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Journal #5 (10/6)... Cabins At The Kibbutz
Before I tell you about this day I will go back to last night. Remember that I had bought bananas and cookies for the pot luck. Since it was still Shabbat. We took our tables and chairs from our porches and made a long feasting table on the grass in front of the view. With a beautiful sunset we munched on: Bologna, cheeses, hummus and pita bread, green salad with tomatoes, avocados, croutons, grated cheese and olive oil with lemon, Cole slaw, cashews, chocolate cookies and our pastries and bananas. It was so varied and delicious and the view and company and wine were top notch!
Pictures of our cabins at the Kibbutz
\Left: Fisher's cabin Right: Our cabin
Thank God we didn't have to climb the stairs at night as the bathroom is on the lower floor!
Right: The view out our windows
We are now in the kibbutz and have been since last night. Our cabins are adorable. And our view quite amazing. Every morning a lady brings our breakfast. There is always too much food in the basket. Several homemade breads, and pastries, a bagel as big as a plate, butters and jellies, egg, patties, or pancakes, veggies...raw carrots, peppers and tomato, yogurts, fruit ( fresh plums) , orange juice or apple juice, crackers and cottage cheese, two other kinds of cheeses, and milk and cereal! I nuked a roll with butter and juice and left the rest in the fridge...oh and ate one plum. The last night they took us to their bomb shelter and taught us about the Kibbutz. Everyone has the same house and income no matter if they are the wonderful engineer who developed the water conductor to the guy who just turns the bolts. We all wonder what will happen when the older people get too old to work or their engineer dies. After the talk the host took us to their huge dining hall and we enjoyed chicken, meat balls, rice, potatoes, green beans, bread salad bar and brownies. We had gone to a winery early that day and my dessert wine was the only white available...several red wines. All was yummy and as usual so much food! Now that I sneaked in the evening happening at the Kibbutz. I will go back and start about what we did in the morning. After breakfast in our rooms we boarded the bus and off we went to Tzfat center of Kabbalah. We had a wonderful chance to be on the church where Jesus gave the Sermon On the Mount. It was the church where he spoke the beatitudes. The original church Had been built on the side of the hill but when it was rebuilt the build redesigned it making an octagonal church that would look down on all Jesus saw. It was quite lovely and goose bumpy. There were folks from all continents there.
From there we went to a lovely ally up a hill where artist sold their wares. There were wonderful mart pieces but all was very expensive. Not to be missed was a candle shop where people buy candles for religious reasons. But many are braided, and multi colored and many figures were made of wax. We met up, with a rabbi and his family. He talked with us and we fund out his family was visiting for a month from New York.
The wax Noah's Arc.
We then had lunch a Yemenite sort of pizza that was rolled. It had cheeses and greens, tomatoes, spices and olives. Really yummy.
Our next stop was a Golan Winery. After a tasting Michael bought a few bottles of red wine and I got a deal to on some yummy moscato white that's I served that night and will chill or freeze for other evenings. Wow! Better than Diet Coke! I served it freezing cold at the dinner the Kibbutz served us as mentioned above. Time for bed.....internet works but very slow! Night! Grove and all
Journal #6 (10/7)... The Sea Of Galilee This day started off on the wrong foot! I wore the wrong clothes and it was so hot. Everything seemed to go in slow motion for me. The basket of breakfast food was delivered early....still with enough food for a huge family. We packed up our suitcases to go . I had done that the night before. But I kept finding more things I had left and had to keep repacking. I finally decided to forego my comb and brush as it filled my fanny pack too much and put all my clothes for the baptism in just a bag. It was not very warm, but breezy enough that my hair looked like a wild woman, but what we were to see was so wonderful, I fought to be in a better mood. We bid goodbye to our folks from he Kibbutz and started our long journey through such sacred areas around the Sea of Galilee. Our first stop was the town where Jesus lived with Simon Peter's mother-in -law. The name of the town is , Capernaum or Capharnaum, formerly Kfar Naham. Jesus healed the royal officials son there. Peter talked to the multitudes there. We could see the octagonal building of St Peter. The buildings are built with basalt and limestone. We saw the temple he would have gone to talk to the elders. The woman's area was the second floor which was destroyed by earthquakes. The two geological plates of the earth meet between that area so earthquakes were often.
Above: St. Christopher who watches over animals and homeless. Check out the stomata on the feet.
Right: Ruins between Peter's mother-in-law''s home and the synagogue.
