Never Again

While the Jerusalem Center was being built, James E. Faust (part of the leadership of the Church who was very invested in the creation of the Center) requested that it not only be a place of learning on the inside but on the outside as well. Because of this, they placed three different olive presses on the grounds, as well as hundreds of olive trees. We were fortunate enough to pick the olives last week, and this afternoon we were able to crush the olives that we had picked to make olive oil.

The trees are beautiful. This particular tree is 500 years old and from the Galilee. It was transplanted at the Center in 1987 and as it was dying at the time, the landscaper (who still works for the Center) grafted other branches into the tree to heal it, and it worked. Brother Huntington told us this story and rather forcefully added that it was his favorite tree and we'd better not harm it or fall out of it while picking the olives. Yes, sir. Picking was quite enjoyable even while making sure not to harm the trees, it took 81 students plus four teachers and their wives and the five kids also here about two or three hours each day we picked (we only picked olives for two days) and I'm sure we still did not get them all off the trees. We got a little sticky, and there was a lot of tree climbing involved, but it was super fun. Some of the trees are huge; I sat on the shoulders of a guy in our group who is probably 6'2'' or 6'3'' and I still couldn't reach the top of the tree on which we were working. Of course, if I were taller it may have worked better.

We learned today from one of our professors that there are five steps to olive oil making: 1) Gather olives. Check. 2) Separate the olives for pickling and for oil. In biblical times each family would have had an olive press and there would have been at least one member of each family who was an expert olive separator. We did not separate the olives. 3) Crack or break the skin so the oil can come out.

The cracking is done in this machine. It took five people to push it around, and it took probably 15-20 minutes to get the olives cracked enough to move onto step four. It was fun to move the wheel around, and it was really interesting to watch it rotate; it doesn't roll like you would imagine it too, but rather it sort of scoots along in an awkward non-circular shape that is probably not describable. We had someone going around behind with a shovel scraping the olives down into the middle so that they would get crushed, a lot like the idea of scraping the sides of a mixing bowl when you're making a batter of some sort. And, as I'm sure you can see, it was quite messy.

So once the cracking is complete, the next step is 4) Crush the pulp, which has been gathered in baskets. This part was even more messy than the cracking, we picked up all the olive pulp with our hands to put them into the baskets (which were also disgusting because they had been full of olive pulp previously). Unfortunately, the olive juice appears to stain as well, so some people will now have clothing with Jerusalem stories permanently dyed into them. So it goes.

There were two different olive presses that we used once all of the pulp was into the baskets. They do the same thing, put so much pressure onto the olives that they squeeze out the olive oil, they just have different methods to the same end result. As you can see, we put the baskets of pulp underneath the large corkscrew-like log (I'm sure it has a name, I just don't know what that might be) and then we would rotate it so that it becomes compressed and the olives release their oil. While Brother Skinner was telling us about the olive oil process prior to going out and experiencing it ourselves, he told us that on good harvest years the oil will for a few seconds turn red as it is first coming out of the pressed olives. It only happens with the very first olives and only for a small amount of time, and then the oil will turn back to it's golden color, but he said he has seen it. I was not in the first group to crush olives today, so I do not know if this occurred with our olives this year.

Step is to 5) Let the oil settle. There is water in the holes that catch all the oil and they told us that by tomorrow morning the oil and the water will have separated (we all know that oil and water go through this phenomenon I hope) and they will be able to take the oil off the top. Anciently, people used the olive oil for cooking, cleaning, lighting, heating, and healing, as well as many other uses. We too use oil that frequently, but it is no longer limited to olive oil.

Field Trips are so much cooler than they were in 4th grade

I apologize for my lack of postage the past ten days, and the only excuse I have is three field trips, three midterms, and several Jewish holidays right in a row. However, I hope to redeem myself in the next two hours before dinner.

As I mentioned, we went on a few field trips the past week and a half, and I would like to discuss portions of them. Last Monday and Tuesday we had an all day field trip and then a half day field trip, so we were busy. We visited several Old Testament sites and were able to discuss events on location, which is always cool. We saw where Sampson grew up, Lachish (the second most important city in Judea, and the one that was always conquered second to last when first the Israelites, then the Syrians, and then the Babylonians -- Jerusalem being the most important, of course), and the Valley of Elah where David slew Goliath.Oh look, there's the valley.

