Hebron and the Tomb of the Patriarchs

        On Sunday, I took half a day off work and went to Hebron with Becky, Anna, Greg, and Carly.  Our guide was a Palestinian member of the LDS Church, a part of the Bethlehem group (they have a little church and an LDS group in Bethlehem, not big enough to be even a branch). 

Hebron is a city about an hour south of Jerusalem, and is a part of the West Bank.  The West Bank is a huge chunk of Israel, almost all of east Israel to the Jordanian border, and is officially considered “Occupied Palestinian Territory” but is an area of land that is highly disputed with a lot of political turmoil.  It composed of mostly Palestinians, 80% of the population, but in the last 40 years, Zionist Jews moved in and created “settlements”, little communities trying to claim the land as part of a Jewish Israel.  As a result, there has historically been a lot of tension and violence in the West Bank. 

Also, the Israelis have been building a wall around the West Bank called the “Separation Wall”, in theory to protect the rest of Israel from attacks coming from the West Bank.  To cross from the West Bank to Israel is inconvenient for non-threatening American tourists, and nearly impossible for West Bank Palestinians, and it was sobering to cross over to the West Bank and see the visible tension.

            Carly drove us to the Separation Wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, we parked at the wall and walked through security to enter the West Bank. We walked about 15 minutes, met up with Mohammed our Palestinian friend and tour guide, and took a van taxi to Hebron. 

WATCH:

            We walked through the old city of Hebron, stopped for delicious fried sugary goodness wrapped in a mini pancake, and went to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the tombs commemorating where Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Leah, Isaac, Rebekah of the Old Testament were buried. As with many Holy Land historical sites, it is difficult to know how accurate the actual location is, but it still considered holy by many and people worship at these sites and have very spiritual experiences.

            The tombs are actually inside a mosque and to enter we had to pass security, take off our shoes, and all the women put on a hooded cape for modesty.  Then right inside the mosque there are several little house-like structures, each one a tomb for one of the patriarchs or their wives. 

WATCH THIS:

            After the tombs, we went inside a ceramic shop and they let us play around on the pottery wheel!  It was my first time, and I definitely was the worst one of the group (it takes patience and finesse, which I apparently don’t have), but I loved it! It was one of those surreal moments: here I am in Hebron outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs, making miniature vases in an Arab shop.  Wow!

WATCH THIS:

            But, the Arab-Israeli conflict was more apparent here then anywhere else I have seen so far.  Our Palestinian tour guide frequently pointed out spots of past violence, always saying after cynically, “there will be no peace in this land until Christ comes again”.  Perhaps that is unfortunately true.

            Inside the mosque, he pointed out the spot where an Israeli man entered and killed 29 worshipping Muslims 15 years ago.  As we walked through the old city of Hebron, Mohammed pointed out the net above us, separating the Arab old city market from Israeli settlements and told us how the settlers would throw down dead dogs and cats onto the net and there would be a horrible stench.  He told us that when he was a kid, the old city market was a bustling place like the Old City of Jerusalem, but because of the conflict, most shops had to close down and it now was quiet. 

Festival of Lights

This was from a week ago when I went with a group of people to the Festival of Lights with Abed, my friend in the lab. Knowing my profound distaste for writing, Joseph was kind enough to narrate the experience in my words. Thank you Joseph.

WATCH ME:

                                  Enjoying pizza together before the light show

My friend is autographing my hand. I can't remember why...

“Wednesday night I had a remarkable experience at the Jerusalem Festival of Lights. The Festival of Lights is a weeklong light exhibition show throughout the Old City. There was a string of lights you would follow to different light presentations. To be honest I expected more lights but some of the shows they had were quite impressive. One show was a giant 3D spectacle using some of the arches in the Jewish Quarter. For another they created a large balloon face where they projected faces from all around the world; it was a little creepy. Abed, my coworker invited me to go with some of his friends. More and more joined us, until it ended up being a very diverse group. So far, most of my interaction here has been with fellow Mormons and Jews. It was so interesting to get to know all these people from different backgrounds. In the group we had a German, a half Japanese half American man, a French woman, someone from Poland, and a few Palestinians as well as another Mormon friend. I particularly enjoyed getting to know an Arab woman in our group. It was amazing to see how easily it was for us to get along despite our entirely different backgrounds. It was a pleasant reminder that wonderful people can be found anywhere in very unexpected circumstances. Overall it was a great evening with great conversation and company (not to mention I topped it off with a fantastic Magnum Bar).”

