cultural! I've had a pretty fantastic last 5 days! Just to get it out of the way, here is where I've been: Caerasea, Mt Carmel, Megiddo, Ein Gev, Hazor, Dan, Caesarea Phillipi, Golan Heights, Hippos, Kursi, Gamla, Capernaum, Mt of Beatitudes, Cliffs of Arbel, Nazareth, Mt Gilboa, Bet Shean, Old Testament Jericho, New Testament Jericho, and Gethsemane. Woah! It seems like a whole lot of traveling, but actually all this places are pretty close together. Most of those sites we hit on our 4 day trip up to the region of the Sea of Galilee.
I have no idea what of that to explain. I have over 50 pages written from those sites, but there's no way I'm typing it all. I'll pick a top 3 and if you want to here about another place just say so in a comment. No guarantees, but I do have some more free time these next few day that I could write more.
#3 Cliffs of Arbel. These are on the west side of the Sea of Galilee and are sheer cliffs with caves in the middle. I don't have numbers on the height, but when Herod tried to capture that area his soldiers could neither climb down of the caves nor climb up to them. So the soldiers were let down in baskets over the side and killed anyone who didn't surrender. Some that didn't surrender chose suicide instead. That seems to be a sad theme for a lot of the battles at these sites.
The bus dropped us off at the top of the cliffs and we all climbed down. For a little while there are just stairs, but then there's a place where stairs are even impossible. In that section they have a bunch of climbing staples and cables on the side of the cliff face. It was a tad bit dangerous to be sure, but no one died. 3 of us challenged ourselves to do it without hands. Turns out that's possible!
Unfortunately, the caves were receiving some sort of repair work so we couldn't climb the stairs to the large caves where the resistors lived. Instead we could climb up to the smaller, but still impressively large caves. Caves and cliffs are a good combination!
#2 Dan. By defaut I think I have to like this place, but even without the name I would still like it. Most of the ancient sites we visited had one main problem: water. Apparently water is important to survival or something like that. So people went through huge amounts of effort to secure a lasting water source for every city. Dan did not have that problem. Dan Spring is the largest spring in the Middle East and the largest supplier of the Sea of Galilee! We've seen all sorts of trickles or puddles or creeks called springs, but this was a full blown river! The sound was amazing as we walked along it. Running water is not a familiar sound here. The river also allows for all sorts of animal and plant life that we had never seen before. It seemed life a rainforest by comparison. We found a turtle and some lizards and some gorgeous flowers! It was a great little hike!
There were 2 significant buildings at Dan that our guide pointed out. The first was an arched gateway from long before Rome or Greece had any influence on the region. So the thought that Europeans invented the arch apparently isn't true. The second building was the temple built by Jeroboam in 1 Kings 12. It's an impressive ruin but not one of good news for the ancient Israelites. That was the beginning of the end for the Northern kingdom.
#1 Hippos. A lot of people thought we were crazy and it was entirely conceivable that we were, but I wouldn't take it back for the world! At 4:30am after a full day of travel and before another one, 7 of us got up to climb the decapolis city of Hippos. Our goal was to make it to the top of this mountain from our resort on the Sea by sunrise. We had to hustle if we wanted to make it! Some of you know that my Dad's side of the family is notorious for walking really fast. Well, I was with 6 other people that must be able to claim even quicker ancestry! I struggled to keep up! We all made it up in time though!
The city was beautiful! I suppose anything will be beautiful after a blistering 90 minute climb at 4:30 in the morning. The ruined city was all made out of dark basalt rock and the central road stretched much longer than any other Roman road I had seen! There were columns every where and I can only hope that the rock came from the top of the mountain and not the bottom. We walked through a seemingly random tunnel and rested as the sun poked above the mountains. Then we climbed all the way back down to start the real day. Yeah, that was excellent! I've certainly skipped a lot of details.
