A DAY IN THE DESERT TO THE EAST OF JERUSALEM

April 22nd.  A wonderful experience in the desert outside of Jerusalem.

Palestinian Quote "Peace can happen in 24 hours.....just like war can happen in 24 hours"
Sari Nusseibeh
Sari Nusseibeh is a Palestinian professor of philosophy and president of the Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. Until December 2002 he was the representative of the Palestinian National Authority in that city


WADI QELT. 

A wadi is a dry river bed which will sometimes have water running through it after a period of rain.  We have just experienced two days of unusually wet weather in Jerusalem which means that it brings the wadi to life.  Just a 20 minute drive out of Jerusalem took us to this amazing place called Wadi Qelt.  The vista was breathtaking.  The continents of Africa and Asia meet at the Rift Valley of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.  The African and the Arabian plate have shifted creating many earthquakes in this area.  Not today, we were glad to say! 

We have now been with our tour group for the last few days.  We had just arrived with the intention of meditating in the desert which is where Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights.  Througout the duration of our reflective meditation, we heard the distant sound of shooting from a continuous military exercise by the Israeli army.

This Wadi begins in Jerusalem and then goes through the area of the wall into the West Bank and therefore Palestinian territory.  We were met by the Bedouin who wanted us to purchase their wares.  I met with a little fellow who was so sweet.  I can't remember his exact name but it sounded something like Arric.  Luckily I had a container of tic tacs to share with him.  Look closely at his small hands which are adorned with beautiful bracelets.  I now have a beautiful little pink bracelet for Alyssa who will be thrilled to receive it.

Arric and his Dad Mohammed who is the father of three children

If you look closely at the wadi, you can see a line of greenery in the mid photo.  This indicates where Herod's Aqueduct takes water from the Mount of Olives down to Jericho



JERICHO

Jericho means moon and it has significance as the oldest city in the world that has been continuously inhabited for 10,000 years since 8,000 BCE. No Jewish people live in Jericho because according to the Bible, Joshua placed a curse on the city and therefore no Jewish person would consider living there.  People on the bus said they saw a sign entering Jericho saying something like "Area unsafe for Jews to be here".  

This was the second time we were in Palestine, the first being Bethlehem which I will blog about at some point.  Both in Bethlehem and Jericho our bus drove past a single car crash from what appeared to be the result of excessive speed.

Not the greatest pic because I took it from the bus.  Might be coincidence......the second time in Palestine and the second single car crash.  The other incident had the vehicle completely flipped over.

Jericho 

An Oasis in the Desert

Jericho is just a few miles from the Dead Sea

My first impression of Jericho from what I could see from my bus seat was that of an Oasis.  It owe's it's existence to the Ain es-Sultan Spring.  We were told that this was the first place to actually produce food rather than gathering it, creating a city out of its population of semi nomadic settlers.  We were also told that during Roman times Mark Antony made a gift of the oasis town to Cleopatra of Egypt, who, in turn, leased the place to Herod the Great.  

Bus loads of people tour here everyday.  We had a wonderful buffet lunch at the Mount of the Temptation Restaurant before heading out to the Dead Sea Scroll Museum.  The Mount of Temptation is held by tradition to be the place where Jesus faced his temptations after being baptized in the Jordan River. 

St George's Monastery

The hike down to this absolute gem was worth such a fine hike down this steep hill into this ancient retreat hollowed out of the sheer wall of a deep and narrow gorge. It was founded in 480 CE around a cluster of caves in a place where, according to tradition, St. Joachim (Jesus' grandfather) learned from the angels that Mary was to be born to his wife Ann.  The monastery was destroyed by the Persians (modern day Iran) and only fully rebuilt in the 19th century by the Greek Orthodox monks whose successors still to this day reside in the monastery.

Truly a Gem! 

Sam is one of the Bedouins who offer donkey rides to the Monastery.  Some rode the donkeys but I preferred to walk.  He never pressured me to ride and instead we walked and chatted.

What a beautiful backdrop  in this spectacular setting.  I tried to enlarge the pic as much as possible to see the monastery to the right of Richard LeSueur and Andy.  


Richard is a priest in  at St. George's Cadboro Bay, Victoria B.C. and is Andy's colleague.  He truly is our tour guide extraordinaire.  Richard's tour of Israel and Palestine is top notch in not only activities, accommodations, meals and the way our time is structured to tour places in such a positive way.  He runs his tours with such care and precision to every detail.  If anyone wants further details, please send me a message and I can give details.  The next tour is in 2015 tentatively.

A monk rides down the steep path with a Bedouin youth.

Sam stops to allow his donkey to drink from the aqueduct.  We were lucky to see water flowing from the recent rains.

I didn't want to leave this wonderful sacred refuge in such a pristine setting.

The Bedouin partially make their living from meeting tour busses at sites where they stop, including the Monastery.  Some can be quite persistent selling their scarves, donkey rides, handmade jewelry, orange juice and dates.  I was so fortunate to have had the wonderful connection with Sam.  I learned that Sam was from a family of eight children as his father had two wives.  Our conversation steered into the topic of how foreign the idea is for North Americans and Europeans.   He said he did not believe in Jesus, nor did he believe in any thing at all.  He believes in himself, he said, and at the end of the day he asks himself if he has done what is right.  Unlike any of the other vendors, he never once made any requests for purchase.  That was a special connection for me and truly filled my heart during the day knowing that despite the difference of religions, or to be more precise the lack of any religious common ground, that we are all the same and the connection was more like he was a nephew.  I loved hearing his stories.