When you walk through the dark, hold your head lamp high

This field trip through Hezekiah's Tunnel was definitely a favorite for Frank and me, and we look forward to taking our whole family later this month and also bringing Grandmas and Grandpas in December. 

We began by touring some very recently excavated ruins that may have been a part of King David's palace or at least some important buildings within the walls of King David's city.  This site is downhill to the south from the existing Temple Mount but near the top of the Ophel Ridge which David captured from the Jebusites. Some bullae (small round pieces of clay upon which seals were pressed to seal documents) were found in this area with the names of Gedaliah and Jocal who may have been among those who condemned the prophet Jeremiah after Jeremiah warned them to flee Jerusalem (see Jeremiah 38:1-4).  If they condemned Jeremiah, it is possible they also condemned Lehi as well.

  

 Next we walked to the famous "Area G" excavated by Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s.  In this area was uncovered a huge "stepped stone structure" that was a glacis or retaining wall that was built in order to strengthen the hillside and to support the large building on top (possibly the palace).  Later, after Jerusalem grew because northern Israelites fled south from the Assyrians, some people even built homes on the glacis itself.  (Lehi's ancestors, who were from the tribe of Manasseh--a northern tribe--likely made their way to Jerusalem during this time period.)  The ruins of one such house are on the stepped stone structure and probably date to around 600 BC.  It is called the "House of Ahiel" because some ostraca (broken pottery pieces with writing on them) contained his name.  To the right is a room called "the Burnt Room" because it contained a layer of ash and arrowheads from the Babylonian invasion.  This home witnessed prophets like Lehi and Jeremiah and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.  

 

Then we watched a 3-D film about the City of David and its importance in Israelite history.  We took off our socks, put on our head lamps, and headed down a lot of stairs. 

After many flights of stairs, we passed an archaeological site in progress.  This site has huge rocks that may have been from a Canaanite tower. 

Here the path divided; our friend Ann Killian went left to the "dry tunnel" with others who didn't wish to get soggy.  The dry dunnel is a Canaanite watercourse which was only recently discovered but has fueled all kinds of speculation that it may be the "gutter" mentioned in 2 Samuel 5:8 that helped Joab conquer the city for David.   Frank and I went with 38 students to the wet tunnel--this is Brandt Peacock (aka "the sheep whisperer").

The water was cold at first but soon felt really refreshing.  We sloshed along for around 30 minutes in water that came up to our knees.  For most of its length the tunnel was just tall and wide enough for us to walk through single file.  The course meandered back and forth, following natural fissures in the rock when possible, with a few abrupt turns near the meeting place where the tunnelers met.  We were amazed at the narrowness.  There was hardly enough room to swing a hammer, let alone a pick axe.  The chisel marks on the walls showed the painstaking effort this must have taken. 

Here you can see a dramatic shift in direction as the northbound tunnelers originally started off directly behind me (Jill), then turned almost 90 degrees left and headed off behind where Frank is standing.

 A plaque described the meeting of the tunnelers: "While the laborers were still working with their picks, each toward the other, and while there were still three cubits to be broken through, the voice of each was heard calling to the other, because there was a crack in the rock... and at the moment of the breakthrough, the laborers struck each toward the other, pick against pick."  The original plaque is in Turkey, but a replica is near the exit of the tunnel. 

 Near the end of the tunnel the ceiling was around 40 feet above us.  If you look closely you can see bats.  Not really. 

 At the end of the tunnel was a lovely green pool, once thought to be the pool of Siloam, but a better site has been found further south. 

 Water from the tunnel used to collect on the right, then spill over the stairs and end up on the left in the pool, a portion of which has been excavated. 

Here the Savior sent the blind man to wash the mud from his face, thus restoring his sight. President Kimball posed the question, why didn't the Savior use oil, herbs, and water from a pure spring to heal the man? The answer is that by using the impure, gritty elements of the earth, Jesus made it clear that the healing came from Him. Truly the Savior has the power to reach out and heal us even as we are surrounded with the mundane or filthy elements of earth life.

 

Below left, Jill and Jocelyn stand in the pool of Siloam.  Below right is the playground for Arabic children, whose laughter and shouts spill down the stairway as we exit. 

Admission: 25 shekels (NIS) for adults,19 NIS for kids and dignified folks, or free with Nat'l parks card.  3-D Movie 10 NIS

More About Egypt

Carrie's memories from Egypt:

She was surprised how long the Sphinx's front legs were, and how short the flight to Luxor was (anything less than 11 hours seems short now).  The market was very busy and chaotic, and there were cats everywhere. 

Megan and Carrie in Acre

The youth of the Jerusalem Branch and the Haifa Branch got together and visited the ruins of Acco, modern day Acre.  This is a port town at the northern tip of Israel containing crusader and Ottman ruins.  A modern lighthouse stands at the tip of the old city, and to get there you have to go through what Megan calls a maze of streets. 