Alright, it's late. I have an exam tomorrow and then the JUC portion of this cross-cultural will be finished! Next on the schedule is free travel and I'll be heading over to Istanbul! The plane leaves on Sunday, so I get one more full day in Jerusalem before I leave.
By the way, I'm listening to the soundtrack to Spirit as I type all this. Thanks, bro! All sorts of random songs have been in my head, usually involving a random phrase from a scripture passage we read. Or from a VeggieTales movie, that happens a lot too. I finished "Three" last week some time and now I'm reading "Shadow of the Hegemon," part of the "Ender's Game" collection. That's all for now.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Well, it's been yet another fabulous day! I woke up in Arad at, what I'm told, will be the poshest hostel I will ever experience. It was great! After a few too many days without a warm shower, that was just what I needed!
We've been all over the land of Judah these last 3 days. None of the ancient sites are inhabited today, but the locations of the sites are still well known today. Everyone seemed to have the same idea for centuries! One civilization would build a city at a strategic location and then eventaully it would be destroyed. When the next people come along, the location was still strategic so they build right on top of the destroyed city using what remains they could. Now all that's left is a tell, an artificial hill filled with ruins from the past millenia! Those are the sites we visited.
Not many of them were fully excavated, in fact some seem to have been barely touched. There's not much money to be made in archeology here anymore. Any thing of value was kept with the most current surface generation and enough digging has been done to know pretty much exactly what is under every tell. Why spend the man power to discover nothing new? The ones that were excavated looked a lot alike with small differences. Gezer has a 6 chamber gate that Solomon would have built when the city, as well as a daughter, was given by Pharoah. Lachish has a seige ramp built up by Sanacarib when he attacked Judah during Hezekiah's reign. Azekah had a group of Israelis acting out the story of David and Goliath. That was pretty funny! Beth Shemesh had a cistern we could climb down into. Arad had a mysterious temple with 2 deities, Yahweh and his Ashorah.
Beersheva was a bit different. This site had been completely excavated so that the entire ancient city could easily be seen. Sure the walls had fallen down, but the overall layout of the town was easy to see from the nearby tower. Some walls had been built up a bit higher to give even more of a feel for the ancient homes. Here they also found a horned alter, while there was only supposed to be one in Jerusalem. That's odd and archeologist still don't really have an answer.
We explored the land of the tribe of Benjamin on Thursday. Mt Scopus; Nabi Samwil, from here we could see Gibeah, Gibeon, Ramah, and a few other Biblical cities; Gezer; Beth Shemesh, where we could see Zorah; and, Azekah, here we could see Gath. At Beth Shemesh we heard the story of Samson and could see exactly where it happened. Azekah was where the Isreali group so kindly acted out the story for us, but we could see the Sorek valley where David and Goliath would have faced off. Also at Azekah we had the chance to climb in some caves. Unfortunately it was too muddy, well, too muddy for most of us. I explored the dry caves and I can only hope that the pictures of the 2 bravest souls gets on the EMU website.
On Friday our trip headed south. Lachish was the "toaster" for Israel as it needed one more thing to stand on to reach the cookie jar on the top shelf. From there the coastal plains, Egypt and Jordan were accesible. Beersheva I already mentioned. Arad was the strangest with its polytheistic (bitheistic?) temple and wall well larger than the population center. Then we saw an erosion crater called the "Big Crater." It was quite impressive and quite expansive! We were able to climb around there a little bit. Then we headed to the modern day Arad for the night.
4 stops today before getting back to JUC. First, Masada, Herod the Great's rediculous palace. Second, En Gedi, the coast of the Dead Sea. Third, Wadi David, a gorgeous nature preserve! And last, Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls. At Masada, Aaron and I set an EMU record for accending the 400 foot high cliff path at 4 minutes 8 seconds! To us it doesn't matter that there was no previous record to break. We get to hold the record for at least 2 years anyway! Wadi David had a whole lot of waterfalls and ibexes and conies to watch. Ibexes with massive horns scampering up cliff faces is quite the sight to see! We had fun climbing to a nonimportant cave at Qumran where Paul Wright, the director of JUC gave us a lecture. Oh yeah, I should have mentioned that. Cindy, our normal professor, had lost her voice on Tuesday, was back with us for Wednesday and Thursday, but then couldn't speak again on Friday so Paul came with us on our 2 day trip.