I have a couple of things to add to Joseph’s wonderful summary. The light show was mildly entertaining, nothing like the beautiful lights around temple square, and yet so many thousands of people gathered from around Israel to see it. Hands down the best part, the aspect that made it one of the most memorable nights of my life, was the group of people we were with.  Such diversity, coming together with immediate acceptance and almost child-like, simple fun like sliding down the slick rock Old City ramps, doing the zombie walk to the music, and fake begging for money for the orphans.  It was silly and bordering on immature, but it was also exhilarating and bonding.  A Muslim girl, with head covering and long modest jacket, was one of my favorites. Quite visibly, we grew up and lived in different circumstances, and yet it was surprisingly easy to connect with and laugh with enjoy each other’s company.  Every once in a while, despite differences, it is so clear that we all are human, children of God, and share much much more than we differ on.

Various faces projected onto a giant inflatable face shape

Fire show

Enjoying a snack break at the end of the night

Me and Abed on the train ride home. Do I look tired? I was.

Tel Aviv day at the beach

       My first weekend was a 3-day weekend, celebrating the Jewish holiday Shavuot.  I heard that this holiday is to commemorate Moses receiving the 10 commandments? Anyways, we had Sunday off of school and work, and Joseph, Hannah, and I decided to take a trip to Tel Aviv, about an hour away, and go to the beach. 

            We borrowed a car from someone and Joseph drove. For any observing Jew, there are a lot of restrictions on the Sabbath and on holy holidays.  For example, they can’t drive cars, they can’t use the TV or computers or phones.  Instead, they walk everywhere and Shavuot was no exception.  As we drove the streets of Jerusalem early in the morning, there were no other cars, but rather swarms of the ultra-Orthodox Jews, the ones with black suits, hats, and curly ringlets as sideburns.  We were pretty nervous about getting rocks thrown at our car, because it is fairly common if you are driving in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood on the Sabbath.  No one threw rocks at the car, but someone did throw a water bottle! We made it out okay, barely!

Pictures of the streets swarmed with walking Jews. No cars.

            At Tel Aviv we borrowed a family’s body boards and took them to the beach, hung out for a few hours, went body boarding, drove into the city and walked around a little bit.

            Tel Aviv is completely different from Jerusalem, only an hour away but it is a different world!  Where Jerusalem is full of religion, tradition, tension, and history, Tel Aviv is liberal, secular, and modern.  It felt like California, with the palm trees, relaxed beach environment, and even the houses and streets seemed like American West Coast! The water was warm and the sun would peak through the clouds every so often, just enough to keep it warm but not too much to get badly sunburned.  It was a very ordinary feeling day at the beach.

Walking along the promenade at Tel Aviv

WATCH ME:

After Tel Aviv, we had a BBQ at an American family's house in Jerusalem to commemorate Memorial Day.  We had pulled pork sandwiches, a rare treat in Israel as it is against the Jewish and Muslim religions to eat pork!  

This is Greg telling the story of locking himself in the bathroom and how they called the Marines to get him out (true story):

Arguing with the Taxi Driver

One night my first week in Jerusalem I was coming home from Becky/Joseph/Greg’s house.  It was first experience trying to get home from that direction and I needed to take two buses.  The first bus was really late and I arrived at the central bus station around midnight, with about 5 minutes before the next (and last for the evening) bus was supposed to leave.  I had no idea where it was because the central bus station is huge, and I frantically jumped around from person to person asking where bus 68 was.  No one knew.  I was finally getting a good idea of where the stop was when bus 68 zoomed past me; I tried running after it and although the bus driver definitely saw me, he did not stop.  It was the last bus leaving that night and I was stranded!

