Jerusalem Judds: April 2026

Hi, friends! Catching up again! Let's jump back in time to March 2026! After 3 weeks in Utah, I returned to Jerusalem by plane, miraculously, and then joined Frank and the BYU group on their Exodus to the US by way of Cairo.

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Just to recap the situation in mid-March: the fighting between the U.S., Israel, and Iran had been going on since February 28 with no end in sight. For weeks the leaders of the BYU Jerusalem Center had been monitoring the situation day by day and weighing the options. There were some limited flights for U.S. citizens through Tel Aviv, but not enough for a group of 90 students. So it was proposed that the whole group of 90 students would leave for the U.S. by way of Egypt. This plan was presented to students (and their parents by zoom). Two students chose to leave early by way of Tel Aviv, but the other students elected to go along with the exodus through Egypt. The first draft of this plan had the faculty accompany the students and then return to Jerusalem to wait and see how the situation would develop.

I returned to Jerusalem on a rainy Wednesday, March 18, and it was surreal to wake up the next morning in this familiar, beautiful place, knowing that the peace could be shattered at any minute by a siren that would cause us to hustle to the bomb shelter. The center has 2 bomb shelters, so you can usually get to one or the other in the required 90 seconds.

In the peaceful morning hours I took these photos to say hello to the BYU Jerusalem Center after 3 weeks away. Little did I know that I was also saying goodbye--in just 5 days we would pack up all our belongings and leave. Leaving with the students for the U.S. was the outcome I was hoping for, but the decision had not yet been made when I arrived.

These beautiful ancient olive presses are always a solemn reminder of the crushing forces in life, the pressure required to bring life-giving and healing oil from bitter olives, the weight that Jesus Christ endured for our sins, and the painful processing that this earth life holds for us on our journey through improvement to transcendence.

Juxtaposed with these peaceful morning views was the reality that missiles had been intercepted all too close to Jerusalem and its holy sites. The shrapnel resulting from interceptions was unpredictable and could impact the city anywhere. Therefore, students were on lockdown and hadn't been venturing out for weeks. This made me extra grateful to make it from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem safely. This photo from a news article shows shrapnel that fell not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

During a lull in the fighting, the students took a miraculous and brief trip to Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity, and a short trip north to see the churches around the Sea of Galilee. I wasn't yet back when they made those excursions.

My first experience in the bomb shelter after arriving was on Thursday afternoon. There was usually a pre-alert phone alarm that warned us ahead of time that we might expect a future siren, and over half of the pre-alerts turned into sirens, but not all as the path of the debris was determined minute by minute.

This bomb shelter experience was still a novelty for me, and so we had a cheerful game of ping pong.

Later sirens caught us in the middle of the night. Slightly less novel. Slightly less cheerful. Frank and the others had experienced this 50 times in the three weeks I was gone, so they were all a little exhausted from the interrupted sleep and the tension of being vigilant all the time. My heart goes out to those throughout the world who have faced this situation for months or years.

The next day, Friday, March 20, I hosted a mosaic craft for students who needed a little morale boost. They had been feverishly finishing up as many classes as possible, and they enjoyed a little creative break. I happened to have most of the materials on hand, but one of our security guards ran an errand to get another batch of tiles so we could accommodate the 30 students who signed up for 2 different sessions.

Morale successfully boosted!

On Saturday, we enjoyed one final church meeting in the upper auditorium, poised and ready at any moment to head downstairs to safe rooms, but thankfully there were no pre-alerts or sirens during church or the Easter fireside later that night.

That weekend was the turning point when it was confirmed that faculty members would be leaving for home from Cairo. I was very supportive of this decision for many reasons, especially because of the emotional toll on loved ones and the concerned public in America. Even though there are safe places to shelter in Jerusalem, and we know that we are safe from minute to minute, those at home get a fresh wave of worry each time they hear the news. Given a choice between waiting for resolution in Jerusalem vs. waiting in the US, sending most of the faculty home is more aligned with perspective of minimizing unnecessary risk whenever possible. So we started packing and cleaning in earnest.

