Yesterday, we went to Jerusalem. And like Makenzie said, it was just...weird. We met our tour guide and first went to a look out spot where we could view the whole landscape of the Old City--the Temple Mount, the Garden of Gethsemane, and various other churches and etc. At the look-out place, there was a camel. I expressed to Makenzie I wanted to ride the camel, and well, she took me seriously. It was an impulsive decision, but it was worth it. The man hissed to command the camel to kneel down, and it hissed/growled in return. I got on and Makenzie got on right behind me. I could not stop laughing while we trotted around the street.
We first went to the Garden of Gethsemane (for the Catholic Church). That was my favourite part of the day, before we even got in the city. A few of the trees were over 2,000 years old--giant knotted masses. It was not the fact that that might have been where Jesus actually knelt that got me. I guess that's the part of the story that I find most powerful--to remember how Jesus was in that vulnerable moment.
The rest however, was just a lot of sight-seeing, crowded around masses of people, kneeling to have their scarves and souvenirs blessed by a stone that Jesus' body was laid (but it's really only 100 years old), churches built by crusaders and people who were so desperate to have a part of Jesus' death and resurrection (and his mother). I think we saw three different spots where Jesus could have possibly died. All were claimed by different denominations. Dumb.
At the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, there was damage from the 1967 war. Over half of the church was destroyed and you could still see bullet holes in the walls.
Today, we went to our volunteer placements. We walked ALL the way up the hill to the HLT office (I wasn't prepared for it and therefore really angry about it). I am actually working with the HLT office, so I got to stay where I was. I will be doing some general administrative office work as well as some research for a report on East Jerusalem, and some PR work. I'm pretty excited to see where it goes!
Another program member works there as well. On our way to get an adapter, we ran into Majdi. I introduced her and we had tea. I will definitely be writing more about this kind man in the future. He drove us to a cafe and we actually picked M up on the way!
Our first Arabic class was today. Our teacher is an older woman and she's lovely. Very passionate about the language and a great teacher.
Well it's Masah il heer for now! (Good evening!)
-H
No comments:
Post a Comment