Field Trip #3: Neot Kedumim

Neot Kedumim is what our guide described as an ecological reserve. First imagined by a pair of Zionist Jews in the early 20th century, it was finally established in the 1960s by their son as a "Biblical Park." One of its goals is to renew the land decimated by over-farming, over-grazing, military maneuvers, etc. But its primary purpose is to cultivate every plant mentioned in the Bible, then share the literal and symbolic purpose and meaning of those plants as described in the Old and New Testament. (Actually, I was never quite sure if the park--whose guides were obviously Jewish--used the word "Bible" to attract business from Christians, or if they actually meant to include the New Testament. There were scriptures on plaques located all around the park, but every one I saw came from the Old Testament.) This park is huge, and it was a long day in the sunshine, but we turned an olive press, practiced threshing wheat, saw a scribe make ink and write on a Torah scroll, ground hyssop, cooked pita and lentil stew on an open fire, and so on. It was a great place and it felt wonderful to be out of the city, but I can't wait to go back in the spring when everything is green and in bloom.

Remember the olive press from Field Trip #1? This is the wheel that performs stage one--the olives are laid in the circular moat and mashed into a pulp.

Usually a donkey pulls the wheel around the circle, but this time it was blue-shirted BYU students.

Of course, any Biblical preserve worth its salt would have to have sheep and goats, right? The kids spent quite awhile trying to get some very full goats interested in a handful of straw, then the BYU students got to try to herd them, then separate the sheep from the goats. 

This is hyssop, an herb used today as a spread on the "Jerusalem bread" you can buy on the streets of the Old City.

Isaac, Linda and Abby using a mortar and pestle to grind the hyssop (with help from Abi Gunn and Annie Leischman).

Linda, hanging out under an almond tree. 

The view from the sheep pen, looking toward Tel Aviv

As mentioned previously, throw a stone in Israel and it will hit a potential archaeological site. Here Joe is exploring a 4th century AD Christian church--notice the cross in the mosaic on the floor.

Joe and Isaac, exploring the countryside

The BYU students bribe my kids by letting them use their phones, cameras and iPads.
I tell them they do so at their own risk.

Lastly, here's a video of Linda rockin' out on the bus. 

Field Trip #2: The City of David and Hezekiah's Tunnel

The city of Jerusalem has changed a lot over the last 3000 years, and in King David's day, the city actually lay outside the current city walls and to the southeast. This area, now called the City of David, is a huge archaeological park, which includes walls of what is believed to be David's palace, various homes, David's tomb, and also the highlight--Hezekiah's tunnel. This tunnel was built connecting a natural spring outside the city walls to a pool inside, and was carved completely underground, through rock, and hidden from view so that attackers didn't know it was there. This allowed the city to withstand even the longest of sieges. The end of this tunnel is also next to the Pool of Siloam, where the Savior healed the man born blind (John 9).

The kids were fairly bored through the City of David stuff, but the tunnel was fun. Isaac was a bit nervous at first--the water was up to his waist and a little brisk, but after ten feet, the water level dropped to mid-calf and he got used to the temperature. The tunnel is quite long and we walked for about 20 minutes to get all the way through to the other end. We all had a great time, including Joe!

Waiting for the super-cool 3D movie about the history of the City of David that conveniently left out any and all reference to any culture ever living on this land besides Jews.

Mary and Isaac standing at the top of the City of David, and in the background you can see the Jewish graves covering the slopes of the Mount of Olives, facing the Kidron Valley and the Temple Mount.

Joe loved the water and the tunnel--and despite it being really loud in there (with 100 people walking through)
 didn't seem fazed at all.

The Four Intrepid Explorers (note the captions on the T-shirts hanging on the wall above them)

Ed and Joe at the end of the tunnel.

Mary at the Pool of Siloam (I sure wish she'd smile normally for pictures.) She's standing at what was the edge of the pool, so the area behind her would have been filled with water. Unfortunately for archaeologists, the dirt wall and the land on the other side are privately owned, and that owner isn't interested in having his land dug up to become another archaeological site. While this may sound to us Americans like a travesty, remember that every time you throw a rock in Israel, it hits a spot that could be excavated to expose 5000 years of history. And you can't excavate everything or no one would have anywhere to live!

Field Trip #1: The Shephelah

Ed and I have discovered that our favorite way to show our kids the Holy Land is on the BYU field trips. We have tried and tried to take the kids to fun and interesting places just as a family, but it always goes really really badly. The whining and the complaining seem to escalate from the moment we buckle the seat belts until Ed and I decide we can't take it anymore, leave early from wherever we are, and drive home in stony silence.