I've Been Through the Desert on a ...Camel named Bob Marley?

We are thrilled to welcome home Frank, Megan, and Carrie from their week-long wanderings in the wilderness.  They started out in two buses heading for sand dunes near Kibbutz Keturah. There are no photos of the sand dunes, because the sand was so fine that it ruins cameras.  The dunes were really steep, but the students and kids ran up and down them digging in with bare feet, some burying themselves and rolling in sand.  Then everyone separated and had silent contemplative time, reading 1 Nephi 2:4-5 about Lehi's family traveling in the wilderness while surrounded by miles and miles of nothing but sand.

The kibbutz was bigger than the kids expected.  The dining area was three blocks from the sleeping area.  Food was good, and everyone knelt at mini tables or sat in the grass.  It was billed as an "American-style" barbecue, but translated into a beef patty, served with pitas, and the condiments were the same as you would put on falafels, shredded cabbage and cucumbers, tzatziki sauce and hummus served alongside french fries, ketchup, and mustard.  The swimming pool after dinner was a big hit.  The cool water felt great after the hot day on the bus and in the sand.     

On day two, the students woke up before 6, ate breakfast, and crossed the border into Egypt.  Nearly everyone crossed through uneventfully, but one student holding his scriptures was stopped and one guard inspected his suitcase and another flipped through his quad to see what was in it.  Everyone reloaded onto Egyptian buses which took them to Cairo in about 6 hours.  They ate at the Palmyra restaurant, watched a cool laser light show at the pyramids, and slept at the Oasis Hotel.   

On day 3 they actually toured the pyramids,
They downsized into day packs and took an hour flight to Luxor. The hotel was luxurious, with large rooms and waiters so helpful that they cleared Carrie's plate before she was even finished eating. 

On day 4 They ate custom-made omelettes and crepes for breakfast.  Luxor was a lot hotter than Cairo, and they toured tombs so hot that exiting to the 90 degree weather was actually refreshing.

to be continued...

School Begins

After a wonderful Sabbath on Saturday and a Sunday full of grocery shopping, all of which still seems new and strange to me), we jumped into our second week full steam ahead.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, AUGUST 30, 2010

 The Anglican International School at Jerusalem has pre-k through secondary grades on one historic campus, formerly a hospital.  The younger kids are generally enjoying school, figuring out when to wear their P.E. uniforms (60 shekels or about $16), when to bring their library bags (30 shekels/ $8) and when to bring their lunch cards (13 shekels for pizza day).  Home lunches are monitored; sweets, crisps, and fizzy drinks are discouraged.  Water bottles are required every day.  Overheard on day 3: "I remembered to bring home all three water bottles!" 

 Challenges so far:  Tired kids nearly falling asleep in classes; connecting with six other kids and crossing a parental traffic jam to the shuttle; too much swearing in the secondary schools, and distracting earrings on high school boys.  Megan is taking French class, since neither Hebrew nor Arabic would fit into her schedule.  The "French will be easier for you since you have studied Spanish" phase has yet to kick in.

Highlights so far: Lisa enjoys the climbing structure in P.E.  Amanda made a person out of a box in art, and Lisa is making a candy cane out of clay.  Carrie ended up with Hebrew. Megan finds math class easy.  Mom enjoys receiving text messages from the kids as they ride home in the shuttle.  Carrie's classmate was acting up in class, and the teacher asked if he ate too much sugar at lunch.  He said, "No, I'm fasting for Ramadan." Below is the photo of Day Two. Still smiling!

 

FAMILY HIKE

For Family Night on August 30, we walked east and then south of the Jerusalem Center to a wonderful scenic overlook at the Church of Dominus Flevit.   Along the way, we passed several buildings commemorating the Savior's ascension from the Mount of Olives, including the Augusta Victoria (top left- a Lutheran church and hospital), the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension (another visible landmark), and the Mosque of the Ascenscion (top right- this was once a Crusader chapel but the minaret you see is a later addition).  

We balanced on curbs just inches wide along a busy street, dodged a camel lounging on the sidewalk, walked through a Palestinian neighborhood, and descended several steep hills and flights of stairs, (two young boys were riding down the hill on an office chair) but the view was worth it. 

This view (right) was from an overlook on the way to Dominus Flevit.  The wind coming up from the Kidron Valley was pretty intense but quite welcome after the heat of the day.

Dominus Flevit means "The Lord wept."  The church was built to commemorate the moment described in Luke 19:41 when the Savior wept as He pondered the impending destruction of Jerusalem.  We took photos of ourselves smiling, but the tourists near us were taking photos of themselves looking pensively away toward the city, as if they, too, were pondering on the history and future of the Holy Land.

