This weekend has been jam-packed! We have been into the city several times in small groups now. Friday, we went to the Western Wall to see the start of the Jewish Shabbat (sabbath) at Sundown. It was pretty incredible. All of the Jews in the city come to pray, sing, and dance at the Wall. We're still singing Shabbat-Shalom and lai-la-lai. They gather in circles to sing and link arms and dance in circles, like in Prince of Egypt when they sing "Through Heaven's Eyes" except everybody's wearing black and kippas and some have earlocks. It was a really amazing experience. You have to really appreciate how they've continued to pray at this site after all these years. I could really feel their sincerity and it was tons of fun!
Though we were exhausted, it was the grand opening of our student snack bar, dubbed The Well. Is it because the well is the gathering place in the Old Testament or is it because Bro. Woods told us that the well is the place to meet foxes? Hmmmm... We watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade before playing minute-to-win-it games and having a dance. There were worries on all sides that our small numbers and lack of skills would make a dance lame, but it's definitely a highlight and something that brought us closer together. There was a balloon drop, a circle to sing some lai-la-lai from Prince of Egypt and so, so many mosh pits. There was chair carrying, crowd surfing, and it was really, horribly sweaty. Summation: We went crazy.
On Sunday I sang in a lil quartet that I put together consisting of myself, Rachel Kennedy, Dan the Man, and Mark. We sang There is a Green Hill Near at Hand because the hill is not that far away. I think it's safe to say everyone was blown away. It was incredible. Plus, we were singing in front of these huge windows in our beautiful chapel that overlook the Old City. After church we went into the Garden Tomb to sing songs. Fun, fun day.
On Saturday we hit up the Israel Museum, which is an excellent source of information through artifacts from each of the periods in Jerusalem. My favorite parts were the Roman hall, Egyptian hall, and then the ArTricks. Art-tricks was a display of optical illusions. Upstairs was some pretty sweet exhibits, like chairs painted on the floor and a camera so you could look and see how even though you were standing on paint, it looks like you're standing on a chair. Another favorite was the random bits of metal that gave the shadow of a man. I have pictures and I will see if I can add them in somehow. We had a blast!
We walked a long way through West Jerusalem from the museum into the Old City through Jaffa Gate. The boys got us through Mamilla Mall, which is an outdoor mall by Jaffa Gate, but I was the one who got us into the city and to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Funny, because they're all Eagle Scouts and I get lost...everywhere. I have a spectacular sense of direction only when I'm lost, I think. Probably because I just give up and follow my first instincts. I can't even begin to describe how beautiful the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is. I've heard people say they think the Church of All Nations in Gethsemane is the most beautiful, but they must be all about the simplicity. Holy Sepulchre is like stepping back into a castle that's slowly becoming an antique shop. It's in this random square between Christian markets in the city, and just plain stone on the outside. Inside is amazing. There's a mosaic on the wall in the entrance over the stone where, according to Constantine's mother Helena, Jesus's body was laid after he died. We cross into a room on the right and there's the alleged stone of Golgotha, where Christ's blood dripped down. There's a glass separating us and it, but somehow people have managed to toss folded up prayers inside it. There are doors and staircases in random places so, even though it's crowded, there is space to roam. There are weird chandeliers everywhere like glass baubles that probably once held candles. I don't know specifically which other things are where, but there's a little house thing in the middle of one room with a long line to get inside and upstairs is an alter where you can reach in and touch the Golgotha rock. The stairs are steep but the shrine is pretty amazing. Lots of red glass chandelier bauble thingies and gold-and-silver-leafed art of Christ and Mary. If you find your way downstairs, people have carved hundreds of little crosses into the stone walls. I have tons of pics of all this to hopefully show just how cool this site was.
After that, we hit up our favorite falafel place at the bottom of Damascus Gate and headed home. The hike up and down the "mountains" (these aren't quite as big as the Rockies) has graduated from a burn in the legs to cramping. I was so exhausted that I slept for three hours and woke up feeling like I'd just died and risen from the bottom of the ocean. Everyone was sluggish. We're feeling the effects of all our reading homework and all the walking in the sun. I think we all slept through the 4:50am call to prayer on Monday morning.