But when we go on a field trip with the students, everything is different. There are at least 15 students at a time ready and willing to give piggyback rides, or shoulder rides, or endless other forms of their attention. We were really worried on the first trip that our kids would be disruptive and the students wouldn't be able to learn the things they are supposed to be learning, and sometimes we do have to pull our kids out of the mix so the students can pay attention to their guides and teachers. But I'm amazed at how much these young adults seem to genuinely enjoy being with all the Jerusalem Center kids, and they are doing wonderful things for the way my kids feel about themselves. Just today Linda said "I had no idea I would have so many friends who are so much older than me!" I wish I could hug everyone of those students for making my kids so happy.

The First Trip: The Shephelah (pronounced Shfay-lah): the geographic region east from the coastal plain, west from the Judean hills, and north of the Negev desert.

Linda with her buddy Annie, who always sits by one of the kids and helps them with their carseat,
 lunch, drawing pictures, etc., and Joe, enjoying the music and dancing in his seat.

One of the highlights of the trip for the kids was the Valley of Elah, where David killed Goliath. The actual streambed is still there and although it is now dry, they bring in truckloads of small, smooth stones every now and then so everyone can take home their very own original, authentic David and Goliath rock. The kids had a great time helping to reenact the story with the students, then practicing slinging stones (which is much harder than it looks, and rather dangerous for onlookers).

The students at Azekah, overlooking the valley where David killed Goliath. 

                                     

The most amazing part of the Shephelah field trip for me was the underground caves at Bet Guvrin. People in the desert wilderness discovered that underneath the surface layer of hard rock was very soft, chalky limestone. So they dug holes into the rock and carved out huge--I mean HUGE--caves underneath the surface, complete apartment complexes with twenty-plus living areas, dovecotes, oil presses, cisterns. It was absolutely incredible to walk through and realize that 1500 years ago people actually lived in these underground caverns.

The apparatus for the second stage of pressing olives. After the olives have been mashed into a pulp, they are placed into a round, flat basket (like a pita with a donut hole in the middle where the pulp is stuffed between the two layers). The baskets are then placed in a tall stack--here the stack is behind the wall of the left arched cave, with one beam end on top. The heavy stones attached to the other half slowly pull down on the beam a the oil oozes out from the baskets. Don't quote me, but I believe it is collected in the rectangular opening between the two domed caves and flows out toward where I was standing.  The oil from this second pressing is what we now call "extra-virgin" olive oil.

Mary, Linda, Joe and I looking up one of the many stone staircases toward the entrance.

One of the dovecotes in the caves. The floor extends another twelve feet below the level of the railing in the photo.

The last stop on the Shephelah tour was Lachish, a fortified city destroyed by Sennacherib in 701 BC on his way to Jerusalem (which turned out to be one of the only cities in all of Israel he didn't take). Lachish was strategically important as a hilltop city that served to protect and warn the interior of Israel, and archaeologists found tablets inside the city walls directly mentioning specific kings and prophets of Israel, thus verifying parts of the Biblical record.

Abby and Abi, listening to Abby's daddy on the headphones lecture about the siege of Lachish.

Ed lecturing about an ostracon--an old piece of pottery that people reused as a tablet for writing on. Here you can also see Mary with her hand raised.  We have to keep reminding her that these trips are for the students, and that she can't answer the questions. She is always very respectful and just wants to be involved, but we aren't the ones paying the big bucks for this experience, so at least on the BYU-organized field trips, our kids have to stay in the background.

I found this sign amusing. 

The hardest part about these field trips is that they are often long and tiring, especially for little legs. Poor Joe suffers missing his nap, but as the video below shows, at least he's mostly just crazy funny when he's overtired. 

Seminary

Before coming to Israel, Ed and I wondered what kind of callings we would get while we were here. Excepting the transitory BYU students, we knew that the Jerusalem Branch membership was fairly small and made up almost totally of expatriates. In fact, there are only about five member families that live in the Branch outside the BYU Center, along with a handful of Hebrew U students and older, single women who primarily work as caregivers around the greater Jerusalem area. So it wasn't a complete surprise when Ed was called to be first counselor in the Branch Presidency. But I was a bit surprised to learn that they needed a Seminary teacher--and I was it!

Seminary has become one of the very most important parts of my experience here. At the beginning of the semester, after the initial thrill of living in Jerusalem began to fade, I started to wonder how I was going to get the most out of my experience here while still balancing my responsibilities to my family. It felt stifling to look out my window at the Dome of the Rock and the Old City walls and not be able to get there because someone had to nap or because someone else had a school project or because once again there were mountains of laundry and piles of dirty dishes. But teaching seminary has given a structure and purpose to my days, for three significant reasons:

1. Megan and Carrie: These are my two seminary students. They are 17 and 15, respectively, and belong to the Judd family (their dad is one of the religion professors). They are intelligent, funny, inquisitive and mature. They love the scriptures and the gospel and they have pure desires to be good and do good. I thoroughly enjoy the time I get to spend with them and they keep me on my toes. I find I have to really know my stuff with them because they ask hard questions.