Above: Peter's house actually belonging to Peter's mother-in-law where Jesus stayed. A modern church is suspended over it.
Above: The bottom floor of the synagogue where the men prayed.
Left: Ruins of the area behind the synagogue. Note the arch to the women's floor that fell when the ceiling and top floor was destroyed by earthquakes.
From there we ate a wonderful lunch at the shores of the Galilee . I had filets of tilapia, but there were many catfish that people had been feeding there.
From there we rode to the Yigal Allen Center which houses the famous "Jesus Boat." The story is that two brothers who were amateur archeologists lived in that area and always believed they would find something amazing in their lives. One day while fishing in Galilee they saw a piece of wood. When they broke it off it completely disintegrated once it hit the atmosphere. They got in touch with the professionals who dove, took samples and found it to be at least two thousand years old. Now what would they do? They could not just bring it up or it would disintegrate. What they did was first cover it with a wax and then a polyurethane was blown on it. As they dug it out, they applied the wax and then the polyurethane until it was completely covered. They had made a wall around it so they no longer had to work in the water. Many experts tried to think how to move it. Finally one woman said, it is a boat, why can't we sail it and that they did. It is quite a wonderful sight and amazing as it was the kind Jesus would be in with Peter. So Cool! It was made with many different kinds of wood.
Left: The real thing carefully suspended.
Above: The Model
Above: The polyethylene cover
Our next stop was a speed boat ride over Galilee. I sat in the front and the cool breeze even made my hair even worse....and no comb! Finally we came to what I had been waiting for this whole year, the Yardenit where The baptism Site on the Jordon River was. I found out that many years ago it had to be moved to a different place along the river because the river there was low and in the desert there was no protection from the bullets flying during the war. It didn't bother me a whit as it was a beautiful place in the river. We rented our gowns and were sent with the gown and towel to the changing room. We were all so sweaty that getting a bathing suit on was no easy task. Finally we got our robes on and Leona and Priscilla and I got someone to take our picture. When we went out of the changing room, there was Michael and the priest and all our traveling friends. As the priest talked to us about scripture, the specialness of baptism there were a group of Russians already doing it. We were on the other side and slowly we entered the water. The last step took us into water to my shoulders but I was on my tippy toes. Poor Leona was treading water. One by one he took us, we held us while we closed our nose then slowly he lay us back submerging us. I was first then Michael a " baptism sister" from China , then Priscilla. We all hugged after each .The water was cool and it felt so good. We were all energized, but it was a very emotional experience and tears were shed. We all hugged together while father sang a song in Spanish. By the end I could join in. We stayed there awhile and splashed our faces. It was a lovely place in the Jordan as you can see by the photos.
Ready for Water
Down at the water with the Priest
Left; Getting the message Right: All done after the song with group hug. It is too large to send.
All Wet
Left: Priscilla with Father before the white robes. Right: Getting our certificates signed.
We changed clothes and were energized, Leona lent me her comb and at least my hair looked better. From there we went to Jerusalem which took about a half hour or more. We were ready to call it a night. We snacked in the room on some bread I had brought from the Kibbutz and Snyder honey mustard pretzel pieces we had bought at a rest stop on our journey. I am still one day behind in my journal and it is so hard to remember what we do here as we do sooooooo much. Best sleep tonight ever! Grovey and all Journal #7 (10/8)... In Jerusalem This morning after breakfast we had an hour meeting with a lovely girl named Agazarian. She lives in the Palestine area so although she is Armenian she lives as a Palestinian. she wa lovely and so bright and learned. She says there are always two sides to a problem and we can't see eye to eye through the narrative. She says when she does these talks she would rather talk about their music, philosophy, etc. but it always turns to political ( we understand how political comes to the forefront in our country as well. Where people live and what they do always seems to become political. She sees three areas that come to mind here. 1 the Jews coming from the Holocaust to live and claim the land. 2. The Settlers, who are moving to the Palestine area to claim it for Israel and 3 for the many refugees. She showed us the map of Israel at three different times in recent history and how their part has become smaller and smaller. The way it was divided by the British had now way of being that way long as there was a very tiny bottle-neck at one point that nearly cut one part of Palestine from the rest of it's country. Israelis are in charge of the water and the borders. Palestine is always "over there " and very difficult to get "over here". Her example was that a Israeli may go there very easily...there is just a little red warning sign but for a Palestinian to come here he must get out of his car and go into a building and show his papers and permit which is not easy to get. If he is caught without it he must stay three months in jail as will his driver. There are times that some can get a temporary