reflecting implies its over

I wrote both of these entries about a month ago, but I think they still apply:

June 22, 2008

What I would give to walk through Jerusalem’s streets right now. I love the old city at dusk. Everything begins to close down and the young Arab teenagers are out on the garbage routes and street cleaning. Their garbage trucks hardly fit through the narrow streets and one always ran the risk of either getting run over or hit with a poorly aimed bag of trash. Shopkeepers no longer nagged and everyone was busy closing shop or making their last purchases, and for a brief time it almost felt as if I were free to wander without drawing any attention. Despite this, I also felt ten times more vulnerable as the crowds dwindled and I found myself close to alone on the streets. Staying on the main drag in the Arab quarter offered some relief as a few bakeries and sweet shops remained open, but the unavoidable walk through the Christian quarter from Jaffa gate posed the greatest threat. The streets were quiet except for the teenage street cleaners, who were the last people I wanted to run into by myself on a deserted street, and a small group of Arab boys who frequently played soccer outside Church of the Redeemer. Despite my insecurities, this was probably my favorite time of the day in the Old City. The cliché tourist souvenirs were locked away, and for a brief moment I had the city streets of Jerusalem to myself. Soon enough dawn would come, the streets would bustle again, and the long established routine of the city would swing back into motion. But as it was, one more day had passed in the ancient city and, as if she were reflecting on her life, all of the past and present seemed to come together, culminating in the antiquity and quietness of the stone streets on which I walked. This was Jerusalem, stripped of all the hate and human brokenness that has tainted its white stones over thousands of years; naked, quiet, and beautiful.

June 15, 2008

I’ve been putting off journaling since I’ve gotten back from Jerusalem more than a month ago. I just can’t figure out how to put write a closing entry or how to wrap my time up there. So I just keep putting it off, until I’m in the mood or until I have more time. The truth is I’ll never have enough time and I’ll never be in the mood because it’s impossible. I can’t wrap up everything I saw and did and felt into words on a page. Even if I could, I am still learning and growing from that experience. I am still affected by it; I always will be so why try to put a closure on it just because I’m not there.

So I’ll just keep on writing about it; just experiences or thoughts that pop into my head. And even then, after years of doing this, I’ll never cover it all. I always try to document everything. I feel like I have to capture memories. I do it with photography and with journaling. But things can’t be captured. Time doesn’t stop because I’ve got a picture of it. Taking a picture of a firework doesn’t freeze that moment. In fact, I may just end up missing the real beauty I’m trying to capture. Sure, I still think its good and important to write and take pictures. But not to hold on to a memory to the point that the picture or the journal entry becomes the memory, rather to help me remember the reality of the moment, my feelings and thoughts and experiences. It can’t be the experience, but it can help me continue to feel the experience that’s alive in my memory and heart, not a piece of paper.

What I would do for another day in the Old City and my friends who grew to love the place with me. I think of walking to the Jewish quarter for breakfast and sitting and reading Don’t Waste Your Life at the Bagel shop. Going to the western wall to pray. Then maybe checking the Holy Seplechure and learning something more about that. Do some quick shopping in the Christian Quarter, or just walk through and try to beat off the store keepers. Of course I’d have to hit the Arab quarter, probably my favorite quarter. I’d definitely get lunch there, just a falafel and maybe a pastry or some chocolate from one of the many candy shops. Its so busy there, I love to walk through and just look at things, and the shopkeepers aren’t as pushy as in the Christian quarter. Check out the music in the music shops. I love the music. The beat just makes you want to dance, but of course I can’t dance like they do (who am I kidding, I can’t dance at all!). I have no idea how they move their arms like that and not wiggle their whole bodies. And their language is absolutely beautiful to those beats. Later in the afternoon, after the falafel settled I’d like to go for a run around the city with Andrew and Karen. At first I feel safe running in my shorts past Jaffa gate, but then we’d hit the east side of the city and we’d start getting comments yelled at us in Arabic or English with heavy middle-eastern accents. I could always feel their eyes following me and Karen, it was gross. Andrew looked out for us, running next to us, in front of us, or behind us in depending on where he thought the biggest threat was coming from. Little kids would sometimes try to run into us with their carts. I learned to laugh at them, because sometimes I think they were just playing around. Although, the kids were many times the most inappropriate. We’d run by the New Gate, the busseling Damascous Gate, and Harod's Gate then swing to the southern side of the city. Here we were still in Arab territory, but you didn’t run into many people. We’d hop the little chain traffic block and run through the lot where garbage was brought. Then we’d come out by Lions Gate, cross the street, and enter the Muslim Cemetery. Golden Gate was just to our right and to our left the land stooped down into the Kidron Valley and up again on the Mount of Olives. The Church of All Nations and the Church of the Ascension with its golden onion domes stood out beautifully on the mountain which was covered in tombstones. As we reached the south western corner Absalon’s pillar stood below us and the view of the Mount of Olives gave away into the Silwan Valley. We turned to our right and started the upward journey to the top of the western hill this was the hardest part of the run, they don’t have hills like that in Illinois. We’d climb up and reach dung gate on our right which lead to the temple mount. To the left of us was the city of David, with Hezekiah’s tunnel and all that fun stuff. We kept climbing until we reached the Crusader Gate, which wasn’t really a gate but a breach in the wall. Silwan was a prominent view to our left, with their small and tight white boxed buildings and beautiful colors of clothing blowing in the wind. Eventually we’d get to the entrance to the parking lot just outside Zion Gate. We’d run up to the gate, but rather than turning right to go in, we’d turn left. The road took us past Church of the Dormission and into Diaspora Yeshuva, by the Upperoom. We’d run through the small open courtyard and wide hallway and out again into the field behind JUC. That field was a great place…football and Frisbee, robbers, undercover police men, and wailing Jews. Haha, but those are all different stories. Across the field we’d jog down some stone steps and out again onto Tayellet Har Tsion, the road which we started from, taking a left and ending at our gate. Or we could go straight at Zion Gate and keep following the wall. We would be running between the Old City Wall and the Wall to Dormission Abbey. Then we’d get to the end and descend the stone steps, a place with a big wind tunnel effect deal that’s horrible when you’re wearing a skirt. Here we would turn left onto Tayellet Har Tsion, past the British building of some sort and up to JUC’s gates. Then we’d stretch out a bit, try to catch our breath, find the key under the rock, and head for the showers. Of course that was just the run around the Old City, I had plenty of other routes. But maybe I'll get back to those some other time.