            I was trying to decide whether or not to walk, because I knew that campus was fairly close to where I was.  But it was past midnight and the walk would have been in an area that I had never been to before; I decided that the best thing to do was to take a taxi.  An Israeli girl soldier was there as well and she was extremely kind and helpful, talking to the one taxi driver hanging around the bus station and trying to get a better price for me.  We finally decided on 30 shekels until another couple approached, also wanting to go to Givat Ram.  The taxi driver decided to take all of us, but he was still charging me 30 shekels, which I knew wasn’t fair if there were 3 of us.

            I got in the taxi but before we left, I asked the driver to turn on the meter, so that we could pay a fair price and split the cost.  He kept telling me, “no, 30 shekels for you” and I told him “no, turn on the meter”.  Finally, he got out of his driver seat, came over to my side, opened the door and said “Get out”.  Ha! I got out and I was furious that he was trying to rip me off, but as I stood there for a moment weighing my options, I decided that it really would be best if I just got back in the taxi and paid the price.  So I did but I was so mad the entire 5 minute ride, and I continued to glare at him, mumbling, “this isn’t fair”.  When he dropped me off at the gate, I still had a 15 minute walk home and I was feeling so frustrated that I started crying (first time crying since I have been here, pretty good considering all the times I got lost, paid way too much money, or felt very American and alone in a foreign country!) as I walked home.  A little bit in front of me was a guy also walking to the dorms, and he turned around and started talking to me.  He was also American and studying in Israel, although he was Jewish (as are most that come here) and he lived down south in Eilat. 

            He introduced himself as Jesse and told me about his hard day.  He got a phone call earlier in the day as he was out grocery shopping from his apartment building manager.  They told him that his little dog had fallen off the 11^th story balcony of his apartment and died!  Jesse was feeling so sad about it that he came up to Jerusalem for the weekend to distract himself!

            I felt so bad for him, what a horrible story; his dog jumped to his death! But I couldn’t help but laugh and be grateful that someone had a worse day than I did and was willing to share to make me feel better.

Maybe the most amazing thing I have ever tasted. This makes any bad day better. I bought a whole fresh container of these for emergencies.  They lasted 24 hours.

Hitchhiking in Jerusalem

One day during my first week in Jerusalem, I decided to take a bus straight to the Old City from work.  The “Old City” is the part of the city that is encompassed by the ancient walls of old Jerusalem and includes the places such as the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, the 4^th century Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and many more old historical sites.  It is very touristy and as you walk through, the streets are filled with Arab merchants selling things from their shops.  It is a completely different world from where I live, where I rarely even see Arabs. 

            I walked through the Old City for a little bit, ate a falafal pita sandwich, bought some groceries and decided to walk home.  I underestimated the amount of time it would take, and an hour and a half later, I am finally approaching the security gates by where I live on campus.  Now, there are three Hebrew University campuses in Jerusalem, the Mt. Scopus campus by the BYU Jerusalem Center with all the humanities, the Ein Kerem campus with the medical school (where I work, very West Jerusalem) and the Givat Ram campus with the math and sciences (where I live). 

  I am not sure about the other campuses, although I am guessing that they are similar, but for Givat Ram, the entire campus is surrounded by a barbed wire fence, with only three entrances to the campus.  These entrances are guarded gates with Israeli soldiers that check ID and make sure you are supposed to be on campus before letting you in.  This is nice because I feel very secure once I am on campus, but it is also surprisingly inconvenient. 

Only one entrance is open all the time and it just happens to be the north entrance on the opposite side of campus from me at the south end.  The Givat Ram campus is shaped like an oval, which makes the walk from the north end to the south about 1km.  When I am coming from someone’s house in the south, as I often am, it takes an extra 40 minutes to walk to the north end and back down to where I live.