Now we are back on Mt Zion! Tonight I studied for our exam tomorrow and filled up my journal from Rachel! Thanks, Rachel! On to journal number 2! Alright, it's 1:09am here. Time for bed.
We've been all over the land of Judah these last 3 days. None of the ancient sites are inhabited today, but the locations of the sites are still well known today. Everyone seemed to have the same idea for centuries! One civilization would build a city at a strategic location and then eventaully it would be destroyed. When the next people come along, the location was still strategic so they build right on top of the destroyed city using what remains they could. Now all that's left is a tell, an artificial hill filled with ruins from the past millenia! Those are the sites we visited.
Not many of them were fully excavated, in fact some seem to have been barely touched. There's not much money to be made in archeology here anymore. Any thing of value was kept with the most current surface generation and enough digging has been done to know pretty much exactly what is under every tell. Why spend the man power to discover nothing new? The ones that were excavated looked a lot alike with small differences. Gezer has a 6 chamber gate that Solomon would have built when the city, as well as a daughter, was given by Pharoah. Lachish has a seige ramp built up by Sanacarib when he attacked Judah during Hezekiah's reign. Azekah had a group of Israelis acting out the story of David and Goliath. That was pretty funny! Beth Shemesh had a cistern we could climb down into. Arad had a mysterious temple with 2 deities, Yahweh and his Ashorah.
Beersheva was a bit different. This site had been completely excavated so that the entire ancient city could easily be seen. Sure the walls had fallen down, but the overall layout of the town was easy to see from the nearby tower. Some walls had been built up a bit higher to give even more of a feel for the ancient homes. Here they also found a horned alter, while there was only supposed to be one in Jerusalem. That's odd and archeologist still don't really have an answer.
We explored the land of the tribe of Benjamin on Thursday. Mt Scopus; Nabi Samwil, from here we could see Gibeah, Gibeon, Ramah, and a few other Biblical cities; Gezer; Beth Shemesh, where we could see Zorah; and, Azekah, here we could see Gath. At Beth Shemesh we heard the story of Samson and could see exactly where it happened. Azekah was where the Isreali group so kindly acted out the story for us, but we could see the Sorek valley where David and Goliath would have faced off. Also at Azekah we had the chance to climb in some caves. Unfortunately it was too muddy, well, too muddy for most of us. I explored the dry caves and I can only hope that the pictures of the 2 bravest souls gets on the EMU website.
On Friday our trip headed south. Lachish was the "toaster" for Israel as it needed one more thing to stand on to reach the cookie jar on the top shelf. From there the coastal plains, Egypt and Jordan were accesible. Beersheva I already mentioned. Arad was the strangest with its polytheistic (bitheistic?) temple and wall well larger than the population center. Then we saw an erosion crater called the "Big Crater." It was quite impressive and quite expansive! We were able to climb around there a little bit. Then we headed to the modern day Arad for the night.
4 stops today before getting back to JUC. First, Masada, Herod the Great's rediculous palace. Second, En Gedi, the coast of the Dead Sea. Third, Wadi David, a gorgeous nature preserve! And last, Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls. At Masada, Aaron and I set an EMU record for accending the 400 foot high cliff path at 4 minutes 8 seconds! To us it doesn't matter that there was no previous record to break. We get to hold the record for at least 2 years anyway! Wadi David had a whole lot of waterfalls and ibexes and conies to watch. Ibexes with massive horns scampering up cliff faces is quite the sight to see! We had fun climbing to a nonimportant cave at Qumran where Paul Wright, the director of JUC gave us a lecture. Oh yeah, I should have mentioned that. Cindy, our normal professor, had lost her voice on Tuesday, was back with us for Wednesday and Thursday, but then couldn't speak again on Friday so Paul came with us on our 2 day trip.