i miss israel...

A Glimpse into the Life of a Bedouin

This past weekend I went to Jordan for a field study with my Cultural Background of the Bible Class. We went to experience the life of the bedouins in the southern part of the country, which was Edom in Biblical times. Here, many bedouins have preserved the life and culture for thousands of years. Many people think, including my professor Dr. Wright and myself, that the bedouins there now are offspring of the Arabs that moved north into Edom from Saudi Arabia when spices and laxuary items began to become the hot commadity, spreading west to Egypt and the Mediteranean, as well as north to Damascous. Whether the bedouins' ancestors are actaully these Arabs or not, they live a very similar life of those that we read about in the Bible. Now that I have began to understand the details of their life and culture these things stand out to me as I read scripture with suprising importance. I have always read scripture with a western, suburban world view. While I have no doubt I still find truth in Scripture and I can understand what I need to know, Scripture comes to life and I find lessons in things I would have just browsed over before when I think about it in the context of the writers life and culture.

The trip started early on Friday morning, leaving the bus stop at 6AM. It took a good portion of the day to make our way down to the Elot border crossing, cross the border, and drive to the Wadi Rum. Here we had lunch at a "bedouin camp", which was pretty much just a really really really cheap hotel made of long goat hair tents. They have a restaurant buffet, which they serve one main dish, but it was clean and prepared well. Then we all piled in Jeeps and the bedouwins drove us out to the real bedouin tent we would be staying at. It was located in a crevise of a huge rock formation with sand dunes bordering the front. There were sheep and goats and some bedouin girls were milking a camel. After tea, the bedouins killed the fatted sheep for us. It was...not exactly pleasant. I tried to force myself to watch. Considering I can't even handle gruesome movies, I did pretty well, but I wasn't in the front row or anything and I didn't actually see the first slice of the throat. What really sticks in my mind is the brightness of the blood that just poured out of its throat onto the rock and sand. That may sound horribly gruesome, but it really was, at least I'm not posting pictures. I think it was good for me to see, it put a new image of Christ sacrifice in my mind; "the lamb of the world who was slain" is a more horrible and beautiful picture.

After that we had a few hours to explore. I already had a slight headache from dehydration (it was hot!), but JE and I climbed up the large rock face behind the tent. I got kind of freaked out in some places, it would have been a lot better if we had ropes, but we made it up pretty far. We finally turned around when climbing became a little to vertical and the sandstone was becoming brittle. I love that type of climbing though, its like a big persons playground, demanding both physical activity and problem solving.

The rest of the night I was pretty sick with dehydration. I felt on the verge of unconsciousness, so I just past out behind the tent and missed dinner (the lamb they had killed hours earlier).

In the morning I went into the rocks and read the end of Job for devos. It was pretty incredible. When God answers Job is one of my favorite passages in the Bible and I love to read it when I'm camping or out in God's creation. Here it was unbelievable, because I was there. Job was an Edomite and the descriptions and imagery used in Job was surrounding me as I read it. God spoke of the animals, dessert, flash floods, and rock formations, and other physical characteristics that make up that area. The next morning I woke to rain hitting the side of the tent. I went out early to devos and watched storm clouds roll over the mountain like smoke and thunder rumbled to the east. Again I read Job, a lot of sections stuck out to me but here are a few.

Job 38 (The Lord answers Job)

25"Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt,26to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man,27to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?

34"Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you?35Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, 'Here we are'?

I also watched as an eagle or hawk glided in circles near the edge of the highest ridge to the west.

26"Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south?27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high?28On the rock he dwells and makes his home, on the rocky crag and stronghold.

I love the book of Job, its so humbling and glorifying of God. Its also in a way so comforting. As God exclaims his greatness, I realize how much greater my hope is when I placed it in him, rather than when I rely on myself.

It was really an amazing experience and there is so much to talk about, I really only made it through the first day. However I need to write three large papers this week and better get started. One is actually a reacton to this trip, so I'll just post it here in order to share the rest of the experience.