The hill to the left of the photo with all the trees is where the camp of Israel would have been, and the hill behind it that is partially obscured would have been where the Philistines and Goliath camped. Visualize them shouting threats at each other across the valley, and Goliath coming down for 40 days and none of the Israelites were brave enough to face his challenge. Being a class excited about participation as well as intellectual discussion, we also went down into the valley and got to sling (sling? Is that the correct verb? TO SLING: sling, slung, have slung. Interesting.) stones into a farmer's field. Poor farmer.

It's really hard to do. Well, not entirely true, slinging stones was very difficult for me to do. Some people were really good at it; some were worse than me and we tried to stay as far away from those individuals as possible so as not to get nailed in the head by a baseball-sized rock. I no longer doubt the validity of the account in 1 Samuel, Goliath could certainly have been killed by a stone to the head if the slinger were strong and accurate enough, and if he had a decent sized stone. Thank goodness I will never be battling the Philistines or 9 foot tall giants.

The next day we crossed the border into the West Bank and went to Jericho. Crossing the border is interesting, Brother Huntington (our director) said that sometimes they stop us and ask for passports and sometimes they don't. They didn't, the soldier (who looked younger than me, and I have been mistaken for 17) just talked to the bus driver for at most 30 seconds and we went through. However, any of the Israeli members of the staff at the center are not allowed to go across the border, which means they cannot come on any field trips to the West Bank.

Jericho was cool on multiple levels. The Old Testament one, of course, is in regards to Joshua. Quick refresher for those of us who aren't up to speed on our Bible stories, after the Israelites wander in the wilderness for 40 years and Moses dies, the Lord tells Joshua (new prophet) that they can enter the promised land. To do this, they must conquer the city of Jericho, but the Lord wants to do it His way which was to have the priests walk around the city once every day for six days, and on the seventh day they walked around seven times. At the conclusion of the march, they were supposed to blow the shofars (rams horn) and the walls fell down. They killed every living thing inside the city except Rahab and her family because she protected Joshua's spies when they came into the land.

Would you like to see the wall that came crashing down? Oh here, I think I have a photo of it. I'm standing in front of the wall, and the break that you see would have been where the gate was. If I remember correctly, this would have been part of the inner gate (they had an inner and outer wall as it offers more protection, although I suppose if God wants the walls to come down it doesn't really matter how many of them you have). Oh, and since I suspect the question might come up, I have not been listening to Megan's ipod (thanks Megan!) at all of these cool sites. The reason for the earphones is that our teacher always has a microphone on to talk to us so that if we're spread out at whatever site it might be we can still hear the information regarding the location and we don't have to try and crowd 40+ people in a very small space. It's a nice use of technology.

The other super interesting thing about the Old Testament Jericho (there is also a New Testament Jericho site, as well as Jericho where people currently live) is that it looks out onto a refugee camp. Coincidentally, it is the same refugee camp where our director, Brother Huntington, went to study during his PhD work; he spent several years with a few other students studying the refugee situation after the Israeli War of Independence, and one of the camps he went to was visible from Jericho. Some refugee facts for you:

• There are 5.5 million Palestinian refugees in the world and only 4 million Palestinians living in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza).
• Although settlement between Israel and Palestine has been discussed, part of the problem is that the Palestinians want either the option for the refugees to move back to their land or complete compensation. Can you imagine a country the size of Israel -- or any country for that matter -- compensating 5.5 million refugees?
• Many of the refugees have the option to move out of the refugee camps but refuse because they have more international mobility as refugees, and if they no longer have refugee status then the refugees have a smaller voice because the numbers will go down.
• Refugees receive an excellent education. That's one thing the U.N. does well, they come into the refugee camps and set up schools for kindergarten through ninth grade, and they are very good schools. We could see the school clearly from our view at Jericho. It is the building with the blue U.N. flags flying.

JC Prank

I have ten minutes until class and thought I would share an amusing anectode. At least, I think it is amusing.

Tuesday night we had a "girls night" here at the Center, involving movies (She's the Man), nail polish, loud giggling, and stories about boys. Actually, really only one story about a fiancé back home. The boys were not allowed, of course, so for two or three hours they were off doing who knows what.