Now we are back on Mt Zion! Tonight I studied for our exam tomorrow and filled up my journal from Rachel! Thanks, Rachel! On to journal number 2! Alright, it's 1:09am here. Time for bed.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
What a day!
I really shouldn't still be awake here. We leave for our all day trip through the land of Benjamin in less than 7 hours and I still need to sleep and get up and pack and eat breakfast, and here I am at a computer posting on my blog. Oh well, I don't really care. I need to tell people about today!
I just finished journaling and I wrote 9 pages for today. That's actually not a record for this trip, but it's getting close. What we did today was just way too exciting to put off writing about! In the morning we had our New Testament Old City walk and in the afternoon we had our Old Testament Old City walk! I've been all over this city about 4 times now and I still can't get enough of it! I love it here!
Backing up. Two days ago our class started here at Jerusalem University College. Our professor, Cindy Parker, is amazing! She is clearly very passionate about the subject of Biblical Geography and knows more than I can imagine about the topic! I feed off her energy and everything I learn is new and exciting! We've learned about water and rocks and hills and valleys and farming and weather cycles and festivals and building materials and much more. It's incredible to see Bible stories and passages come to life! I've especially enjoyed seeing the imagery first hand that David wrote of in the Psalms.
Monday afternoon we recieved a tour of the Old City, learned the main roads and saw the main buildings, learned the surrounding valleys and hill and gates. We went to the Pools of Bethseda and touched the Wailing Wall. Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy and cold, but that turned into a blessing on Tuesday!
We woke up on Mt Zion to see snow covering the ground! It was still coming down with huge, wet flakes and everything looked frosted. Cindy had lost her voice, so that with the snowy weather gave us a very relaxing day. We still had 5 hours of class, but that's much less than the 9 hours planed! The director of JUC, Paul Wright, taught us in the morning after giving us an extra hour to walk around the Old City and take pictures of the snowy land. I, not having a camera, simply walked around the city from Jaffa gate to Zion gate singing and watching the snow fall. Linford took charge of our afternoon class and taught from Cindy's notes. That meant we were done at 2:20 instead of 5:30. None of us were complaining!
This morning, actually mostly by the end of yesterday, the snow had all melted and everything was just wet. It was still quite cold and sprinkles fell from time to time. The New Testament sites we saw today were: the claimed upper room for the Last Supper, excavated sites all along the Temple Mount, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I enjoyed the steps up to the Temple Mount the best for some reason. I think I just liked the image of a bunch of rabbis and Jesus sitting there teaching their disciples. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is something else! I'm a bit disappointed that it looks nothing like the hill of Calvary or a tomb, but I got over that. I saw the tomb that was supposably empty on Easter morning and it most certainly wasn't empty! Tourists formed a huge line to get into the tomb and there were always at least 2 people in there! All through the morning, Cindy (in a very quiet voice or with Linford being her microphone) shared Bible passages that suddenly made a whole lot more sense.
The afternoon started and ended with Hezekiah. First we saw a section of the "broad wall" that would have been built in his time to defend Jerusalem from the north. Then we spent a whole lot of time in the City of David, a tiny portion of the Old City. It is all on the Eastern Hill with the Kidron Valley on the east, the Hinnom Valley on the south and the Central Valley on the west. At some points the ridge is only 25 meters wide, but a wall halfway into the valley made the city big enough to actually be a city. The temple mount is much, much wider than the Eastern hill at that spot!
There is no good reason to build a city on the Eastern Hill as opposedthe Western Hill except for the spring of Gihon in the Kidron Valley. That water source is why the City of David existed. It is why the Jebusites built the shaft that David could use to attack the city. It is also why Hezekiah dug a really long and windy tunnel under the city. We got to walk the entire length of Hezekiah's tunnel today! There was always about a foot of water and at times closer to 2.5 feet! The ceiling was rarely high enough to stand and the walls were very narrow. Plus it was pitch dark. We had so much fun for those 15 minutes!