Just south of the church is a large Jewish cemetery (right).  There were a few visitors, and many graves had piles of small memorial stones stacked on top. 

DINING OUT

For the benefit of my aunt Jane Fillmore, I have to mention we ate dinner Tuesday night (8/31) with the other faculty and administrators at Eucalyptus, a ritzy restaurant tucked away in an artist's colony in Western Jerusalem, specializing in Biblical and Israeli foods.  First was pita accompanied by humus and nearly a dozen other appetizers, some with familiar vegetables hiding behind unfamiliar flavors.  My favorite was the lubia, which I think is artichoke.  I was told by Sarah Yarden, the wife of the contemporary Israeli history teacher, that lubia is an edible weed which kept Jerusalem's inhabitants alive during a seige in the last century.  The main courses were bamia, or okra, with meatballs.  This was delicious, as were the figs stuffed with sweet tamarind sauce, but what really made an impression was the maklube, or curried chicken and potatoes (usually made with cauliflower and carrots, according to Na'ama Hayet).  The cooks carried the maklube in a huge pot, which they overturned and slammed onto the serving platter for an upside down dish.  I tried serving my chicken soup that way a few nights later, but no one liked the end result.  The dessert was a flan-like pudding with fruit sauce, a square of dark cake and a drizzle of carmel and chocolate sauce.  Besides the fact that it was delicious, I don't remember dessert well because I was laughing too hard at the jokes of the Arabic teacher, Ayman Jebarra. 

BYU JERUSALEM CENTER BEGINS

The students arrived yesterday (Wednesday, September 1), and the whole center has taken on a new level of energy.  It always makes me feel good when Kent Jackson (Associate Director over Academics) tells the students, "The Center was too quiet before you came."  I take that to mean that my kids were sufficiently quiet, or else all those years of riding a Harley have affected his hearing. 

We are learning names as well as helping orient students to the Center and the City.  After only two lessons, I played tour guide to seven students, leading them on a 4 hour tour through East Jerusalem, then through the old city, ending up in West Jerusalem where vans picked everyone up.   

There was this handsome tour guide who let my group join his when I ran out of things to say.  He kindly posed for a photo with Emily and I (above).  This is the roof of the Austrian Hospice, a hotel and restaurant with the nicest restrooms in the old city. 

Highlights:  The student's faces when we looked over Jerusalem, breathtaking from each new overlook;  My first glimpse inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; my second falafel from the Moshiko cafe; delicious sesame bread delivered by Tawfic Alawi, Associate Director over Security (we didn't eat it until we were out of East Jerusalem and the Old City to avoid flaunting food in front of our fasting Muslim neighbors); the students' surprise when a shopkeeper in the old city called out, "You are Mormons?  Yes?  What the heck!" 

This was a very brief tour intended to familiarize the students with safe areas they could visit later in small groups.  When students venture out on their own, they must be in groups of three or more during the day, and the trio must include one gentleman after dark.  The ratio of female to male students is about 4:1.  

Settling In-Updated with photos

If Jerusalem felt like a postcard surrounded by a traffic jam, the BYU Jerusalem Center itself felt like a glorified LDS visitors center or an art museum. The pictures I had seen online did not do justice to the size and grandeur of this building, and neither can my description.  More reverent than opulent, this gorgeous building carves out a space that feels expansive.  I felt the architecture drawing my imagination upward and outward.  Even without paintings of Christ on the levels open to tours (levels 7 & 8), even as guides conform to the strict non-proselyting agreement, visitors regularly comment that they feel a special spirit here. The Jerusalem Center houses a chapel, a one-room art gallery, gardens, classrooms on level 6 (also a bomb shelter, but no baptismal font or secret temple-ready rooms).  

Levels 3 and 4 will soon be full of study abroad students, and on level 5 this stately edifice is currently hosting a passel of kids: five Judds and six Muhlesteins.

When we first arrived on August 22, helpful friends greeted us and led us past mosaics, fountains, and arched windows, down three flights of chiselled stone steps into our apartment.  Or more accurately, apartments.  To accomodate us, a doorway had been created between a one-bedroom apartment and a two-bedroom apartment.  The kids sorted themselves into the two-bedroom side, complete with two bathrooms, while Frank and I claimed the other side.  The Muhlesteins live just down the hall.

The apartments have a nice mix of high quality building materials that we won't ruin, like tile floors, and housewares and bedding of various ages so we won't feel extravagant if we wear something out.    One living room area had already been outfitted as a dining room, and a bowl of fresh fruit welcomed us.   Our luggage magically appeared in the hallway, and we walked out on the patio just as strains of chanted Arabic began undulating across the valley. 