The students organized a wonderful memories night on March 22 to wrap up the semester, complete with navy crewneck sweatshirts. Caroline Meredith and her committee put in a lot of hours to make sure all the students were represented in the final slide show.

On Monday, 3/23, we had one last spa-themed activity with the young women. All of the young women and their families are staying in the country, so activities will continue--just without me!

Monday was the last chance for a Jerusalem sunset picture.

We were all very grateful for the Oasis cafeteria staff who nourished us during these last stressful days.

Our apartment looks so clean when it's mostly empty!

I will miss this bright, cheerful space that I can sweep, mop, and vacuum in under an hour!

I am not a big fan of goodbyes! The friends we leave behind have given so much to the Jerusalem Center program and the Jerusalem branch, and the locals and expats sheltering in place will continue to be surrounded with the uncertainty and stress that we are evacuating from.

On Tuesday, March 24 we drove south through the Jordan Valley, on the west side of the Dead Sea.

This road has a lot of twists and turns, and even students who are not usually trouble by motion sickness were feeling a little green around the gills by the time we passed the Dead Sea.

After about 4 hours of picturesque, winding roads, we reached our first border crossing near Eilat and crossed over to Aqaba, Jordan.

The border crossing was a long process of waiting in lines, passport inspections, unloading luggage, pulling suitcases awkwardly across bumpy walkways or gravel parking lots, lifting these 50 pound suitcases onto x-ray machines and off again, additional passport inspections, then new buses and reloading of luggage. There were porters who helped with a lot of the heavy lifting, but it was always a relief when the luggage was squared away. Often the luggage was heaped up in the last 6 rows of the bus.

We brought 4 large suitcases and 2 small ones on this trek. So we definitely contributed to the space scarcity. But it was nice that we could bring home pretty much all of our stuff, in case we weren't able to return for a hypothetical summer term.

As we were loading the new Jordanian buses, there was a siren. We were safe, but we could see projectiles in the sky from the direction of Eilat, which was to the southwest of us. The border crossing building was closed just as the last of our students came through! This was a tender mercy to have moved through the border when we did, rather than being stuck there, with half of us on one side and half on the other!

As we rode on new buses from the border city of Aqaba to our accommodations for the first night in Wadi Musa, the landscape changed from sea coast, to mountainous canyons laced with black ribbons of minerals, to red rock formations surrounded by desert.

Another noticeable change was instant deterioration in the condition of the public restrooms. All throughout Jordan and Egypt, we had some very sad restrooms. Some had broken stall doors, wet floors, or signs telling you not to flush tp. Others didn't have tp and often had an attendant there asking for tips. Even in the best restrooms we sanitized our hands even after washing with soap because the water has microbes that we are not used to. At one rest stop our men and women were ushered into the same restroom, with a male attendant!

Also annoying was one smoky convenience store that overcharged our students for ice cream bars, while playing loud music trying to get our students to dance. It was like the Lotus hotel in Percy Jackson, only not fun. That only happened once, and then our group leaders told the students that in Jordan and Egypt it’s best not to dance in public with strangers watching.

But there were beautiful things about Jordan, too! In Wadi Musa we enjoyed a drive in the back of pick up trucks through fine red sand to our desert camp accommodations for the night. This is the area where movies like Dune and Martian and Rogue One were filmed.

We stopped to climb a sand dune.

The high speed, bouncy ride while clutching the back rails of the pick up truck was exhilarating, or terrifying, depending on who you ask!

We stopped again to see ancient petroglyphs. Lots of camel carvings.

Our rooms for the night were in this charming camp in what looked like the middle of nowhere.

Our room was called a "bubble," and it was basically a fabric-covered geodesic dome.

Inside it was warm and snug despite the cool night.