A few more notes: I've played 4 games of "up and down the river" in the last 2 days and had way too much fun doing so. I started and will soon finish reading "Three" by Ted Dekker. Many songs poured through my head today, including "Thief," "I Want to Be Like You," "Will you come and follow me," "Missin' You," "Be Thou My Vision," and randomly "Sweet April Child."
Alright, I really should sleep.
I just finished journaling and I wrote 9 pages for today. That's actually not a record for this trip, but it's getting close. What we did today was just way too exciting to put off writing about! In the morning we had our New Testament Old City walk and in the afternoon we had our Old Testament Old City walk! I've been all over this city about 4 times now and I still can't get enough of it! I love it here!
Backing up. Two days ago our class started here at Jerusalem University College. Our professor, Cindy Parker, is amazing! She is clearly very passionate about the subject of Biblical Geography and knows more than I can imagine about the topic! I feed off her energy and everything I learn is new and exciting! We've learned about water and rocks and hills and valleys and farming and weather cycles and festivals and building materials and much more. It's incredible to see Bible stories and passages come to life! I've especially enjoyed seeing the imagery first hand that David wrote of in the Psalms.
Monday afternoon we recieved a tour of the Old City, learned the main roads and saw the main buildings, learned the surrounding valleys and hill and gates. We went to the Pools of Bethseda and touched the Wailing Wall. Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy and cold, but that turned into a blessing on Tuesday!
We woke up on Mt Zion to see snow covering the ground! It was still coming down with huge, wet flakes and everything looked frosted. Cindy had lost her voice, so that with the snowy weather gave us a very relaxing day. We still had 5 hours of class, but that's much less than the 9 hours planed! The director of JUC, Paul Wright, taught us in the morning after giving us an extra hour to walk around the Old City and take pictures of the snowy land. I, not having a camera, simply walked around the city from Jaffa gate to Zion gate singing and watching the snow fall. Linford took charge of our afternoon class and taught from Cindy's notes. That meant we were done at 2:20 instead of 5:30. None of us were complaining!
This morning, actually mostly by the end of yesterday, the snow had all melted and everything was just wet. It was still quite cold and sprinkles fell from time to time. The New Testament sites we saw today were: the claimed upper room for the Last Supper, excavated sites all along the Temple Mount, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I enjoyed the steps up to the Temple Mount the best for some reason. I think I just liked the image of a bunch of rabbis and Jesus sitting there teaching their disciples. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is something else! I'm a bit disappointed that it looks nothing like the hill of Calvary or a tomb, but I got over that. I saw the tomb that was supposably empty on Easter morning and it most certainly wasn't empty! Tourists formed a huge line to get into the tomb and there were always at least 2 people in there! All through the morning, Cindy (in a very quiet voice or with Linford being her microphone) shared Bible passages that suddenly made a whole lot more sense.
The afternoon started and ended with Hezekiah. First we saw a section of the "broad wall" that would have been built in his time to defend Jerusalem from the north. Then we spent a whole lot of time in the City of David, a tiny portion of the Old City. It is all on the Eastern Hill with the Kidron Valley on the east, the Hinnom Valley on the south and the Central Valley on the west. At some points the ridge is only 25 meters wide, but a wall halfway into the valley made the city big enough to actually be a city. The temple mount is much, much wider than the Eastern hill at that spot!
There is no good reason to build a city on the Eastern Hill as opposedthe Western Hill except for the spring of Gihon in the Kidron Valley. That water source is why the City of David existed. It is why the Jebusites built the shaft that David could use to attack the city. It is also why Hezekiah dug a really long and windy tunnel under the city. We got to walk the entire length of Hezekiah's tunnel today! There was always about a foot of water and at times closer to 2.5 feet! The ceiling was rarely high enough to stand and the walls were very narrow. Plus it was pitch dark. We had so much fun for those 15 minutes!