An update and catchup

It's been over a month since I've written. So I'm a horrible blogger... Sorry, I'll work on it for the last few weeks here. The problem is I get behind and don't know how to start to catch up. I want to tell of all my stories and experiences, which is totally impossible, so I just get further behind.
And so, where do I start? Well, I don't have too much time to write. I have a load of papers and finals coming up. There have been many adventures and lessons learned in the last couple of months; I could probably spend a month writing about them alone. Unfortunately I have about half an hour.
To begin, I am doing well. I am truly enjoying my classes, field studies, the city, my professors, and of course, the wonderful kids who I am spending this semester with. I've been on some pretty amazing trips in the last month. We've studied in Galilee, Jordan, Golan, Mt. Carmel, south to the Shephela, and many other places around Israel.
Maybe, if I can actually make sure I get on and blog a bit each day, I can tell about each of these a bit. They were truly amazing experiences. One of my favorite trips was my spring break to Egypt with four of my friends here, Andrew, Jenna, JE, and Megan. This one I will have to write about more the next chance I get. It was an amazing experience. We climbed Mt. Sinia and slept under the stars at the top (surrounded by Bedouwins), got our passports confiscated by the Egytian Police (good story), went scuba diving in the Red Sea, swimming in the nicest hotel I've ever stepped foot in (another good story), snorkeling in the Blue Hole (one of the most dangerous diving sites in the World), and four-wheeling in the dessert. We lived cheaply in $3 a night hotels right on Dahab's rocky coast and little grass huts on the beach of the Red Sea. We ate grilled calamari, shrimp, and baracooda, followed by giant milkshakes in large grass hut restaurants just feet from the water for less than a meal at Panera. However, rather than the things we did and saw I will most remember the trip by the people I shared it with met along the way. From Benduke, the worker at a small bedouwin camp who played music for us to Sasha, a young Russian man who travelled with us for a couple of days, God blessed our interactions with the people we crossed paths with during our trip. It will definitely be an experience that I will remember and look back fondly on the rest of my life.
I can probably say that for all my experiences here though. Its incredible what I am learning here. Through the classroom and through every other aspect of this experience including the culture, the city, politics, religions, community, and friendships. Sometimes (actually many times) I find myself complaining because I am feeling overwhelmed by school or upset by the culture here. While I do not think that these are unreasonable feelings, I need to remind myself of how blessed I am to be having this experience. Coming here was not even a reality until this past semester, and even then I would have never imagined how much it would change me. I have so much to thank God for. I'll be honest, this city and country is quite a mess, and the situation looks so hopeless, especially for Christians here, but God is certainly using the place. He has in my life anyway.
Despite how thankful I am and how much I've loved this experience, I am also excited to come home. I have less than three weeks left here and with all the work I still have to do, time is flying by fast and the end is approaching more quickly than I am ready for, especially as far as leaving the community we have built here. Its kind of pardox I can't quite explain.
I can definitely spend some time speaking of all I miss at home though. The more time I spend here the more proud I am of where I come from. While there are things in the culture here that I wish I could bring back to America, I definitely am learning to appreciate the wonderful country I come from. Like I said, I could write a whole lot more on this, but unfortunately I do not have the time now. Back to the books!
Peace be upon you friends,
Molly Joy

football games, lattes, and terrorist attacks

Shabbat Shalom friends!

I'm sitting on the steps outside, above the garden. The sun has set and its officially Shabbat once again. We just blew out the candles and cleaned up after kabalat shabbat, the traditional Friday night feast. Well, maybe not feast, but it beats rice and mushrooms. I'm happily full of challah bread.
I have a few good stories to tell from the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately I don't have time to go into all of them, or even any in great detail, but I'll tell you about one and maybe give a brief synapses on others and elaborate later.
By far one of my craziest times so far was a football (soccer) game in Jericho. Jericho is in the west bank, but it’s not a hot political or military spot, so we can go there without having to worry. That’s what we thought when we left on bus 72 two weeks ago Monday anyway.
We got to Jericho and were just walking around when we noticed tons of activity and crowds heading down one street. There were also tons of Palestinian Authority just piling out of trucks and lining the streets with their automatic rifles and bamboo sticks. We had been giving a lecture a few weeks earlier on how to be safe in this area by a guy from the US consulate. One thing he said was to go the other direction when you see something going on out of the usual or any mobs. Well we saw both, and we started going the other direction...but our curiosity got the best of us. I've never had to question if a decision I was making would get me shot before. Haha, it all worked out ok though, and I'll probably think twice before doing something like that again. Alright Dad, three times. Long story short we ended up at the Ramalah/Jericho championship football game. I guess the Arabs have a football league throughout Palestine and Jordan (and maybe elsewhere). Jericho, which is a fairly small town, has a surprisingly big stadium. When I got to the stadium and say the chaos, and the ridiculous amount of PA, my friends (Andrew, JE, and Karen) and I quickly had second thoughts. But it was a little too late to back down. The Americans (us) had quickly caught the eye of the head of security. I think it was sort of a big thing to have American's come and they seemed fairly insistent on us watching the game. I wasn't about to disagree with the guys with guns, so we followed the man as he parted the crowds to let us through. The first gate was covered with people, I could just see arms coming through the gate and everyone was pushing, so he turned us around to try a more tame entrance. This is when possible headlines started popping up in my head. The next gate they opened for the five of us. The guy led us to a middle section, between the rowdy Jericho fans and the section for announcers/trophies/media/and political figures. The people seemed pretty interested in us and I quickly noticed we had many eyes on us, seeing how we reacted to different things, like goals, the national anthem (or some anthem of some sort), and other events of the game. The craziest part was the amount of security we had surrounding us. First they had a whole line of security lining the separation between our section of the bleachers and the fans' section. That would have been there anyway, but in front of us we each had about two personal body guards. No joke, we had 6-8 police men lined in front of us. It was some comfort, but I don't really trust the Palestinian Authority. They aren't quite as professional or...legit as I'm used to in armed forces.
The game was sweet. It rained so the field was a disaster, but really exciting. We found a man, well more like he found us, who spoke conversational English (the only one all night). He agreed that it would be a good idea for us to leave at half time, as football games get a little rowdier in the second half and the whole town goes nuts after the game. Plus, even after we got out safely we would have been stuck at the checkpoint for hours probably. He obviously had some type of authority, and I think he's a higher up in Jericho. Everyone just parted a path for us and security let us out. He called us a taxi and brought us to his cafe (more like a hookah bar) to hang out until it got there. He got us tea (and hookah of course), and we hung out. He was very interesting to talk to, and had actually lived in New York for a while. He gave us his number and told us to come back and come to his home. Sweet connection, maybe I'll even get to meet his wife! I have yet to talk to an Arab woman; they don't get out much.
I need to also share about my trip to Ramalah with Kyle, Jodi, and Ben, but maybe I can go into greater detail some other time. They have a sweet cafe called Stars & Bucks. They even rip off the Starbucks logo. Ben said that Starbucks sued them and everything, but what are they going to do about it. I don't think infringement of copy right laws is the biggest concern involving the west bank. They pretty much do what they want. I'll have to get some pictures up on the blog when I get a chance to talk a bit more about Ramalah.
And I'm out of time, but I should mention the current situation here. Trash has been escalating around here. In the last week 120 (or something like that) Palestinians were killed in Gaza. Missiles are being shot back and forth (don’t worry, not anywhere close to reaching Jerusalem). Then last night there was a shooting at a school in west Jerusalem. Eight students (15-26 years old) were killed, and it was the deadliest attack in Jerusalem in many years. We sat on the roof for a while and watched police cars and ambulances drive back and forth over Hebron road for a while then went to bed.
We'll have to just see how things go. Today was the first day we were told not to go into the old city. And the west bank is pretty much off limits now too. Hopefully, it’s just a flare up and things will settle down again soon. Before pointing fingers it’s important to realize both sides are suffering because of this. I find myself in a strange situation, feeling both really angry at and really sad for the people here at the same time. These people could definitely use your prayers. It really seems like the grace of God is the only thing that will get us out of the mess we've created here.