There was a bathroom in the bubble, but unfortunately the water was only tepid. We put a washcloth over the faucet to remind us to brush our teeth with bottled water.

The students traditionally have a brief camel ride by the treasury in Petra, but it was arranged for us to get some camel time at the camp in Wadi Rum instead. This turned out to be wise so we could zoom through Petra the following day to beat the rainstorm in the forecast.

The sunset and sunrise were epic!

Wednesday, 3/25: The students were really excited about hiking in Petra. Because there was rain forecast for the afternoon, we had to hustle through, and only a handful of speedy souls were able to hike to the monastery, which isn’t really a monastery, but a tomb facade like the treasury carved at the top of a mountain peak. So not a lot of hiking, but there was still a lot to see in Petra just walking along the main street and nearby tombs. But first, you have to walk in through the Siq ("seek").

The Siq is a canyon that narrows as it gets closer to the heart of Petra. It starts out wide, with many tombs and monuments on both sides.

Below is a tomb carved in two stages from top to bottom.

Then the Siq narrows into a slot canyon that makes a dramatic entry to the valley. Anciently it was flanked by water channels, some of which are still visible today.

This is the famous Treasury! It's actually not a treasury, just a magnificent tomb facade, and no treasure has been found, except for its majestic appearance.

The weather is usually blistering hot when we come to Petra, so this moderate, cool weather was a refreshing change!

The tombs are amazing, especially since the rock captures so many variations of color, it's like a petrified rainbow!

We left Petra by about 2 pm, which is shorter than I’ve ever spent here, but necessary to avoid any potential flooding.

After our late lunch we checked in to our next hotel. As we unloaded the buses, the heavens opened and a drizzle turned into a deluge! All night we heard torrents of rain on the roof and runoff surging through channels within the hotel landscape.

Thursday, March 26: This was our day to cross over from Aqaba, Jordan, to Taba, Egypt by ferry. By going this route we would avoid Eilat, which was still experiencing intermittent missiles. We loaded the buses in a thick blanket of fog. We were starting off early because of the fog, but it was still a concern as we had to catch a ferry at a specific time. Luckily, the ferry agreed to wait for us as our group was the main cargo. We set off with two Jordanian police cars to escort us along the right path (and to keep us to a safe speed).

We were amazed to see snow sticking on the sides of the road- very uncommon for this area!

After an hour or so, the fog lifted and the buses resumed their usual perky pace. We made it to the ferry safely and at a time reasonably near to the loading time. Boarding the ferry meant unloading the luggage again, hoisting it onto trucks, pushing our 4 suitcases and two carry-ons through a checkpoint, showing passports, and finally making it onto the boat.

This is my friend Hadas, who helped me several times to push my clumsy luggage through checkpoints!

When we disembarked in Taba, Egypt, we had to go through another border crossing, which was probably the longest border crossing we had yet experienced.

While going through the baggage screening process, three students had their nice cameras confiscated. Apparently there are rules about needing permits for professional grade cameras, even for tourists. The leaders of our group arranged for the cameras to be returned to their owners at the Cairo airport in a few days, but this was a discouraging event in an already long afternoon.

We can truthfully say that we crossed the Red Sea dry shod (even if only the north-eastern tip of the extension of the Red Sea, which is actually called the Gulf of Aqaba).

The view from the boat dock:

After a very long wait, we loaded up our third set of buses and took a short ride to a sea-side resort in Taba for one night's stay.

Friday, March 27: The next morning, we loaded up and rode through the desert on a bus with no name. We crossed the Sinai desert; if we peered off into the distance we could see glimpses of a snow-capped Mount Sinai. This bus ride was not only fast, it also felt like we were careening around corners and weaving into and out of opposing lanes of traffic. I had to keep reminding myself that the Egyptian bus driver knew what he was doing!