After girls night I went to check my e-mail, so I did not return to my room until all my roommates had gone back. I arrived to find one roommate pulling her mattress off her bed and the other two (along with two or three other girls) yelling quite loudly about things I did not understand. When they calmed down enough to talk somewhat coherently, I discovered that three of our four beds had been turned around. Now, why is this such a big deal? Well, each of our beds has a large drawer underneath, where I keep things like pants, pajamas, my flute, etc. The beds that had been turned had their drawers facing the wall, so we could not get into the drawers. It took a while to get the beds turned back as they are rather heavy, and we really don't have that much floor space on which to move them (see earlier post with bedroom pictures). However, we moved all three back as they should be and contemplated why someone would want to turn our beds, and why they only turned three of the four. Because of girls night and the bed situation, we did not actually go to bed until almost 1:00AM.

At 2:00AM I was awakened by an unusual buzzing/beeping sound. I could not figure out what it was, but it sounded as though it was underneath the bed next to mine. My roommate woke up as well, but we could not place the sound and as soon as it stopped we went back to sleep. However, about 5 minutes later it started again and we realized it was some sort of alarm. I got my headlamp and we lifted her bed and looked under it, but could not find anything. We waited for it to start a third time and then thought to check inside her drawer -- and way in the back of the drawer was a cell phone with the alarm set for 2:00AM. I immediately turned to my dresser to get my own cell phone and see if it too was set, but could not find it. We discovered that the phone inside her drawer was actually my own, and upon further searching found another phone in my own bed drawer with the alarm set for 3:00AM. By this time a third roommate was awake, and we spent a while searching for the other two phones. We found one untouched, although I am unsure as to why that was, but the fourth went undiscovered until its alarm sounded at 4:00AM, waking three of the four of us.

Thank goodness for free days and sleeping in until 10:00.

Holy Camel

Luxor is beautiful. We arrived Tuesday night in time for dinner at our Sheraton Hotel which was right on the Nile River. Can a trip get any better than that? (Actually it could, if we were allowed to eat the fruit and vegetables or drink the water. Only meat and bread for a week, as well as a somewhat constant state of nausea is rather unpleasant. So it goes.)

Wednesday morning was spent in the Valley of the Kings. Becky, I thought of you quite a bit on Wednesday morning -- we got to go inside the tombs of Kings Ramses III, Ramses IV, Thutmose IV, and (of course) King Tut. King Tut is still inside his tomb, which is actually the most attractive feature of that particular tomb, because the tomb itself is not all that spectacular. But the other three were incredible. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures inside the tombs. However, the hieroglyphics were amazing, with so much detail and a lot of color. I was impressed with how well the colors have survived over time. Our guide said that to "paint" the walls they used natural resources and colors from rocks rather than paints, which would fade. Again, it was incredible to see how much work was put into these tombs, that one person could be considered important enough to spend 20 years constructing such a monument to house their monstrous sarcophagus and all of their possessions.

After the Valley of the Kings we stopped at the Funerary Temple of Ramses III as well as the Colossus of Memnon. Again, I was impressed by the preservation of everything, as well as the detail they put into the temple. Example for you:

This is on one of the walls of the temple. During battles in Ancient Egypt, the pharaohs would figure out how many of the enemy they killed by cutting off and counting the hands from dead bodies. This wall depicts the scene: the first guy has all the hands, the one behind him is recording numbers, the one behind him is checking to make sure he has the numbers right. It's a little gruesome, but I guess it's effective. They instituted this method of tracking so the pharaohs wouldn't cheat and say they had killed more people during the battle than they actually did.

After lunch at the Sheraton we rode falukahs down the Nile River to our CAMEL RIDE through Luxor. We rode for an hour and got to see a lot of the city. I really enjoyed this for a few reasons. First, I was on a camel. Second, it was cool to see the people in the city and how they lived and how happy they seem to be even though they live in blatant poverty. Some camel riding pictures...

