A day in the Old City

What I love about other countries the most are the people and the food! I love the falafels, they are like these crunchy bean meat ball thingys in pita with veggies. Very delish. I love to drizzle an excess amount of sauce on! Espcially hot sauce! YUM!
Some little things are so wonderful, they are too sweet to be coincidences. I met this woman in the Old City who was so beautiful in so many ways. Her water bottle came rolling down the steps at Damascus gate just in time to greet my feet and I know it was supposed to happen! Even though we could only say a few things to each other, her kind heart radiated such love! Her baby was just as darling and she let us play with her for a while!

There always seems to be little kids hanging out all around the city. They are so sweet to eachother too. It reminds me of Hawaii how the brothers and sisters are always taking such good care of one another. Trying to carry eachother even when their sibling weighs just a few pounds less then them. Very touching. They love learning games and they love cameras...





When I say things like, "lets not do that, or Maybe thats not a good idea", American kids never take me seriously as a disciplinary so I dont know why I even tried it with the kids here.



After the children zoomed off with my camera photographing every shop keeper, tourist and friend, they snapped some individuals of us, and by then I think my friends were ready to go! The pictures all are halarious. But I must say I loved seeing what the world is like from a child's perspective. Very beautiful! Yet sadly reviewing the photos I saw some irritation in a few peoples eyes...But the kids seemed to have a good time.

A few weeks ago there were the most darling neighbor kids leaning over the wall of our school as we were feeding the stray cats asking us as clear as best as they could, "is that your cat"?

We told them no she wasn't but asked them for their names. One by one in a line up they told us while leaning over the wall peering down at us excitedly giggling, Mohammad, Adnan, Natalie, Joel, Nam, and there were a few others but I have already forgotten!

I told them to come down and meet me at the entrance gate. I felt so excited as I heard their little footsteps on the other side of the wall matching mine. They quickly beat me there and my friends Madeline, Kathleen, Kyle and I taught them 'red rover, red rover'.

It made my day! They didn't understand at first and would just run to us sometimes without even having their names called, but eventually caught on. It was so special to hear them say "red rover, red rover" as we held hands and invited someone from the other side over. If only the whole world could be called over like so easily, I love them so much.






President Brown from BYU Jerusalem says that he was once walkng with Gordon B. Hinkley here at the Garden Tomb and President Hinkley read this sign and said, "I do. I do pray for the Peace of Jerusalem". I thought that story was so cool, if sweet President Hinkley prays for peace, than shouldn't we all?

Anyway I feel like sometimes I'm not fully immersed in the culture as I would like because of the language barrier, but its so wonderful that children truly don't need words to be your friend. They truly are the pure in heart. I think peace will come from the Children. It has to! Someone in my Palestinian class said, that "in our grandparents generation they couldnt imagine a world with equal rights, but in our generation we cant imagine a world without them".

I want to learn more Arabic and think of more games to teach them. So far I have: red rover, the knot game and red light green light, these may be a bit childish but perhaps not. If anyone thinks of any please let me know!

There parting words were, "Tomorrow! Tomorrow!" So darling! Love you everyone!

Sukkot

Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles is one of the Jewish festivals that has been happening for thousands of years and its one where all the Jews would come to visit the temple in Jerusalem if they could. Its like a Thanksgiving in a way, back in bible times they would celebrate because of the harvest and now I think they celebrate the blessings of the year that has passed.

You would never think Holidays would be something that would be so upsetting, but here with so many different belifs, holidays can be the times when tensions are highest. Sukkot lasts 7 days so for about a week the center had us pretty much stay out of the Old City just incase.

Many of the roads get blocked off so that the bus loads of Jewish pilgrims who were comming from all over the world could go to the Western Wall to pray. But for anyone who isnt jewish this perhaps was not ideal.

All over the city there are these little hut things called Sukkas, kind of like how we put up a Christmas tree. The Jewish families decoarate these sukas and have feasts and say prayers in there for a week and kids can sleep in there too if they want. Seems kind of fun!

On the Last day of Sukkot the center let us go out, proabbly because it was so early they thought it would be safe. We walked down to the Western Wall to watch the people reading from the Torah, and praying and wacking their palm frawns on the ground. Our Jewish teacher says that its the jews way of throwing a temper tantrum for rain. I loved seeing all the families together the most.

These cute little girls were beating these palm frawns to death! Althogh the week of sukkot wa sone of the few we had rain! wait to go!

These boys were so cute. I love watching the kids the most because they are always the same whever you go. I could tell the little boy on the right was kind of ready to go home. He was bobbing back and fourth and taking his coat on and off while all his older brothers were saying their prayers.

They kept taking these money jar things out and admiring them. It reminded me of how boys used to play with Pogs or Pokemon Cards. Well happy Sukkot!

Jericho

Somewhere down this valley is the famous Road to Jericho that the savior refered to when teaching the parable about the Good Samaratin. One thing that some people dont know is that it was very dangerous for anyone to stop on this road because bad guys would be hiding in the bushes to hurt you and steal from you if you stopped. I feel like there are lots of Good Samaratins here! So many strangers are so kind to us and people always respond when I say thanks, "its no problem!" Thank goodness for all the Good Samaratins in the world!



I love the name Jericho so naturally I loved going there. I have always wanted to name my son that someday. Jericho is one of the lowest places on Earth and its also the oldest! I love in the scriptures where it talks about Christ comming from the lowest parts of the Earth, and then making his way up. That is the nature of our lives sometimes, I try to remember what Joseph Smith said whenever Im sad, that we are brought low only so the Lord can bring us high.





One thing I love ofcourse is the food here. Not just because its delicious but because its all the same food they ate in the scriptures! These are dates! Although I prefer them when they are shriveled like unto a raisin.

Jericho it known for its delish fruit. I bought an avacado and a mango from this market. It took me the longest time to get around to eating it. Since being here and eating in the cafeteria everyday I have become lazy in the cooking realm of things. Peeling the avacado seemed like an arduous task.

The beautiful view!

We walked up to this lovely little Greek Orthodox Monastery, the Monastery of Temptation. Its supposedly where Christ was tempted by Satan when he was fasting for 40 days. Its in the West Bank and overlooks the whole city of Jericho. Thou this place is below sea level, I was a little uneasy about being up so high on this cliff. Note the two handed grip on the rails.


Though Christ is the Prince of Peace, I always assumed the the peace sign didnt emerge until the 60ies or 70ies. As you can see here, I thought wrong.



People stuff prayers in the cracks here just like the Western Wall! Everyday I learn more and more how similarities people are despite their religions, it is a beautiful sight!

Just call me the master of Cheezy photos. Forgive me!




We met these darling donkeys there. They had lots of flies on them but they were very sweet and gentle. Definity a humble animal :)


Another darling resident of the land.

The montestary was one of the few places we have to cover our heads. I think to show respect to the monks that live there. They give up money, power and lives with families. Kind of sad, but living a life of denial I guess is their whole point? Still seems sad to me. But anyway I had a lovely day in Jericho!