We reached the Suez Canal, and in preparation to drive under it by way of a tunnel, we had to get off buses and walk through a security checkpoint. Meanwhile our luggage was sniffed by dogs. Luckily we didn't have to completely unload. We got back on the bus and were on our way under the Suez Canal. Technically, if you consider the Suez Canal as an extension of the Red Sea (by way of the Gulf of Suez), you could say we crossed the Red Sea twice, with dry feet both times!

We reached Cairo and saw the landscape change from rocky desert to green agricultural land and cityscape. Here is one of the many canals that brings Nile water further into the adjacent land.

We checked into a nice hotel and got a good night’s sleep.

Saturday, March 28: The next day we drove to Memphis. The original Memphis. We saw what would be the student’s first glimpse of hieroglyphics in situ, in their original location. Memphis also has some amazing remnants of monumental statues.

At Sakkara, we saw the early iterations of pyramids, from stepped structures to bent angled sides, and even a collapsed pyramid that hadn't been built on bedrock.

We went inside a few tombs and saw carvings and paintings that would help the deceased on their journey to the underworld.

So cool!

I love the starry ceiling in this tomb. The point of all the carvings was to help the soul return to life, rise to heaven by satisfying all the guards along the way (kind of like a checkpoint!) and enjoy a full afterlife with all the comforts they would need.

This tomb called the Serapeum held huge sarcophagi for mummified bulls. The bulls were part of a recoronation ritual that the pharaoh would use to prove he was still energetic and fit to rule. The sarcophogi were immense!

No bull mummies were left down here, but it is still a cool place to see!

This protrusion on a block of granite gives a hint about how these heavy stones were moved. Protrusions like these were usually chiseled away after the block was in place.

This tomb didn't have a fancy pyramid on top of it, but it was still majestic inside! It was built for Kagemni, who was a high-ranking steward but not royalty. This flat-topped tomb is called a mastaba. The first stepped pyramid was basically stacked layers of one mastaba on top of another.

The relief carvings and remnants of paint make this tomb really spectacular inside! Lots of scenes of hunting and fishing, daily life, also showing the tomb owner at different phases in his life.

Then it was on to the biggest of the pyramids. I had forgotten how many pyramids are in Egypt - at least 118 identified. The present leader of Egypt, while not everyone agrees with all of his policies, our guided stated that he definitely is trying to invest more in the tourist sites to make them more comfortable, modern, and secure. Also we noticed better restrooms at the Pyramids!

To enter the pyramid complex required another security screening. We were getting really fast at these museum-style screenings, where you just empty your pockets into your small bag, put the bag into the x-ray machine, put your phone on the ledge outside the metal detector, walk through and retrieve your stuff. Easy. Sometimes the metal detector would beep and they wouldn't even stop you.

The scale of the pyramids is indescribable. We are still really far away from them. They take tourists first to an overlook where you can get a good picture, because once you get up close they just fill the entire background. You can't zoom out enough to capture these man-made mountains.

You can see here that the lowest courses of stone are almost as tall as a person. They get smaller as they go up.

The stacked blocks you see were once covered with more costly stone, such as the broken granite in the foreground. The facing stones were angled to form steep sloping sides. But now the facing stone has been mostly repurposed, leaving the supporting stepped stones exposed.

Climbing the pyramids is forbidden, but no one told this dog!

The sphinx is pretty impressive!

We went to a papyrus gallery, where we watched a demonstration of how it is made.

Strips are cut and soaked for 1-2 weeks.

Then the strips are stacked in layers and pressed between cloths. While imitation papyrus was made with banana leaf strips, real papyrus can be recognized by its distinctive black dots. It can be rolled, crumpled, washed, and even repaired by rewetting and repressing. Papyrus was thought to be extinct, but plants were rediscovered during the disruption of building the Aswan Dam.

Some of the papyrus prints have hidden images in glow-in-the-dark ink. When the lights were turned off, you'd see these hidden images light up. For instance, a painting of the nativity had superimposed on it a picture of the crucifixion and the resurrection in glow-in-the-dark ink.