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.