Monday is field trip day! We headed down into the Negev desert, where Lehi led his family. We stopped at this really neat weaver's shop where Bedouin women (nomadic culture of Arabia) are empowered, through work and education. They buy sheep's wool (rarely camel, camel is too small I guess) and pay women who can't leave home to twist it up into threads. They dye it and more women will weave them into carpets and bags and things. It was great. They gave us some really tasty herbal tea. I bought a pillow. It's so legit. When I own a home, I'm commissioning a rug. Here's their website: http://www.bedouinweaving.com.
Our next trip was to Be'er Sheva (aka Beersheba). It's on a tell, an artificial mound of earth built up by cities building on top of each other and sloping the edges for defense. This is the site where Abraham left to take Isaac to be sacrificed. This was also the place from which Jacob fled Esau. Crazy. Mostly it's half-built up walls. Still cool, though. We all gathered around the well that might be the well.
Driving to Arad, I had an interesting conversation with Homer, Heather, and Stephen. We were talking about Lehi and Nephi's family, and Ishmael. The Negev is a desert. We got to see it with some green because it's the winter, but it's pretty barren otherwise. And it's wide. Let me repeat that: it's vast. Can you imagine your family friends coming over and asking you to go out into the wilderness? We're thinking it went something like this.
Nephi: "So, Ishmael. Remember my dad? We're all friends, yeah? Everyone thinks he's cray cray? See that wilderness out there? Pretty barren, right? My dad says it's way chill. It's the place to be. It's going to be pretty barren here when the city is destroyed, so we're getting out to the wilderness. It's gonna be legit."
Ishmael: "Totes. Wilderness sounds so sick. Let's do this."
And there's nothing out there but random weeds. So when Nephi brakes his bow, we're all pretty sure we'd be in with Lamen and Lemuel.
Lemuel: "Great job, Nephi. This is so fantastic. What the heck are we supposed to do for meat now? Where the heck are we gonna find a tree to make another bow?"
Laman: "Seriously, Nephi? Nice. Nice."
Don't even get me started on picking out wives from the daughters of Ishmael. We're so amazed by Nephi for always keeping his cool.
Laman: "God told you to build a what now?"
Lemuel: "You've been eating some weird berries, haven't you."
Nephi: "Chill, guys. God's got this. I'm gonna go and do."
Props to you, Nephi. For reals. That's some really incredible faith.
Our last stop was Tel Arad. It's pretty much just like Be'er Sheva, but bigger. They were actually working on the temple portion doing restoration, so we couldn't go take pictures with the alter and the place where they kept the holy of holies, but it was still cool. In a well in the Canaanite city down the hill there are tons of pigeons living. Also, we saw an owl. Also, the view from the tell was so breathtaking. Wide open space. It was beautiful. Also, we were exhausted and ready to go home and eat.
Last week in FHE my family shared some spiritual experiences and insights, introduced ourselves, and named spirit animals for each other. This week we sang karaoke with our eyes closed and noise-cancelling headphones one. My headphone splitter is really coming in handy. It was hilarious. It was surprising. It was fun. We're becoming so comfortable together as a group that we're fearless.
Can I just say that our chef here Achmed and also Muhammed are really amazing? I've never been so well fed in my life. I don't think I'll ever eat food this good 3x a day ever again. We don't even know what we're eating half the time, and we stopped caring because it's all so good. Also, I bought a camel-hide leather bag and some pants. I'm probably going to buy this super expensive olive wood carving of Jesus pulling Peter from the water. Words can't describe. Omar has everything from your Christus to Captain Moroni. I haven't seen any of the other shops, but I definitely want Omar's Jesus and Peter. Y'all should see his nativity. It's way expensive, but the detail... wow. So many cool things to do and buy and eat! Aloha!
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