due to the right of worship on holy days, but must be back by the emd of the day. She has a friend who is Christian there who came on East, but had to get back.so soon,. She visited Agazarian but had to leave very early as she was afraid there would be bad traffic or long lines getting back over the border and if she was late the would be problems. There is no civil marriage, everything is all political and religious. It is hard to change as everyone must dress that way and it becomes political. If someone is to intermarry one has to convert. She has a friend who must have two houses, one in each area as his wife and children must live on the other side and he must work in Israel. When there is a party he can not come or must come alone unless arrangements can be made far in advance. She asks " Hoe do you become a Jewish state when Palestinians far out number theJews. In both places there are Jews, Muslims and Christians. settlements become a problem as they are squeezing out the very small areas the Palestines have through settlements. many Americans are settling on the left bank who are Jews with Israeli citizenship. This area of Judea and Samaria has biblical rights for all of those people to be there, it is politics that divides the spaces. When everyone wishes to live in peace, it seems that it is quite impossible and that is so sad. Nobody will see the point of the other side and it divides them. I couldn't help but think how our country has become so divided: republican vs. democrat, Fox News vs MNBC! WhT a problem both ways! It was interesting that Annie couldn't be in the room with us and Agazarian can't travel outside the room with us. What was amazing is they are good friends and talk together a lot! (Just as I do with my Fox News friends) Soon it was time for us to leave the discussion and board the bus outside the city limits to Abu Ghosh. It is a beautiful subdivision of Jerusalem with many trees. Another one of a Jews 600+ commandments is to plant a tree and that has been able to distinguish Jewish land from dry desert land around it.
A highlight was to visit a church built by The Crusaders at least 1000 years ago or older. The amazing thing is that it was refurbished and kept up over the years and inside are some of the early murals. Beautiful! The church acoustics are incredible and Annie surprised us as she sang Ave Maria so beautifully. We found that she majored in music and sang opera! I videoed it all on my phone, but sadly two things happened: it isn't very loud on this old phone and I was so blow that I forgot to turn it off. Another sad thing is that videos don't work on my website....same thing with the videos of the baptism. Pricilla air dropped a PICTURE of the hug while we who were baptized sang and I will send that. The Crusader' s Church had a basement that we went down into and it was still built on an ancient church so you see how much has been built up on top of old. From there we went... you guessed it for YET ANOTHER "light lunch" overlooking Abu Ghosh.
From lunch we went to a memorial to the war won by the Jews. There was a huge building and some military stuff. I have photos that tell it better. We got our picture taken with some really cute young army guys but I will have to get that off someone else's other cameras.
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Who could believe there was more before dinner but up the Mount of Olives to look down on the old city of Jerusalem. wow! Pictures say it all. It is the place of the living surrounded by the dead. As you will see the old city is completely surrounded my cemeteries. The wall around it was torn down by the King Herod we learned about earlier that pickled his wife in honey. He then had a dream that a lion in his dream meant that God did not want Jerusalem unsafe so he took those stones and had it built again. Some of the stones on the west side are underground.
Outside the wall is a golden-domed Church of Mary Magdalene, a Russian church, seen iin both images above
Being here at Yum Kippur , the holiest day of the year is so great in so many ways, but difficult in others. We had to have an early lunch so we could squeeze in a dinner around 4:30 before the holy day began. Yum Kippur goes from sundown this day until sundown tomorrow. For those Mews serious about this holiday they will not drive. do hard work, cook, pushes buttons, use any transportation, or open their businesses. I'm not kidding you by time the sun went down...or earlier there was not a cat on the street! The only people who must still work is of course are those in the medical field, police, army etc. Those Jews will not eat or drink for the full 24 hours. When we got back to the hotel we ate our dinner at 4:30 so it would give time for those that pr pared it to get home before Yum Kippur entered! Full of veggies and some meat this time: Chicken, fish, and beef, we took a walk to the old Ottoman Train Station . It no longer functions as a train, but houses lots of games and places to eat. Of course everything was closed up tight! Kids were already having fun riding their bikes around sans traffic. I expect it will be like that tomorrow. We got back early enough for me to work on Journal and photos, no easy task and I'm still a day late. If I don't write this down I'll never remember because of the holidays coming where they are everything is different than what is in the final OAT Final Document Booklet! Because of the inconvenience, Annie keeps adding extra meals and adventures on OAT to compensate. It has been a wonderful trip so far and our group has bonded so well. Good friends! And with that I will bid you goodnight again, Grovey and all
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