This next one is of me with my camel, Bob Marley, and my camel driver, Muhammad.
Wednesday night and a good part of Thursday we went to the bazaar in Luxor. It was quite incredible, and we met some really nice people. There was one man, Nasser (like the president of Egypt after King Farouk was taken out) who owned a papyrus store that we talked with for probably an hour. He told us about living in Luxor and all about his papyrus store. It was really cool, and we enjoyed getting to know him and look through all of the papyri that he had. He had a 16-year-old assistant, Mahmoud, who really enjoyed talking with us and taught us some Arabic phrases. The bazaar itself was rather dirty (although not as dirty as in Cairo) and everything that we all bought has a distinct bazaar smell; it's easy to wash any clothing purchased, but a little more difficult with things like the small bongo drum my roommate bought.

On Thursday before spending the afternoon in the bazaar (or the pool, or napping as it was rather hot and we were going, going, going all the time) we visited the Karnak and Luxor Temples. They were beautiful, and again I was impressed by their structure and longevity. It's mind-blowing, really. I can't quite grasp the fact that everything there is so old.

Thursday night we took a sleeper train back to Cairo, which brings us back to the Cairo post on Friday. I'd never ridden a real train before, but I'm quite certain that this was the dirtiest train I will ever have to experience. The dinner was sketchy (thank goodness for the foresight to bring snacks!), there was dust everywhere, and the little sink did not look capable of washing anything. I used a scarf I purchased earlier that day to cover the pillow so I wouldn't have to actually touch it with my head. However, even in its dirtiness, it was quite a cool experience. I slept a lot better than I expected to, and I was not attacked by any Russian assassins or SPECTRE agents. (For those who do not understand the reference, several James Bond movies have scenes in sleeper cars, and inevitably Mr. Bond is attacked in his tiny compartment that looked exactly like mine.)

Cousin Cai, you're named after a pretty sweet city

Just so you know I was actually there...
We arrived in Cairo Monday evening and bright and early on Tuesday we took off for the pyramids. Some sixth grade flashbacks for you all: There are three pyramids at Giza, the great pyramids which are considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. We visited all three. The Pyramid of Kufu is the first, built (of course) by Kufu, the second is the Pyramid of Kahfre (son of Kufu), and the third is the Pyramid of Menkaure (son of Kahfre), so as our guide repeated several times, the father, the son, and the grandson.

There really is not anything I can say to adequately express the magnificence of the pyramids. It was incredible to think how huge and symmetric and old they are. Christ lived 2000 years ago, so the things we see in Jerusalem like the Garden Tomb or the pool of Bethesda are about 2000 years old, but the pyramids were built 2000 years prior to that. 4000 years ago and they are still standing. It's incredible.

After the pyramids we also saw the Sphinx and then went to a papyrus factory, Saqqara, and Memphis. The papyrus factory was really cool and the people there showed us how papyrus is made. Saqqara is the location of the Step Pyramid, the first pyramid ever built. Prior to the creation of the pyramid, when a pharaoh died they would bury him and then build a mastaba, which is just a large box, over his grave. The Step Pyramid was a mastaba with five smaller mastabas built on top of it -- hence the step-like structure. Memphis was the first capital of Egypt and had several statues, including a huge one of Ramses II which has fallen, but is enclosed and visible.

Tuesday evening we took a plane to Luxor, but I want to skip on to our return trip to Cairo. Rather than discuss the trip chronologically I will discuss it by location, so as not to confuse you...although that may be confusing for some. Regardless, I'm skipping Wednesday and Thursday for the moment.

Friday morning we went to the Cairo Museum, which was incredible. We were able to see the Rosetta Stone, all of the gold that was discovered in King Tut's tomb (there are rooms filled with gold jewelery and dishes and a throne, it's incredible), various other ancient artifacts, and an exhibit with 10-15 mummies, including Ramses II (considered the Ramses of the Bible who would not let the Israelites go) and Hatshepsut, the only female pharaoh of Egypt. Again, I was amazed by how old everything is, and how well preserved.

After the museum we spent a few hours at the Khan al-Khalili Bazaar before having lunch at the Hard Rock Café. The bazaars in Egypt were similar to the shopping in Jerusalem, except these shop keepers would almost go down to any price you wanted. However, I preferred the Luxor bazaar, so we'll discuss that when I come back to Wednesday-Thursday.