A few more notes: I've played 4 games of "up and down the river" in the last 2 days and had way too much fun doing so. I started and will soon finish reading "Three" by Ted Dekker. Many songs poured through my head today, including "Thief," "I Want to Be Like You," "Will you come and follow me," "Missin' You," "Be Thou My Vision," and randomly "Sweet April Child."
Alright, I really should sleep.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
At JUC
Here I am in the little computer lab at Jerusalem University College. There are only 5 computers and I have a feeling the EMU students will be using them all quite frequently, much to the chagrin of the semester long JUC students. This place is beautiful! I'm going to guess that we're within 400 yards of the old city of Jerusalem. Yesterday we had a free day to explore the old city and I was surprised at how small it is, but even so, with all the small windy roads I got lost. By the end of the 2 weeks here hopefully that won't happen.
Leaving Beit Sahour was a bit sad. After 3 weeks in one place I finally started to feel comfortable! I could wander the streets and talk with random people and really feel at home. Then we had to leave. I guess that's just part of the semester. At least we had 3 weeks there instead of our rapid pace through Egypt and Jordan. And now we have 2 weeks in a place that is relatively comfortable because it's fairly characteristic college life.
JUC is really small! Our group has doubled the student population on campus! There are less than 70 students here for the semester, but only half live in dorms. Our meals remind me a lot of PYC, but without cabin tables. There's a ping pong table here, an answer to prayer for Brent and I! There is also a basketball hoop outside that a bunch of us used for over 2 hours yesterday with HORSE and Knockout. The gardens are so stunning! We ate lunch on the grass yesterday! It's been quite a while since I've sat on nice green grass.
Today I was blessed to be able to attend East Jerusalem Baptist church, where 6 EMU students went to spend a day with Mr. Sarriot! The Baptist church is going through renovations, so we actually met across the street in a 7th Day Adventist church (reminds me of CMF in a way!). I think over half the congregation was visitors to the church and as a result we didn't actually fit in the meeting room. I didn't mind though! It was so nice to have a service in English with songs I knew and a sermon I could understand!
After church Mr. Sarriot took us out for lunch to Jericho! We had driven through Jericho before, but now we were able to walk the streets and eat the food. We were joined at lunch by a German couple that also attend East Jerusalem Baptist. I'm not entirely sure what there's positions are but it's something to do with the German Embassy, which provides them a diplomatic ID card and helps tremendously for Israeli checkpoints! Even with the ID we had to wait 50 minutes to get through the checkpoint. I felt so bad for the Palestinians that may be waiting upwards of 4 hours to get through. It just doesn't make any sense.
Tomorrow we start our 2 week intensive course, which our leaders say will be the hardest part of the semester. Looking at the syllabus I believe them, but it's all on Biblical geology, geography, archeology, etc., so it'll be interesting enough to overcome the difficulty. I hope I can use a computer often, but I may not be able to. Even as I sit here, there are 2 people waiting to use 1 of the 5 here. So I'll be signing off!
Leaving Beit Sahour was a bit sad. After 3 weeks in one place I finally started to feel comfortable! I could wander the streets and talk with random people and really feel at home. Then we had to leave. I guess that's just part of the semester. At least we had 3 weeks there instead of our rapid pace through Egypt and Jordan. And now we have 2 weeks in a place that is relatively comfortable because it's fairly characteristic college life.
JUC is really small! Our group has doubled the student population on campus! There are less than 70 students here for the semester, but only half live in dorms. Our meals remind me a lot of PYC, but without cabin tables. There's a ping pong table here, an answer to prayer for Brent and I! There is also a basketball hoop outside that a bunch of us used for over 2 hours yesterday with HORSE and Knockout. The gardens are so stunning! We ate lunch on the grass yesterday! It's been quite a while since I've sat on nice green grass.
