Sunday
November 18th
The
Conflict in Gaza continues, but our security said it was safe to go out today.
We went to the Tomb of the Kings. This place was sweet; it was resting place
for the family of Queen Helene of Adiabene in the first century AD. We had to
pay 10 shekels before climbing down stairs into the huge pit and entering a
small opening into tons of rooms inside the rock. Each room had a handful of
tomb slots for the body to be laid. It was kind of eerie in there because it
was pitch black and only two of us had head lamps. I had to use the red light
on my camera before it would flash, so I had a faint little red light to
navigate through these old stone tombs in the dark. We sang Hymns in one of the
rooms because the acoustics were amazing. We then went to St. Georges Cathedral
and sat for a few minutes during their service, their hymns sounded exactly
like LDS hymns, the singing, organ, and the melody it was weird. After we
walked to the Church of St Saviour to try and see the door that Orson Hyde
carved his last name in when he was staying here in 1841. We got taken to the
part of the church, but the Father that took us didn't have the keys and said
that the Father that has the keys was not there for a few days. We split up our
group after and I got separated from everyone a few minutes. It was actually
nice to cruise around the old city by myself. When I met back up with everyone
I had to wait around a bit while they shopped. Then we went to a grassy area
right across the Governor's office just outside the city walls on the border of
East and West Jerusalem. We set up my roommate's slack line. It was super cool,
we had a Hasidic Jew come and try it, then some Palestinians, then another
Jewish guy our age. It was super cool to have both Jews and Palestinians
together slack lining. I'm not a slack lining advocate, but I found it neat to
see both peoples, who just 50 miles south are fighting against each other,
finding enjoyment, sharing laughs, and doing something with each other. We
later had a large group of little Arab girls come and do it as well. It was a
beautiful sunset and an even more beautiful moment to mix and mingle with the
people of Jerusalem.
Outside the Tombs, the entrance was in this open mouth to the left.
Rachel going into one of the Rooms
One of the rooms with the tomb shelves
St. George Cathedral
There are always old men playing games in the old city, I love it.
Roommate Jordan and Moses our hasidic Jewish Friend.
Our new Palestinian and Jewish friends enjoying the slack line.
Group of Arab girls loving it
Sunset over Jerusalem, taken from the BYU Center.
No comments:
Post a Comment