Marhaba!

Well I wrote this a day and a half ago but didn't get it posted.

Hello! I'm sorry I haven't written in so long/kept in any sort of contact with anyone. Again, a lot has happened since I last wrote, so I'll have to hit only a few things.
The weather here is nuts! It snowed two days ago and now its 60's and gorgeous. I'm sitting outside on the deck at Café Joe, a little coffee shop on King David St. in the New City. It’s a little chilly so I might need to move inside. I'm learning to enjoy tea; they drink a lot of it here. Unfortunately even the tea is ridiculously expensive in Jerusalem. If you think coffee and espresso drinks are overpriced at Starbucks try coming to Jerusalem! Last night I paid the same for a small chia as I did for a nice meal (soup, salad, and a grilled Asian chicken sandwich) in Bethlehem. I just like getting out into the city.
Since I wrote a couple of weeks ago I've gone on multiple field trips. For physical settings we studied the land of Benjamin. We started in Bethlehem and drove up to Jericho. We stopped on the way to look into the dessert and the wadi (Qilt I think). It was the same desert Jesus walked across to get to Jerusalem. Dr. Wright talked about wilderness and what it meant to people during Bible times. It was interesting; I've always viewed nature as something beautiful and awesome and just a part of God's creation I'd like to be in as much as possible. And while it is all of those things, its actually very dangerous and terrible to the people in the Bible who have to live in it or just travel through it. Looking out into it I could understand that; it’s really a harsh land. It was the land David referred to as the "valley of the shadow of death". Not that nature and wilderness was always a negative thing in the Bible, but it was definitely looked at differently than how I view it. A friend and I want to hike across this wilderness to Jericho sometime soon. The Bible says it’s only a day’s journey. We should probably research it first though so we don't get stuck for three days in the middle of the dessert. =) While we were there a bunch of Bedouins came and tried to sell us things. The kids were just begging for money or anything we would give them. I've started carrying gum around with me to give to the children. They're cute but trouble. The first boy I gave a piece of gum to grabbed the whole pack from my hand and ran! Haha, then he continued to stuff all that was left in the pack into his mouth at once. He was a little too cute to be angry with.
I really liked Jericho. It’s interesting because its Palestinian land now but there’s a Palestinian refugee came right there that they wont accept. One side is the town is gorgeous and fairly wealthy, but if you look north into the refugee camp it’s a totally different story. In the more recent years the camp has improved considerably in its economy and has schools and all that. But it’s sad to see a whole town of people get stuck in between political disputes. From what I can gather, the people there lived around Tel Aviv but fled during the British mandate to what was Jordanian territory. The Jordanian government didn't accept them as citizens because they didn't want people fleeing Israel, which would be recognizing the state of Israel. The land was then taken back by Israel in the war, and again the people were not recognized because they were Palestinians. Then Jericho was given to Palestine, and the Palestinians won't accept their own people for the same reason as the Jordanians. It's lame and it really ticks me off. Palestine is always playing the sympathy card, emphasizing how much pain their people are in. At the same time they aren't in any way taking care of their own people. Their killing them and leaving them trapped in refugee camps. Again, I'd like to repeat what I've said in previous entries, I'm not trying to make a political statement about what "side" I'm on. There’s problems in every direction.
From there we made our way west through Benjamin. We followed multiple Bible stories, but my favorite was the story of Joshua. It illustrated the land so well. We studied why he went in at Jericho and moved into the Benjamin plateau, first taking Ai, and then moving to Gibeon. He had a great military and political strategy based on the land and the routes through the land. I'm learning to read the Bible in a completely different way. Before the events or order of the events didn't connect or make any sense. When studying on our field studies we get to see the reason for characters’ actions. They actually have reasons for what they do!
There was a lot more of the trip I could talk about, but that was only one day. I've had other field studies in the last week as well. I had field studies for Historical and Social Settings of Modern Israel. These were very interesting as well. We went to a whole bunch of military sites and battle grounds, as well as the Holocaust museum, and a really great town called Abu Rosh. I'd like to talk about it all in more detail, so I probably shouldn't even start now with the time I have.
On Wednesday we fought the weather and snow and made it to a Synagogue for my Jewish Thought and Practice class. We looked at some of the things that we've been studying in class and the professor, Rabi Moshe, explained the practices of different services. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't been wet and cold, but it was very interesting.