Today I was blessed to be able to attend East Jerusalem Baptist church, where 6 EMU students went to spend a day with Mr. Sarriot! The Baptist church is going through renovations, so we actually met across the street in a 7th Day Adventist church (reminds me of CMF in a way!). I think over half the congregation was visitors to the church and as a result we didn't actually fit in the meeting room. I didn't mind though! It was so nice to have a service in English with songs I knew and a sermon I could understand!
After church Mr. Sarriot took us out for lunch to Jericho! We had driven through Jericho before, but now we were able to walk the streets and eat the food. We were joined at lunch by a German couple that also attend East Jerusalem Baptist. I'm not entirely sure what there's positions are but it's something to do with the German Embassy, which provides them a diplomatic ID card and helps tremendously for Israeli checkpoints! Even with the ID we had to wait 50 minutes to get through the checkpoint. I felt so bad for the Palestinians that may be waiting upwards of 4 hours to get through. It just doesn't make any sense.
Tomorrow we start our 2 week intensive course, which our leaders say will be the hardest part of the semester. Looking at the syllabus I believe them, but it's all on Biblical geology, geography, archeology, etc., so it'll be interesting enough to overcome the difficulty. I hope I can use a computer often, but I may not be able to. Even as I sit here, there are 2 people waiting to use 1 of the 5 here. So I'll be signing off!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Happy Valentines Day!
I had no idea Valintines day was such a big deal over here! It's a much bigger holiday than in the United States! I have a party to go to at 8:00 (that's 1:00pm in Virginia, New York, etc) and I've used up most of my time on the computer doing other things, so this also won't be a real long post.
Thanks for all those that gave me updates! Believe me, I greatly appretiated them! I wouldn't mind some more, especially with the NBA rumors going around. Thanks also to whoever is watching my fanasty team, I don't actually know who is. This week is mine, bro!
So we are on our last 3 days here in Beit Sahour. This week has been run by MCC, not just ATG. So we were able to travel out of the West Bank. We went to Jaffa for a day and saw a lot of Jerusalem another day. In Jaffa I had the great pleasure to sit on the beach of the Med. Sea and eat Banana ice cream! For those minutes life was really great! Our day in Jerusalem was with ICAHD (Israeli Citizens Against Home Demolition). This quite possibly is the activist group that I agree with the most of all the ones we have met! The tour, especially the guide, was incredible! We saw the mess that is East Jerusalem and had lunch in a house that had been demolished 5 times already. That house has quite the story of applying for permits and receiving nothing over and over. They are persistant though!
This week we have also seen the inner workings of an olive wood factory. The artistry is incredible! I'll never show in 10,000 Villages the same! Our EMU Lotus basketball team had the pleasure of taking on a local team in Bethlehem last night. This team played the last EMU group here and we won by 40 or so I'm told. Well, this time we lost. By 9. That's not too bad considering who we have here and how little basketball experience we've had. I had 2 points on 1-4 shooting with 1 assist and 2 turnovers. Not the best statline. It was a great experience though! We all had so much fun!
If these last 3 weeks have been giving us kindling then our session with a Settler from Efrat was the spark! We finally have something to argue! We've been filled with Palestinian arguements and heard everything from a Palestinian bias for so long that it was starting to get dull. Now that we have been told the Israeli side we've pulled all we've learned and experienced over the last 19 days and started the debate. I think everyone is pro-Palestinian, but we have great debates over whether to be pro-Israeli too and to what degree. I can only see this continuing and that's just fine with me!
Alright, time's about up. I've read "Prince Caspian" and "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" the last week and now I've started "Into the Wild." I went through Chris Rice and Avalon singing phases and now I seem stuck on 4Him. "Be Thou My Vision" has been my most sung song over the last 3 days. Bye for now!
Thanks for all those that gave me updates! Believe me, I greatly appretiated them! I wouldn't mind some more, especially with the NBA rumors going around. Thanks also to whoever is watching my fanasty team, I don't actually know who is. This week is mine, bro!
