Wednesday, September 18
I lost track of how many things we did today and how many times we got on and off the bus. But my brain is about ready to explode with the information that has been crammed into it in the last few days and to think about the significance of the things we’ve seen. It’s one thing to learn about the country, and the history and the culture of a new country, but as you can imagine Israel adds a whole new level of complexity to what one tries to understand about a country and its people. G Adventures and National Geographic have done a tremendous job of providing opportunities for us to hear first hand accounts from a wide range of perspectives here.
We started the day with an activity that wasn’t in the itinerary, but which our guide said we really shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to see. The Church of the Agony, also called the Church of Gethsemane, and the Church of All Nations (due to the fact that several countries, including Canada, provided funds for the conservation work). There we also saw the 8 ancient olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was arrested and the tomb where Mary is buried.
Our next stop was to AISH HaTorah at One Western Wall Plaza (I’m guessing you can tell where it was located) where we had a really interesting presentation by Seth Clyman, the Director of Guest Services about the history of Israel from the Jewish perspective and got to see the fantastic view from the roof top terrace immediately across from the Western Wall. On the way out we crossed paths with a former president of France according to Seth, who greeted him warmly. This was just the beginning of a really thought provoking day. I’m going to be googling my notes from this trip for months.
We were going to stop at the cemetery where Oscar Schindler was buried, but just ran out of time. So it was on to Bethlehem in the West Bank. Our first stop (after the compulsory gift shop stop) was to Shepherd Field, where apparently the angels gave the shepherds the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ. There was a chapel there, that Canada also helped to fund, with pictures of the scenes described to us in a bible reading by our guide. For some reason, the rest of the day I was singing Christmas carols in my head.
They we were off to a Palestinian Refugee camp in the “West Bank Area A, under Palestinian Authority” to visit a local woman’s project for teaching special needs children in the camp. And to have a fantastic lunch prepared by 40 year old woman Islam Abo Ouard, who is a chef and teaches cooking to raise funds for the project. She was even visited by Anthony Bourdain and his film crew during a trip to Israel to profile Jewish and Palestinian food. I’ll fill out this information a little more fully in my blog hopefully on the bus tomorrow.
After an interesting walk through the refugee camp, we headed to a Bible College to hear from the Christian Palestinian perspective. This young man was perhaps the most compelling speaker of all of the ones we’ve heard, although they have all been great. Lots to think about.
Then it was on to the Church of the Nativity, it’s Bethlehem after all! And the cave where Jesus was born and swaddled. And then some compulsory shopping in the plethora of shops around the Church of the Nativity.
We had asked about the Wall between the West Bank and Israel and someone asked about seeing Banksy’s hotel in Bethlehem so our guide made a bit of a detour to go see a piece of the wall where there are two Banksy originals, along with a lot of graffiti, on the wall.
It’s late and after 4 glorious nights in one place we’re off to Masada and the Dead Sea and then over night in a Kibbutz hotel tomorrow. So off I got to get some sleep before what appears to be a relatively light day, but I know better.
Lois' Adventures 