This last week, we got back from Turkey on Sunday at 3:30am.
It was really easy getting into Israel at that time in the morning; I think the
security people are just as tired as we were, so they let us in without many
questions. We had a “recuperation” day, with a late brunch, a half-hour
sacrament meeting, and, for me at least, a paper to write for our field trip on
Monday. But it was mostly relaxing.
On Monday, we went to Jericho, where we saw Herod’s Winter
Palace from a distance, the ruins of the ancient site of Jericho, and the
probable ancient road to Jericho. At the ancient site, we got to see Elisha’s
spring. You can read the story of the spring in 2 Kings 2:4-22. Jericho really
is an oasis. The desert- the real sandy no vegetation kind of desert- suddenly
becomes green and fertile and then turns back into desert right after. And the
reason is this spring that’s been gushing (currently at 1000 gal/min) for
10,000 years. We then went over to the Wadi Qelt, which is the wadi with the
most commonly used road at the time of Christ and probably the one he refers to
in the parable of the Good Samaritan. After we got back, we had the rest of the
day to write a paper for OT and start on all the homework we didn’t do in
Turkey.
On Tuesday, after class, I went to the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre and walked around. I wish I had a tour guide or pamphlet to tell me
what I saw there. There were a lot of things behind clouded Plexiglas or inside
elaborate structures that I had no idea what they were. I can see why
Protestants prefer the Garden Tomb, though, because it’s very busy (in terms of
art and architecture) and hard to breathe with all the incense. I honestly
don’t think either spot is the actual location of his burial, but I also think
it doesn’t matter the exact spot; it’s enough for me to know that it did
happen.
Wednesday we had an Arab Culture Night, where the prayer
callers from the al-Aqsa Mosque came and recited a sura from the Koran and the
call to prayer, and demonstrated how to pray. They had a Q&A session after.
It was very enlightening and cool to see. We had a very fancy, authentic meal,
where I ate lamb for the first time. It reminded me of tender roast beef. We
ended the night learning some Palestinian dances.
The rest of the week was filled with classes and our first
midterm for OT. On Friday, we went to a synagogue service and the Hebrew
students got to go to Shabbat dinner afterwards that our Israel professor set
up for us. (Side note: whenever I refer to the Hebrew students, I mean the 6 of
us in the intensive program) Marissa, Cameron, and I went to this British
family’s house. They were so nice and very funny. We just kept laughing all
night. The grandpa kept saying the funniest things and the grandma’s accent was
so proper. They all kept trying to get us to spill the secrets of Mormonism and
were really funny about it. Their comment on our religion was “don’t worry- we
have a weird religion, too.”
Love, Kelby
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