Now it’s Friday and I'm looking at three field studies over the weekend. Tonight we are going back to Rabbi Moshe's synagogue and attending a Shabbat evening service. Then we will have Shabbat dinner there. I hope I don't do anything to offend anyone, it’s easy to do in such a different culture than what I'm used to. Tomorrow I am going to Jericho for a field study for Church in the East. Then on Sunday I have a field study for Physical Settings, in which we are studying Samaria. You know it’s busy when you look forward to the week days for a break!
Those are most of the recent field studies. Other than that I'm trying not to drown in my classes and homework. I've been a little bit stressed out lately with how much I have to do and how far I'm getting behind, but I think I'm just going to have to accept that I'm not going to be able to do all the work. The kids here are really great and I've really enjoyed getting to know them. We have a good time together. Yeah, I don't know what else to say about them. They're just all very genuine and cool people.
I'm in a Bible study with a few other undergrad women and I really enjoy it. We are reading through Matthew and just spending time to share with each other our own stories. Its more relationship focused than deep Biblical studies, which is what I think we all really need. This week we met at Christi and Tim's apartment in the Old City and made potato soup and tortillas. It was so great to cook again. Tim is a grad student and Christi is our small group leader. They both graduated from Taylor a few years ago. I'm excited to get to know Christi better.
I think I've mentioned this in past entries, but Wednesday I volunteer at Bet Jalla School in Bethlehem. This week was more of just an orientation and observation to what I'll be doing. The principle gave us a few ideas of some special needs they have and how we can help. One was algebra and since that was probably one of my favorite subjects in high school I took it. The plan is to help the 12th grade Advanced Algebra class and the 11th grade Algebra SAT prep class. The school was completely out of control! Haha, I'm not sure how to describe it but if I had one word it would be chaos! I'm pretty sure they 12th graders didn't listen to a word the teacher said and I feel like my being there was more of a distraction than anything so I'll probably tell the principle that I may better use elsewhere. I think I may be more help in the 11th grade prep class, but even in that class we didn't do anything. Hopefully it will get better. At the end of the school day I was in the hall talking to the math teacher and Miss Grace, the elementary principle ran up to me and told me they needed someone to watch the 6th graders because the teacher left. Again, chaos! So I taught them heads up seven up and they taught me some Arabic.
Here's a list of what they taught me:
Marhaba = hello
kefak/kefek= how are you (masculine/feminine)
zalameh = man
mara = women
benet = girl
walad = boy
Mabsoota = fine
madrise = school
Jamaa= university
Shokran = thank you
Afwan = you're welcome
saf = class
Bede Aran = I want to go
So you if you say "I want to go to class", you say "Bede Aran ala saf". That's the only sentence I know, and I don't think I've ever even used it in English, but at least its a start.
After school Craig and Ben headed back to Jerusalem, and JE and I stuck around. We walked around and got a little bit lost (that’s the best way to learn the area), then headed up to Manager Square. We stopped at Adnan's shop. I talked about Adnan in my first entry about Jerusalem. He's really cool and whenever I go to Bethlehem I try to stop by. He'll always by me and whoever I'm with tea and chat with us. I found out he's got a degree from Bethlehem University in Psychology and Social Work, exactly what I'm studying! He can't get a job though because there aren't any available in Jerusalem, so he's got his shop. He showed us a picture of his four kids and told us about his family. He hasn't left Bethlehem in 7 years, except for some of the close neighboring Arab towns. He said he really needs to be able to get to Jerusalem in order to get a job. It’s so strange that he lives there and hasn't been able to make the 10 minute trip into Jerusalem which we make multiple times a week. After his shop we wandered some more and checked out Bethlehem University. The guard let us in even though it was closed and we looked around until another guard kicked us out. It's a small and beautiful campus. We met a few students from Norway who are touring the area for cross-cultural studies for their university in Norway. It was fun talking to them; they've seen a lot in the short time they were here. Then JE and I went and ordered dinner at a cafe close to the bus stop. It was really nice inside and the food was great. It was also extremely inexpensive compared to Jerusalem. And that was pretty much my Bethlehem trip for the week. I really love going there.
Well, I should head out. I need to get the mail from the post office and its Shabbat so it closes in an hour at noon. Like last time, sorry this was so extremely scattered and without direction. I just kind of let thoughts and events from the last week or two spill out.
Shabbat Shalom!

Life is sweet! ...and a little bit out of control

I haven't written in a while and a lot has gone on, but I should probably just pick a few of my favorite.

Last Sunday a whole bus of us went to Machtesh HaKatan in the Negev. A machtesh is a crater-like form in the dessert. It was pretty sweet, I've never hiked in anything like it. Maybe it's my midwest childhood (not that I'm not proud of the midwest), but it felt like something straight out of National Geographic. The hike to the machtesh had some good hills, but the rest was pretty much all down hill into the crater. I took about a million pictures and have them posted on Picasa, so feel free to look at them.

