Last Night

So I have plenty of half finished blogs and blog topics that I have either began or made a file for. I have been pretty busy with harvest lately but have wanted to write more about what kind of things I have observed and done each day. Yesterday, though, deserves an immediate documentation.

Monday morning I woke up groggy and a little under the weather but still went to work all day. Later I went and played basketball for 2 hours until 10:30. Of course, I woke the next day even more tired with a full day ahead of me and it was hot. I decided early in the morning that I would try to get out of afternoon's work then fall asleep to a replay of MNFL. I guess one never knows what's going to happen.

Brit, my olive-picking boss, recognized that we were both tired so she recommended that we go to a conference on the Israel-Palestine situation. There were some incredible speakers, both Israeli and Palestinian and both with some insight into the prospect of peace. There were directors of peace organizations, chief negotiators for both sides, former ambassadors, policy advisors, and foreign policy professors. All of these men were dignitaries that had differing perspectives on mistakes committed by each side in the last 10 years of the "peace process" and differing ideas on what the future looks like. One of the more compelling aspects of this conference was that it was held on the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister that had just signed the Oslo Accords bringing Israel and Palestine the closest to peace they had ever been. Since that time the two sides have only grown further and further apart. (One of the speakers said that Arafat told him that after hearing of Rabin's assassination that the peace process had died along with him.) There was absolutely no congruence on any idea except that this must be solved soon. Most believed that the only healthy way to establish a future working relationship is a full divorce, with a boat load of hang-ups and a division of Jerusalem. A one-state solution, in everyone except one man's opinion (an American sadly) would not be sufficiently able to attain some reasonable level of stability or equality. The analogy that the speakers used about a division was to compare it to a domestic divorce. In order for there to be some level of regional stability there had to be substantial levels of state and cultural stability. One speaker also pointed out that a pure quantitative analysis of a unified democratic state does not imply that there would be equality for the Palestinians. Institutions like Hebrew University in East Jerusalem, that cater to the Israeli and international students, would have already established and would further the educational and socio-economic gap between Israelis and Palestinians. It was the most interesting series if speeches that I have ever heard concerning this muddled situation.

Midway through the seminar Brit got a text from a friend that invited us to Tel-Aviv for a debut of an album that his friend had been working on. I said no immediately because I remembered my promise to get some rest that night. But as we left the conference after 3 ½ hours of paying attention, I convinced myself to go because… well why not? So we went back to Augusta Victoria, I had a cup of coffee and then we were picked up and heading toward the coast.

Picture over the bar at Tsuzammen and I have no idea why

I had no great expectations for the “concert.” It was in a bar called Tsuzammen (which I think may be Yiddish because it is close to the German word “zusammen” meaning together or same). It was a very small coffee shop like bar that was probably at capacity with a mere 30 people. The Indie / Fiona Apple sound (not my description) of this woman and her acoustically gifted husband was very pleasant for the laid back night. After the show was over we started back toward Jerusalem.

I learned from this night that I am absolutely justified in “burning the candle at both ends” as my mother would say. I realize that I only have a short time here and the more culturally and out of my comfort zone experiences that I have, the more rich an overall experience this will be. I woke the next morning slightly late for work and tired but content.

Olive Harvest (Mount of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane)

Today was the the beginning of the Lutheran World Federation olive harvest! I guess I should explain what I have been up to the last week and a half. As a volunteer here my responsibility has been to clear the olive trees of younger, low lying branches. These branches, called suckers, take energy from the olive producing parts of the tree. On some well manicured trees this is not a huge problem but with over 800 trees on the property I, alone, have quite a bit of work in store. So far I have cleared about half of the property but will probably go over the sections I did earlier because I have become more accustomed to how the olive trees are supposed pruned.

The process of harvesting olives is pretty straightforward. After I cleared the brush we were able to lay tarps under the tree. And after that it's all grunt work. There are some specialized rakes that can be used for the taller olives but mostly people use their hands to essentially milk the olive ripe vines. It's pretty tedious work but not incredibly taxing.

