"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

Istanbul, Not Constantinople

Marhaba, everyone! I am back from Turkey and life is awesome. It's unbelievable how much we were able to pack into one week. Before you get too nervous, though, you can rest assured that I won't go into detail for all of the places we went to. Let me just give you an overview of my thoughts for the different elements of the trip.

Scenery: absolutely spectacular. Seriously, I knew virtually nothing about Turkey's landscapes before coming, but after being there for a week, I think I'm seriously considering retiring there. It was a wonderful blend of green and mountains and seas/beaches unlike any place I've ever seen.

History: Well, it's Turkey. Istanbul is there, Troy is there, ancient Greek ruins are there. I think my favorite places to see were Troy, Perganaum (the place mentioned in Revelation where the Seat of Satan supposedly is), and Ephesus, but I loved them all. I was surprised at how many Greek ruins there were--I mean, I knew that Turkey was next to Greece, but I hadn't quite put two and two together. I now feel much less of a need to go to Greece after seeing so many awesome Greek sites there (but you should know that the need to go to Greece is still quite present).

Me outside of the Blue Mosque at Istanbul

Troy, of course! 

One of the pillars at Perganaum

One of my favorites from the trip

Nike shirt and Nike statue

An ancient library at Ephesus--this was hands-down one of my favorite places of the entire trip.

The next few shots are from the Hagia Sophia church (now a mosque) in Istanbul. It was like being in the Sistene Chapel--it was that beautiful.

People: The people were great. Here's our tour guide, Bulent:

Bulent kept us laughing the whole time (which was good, since we spent a long time on the bus). He called Brother Judd "Mr. Judo" instead, so of course our theme song for the trip was "Hey, Jude." It was awesome. I also got to know the people in my Old Testament class so much better from the trip--they're all wonderful, in case you were wondering. It was a little weird to be tourists so much, since we're used to being more integrated into Jerusalem society. We lived it up, though, and sported our fanny packs, headsets, and sunglasses rather well. Thankfully we didn't look as bad as this guy:

Living Conditions: Sub-par. We stayed in pretty good hotels for the most part--they could have been way scarier/sketchier, but I think that all of us were relieved to go back to living at the Jerusalem Center after it was all over. I had an interesting diet of buffet bars that all served the same thing--"the best meatballs in all of Turkey." Just in case you're wondering, I think Ikea's meatballs are probably a lot better. We still had some good food, though, such as this:

It actually was pretty tasty. And no, I did not eat the head.

Then, there were the toilets:

Okay, so maybe those are ancient Roman latrines, and not the actual toilets we used. Actually, I wasn't pleasantly surprised at the toilets. "Turkish Toilets" had a pretty bad reputation before we got there, but I've seen much worse ones in Alabama and other fun places back home. *Ahem..* Moving on.

Spirituality: This one was a little bit of a surprise for me--it was less spiritual than what I was expecting. I guess with a Muslim tour guide, he didn't place as much emphasis on the Christian history of the place. However, I learned throughout the week to really try and focus on the spiritual elements, and it go so much better. I think my favorite spiritual site was the theatre at Ephesus--in case you don't remember, it was at this same theatre that 25,000 people yelled, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" for more than two hours. It was something special to see how there were ruins of the religion of Diana and the other Greek gods/goddesses, but the religion that Paul was trying to spread to the people of Ephesus was still going strong. We also had all 80 of us sing "All Creatures of Our God and King" together, which was so awesome. I had goosebumps, and I think everyone who heard us was deeply moved--it was wonderful to be able to praise God through song in a place filled with so much history.

"Brother Judo's" class at the theatre in Ephesus

Well! That pretty much sums everything up. If you have any questions on particulars, feel free to comment with a question... Or you can just email me. Thanks for your support! I love it here, and I love all of you.

Becca

Shootings, Tombs, and Dead Guys

Okay! I'm off for a week-long trip to Turkey tomorrow (I'm praying that the Ben Gurion airport is better than JFK), so I think that you all deserve a life update before I leave.

We're currently on a sort of lockdown in the Jerusalem Center right now--yesterday was the day that Israel became a recognized nation, so there was a little bit of "conflict" in the city... Don't worry, though--everyone loves "The Mormons," and we're not in danger in our 8-story fortress. I'm not worried, and you shouldn't be either. It has been interesting though to go to sleep to the sounds of gunshots and cheers and stuff like that. Not exactly the same stuff that I'm used to in Georgia.