We also had another field trip around the Jerusalem area, moving further into the surrounding land with vantage points that gave us a better idea of how the geography played a role, and still plays a role, in the land of the Bible. We also went to Bethlehem and the Herodian. The Herodian is this mountain-like structure that Herod built a palace/spa. There were actually two hills and he took one and put it right on top of the other so that he was pretty much above everything else around the land. I honestly think it's pretty ridiculous but some of the guys in the class found it ingenious. Just recently (in the last year) archeologists found Herod's tomb inside the mountain. It was Shabbat when we were there and no one was working or around so we crawled under the fence and explored the area. We went into the cave that lead to the tomb (we figure) but we didn't have a head lamp. I think we'll have to go back with some lights and chalk so we can explore without the threat of getting hopelessly lost inside a mountain tomb.

A couple of days ago I went to Hezekiah's tunnel on the eastern hill (City of David). It's the tunnel Hezekiah built to improve the water system. It brought water from the Gehon Spring up to the Pool of Silom. The tunnel still has water flowing through it and it's a lot of fun to go through. There were about five of us I think and we all waded through the dark tunnel with head lamps. Its pretty amazing that we can still walk through something man-made that hasn't really changed since it was created by Hezekiah in 701 BC. The water was pretty cold and I got good and wet but it was worth it. We want to go back again and try to get through with out headlamps.

Today I went over to Bethlehem for a meeting with the principle of a school that I will be volunteering at. The school is called Jerusalem Beit Jalla School. It's got Jerusalem stuck in the title because there used to be just the one school in Jerusalem, but when the wall went up and people couldn't really travel back and forth between the two cities, they had to build a second campus. The meeting didn't really get me too far with finding out what I will actually be doing. I went with four others, three of whom will be volunteering also, and it sounds like they will definitely have work for us to do. It got me pretty excited for working there some.

Well, that's some of the highlights of the last few days. There's so many things to do and see it's hard to keep up. I'm loving it, but I'm also realizing that I won't be able to do everything I want to do. Having too much awesome stuff to do in three months isn't really a bad thing, but sometimes a little frustrating none the less.

Oh, and one last thing. I just joined a Bible study with a few other girls here. A grad student's wife, Christy, started it and we meet in their home in the Old City. She's pretty awesome and so are the other girls.

Bethlehem

Written 2:00 pm Thursday afternoon ~ Posted on Net 1:30 am Friday

I’m sitting on the roof right now looking down at the city. It’s a beautiful day. The winds a bit cool, but the sun is very warm. I just finished my Church in the East class. I feel like every time I leave that class I’m ten times more confused than when I went in. It’s a good kind of confused though. Everything we talk about is just so deep and multi-dimensional. It feels like some of the topics are just on the fringe of human understanding, so for a second I get an idea, but then it slips away and I’m totally lost again. I don’t really know how to explain it. I’ve started recording the prof though, and researching just after class some of the things I didn’t understand. It helps, but I’m still left with a whole lot to think about.
Anyway, I planned on writing a bit about my trip to Bethlehem yesterday. It was an experience. My friend Ben goes to Bethlehem Bible College for Arabic class. The professor used to come here, but she can’t anymore because of the checkpoints. So JUC goes to her. He left his hat in class the other day so we went over to go get it and look around. Ben’s been there a lot so he was a great person to go with. We caught a bus off of Hebron Road. It’s pretty crazy how many people they’ll pack into one of those things. It dropped us off right outside the West Bank wall. This is my first time going through a check point. It’s pretty surreal actually being there after hearing about them all the time. We waited in a short line and all together it wasn’t that bad. In the morning and evening though, when people are trying to get to work, it’s usually a disaster. As Americans we pretty much get waved right through with a quick glance at our passport. However Arabs will wait for hours to get through the line. George, one of our cooks, has to go through every morning and evening. He’s been hassled, held at gun point, and just given a rough time, even when he has all the paper work. It’s pretty sad and I feel bad walking right through, as a foreigner, when everyone else has to wait hours just to get to their home. I’m not saying it’s not necessary and I’m not claiming to be Pro-Palestinian (I’m also not claiming to be pro-Israel). I’m just laying it out there; it’s tragic (not just the check points but the whole situation which affects every aspect of these people’s lives), and put the politics aside, it’s a horrible situation that is too easy to look at objectively and not see the people who are hurting. And I’m not talking about the people blowing themselves up. I’m talking about the common Palestinian like George who is threatened to be strip searched, or Adnan the shop owner who can hardly provide for his family anymore, or the student at Bethlehem Bible College who is a student at JUC but can’t get to classes here. It’s a whole city and real people who are suffering because of some blood thirsty radicals. And the more that is done to control the situation, the angrier people get, and the more need there is to control. Again, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we need to get rid of these security measures. I have no political agenda in this post. Actually, even if I had a political agenda I wouldn’t know what to say. I guess if there were any easy solution to write about we wouldn’t be in this mess. There’s truth to what one man said at the book store in the New City: “These people have gotten themselves into this mess and God is going to have to deal with it”. However, I think everyone can be included in “these people”, not just Jews and Arabs.
Well, that was a little off track, just some thoughts that are floating around in my head while I try to make sense of the situation. As soon as we crossed into Bethlehem there were about 30 taxis waiting. There were only a handful of people entering the city and buses only drop people off every once in a while, so I figure most of the drivers probably wait all day for maybe one ride at most. They were all yelling and trying to get us to go into their cab, but we just kept walking. Again, I felt kind of bad. It starts to feel like giving people business is charity work. There is some truth to it. I’ll choose to spend my money in some areas rather than others. I needed a mug, so rather than buying one in Jerusalem, where tourism is flourishing, I waited until I got to Bethlehem. We picked up Ben’s hat and I met some of the students at Bethlehem Bible College, including the JUC student who can’t get to school. He waved us goodbye saying, “I hope to see you again. Hopefully my papers will come and I will see you at school”. The road that used to be the entrance to Bethlehem (now blocked by the wall) was completely shut down and pretty much deserted, it looked like the streets of the Old City when everything was closed due to snow. It used to be the main drag.