Today was the culmination of my prep work. Around 50 vocational training students came this morning to the Mount of Olives to harvest. The boss said that these would be the most unruly group of volunteers and he was right. I had no chance of containing or harnessing their energy with my lack of Arabic. But this didn't stop them talking to me which made the harvest fun. A couple of kids took a liking to me and started to butcher my name by calling me Wararine. It's not an easy name for them to pronounce. At one point a visiting American girl came to try out harvesting. She had been told that it was an experience she needed here in Palestine. She was pretty attractive and the boys flocked to her like moths to light. They had been pretty productive until she showed up. It was too bad for her even though she handled it pretty well but it was hilarious to watch for me. The dogs had caught the scent and the garbled game spitting was on.

At the end of the day we had collected 26 bags of olives, around 800 kilos, which apparently is a lot and a successful day. Good start to the harvest season.

The pictures I have added were taken about a week and a half ago at the Garden of Gethsemane, the valley that Jesus was arrested. This was on Armenian property and Brit had a friend that was volunteering for the weekend so we decided to lend a hand. This was my first time picking olives and it was an easy way to get accustomed because the gardener kept the trees healthy and easily accessible. The garden was situated right next to the Tomb of Mary so there were tourists on the walkway above the whole day. We had a pleasant surprise when the Armenians offered us lunch. It was Armenian pizza and it wasn't half bad. It was a pretty special day in a very special and unique garden that I very thankful for.

Ways of the Wilderness Part I

Wadi Kelt and Jericho in the backround

What can be said about desert monasteries in Egypt that haven't already been said?... Well apparently a whole lot. Since I last posted I have had quite the range of intellectual and spiritual experiences. The first day of our trip was spent traveling thru the West Bank toward the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea, of course, is the lowest point on earth. Before I had just taken that as some fact that is "cool" but really, it probably wouldn't bother me. I was wrong. My recently reconstructed elbow ached. It would pop and crunch nearly every movement I made. I could not believe the pressure and humidity that this place had.

St. Gerasimo

Our first stop was at the monastery of St. Gerasimo. This monastery was situated just a few kilometers from the Jordan River and Jericho so getting out of the bus this first time was a shock to the system. Twenty-five miles from Jerusalem, and a couple thousand feet below, the temperature had changed probably upwards of 30 degrees. Our next stop was a little weird. Qumran, an ancient and deserted monastery estimated to have been around before and during the time of Jesus, was the place where some Bedouin sheepherders had discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls a couple of decades earlier. Apparently John the Baptist may have lived here for a couple of years but left probably because he realized they might have had a couple screws loose.

Dead Sea from Qumron

After a brief stop at Mosada we went to our first night at a desert retreat called Zman Midbar (Desert Time) in the Negev Desert. This place had some spirit! A hike to the nearby ridge gave us a view of the Negev and Judean deserts as well as the Dead Sea. Incredible. We all slept in a large tented area built into the hills. There was also a "prayer building" which the owners talked to us about their mission and aim of creating a non-exclusive place of spiritual peace. The owners were a very happy and peaceful Jewish couple that lived in Erat, a nearby Israeli city. For the first time since I have been here I was able to engage with Israelis as normal, peaceful people. During the night I heard in the distance a Bedoiun tribal dance. The drums and chanting really soothed me into sleep.

Zman Midbar Spirituality Center, Negev Desert

The next day we woke to the sunrise and left early for the Elat/Taba boarder between Israel and Egypt. Our tour guide, Jacoban, was a wonderful narrator of the trip to the boarder. One of the many insights of hers was about alcohol in the Muslim faith. I had always thought that Medina must have been a city of drunks for Muhammad to outlaw it but according to Jacoban the origin is more about dehydration of a nomadic desert people than purification. Sadly, she left us at the boarder, as we had to totally unload the first bus and walk a half-mile thru boarder checks and customs into Egypt. 