2. Mackenzie: Each semester there will be a BYU student called to assist me in teaching. This semester, Mackenzie is excited and willing. She teaches one of the four classes every week, which not only reduces my load significantly but gives me a chance to talk pedagogy with someone. I got to be a mentor teacher once when we lived in Chicago, and I found that I like teaching about teaching almost as much as I like to teach other stuff.

3. Best of all: This year's course of study for seminary is the New Testament. As I study and prepare to teach my lessons, I try to incorporate into my sightseeing the places where the events in my lessons happened. Naturally that doesn't happen very often, but the day I was to teach about Christ healing the man at the Pool of Bethesda, Joe and I went to visit that archaeological site. This week we'll be talking about the life of John the Baptist so I may go visit what some believe to be his birthplace. I feel like I'm having a little of the experience the students get to have, where they study it then visit it. It makes me feel like I have a purpose in being here beyond running material support for my husband. Don't get me wrong: supporting Ed is a job I love, but it isn't the only job I need. So despite being away from my Master's Program, I still get to have something of my very own, something where I can make a difference, and which gives me the time and motive to increase my own knowledge and testimony of the Savior.

Here's Joe exploring the Pool of Bethesda. In the center of the picture you can see the remains of a Roman capital (identifiable by the carved leaf patterns), probably from the time of Christ.

The Pool of Bethesda is located on the grounds of the Church of St. Anne, a beautiful and peaceful setting inside the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, near the beginning of the Via Dolorosa (the supposed path Christ walked from his condemnation to his crucifixion and entombment). 

Here's Joe when we stopped for a snack across from the gardens pictured above. Joe has become an excellent sightseeing buddy, especially in this backpack. He is always calm and happy just to look around and be with Mom or Dad, or to eat a pretzel and watch other people make eyes at him. He's getting heavier every day, but this is still the absolute easiest way to travel with him around the Old City and on field trips. (He actually has nothing to do with Seminary, but I can't resist a cute picture of him wherever I find it.)

My First Field Trip

Every Monday the professors take the students and any of the faculty family members and service couples who want to tag along on field trips around the city and sometimes the country. My first field trip experience was on Monday, September 10th to the Negev. The Negev is a desert region in the south of the country, famous in history for Beersheba and Tel Arad. Our first stop, however was at the Sidreh weaving center, an educational cooperative that gives Bedouin women skills to improve their socio-economic situation. Women are taught to read and write and weave, which may not sound like a lot by our Western standards, but giving women the chance to contribute to family finances while caring for their children is radically altering their lives. For more info (and much better pictures) visit their website.

Behind the storefront was a tent set up to accommodate a large number of visitors where we were served hot tea and given a demonstration on some of the basics of weaving. A few students were invited to try spinning the raw wool, which was of course much harder than it looked. 

Below are pictures of the dying process, and some of the finished skeins. I forgot to take pictures of the finished woven products, but you can see many of them (and buy them) here.

Our second stop was at Tel Ber-Sheba.  The tel (an archaeological mound) is located about a kilometer from the modern city of Beer-sheba, where there is also the site believed to Abraham's well. The tel is the site of the biblical city of Beersheba, inhabited and destroyed during the time of Hezekiah and Sennacherib's campaign in 701 BC. It's also famous for a wall that is 6000 years old. Our third stop, Tel Arad, was also a biblical city, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar around the same time he destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC. It's famous for a temple with an inscription calling it the Temple of Yahweh.

Both of these sites were interesting, but I particularly enjoyed being with Ed. On the field trips, the religion professors take the lead in everything and defer to Ed just for supplementary info. That means he often takes up the rear, acts as crowd control, and most importantly, is free to hang out with me and tell me all sorts of cool stuff.

Here's Ed with a hard hat (required at Tel Beersheba for going into the cistern), listening to Brother Judd's lecture.

The students are all given receivers and listen to the lecture on their own earphones. That helps both in areas where everyone is spread out, and where there are lots of other people (neither of which was really an issue here).

No, Ed doesn't have a ponytail. His ball cap has flaps that unfold to cover his neck, and although very useful, I must admit they look a little geeky. I can say that because Ed said it first. But yeah, so my hat is no cooler. But what about this three thousand year old wall, huh? Now that's cool!

Views from our Balcony

Have I already posted the view from our balcony? I have very few photographic skills (especially on my camera phone), but every day I am in awe of the view from my bedroom window, and my living room window, and my dining room window...