Entering the wall after going through the checkpoint.

The graffiti was unreal. There were a lot of things written in Arabic that I couldn’t understand, but a lot that was written in English. There were both angry statements and calls to peace written side by side. There were tons of pictures voicing people’s feelings. According to Ben a lot of foreigners paint on the wall. I guess I have mixed feelings about this. It’s cool that everyone can post their opinion on the wall, but I don’t like the idea of people taking something so raw and horrible and turning it into a tourist attraction. If that’s the case, its really none of their business painting on the wall then going back to their comfy lives, while people are still being imprisoned behind their portraits.

Ben in front of the wall (above)

"MADE IN THE USA" painted at the bottom of the cement slabs

After getting Ben’s hat we walked down to the Church of the Nativity, which commemorates the birth place of Jesus and many believe that the stable was located there. On the way we stopped at Adnan’s shop. Adnan is a shopkeeper that Ben has gotten to know. He gave us seats and bought us some tea. We asked how things were going and he said that business was rough. Christmas didn’t provide the business it usually does in Bethlehem. We also asked him about George Bush’s visit and if he had seen him. He told us you’d have been crazy to go outside and would’ve gotten yourself shot. The city was on lockdown I guess, all the shops were closed and everyone had to stay in their homes. One of the cab drivers said he had seen Bush, but I’m pretty sure he just wanted us to get in his cab.
I bought a mug from Adnan and he gave me a bracelet as a gift. Then we headed over to the Church. The Church was really interesting but I don’t know too much about it. We just looked around a bit and the guard let us down into the stable area early (it was closed for a while for some reason) so we could get in before the big tourist groups. I’m going back to the Church for class so we didn’t stay too long and I don’t have too much to say about it yet. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We got back on a bus and went through another checkpoint and back to Jerusalem.
So that was pretty much the trip. Nothing too eventful, it just really made me think. It’s so easy to look at politics and pick a side when I’m so far removed. But when I see the regular people that it affects so strongly, it doesn’t look so black and white. I know things still need to be done in order to maintain order and protect lives; but even so, it’s not a simple matter to just overlook the lives which these drastic measures affect. It looks as though we (as in humans - not Jews or Arabs or Americans) have gotten ourselves into a rather hopeless mess. It’s a good thing we have a merciful God that’s bigger than all of the junk we can create.
Sorry if that was all really unorganized and hard to follow, or it may not have accurately expressed my thoughts. Maybe I shouldn’t be squeezing something so heavy in between classes.

Molly meets Mountain: We don't run like this in Chicago

I have a ton to write about again, but as usual, not enough time to do so. I'll have to leave out the second Jerusalem field study last Sunday. It was pretty much amazing and I could write about it forever, so I'll just have to leave that for another post.

The field study really wore us out. We basically walked all over the place from 7 am to 6 pm. On any other day this would have been great, but unfortunately this was Super Bowl Sunday. Here it's more like Super Bowl Monday; the kick off is at 1:30 AM. It was the best I could do to stay awake until midnight. So I took a "nap" until 1 AM and walked across town with a few others to one of the grad student’s apartments. I only lasted half the game and headed back in order to get a few hours of sleep. I should've just finished the game up since the second half was the exciting half, but its probably good I got a few hours in before my 8:15 class.

Classes dragged but by the afternoon I was awake enough. My roommate Christina, another girl from our program, and I walked to the Shuk (pronounced Shuke). The Shuk is the New City’s market. Its basically a glorified farmers market and the cheapest place to get a lot of things. It was great. There were tons of fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses, halva (a sweet made of sesame and is supposed to provide energy), flowers, spices, dried fruits, nuts, breads and sweets. I bought a few shekles worth of fruits and nuts. It's quite an experience and I hope to go back soon.

Yesterday before dinner I went for a run with two other kids in the program, Karin and Andrew. I've run with Karin before; she's great and has been here for a semester so she knows the area well. It was great to have Andrew along with this time. Having a guy along frees women to safely go places that otherwise would not be wise to visit. Because Andrew was along we ran around the Old City walls. It was a little sketchy running through the Arab part of town; women running around in shorts isn't exactly acceptable in their eyes. Once we got through that though it was a gorgeous run. The path took us through the Muslim cemetery, which is actually kind of creepy, but looked out over the Mt. of Olives. All together it was probably not much over 3 miles, but the hills were like nothing I've ever run before. I think in Chicago the biggest hill I have to get over is my driveway. Its definitely something I'll have to get used to, especially since we're going to try a 4:30 AM run up the Mt. of Olives to catch the sunrise soon.

Today I went on another great run. This time we added another guy, Craig, to our ranks. The four of us ran South through the Promenade. It's this beautiful running/walking path that follows the watershed ridge. We stopped at the end and its probably the most beautiful view I've witnessed my time here so far. It looks directly down at the Hinnom valley and across to the Old City. Just to the right was the Central and Kidron Valley. We could see tiny little City of David squeezed between the valleys, overshadowed by the Mt. of Olives just to the East. Then way to the East we could see beautiful mountains. I'm not sure what they were, but we'll probably find out soon enough. I wish I could get a picture of it for all of you to see, but I don't think it would do it justice. I'll have to go back and take pictures all the way across and tape them together.

I love running here so much. It gives me an excuse to get out of the books and see the land. Its great for my Physical Geography class too, as I basically get a tour of all the land I am supposed to know each time I go. So I guess its kind of like studying, right?