On Friday we went to the Cairo Citadel, which is the mosque of Muhammad Ali (not the boxer, a very important Muslim leader) as well as the Ibn Tulun Mosque. They were beautiful. We had to take off our shoes, as the mosques are holy sites, and our guide gave us a little lecture about Islam which, unfortunately, we had already heard several times on this trip. However, we loved looking around the mosques and taking pictures.

To the left is the Cairo Citadel, or the Mosque of Muhammad Ali. The decor inside was beautifully ornate, with rich colored carpets and intricate designs in the lighting. To the right is the view from the top of the minaret at the Ibn Tulun Mosque. The minaret is the tower where the prayer call sounds five times a day. There is a minaret very close to the Jerusalem Center, so we get the pleasure of hearing the prayer call often, occasionally at 4:00 AM. Although it is a beautiful call, I prefer it when the sun is up.

Saturday was our last day in Cairo, and that afternoon we drove back into the Sinai by way of the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. The Red Sea is beautiful. We stayed in a dirty hotel just down the road from Saint Catherine's monastery so that we could get up at 1:30 AM to hike Mout Sinai Sunday morning. But first, let's go to Luxor.

I Visited the Torah

We returned from our week-long Egypt trip last night, and it was quite fantastic. However, before I discuss Egypt we need to go over a few Israel visits on the way.

We left early last Sunday morning by bus to drive to a kibbutz near Eliat in the southern part of Israel, about 45 minutes from the Egyptian border. On our way to the kibbutz we stopped at Tel Be'er Sheva, the Wilderness of Zin, and Avdat. For those of you who are unfamiliar, we'll have a quick Old Testament review: Beer Sheba was the southern most city of the Biblical land of Israel; Isaac built an altar there, it was the location of Jacob's ladder vision, and Elijah hid from Jezebel in Beer Sheba. The Wilderness of Zin was a long stopping point for the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt, they probably stayed there for at least a year and if I remember correctly, it was the location where they were all bit by firey serpents and the Lord told Moses to put a brass serpent on a stick for them to be healed. The Wilderness of Zin is also where David Ben-Gurion and his wife are buried. Observe for a moment the few of the valley from our lookout point. I don't know about you, but if I had to spend a few days in this wilderness, let alone years, I would murmur as well. I think sometimes we tend to criticize the Israelites and think they were ungrateful, and to a certain extent that is true. However, after seeing this particular landscape I cannot say that I wouldn't have murmured either.

Our last stop prior to the kibbutz was cool too. Avdat is a whole bunch of ruins from what was once an excellent trading post apparently; it was right on the trail from Petra to Gaza and people frequently stopped there. We were able to see things like where they would smash grapes to make wine, a baptismal font, and explore various caves. It was really cool.

After our Biblical stops we ate dinner and spent the night at a kibbutz. That was one of the most interesting places I have ever seen. We had a guide take us around so we were able to see various things like the dairy, the infirmary, the school, the cafeteria. Our guide told us that everyone on the kibbutz rotates positions, so you spend a while as a cafeteria worker and then you might become the treasurer for a while, and then you would be on the night watch, etc. The kibbutz covers all living expenses such as food, housing, electricity, and medical (among others) and each family gets a small allotment of money each year in proportion to the size of the family, so a family of six would get more money than a family of three. The little apartments they live in are also determined by the family's size.

It was interesting to see the communal way these people live. It is the best functioning socialist society I have ever seen -- not that I have seen many socialist societies, but we did study them often in school, and they all seemed to have many more problems than this kibbutz does. Our guide told us that in the time he has lived there (some 30 or so years) they have only kicked out two members, one of which was permitted back in later, and currently only have two who are somewhat problematic. Difficulties with only four people in 30 years is rather impressive. I doubt anything like a kibbutz would be possible in the US, or in any European capitalist country for that matter. Israel itself is capitalist, but the kibbutz (and others like it) does not have any problem surviving. I was very impressed by the people there and the way in which they choose to live.

Monday morning we ate breakfast and were off to Egypt!

Off to Africa...cool!

Tomorrow we're heading to Egypt for eight days, so I'll be internet-less (and blog-less) for a while. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll have plenty to say when I get back.

I think I might have Mrs. Fickes flashbacks while we're there, what with the mummies and the pyramids of Giza.