This past week has been fantastic! We went on our Jericho field trip on Monday--it included a trip to the Judean wilderness (the place where the parable of the Good Samaritan took place, as well as maybe the place where Elijah had ravens feed him meat, and also the place where Jesus was tempted), Elisha's spring (the water source of Jericho, and the place where Elisha healed the bitter water after Elijah was taken up into Heaven), as well as the actual wall of Jericho. It was an amazing trip where the scriptures just made much more sense. There was virtually nothing in the wilderness, and the stories of the Good Samaritan and the temptation of Jesus became so much more meaningful there. Plus the ruins of the wall were awesome--apparently, archeologists identified the wall as from the Middle Bronze Era (but Joshua was from the Late Bronze period), so they didn't think that the story of Joshua's wall actually existed. But, it's quite possible that the people of Joshua's time just had a really old wall (that's the way it is now in Jerusalem, at any rate), and it just fell down in the Late Bronze Era! There's Late Bronze pottery mixed in with the wall, so it's quite possible. Oh, we also visited one of Herod's palaces. It was actually surprisingly intact--there's an entire bath area that's still stuck together. The picture doesn't do it justice as to how cool I thought it was, but here you go.

In the desert

Bedouin settlement

Zaccheus' tree (the man found in the gospel of Luke who climbed the tree who could see the Savior)

Blowing the horns at Jericho

At the excavation site in Jericho

The still-intact bath at Herod's winter palace.

Just in case you aren't keeping up with the Israeli calendar, last Tuesday was Israeli National Independence Day. Almost all of the kids in the Jerusalem Center went to West Jerusalem on Monday night (since the celebration went from sundown to sundown) to party it up with the Jews. It was awesome--it totally reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve. This next picture will cause some embarrassment, but I think it's necessary to put it on:

I was low on shekels, but I really wanted some ice cream. Two of my group members, a certain Morgan and Tyson, also wanted some, so we decided to go with the 4 shekel menu at McDonald's. Not wanting to seem like uncultured neanderthals for eating, Morgan and Tyson refused to be in the picture with me. But this blog post gives verbal evidence that they were there sinning with me (even though it's not documented by pictures). There was also a great [but brief] fireworks show at the end, that was [most likely] worth freezing for (it was so cold outside!). It's a good thing that security wasn't there to see how close all of us were sitting next to each other, since PDA isn't allowed in Jerusalem... Anyway, here's a shot of the fireworks:

Hmmm, a little blurry... Bummer.

I also went to Tomb of the Kings (that sketchy place I was talking about in my last post)! Finally. I am happy to report that was just as cool I was expecting/hoping. Sketchy green door, sketchy boarded up hole that we had to crawl into... it was awesome. I told my mom afterwards that she didn't have to worry, since "there weren't any dead people." Apparently it wasn't the most comforting statement I've ever made. Here's a picture of all of us in one of the chambers:

Hands-down one of the coolest places I've been to in the city.

We went to another cave (Zedekiyah's Cave, to be exact), but it was decidedly less cool than Tomb of the Kings. Which is strange, since it served as the quarry for King Solomon, so it's definitely legitimate. I wonder if all US historical sites are going to be extremely dull since they happened at least 1500 years after most of the places that I'm seeing while I'm here.

Last main item of business is the Garden Tomb--I went there on Thursday. Although this is not the actual site where Jesus was crucified and then lain in the tomb before He was resurrected, it's probably pretty close by. The rock formation outside of the tomb (Golgotha) really does look like a skull--it was incredible. I've felt the Holy Ghost at different places here in the Holy Land, but I definitely felt it there the strongest--I think it's because everyone there felt a reverence and respect for the place that isn't always present in the sites that we visit... It was wonderful to be there with fellow Christians and read the biblical accounts of the Resurrection. I hope to go there often while I'm here. And when I do, I'll get some pictures--it just felt a little irreverent being a tourist while we were there for the first time.

Besides that, the main exciting event has been the whole lockdown-and-shooting thing. Although we're about to have hopefully 40+ students play an epic game of Hide and Go Seek in an eight-story building, so I'm betting that will be something worth remembering as well. Prepare yourselves for another novel-of-a-blog-post next week... Turkey is going to be amazing and filled to the brim wtih adventures. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures for you all! Take care, and stay out of the way of bombs. Oh wait, that's me.

Becca