And So It Begins

Shalom! Welcome to my blog! I've been here in Israel for a week now and I have so much to share already, and unfortunately not as much time to do so as I would like! I'll to try to to my best.

Today was a gorgeous day! As I will explain later, the weather has been a little rough and has been keeping us inside, so the sun and warmer weather were quite a blessing. I was up late last night, and I slept right through my alarm clock and breakfast this morning. So my roommate, Christina, and I made our way into the Old City to find some fresh bread. The sun was shining and for the first time in quite a while I was warm! The city was alive and busy on a Saturday morning. As you may know, Jews celebrate Shabbat on Saturday, so pretty much everything is closed in the New City from Friday afternoon until Saturday afternoon. The Old City, however, is hoppin'. We first made our way into the Christian quarter to find Shaban, a money changer and store owner we've been told we can trust. He is really a great guy and loves to help JUC students. He's even got a little Wheaton fan flag and sticker that a past student gave him hanging in his shop! He welcomed us into his store and bought us tea from one of the vendors who walks up and down the street with a tray of tea. I don't even like tea, and I loved this! He told us how to make it so I'll have to try it out and make it for you all when I get home. He told us where to find the freshest bread, not from a vendor, but right at the ovens down a little ally. He said to tell them he sent us and to only pay 3 shekels, a little over 75 cents. Its always a good idea to get Shaban to help; normally they would overcharge Americans and we would have to pay at least five shekels. We found the shop and purchased the bead right out of the oven, what a great breakfast, all we needed was a little penut butter! Then I stopped at a jeweler's shop. It had gorgeous handmade jewelry. It was on the expensive side, but it wasn't the tourist junk you find in other parts of the city. The owner was very nice, especially when we heard we were from JUC. He told us as students we get a 25% discount, then tried to sell me a beautiful pair of earrings. Store owners in the Old City are very persistent. Usually its easy to say no and just walk away, but it can be harder when they are so friendly. In the end I told him no, but he gave me the earrings anyway to take back to school and advertise for him. Then he said I could have the earrings for the price of the silver when I brought them back if I would like. I told him I would advertise for him, just because he seems great and I'd like to support his business over other somewhat sleazy shops. Plus, how could I say no to someone so trusting. I still won't buy them, even if it is a good deal, but I'll pass the word around and return them soon. He also gave us this spice to put on our bread. Its called zapika, and he told us that he used to take it too school with him and it would "open his mind". When someone hands you a little plastic baggy of spices that will open your mind, some red flags usually go up. But he was just using the best English he could and I've seen the spice in spice shop displays. It was great on the fresh bread. Another shop owner saw us with our bread and offered us cheese on our way out of the city, but I didn't trust him quite as much and we didn't stop. Its really a different culture with different values. I love the people's willingness to share with us, but not everyone's like that and even if they are you have to be on your guard all the time.

After lunch I went out with a few girls into the New City. Two of the girls had been here last semester and were taking us to a hill that they climb to study. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was a hill in the middle of the city, but you wouldn't even notice it unless you were trying to find it. There was a tiny path up the off of Hebron Road (busy road that leads out of Jerusalem and into Hebron). At the top the hill looks out onto Hebron Valley. Its absolutely gorgeous. The hill itself is littered with rubble from stone buildings that used to stand there. Now, all that's left, are the stone foundations, covered in moss. It was wonderful to be outside, after a few days shut up trying to stay warm. The breeze was cool, but when the sun made it through it was perfect. We stayed for a while and I journaled.

At 3 I played some football behind the school with some other students. It was a lot of fun and great to be rough housing outside again. I scored a touchdown but dropped a few passes too. Afterwards I went for a short jog through the new city with another student. And that's pretty much been the day. I also got to hang out in the garden some and eat kemkwats off the trees. It reminded me of spring break and my girls back home.

So that's today, but there's a lot more that has happened and a lot that I've learned and would love to share with you. So lets start towards the beginning.

Here's the scoop, incredibly brief: I flew out on Thursday, January 24th and arrived on Friday the 25th.

The next day the new students had a photo scavenger hunt in the Old City and a tour after dinner of the New City (or west city). The next day, Sunday, we had our first field study for Physical Settings of the Bible. Dr. Write took us around the city and showed us some sweet stuff, I'll have to go over that in greater detail later. It was really amazing, best class period I've ever had. The rest of the week I had classes and a ton of reading to do. I think all my classes had reading due the first day, but since we didn't get the syllabus until the first day we had to do twice as much reading to make up for it. But the classes are amazing, and most of the reading is very interesting too. I'll go over my classes in greater detail soon as well.

The weather has been very cold and Israel only heats the buildings a couple of hours a day. So basically, until today, I was cold since I got of the airplane. It snowed on Wednesday and Thursday and the whole city shut down. Except for us of course =), we were probably the only students in the city that had class. I went yesterday to an outfitters store and blew a bunch of money on warm clothes, but it'll be worth staying warm. My room is on the roof and is amazing! Its probably the sweetest bedroom here. It looks out onto the west city, and every morning I start the day with this beautiful view (note the snow!):

The kids here seem to be great kids. Its fun to see us emerging from that awkward get-to-know-you stage. The professors are wonderful as well.

And that's been a lot of my experience up to now. Of course it doesn't do last week justice, but if I try to I'll just get further behind. I have another field study in Jerusalem tomorrow so I'd like to post about my first one before I have another to write about. Hopefully I'll get that up tonight, but first I should take a shower while the hot water is on!

A couple of hours later: so I didn't get to get my first field study posted tonight and I need to go to bed. It'll have to wait. I'm also putting all my pics on an online photo album, I'll get the link to you when I've got them all loaded.