We have arrived during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.  Devout Muslims eat a meal before the sun rises, then refrain from food or drink until sundown, when feasting, fireworks, and scripture recitation mark the ending of each day's fast. In addition to the Call to Prayer which our kids had already heard on YouTube, in this holy month entire chapters of the Quran are broadcast over loudspeakers.  The sound is piercing, a plaintive melody I can neither understand nor ignore.  I hear that over time the Call to Prayer fades into the background, just a part of the regular daily sound track.  I hope that doesn't happen soon.  One of my daughters was waving her hands and imitating the sound in a teasing way.  I reminded her that we have a rule about not making fun of church songs, and this was like a church song to many of our neighbors.  I'm glad that little teaching moment happened at home and not out in public.  In fact, I feel that way about a lot of teaching moments that happen at home.  So far I've been shopping at an Arabic produce store, a pita bakery, a money changer's (1% fee), and a Jewish grocery store.  I haven't yet driven the vehicles, and I haven't yet ventured out with my children.

Kent Jackson, the associate director, has assured us that our kids don't have to tiptoe around this building but should make themselves feel at home.  This is a very hospitable and also practical invitation.  The kids have been exploring the grassy hills, playground, and gymnasium.  It turns out that the story about a trained mongoose sweeping the grounds for vipers happened long ago, and not many snakes have turned up recently.  We have seen cute little lizards on the outside walls, but for some reason the one inside was just not as cute.  When we tried to herd him outside, he darted into a utility closet .

Ending on a light note: we are almost past the jet lag and feeling back to the regular bustling tiredness. Two evenings ago I must have nodded off during the prayer before family scripture study. When I woke up, six pairs of eyes were staring at me. I said weakly, "Amen?" Actually I asked, "Was I snoring?" Carrie said, "No, but it looked like you were contemplating something very deep."

Views of the teenager's room, the little girls' rooms, and the two kids' bathrooms.  The formatting wouldn't cooperate with me.

Safe Arrival

Hello, dear friends,

I feel  like I've been climbing a mountain with landscapes so interesting and different that it's hard to remember to watch my footing.  Utah seems far away and long ago, even though it's only been a week. 

I am pleased to report that we arrived safe and sound.  The flights went as smoothly as could be expected.  We left Salt Lake at 10:30 am Saturday, had a brief layover at JFK in New York, and we touched down in Tel Aviv around 1:00 pm on Sunday. Total flight time: about 16 hours.  Total sleep time: maybe 5 hours.
  

Highlights: chicken nuggets in the kids meals, plenty of mini pillows, friendly flight attendants who called my little girls "Princess," and round of applause from the passengers when the airplane touched down in Tel Aviv.   That was surprising and touching, like the time I heard applause after a baptism.   It would have been nice if we had slept better on the plane, or if a full cup of orange juice had not slid off the tray table into my lap, or if we had remembered to find the booster seat before we left the baggage area.  But at least we remembered the other 29 bags and bundles, and all the females could sit in an air conditioned shuttle bus while Frank navigated the security hurdles in reverse and retrieved the booster seat.
 

   
The heat was pretty intense on the way home, but we were assured that we had brought with us a cold front compared to the week before.  During the drive to Jerusalem, we saw hills terraced with white rocks, contrasting with dark green coniferous trees.  Frank pointed out old tank and plane parts from past wars, intentionally left along the highway as memorials of past wars.  Talk about leaving behind a monument. 

 At one checkpoint an armed Israeli guard checked i.d.s of our Palestinian driver and guide.  He climbed the steps and looked at us, and asked with an accent, "Is okay?"  Or maybe he said, "It's okay."  We nodded and tried to pull smiles on to our jet-lagged faces.  He stepped out and waved us forward. 

Our driver expertly navigated the crowded streets labelled in three languages.  I've learned since that there is some kind of code to the honking, like three honks means, "I'm passing you on the right."  Traffic signals come in the familiar green, and yellow, red, the green blinks before it turns yellow, and you'd better stop when it's yellow.  After the red light comes another yellow light, which means your wheels had better be moving by the time green comes, or you'll hear a chorus of honks from behind you.  According to Eran Hayet, the director of the Jerusalem Center, here in the Holy Land the speed of sound is faster than the speed of light, because you may hear impatient honks even before the light turns green.

If you maximize this photo, you'll see the Dome of the Rock in the distance to the left of center.  (The virtual tour in our links is about as close as we can get to the interior, but the surrounding Temple Mount is sporadically open to tourists under tight security.  No Bibles allowed.)  

At this point in the drive, it started to sink in that I was really in Jerusalem, that the months of planning and weeks of scrambling had brought us to our destination, and what was once an image on a post card to me is now my home.

(Care to comment on your best or worst travel experience?)