Pharaoh's Island outside of Taba, Egypt 

The next six hours were spent crossing the Sinai toward Suez and Cairo. We had quite the entourage on this particular leg of the journey. Our new tour guide, two bus drivers for the long trip and our own security escort equipped with an automatic weapon that he carelessly concealed in his overcoat. It was as if we were vulnerable to an attack from one of donkey riding teenagers that inhabited the pit stops. I guess that's why no one messed with us. I slept most of the rest of the day until we descended into Cairo and Giza. I first spotted the pyramids on the horizon about twenty miles away; they were surely the highest structures around. I was able to snap a picture with a minaret perfectly sticking out the middle of one of the pyramids. This picture was totally by chance but it is really symbolic of something; I'm not sure what the symbolism is yet, but I'm working on it.

Pyramids of Giza with Minaret

That night we stayed at a hotel in Giza nearby the pyramids. While the course director's son, Adam, and I played pool at the "bar" (it was far from a bar) a wedding precession went by. The drums and singing reminded me of the Bedouin the night before; it was quite the celebration. The men sang loudly and cheerfully and some of the women ululated. This is a shrill throat yodel or howl, for lack of better words, that fills the room.

Day three started with a somewhat hurried visit to the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Our tour guide was a delightful man named Ashraf who told me about how he used to climb the pyramids in his youth. He shared with us the two theories of the construction of the pyramids: the first, he said jokingly, was that aliens built them. The second, more practical, explanation was that they built ramps that were able to transport the up to 75-ton blocks. The problems with this theory is that this ramp that circles the pyramid would have been more difficult to build than the pyramid itself and it would have had to be able to support an immense amount of weight. Even today we don't have a crane that would allow us to lift blocks this heavy as high and far as they would need to be lifted to construct these structures! It doesn't stop there. The pyramids were built using limestone quarried from a mountain nearby and 75 ton blocks of granite that was collected nearly 850km away. More than 2 millennia later we still aren’t exactly sure how they were constructed. There are 119 pyramids in Egypt.

Cairo Entrepreneur 

Our next stop was at the papyrus institute where some Egyptian with a southern drawl taught us how papyrus is made. His sell was good enough to get me to buy more papyrus than I need but I'm on vacation. We also stopped off in Old Cairo and the "Hanging" Coptic church. This was a gorgeous church built over top of an old Roman structure called the Babylonian Towers. This brick structure protected the church from the seasonal flood of the Nile.

Copts, meaning Egyptians, are the surviving Christians from Egypt. This large minority has it's own language that resembles the ancient Egyptian's. The written form is made up of ancient Egyptian symbols combined with seven added Greek. The Coptic belief is based off the teachings of Saint Mark the apostle, in the 1st century after he traveled to Egypt preaching the word of Jesus. Ashraf told us that under the current conservative Egyptian government, there is a sense of discrimination against the Copts that surfaces as mosques are springing up all over but the Coptics find it very difficult, almost impossible to construct a new church.

Anafora

After this visit to Old Cairo we set off to the west toward Anafora, a Coptic desert retreat center that we would spend the next two nights. This was a very nice little compound that was self sustaining and quaint. We stayed in bungalow-like houses. They were dome shaped, white buildings that were just perfectly suited for a desert oasis. On the second night there the local Copts were celebrating the annual blessing of water. Just that morning they had finished filling a beautiful, 70-meter pool. The local Copts came to take communion then float a cross in the water. It was a very special ceremony to be apart of/observer to.

Blessing of Water at Anafora

The next morning we parted toward Wadi el Natrun, a natural depression west of the Nile that offered springs for the ancient desert people, to visit three very early monasteries in the region. Monasteries of St. Bishoi, as-Souriani, and Abu Makarios. Side note: seeing one monastery is just as good as seeing them all. You might be surprised to know that there was no noticeable difference between the three; a wall surrounding the complex, a couple of church that you had to take your shoes off to go into, a fortress to protect the inhabitants from dirty rotten robbers from Lybia, and very old monk living quarters. Really there was no reason for the repetition. But as jaded as I sound I really did gain an appreciation for the solitude and devotion that these men were seeking. I kind of had an admiration for their resolve. I know that there is no way I could put myself in that situation though. I don't desire solitude that much and I think that my inner monologue would drive me crazy. But, interestingly enough, every one of the monks that gave the tour had a cell phone that would not stop ringing.