            So after walking 1.5 hours, I am standing at the south security gate by where I live, and the gate was closed.  There was no guard and no way to get in.  It was so frustrating and I was so tired from walking with all my groceries and couldn’t bear the thought of walking another 45 minutes.  Just then, a car pulled up to the gate, trying to get through and I noticed that the car was an Israeli couple.  I flagged them down and asked for a ride to the north gate.  It was my first hitchhiking experience in Jerusalem!

Falafel in the Old City!

The First Week

VIDEOS

My apartment dorm room in Jerusalem

BYU Jerusalem Center

Jerusalem Center gardens

       This post will be reminiscing a little from my first week in Jerusalem, as I haven’t written it down and yet feel I need to include some details before posting about some other experiences I have had so far.

Where to begin? Since I arrived in Jerusalem on Saturday, it has been a mad mess of administration, buses, getting lost, starting work, ect.  I couldn’t count the number of mishaps that have occurred since arriving, by the end of each day, I have already forgotten half of the crazy things that happened that day. 

Me with two people from my mission, Anziano Banks and Sorella Jenkins, at the BYU JC

Here is a quick review of the first week in Jerusalem:

I arrive at 1.00 am Saturday morning May 19 in Tel Aviv, about an hour away from Jerusalem.  I have no visa for my long-term stay and was quite nervous about getting through passport control.  They asked lots of questions but let me through with no problem, phew.  I take a shared taxi van to an apartment in Jerusalem where Breanne, a former BYU student I’ve been emailing, was staying.  A crazy story occurs here at 3.00 am on the streets of Jerusalem that will be told after my parents are a little less freaked out about me living in the Middle East. But I make it to her apartment and sleep until we wake up for church

Church is on Saturday in the BYU Jerusalem Center, which is an incredibly beautiful building with amazing views of the city. 

            On Sunday morning (the work week is Sunday-Thursday) I show up at Hebrew University with my luggage and the secretary I’ve been emailing is out of town. No one knows who I am or what to do with me and to top it off, I am not an officially registered student yet so they have no record of me.  They finally worked it and I spent the afternoon in my lab, which turns out to be about a 30 minute bus ride from where I live.  I love my lab, the professor in charge of the lab, the people I work with.  I will talk more about my work in a later post. 

             The first week in Israel was spent working in the lab and running around Jerusalem on buses (hours and hours spent on buses each day), trying to buy groceries and things for my apartment dorm room on campus, opening bank accounts, meeting and spending time with the other LDS Hebrew U students (there are about 5 of them), getting lost, walking long distances.  The first few nights I spent having dinners with LDS families and FHE with the small group of LDS YSA here.  They have been extremely supportive and welcoming, and it has made the transition so much easier.

            My dorm room is small and dirty (the students don’t technically have to clean it before they check out, thus they leave it in pretty much whatever condition they want), but it includes a bed, desk, bathroom, and kitchenette, and it is all mine.  I had a post-doc student from Portugal help me check into the dorms and lend me sheets, pillows, and towels for the first week (thank goodness!).  It may be small (I cleaned it so it is no longer dirty), but it is my space and it has grown on me a lot.  I have a beautiful view of the garden below and it is very quiet.  I didn’t see a single person in my dorm building (5 floors too!) the first week, but it is different than other Hebrew U dorms because my building is for graduate students and post-docs and they are older and more subdued. 

            The food is ridiculously expensive here and I spent my first few days eating only bread and a strange cottage-cheese type cheese (I don’t care for it and it still sits in my fridge, untouched for over a week). My first real meal I put together on my own was a plate of bread, cereal, cheese, and left-over potato salad that Becky, a Hebrew U student, gave me. 

           

Things I want to post about soon:

Impressions of Jerusalem, how things are the same and different here

Religion in Jerusalem

What I have learned and experienced about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

The LDS branch in Jerusalem

Working in the lab, what do I actually do?

The high security level and safety here

Landscape and buildings; what does it look like here?

Israeli’s personality and dry humor

Daily life; my routine

Anything else you want me to share? Let me know!