"A Bedouin settlement! And if you look to your left, there's a 'Bedouin' over there!"

The above pun was given by none other than Dr. Jeffrey Chadwick (read it out loud to yourself if you don't get it). Hello, everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting this latest update. I am still alive and well... Life is fantastic! In case any of you are worried about "violence" here in the Middle East, Jerusalem really is safe. Our security staff is better than any that I've ever seen--they're on patrol 24/7 and their number one priority is keeping us safe. With them around, I feel like I'm in very good hands.

Since my return back from Turkey, I've done a lot of sleeping, talking, studying, and exploring! The day after we returned, we got to go out to a Bedouin settlement in the Negev desert.

We stayed in an "unrecognized town," or a place where you can see people and homes around you, but the town is nowhere to be seen on a map. Unrecognized towns are one of the many seemingly-unsolvable problems in Israel. The Bedouins that live there are declared as "illegal" and don't get any funding from the state. Their towns are often destroyed by the Israeli government, and this factor in combination with the fact that they often don't have much money cause them to make their homes out of garbage. Then they get diseases from the garbage, and end up living in an awful state of poverty. However, when you look at it from the Israeli point of view, these Bedouins want to be recognized, and yet they refuse to set up normal towns like everyone else. Plus their semi-nomadic lifestyle makes it difficult to call the places they live as "towns," since they travel according to the season. But then that would be asking the Bedouins to give up their way of life, etc. etc. Anyway, we worked specifically with Bedouin women who are trying to be able to find work in cities. They take part in a school (funded mostly by the Jerusalem Center!) that teaches them how to read and write Arabic and Hebrew. They also  work together to make beautiful hand-woven rugs and pillow cases and things like that in order to own more money for their organization, which is called Sidreh. You should look it up. Anyway, here are some pictures from that little expedition:

Sidreh School

Mama and baby camels

Bedouin weaver woman

Listening for instructions at the Bedouin tent

We also got to check out the ancient settlements of Beersheba and Arad - they both have a lot of history in regards to Abraham, Isaac, and company, and also Samuel and the reign of the kings. I'll let all of you look up most of it in your scripture study, but one quick fun fact: by knowing the geography and climate of the area, we can know what time of the year Abraham was at specific places. For example, he would be at Beersheba during the winter since it rained more, and then he'd be at Hebron (up in the mountains) in the summer since it was cooler and it would rain there. Fun, right? Oh, PS, another thing we got to do was go to some ancient temples that were excavated. The one in Beersheba was reconstructed, but the Arad one was still intact. Check it out!

Temple at Arad: I never thought I'd get to say that I went inside the Holy of Holies!

Jeehee on top of the sacrificial altar

We also had a fantastic Arab night celebration, where we probably insulted every Arab that was present by dressing up in strange headdresses, genie pants, belly dancing outfits (with modest shirts underneath), and other such nonsense. I'll have to get some photos from Jenessa to post since my camera's battery died that day. 

We also went to the Mediterranean last week! I didn't bring my camera with me for fear of getting sand in it, but others took some pictures. Here's one of them with the girls:

We're also planning on going this Monday again, and I think it'll be safe to take it then after scoping it out last time. The beach was absolutely spectacular--apparently some magazine rated it as the ninth most beautiful beach in the world? Anyway, I believe it (regardless of whether or not it's true); the water was clear, the sand is fine and not grainy at all, and it was perfect weather! All in all a wonderful day, and I'm excited to have another day like it on Monday.

We got to have another field trip last week looking at the foundations of Herod's temple--SO cool. You can recognize the style of Herod's stones by their trademark design:

My friend Josh next to the biggest stone of the foundation: it's 12 feet high, 44 feet long, and probably weighs about 450 tons. Archaeologists still have no idea how they moved the stone.

All of the tunnels that we traveled through are actually right underneath some Palestinian houses--yet another fun conflict in the area. Is it still considered "your property" to be below the ground? The Israeli perspective is "no." Regardless of what the actual answer is, I was very glad to be able to go. There was an exciting adventure at the very end of this escapade--I was going up the stairs to get to the end of our journey, when someone from one of the earlier groups bumped into me and my camera at just the right angle so that the lens cap fell off. Right through the stairs.

This shot was taken between the stairs in question

My immediate family members who are reading this will probably remember the time that I dropped my lens cap through a bridge and down a waterfall. Not wanting to have the same consequences in this escapade (aka a cracked lens), I decided to run back and ask security to help me get it. We ran all the way back to the end of the tunnel, climbed up the stairs to a locked gate, and then the security guards opened the gate, climbed down a ladder to the lens cap, and retrieved it for me. In case my temple field trip experience wasn't exciting enough, this little adventure made it unforgettable.

A surprisingly happy-looking security person as he goes down the ladder to retrieve my lens cap.

Midterms were last week, so we didn't get out into the city as much, but here are a few shots from our latest escapade (we tried to go to the Upper Rooms where the Last Supper took place, but everything was closed).

Just a couple of musicians

This shot was in honor of my seven-year-old brother, Joseph. I'm taking pictures of all of the cool wildlife, buddy!

King David's harem

"King David's tomb" (although I kind of doubt it's actually there)

Well, everyone! That's about it for last week's edition. I'm enjoying the emails that I get from you--thanks for that, and keep 'em coming. What does this week hold in store for Rebecca Winters, do you ask? It looks like a sheep herding field trip, a day out at Tel Aviv, and many more Jerusalem adventures are on the menu. Shalom until next time!

-Becca