Truck full of camels

Having escaped from the abunas we set off for our hotel all the way on the Red Sea. Our intended hotel was having AC issues so we were forced to move our stay. Just a note on air conditioning in the Middle East: if there were any outside sense of hostility from this region before AC became the norm, I would sympathize entirely. I would be an angry, sandy SOB if I had to live here without AC. But that's just me. Anyway, the subsequent hotel that we stayed was inappropriately named Hotel Romance. I was not in love with this hotel. It wasn't the rooms or food, actually they both very nice. I did not enjoy the dry campus mentality as well as the pool hours (sunrise to sunset) in a pool that teased us with lights in the pool. I just couldn’t understand and needless to say, I couldn’t have been less comfortable in Romance Hotel.

View from Holy Cave of St Anthony

The next day we went to the monastery of St. Anthony, the originator of monastic life. When Anthony was young his father and mother died leaving him a very large wealth and 300 acres of land on the Nile. After a couple years of contemplating his Christianity he decided to give all his land to the poor and go live in solitude. He ended up establishing the first monastery in the world just under the cliff face that he lived in for 40 years. After our tour led by Abba Ruwas, a delightful old monk that seemed to love to entertain and teach, we were able to climb to the holy cave of Anthony on Mount Qulzum. As I struggled to fit in the cave I started to appreciate the lifestyle he lived. Then I hit my head on a rock and decided to leave before I swore in a holy place. The cave had a great view of the surrounding desolate land and on a clear day Abba Ruwas said you could see to the Red Sea. On the way back to the hotel Jill insisted that we stop at a market so we could get and I quote "some special drinks that the hotel doesn't offer." pretty diplomatic of her huh? I sure do love my aunt!

Hoop on the Gulf of Suez

The next day's 7-hour bus ride around the Gulf of Suez and underneath the Suez Canal was hot. The tunnel under the canal is pretty cool though. It dives under the bypassing freight boats that are lined up waiting to enter the canal as far as the eye can see. When we started to head toward St. Catherine monastery in the southern tip of Sinai Peninsula, it was incredible to see the landscape change from plateau desert land to really mountainous desert. As we headed up Wadi Firan we could see free roaming camels grazing in the trees. The colors of these mountains were incredible: deep red mountains with amber hues that fall steeply into sandy basins. Closer inspection yielded dark streaks of purple and black that seemed to trace the mountains like the rings of a tree would trace the trunk. It was as if the solidified lava bedrock of the world extended 8,500 ft above sea level.

tiger

3AM the next morning we woke for our EB camel ride up Mount Sinai. I was giddy. Never have I been so excited for an EB. The group gathered then were chosen by the Bedouin camel jockeys depending on our fit with the camel. The Bedouin that chose me was named Moses, however coincidentally, and our camel's name was Tiger. I started to laugh when he told me the name because I thought that it was just like naming your cat, Dog; as I said, I was in that tired, laugh at anything mood.

Summit of Mount Sinai from Elijah's Plateau

Camels are strange and beautiful creatures. For as big as they are, they are surprisingly graceful. Their backward knees allow them to lay straight up and down as you get on then stand up first with their back legs then the front. This is a sensation that you really can't properly prepare for and when we arrived at Elijah's plateau the abruptness of this move in reverse sent me into the saddle horn with a grunt. As you watch a camel walk you can see the softness of their feet and the length of their gate that really make the ride almost pleasant. Still though, the hour and a half ride up made me pretty sore until I found that crossing one leg in front of the saddle horn would take the pressure off my groin. So, mimicking what I saw in Lawrence of Arabia I sat that way for the rest of the trip. Moses was impressed. He said I sat like a Bedouin. I remember thinking, "I'm the man. I ride like a Bedouin."

Sunrise from Mount Sinai

I hiked up from Elijah's plateau to the top as the rest of the groups did a sunrise Eucharist. I was able to watch the amazing sunrise from a little perch off the eastern edge of the summit.