So we are on our last 3 days here in Beit Sahour. This week has been run by MCC, not just ATG. So we were able to travel out of the West Bank. We went to Jaffa for a day and saw a lot of Jerusalem another day. In Jaffa I had the great pleasure to sit on the beach of the Med. Sea and eat Banana ice cream! For those minutes life was really great! Our day in Jerusalem was with ICAHD (Israeli Citizens Against Home Demolition). This quite possibly is the activist group that I agree with the most of all the ones we have met! The tour, especially the guide, was incredible! We saw the mess that is East Jerusalem and had lunch in a house that had been demolished 5 times already. That house has quite the story of applying for permits and receiving nothing over and over. They are persistant though!
This week we have also seen the inner workings of an olive wood factory. The artistry is incredible! I'll never show in 10,000 Villages the same! Our EMU Lotus basketball team had the pleasure of taking on a local team in Bethlehem last night. This team played the last EMU group here and we won by 40 or so I'm told. Well, this time we lost. By 9. That's not too bad considering who we have here and how little basketball experience we've had. I had 2 points on 1-4 shooting with 1 assist and 2 turnovers. Not the best statline. It was a great experience though! We all had so much fun!
If these last 3 weeks have been giving us kindling then our session with a Settler from Efrat was the spark! We finally have something to argue! We've been filled with Palestinian arguements and heard everything from a Palestinian bias for so long that it was starting to get dull. Now that we have been told the Israeli side we've pulled all we've learned and experienced over the last 19 days and started the debate. I think everyone is pro-Palestinian, but we have great debates over whether to be pro-Israeli too and to what degree. I can only see this continuing and that's just fine with me!
Alright, time's about up. I've read "Prince Caspian" and "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" the last week and now I've started "Into the Wild." I went through Chris Rice and Avalon singing phases and now I seem stuck on 4Him. "Be Thou My Vision" has been my most sung song over the last 3 days. Bye for now!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Quick one
I only have a few minutes, so this'll have to be really quick. Sorry for those that want a longer post.
Life is going well. I think I'm no longer sick. Today we leave for parts of 2 days in Ramalla. For the last week we've been mostly sitting in our ATG (Alternative Tourism Group) room and listening to lectures on history, politics, culture, religion, etc in the area. The lecturers have all been impressively knowledgable but many have been quite confusing. Then again, I guess this whole region is a bit confusing.
We've also made a few short trips mostly in the Bethlehem region. On Saturday though, we took a day trip to Hebron! We visited the old city and the old market and the Christian Peacemaker Team and the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Amazingly enough, one of the CPTers is from Corning! She has a place next to Rico's on Market street and talked a lot about Soul Full Cup. Because Israel Visas only last 3 months she goes home quite often! Unfortunately I forget her name, but try to look her up.
If someone wants to I'd apprectiate some updates from the US. Maybe a sports update from Darrel. We heard the Giants won, but I don't know how. A Super Bowl commercial update would be cool to! All the news in our house is in Arabic, so a Presidencial campaign update would be cool too.
Alright, time to go.
Life is going well. I think I'm no longer sick. Today we leave for parts of 2 days in Ramalla. For the last week we've been mostly sitting in our ATG (Alternative Tourism Group) room and listening to lectures on history, politics, culture, religion, etc in the area. The lecturers have all been impressively knowledgable but many have been quite confusing. Then again, I guess this whole region is a bit confusing.
We've also made a few short trips mostly in the Bethlehem region. On Saturday though, we took a day trip to Hebron! We visited the old city and the old market and the Christian Peacemaker Team and the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Amazingly enough, one of the CPTers is from Corning! She has a place next to Rico's on Market street and talked a lot about Soul Full Cup. Because Israel Visas only last 3 months she goes home quite often! Unfortunately I forget her name, but try to look her up.
If someone wants to I'd apprectiate some updates from the US. Maybe a sports update from Darrel. We heard the Giants won, but I don't know how. A Super Bowl commercial update would be cool to! All the news in our house is in Arabic, so a Presidencial campaign update would be cool too.
Alright, time to go.