It’s a Small World

I’m writing this a day late as we wait in a long checkpoint line to get into Jericho. All we want to do is quick buy some fruit, but it is what it is. It’s the first time that we’ve actually been delayed by the Police, so we’re not complaining.

The girls arrived in spite of last minute flight diversions through Warsaw, of all places. They landed in the wee hours and we let them sleep a little before subjecting them to real life with us. Packing all our luggage into the Kia is quite amazing, and we had a fairly interested audience as we did it.

Our goal today was to discover what the Addulum Grove Nature Reserve had to offer. It’s in the general area of where David fought Goliath, Samson hung out, and where David hid from Saul part time. It’s a mountainous area with lots of caves, trees, and wild flowers. Sheep and Shepherds roam around, and it’s very peaceful. The poppies were a riot of color on the hills, and we were open mouthed with wonder. I’ve never seen anything like that here before, and that’s saying a lot.

The main attraction here, besides the flowers, are the many tunnels and caves and tombs that you can crawl around in. Some of them were used by Jews during the Bar Kokhba revolt in AD 132. Apparently some of the tombs still have bones in them and to add to the thrill, it’s also a very snakey region. It’s spring, so the snakes aren’t supposed to be out and about yet, but the lizards certainly were so… can’t be too watchful.

And so, armed with our headlamps, one bright and one almost dead, we started to explore. We’d slip down muddy slopes and stairs into the caves and go from there. At first we were a little surprised by the tiny openings that were “the way”, but we quickly got into the spirit of things. Forever imprinted on my mind will be the dark shadows of swaying bums in front of me, as the owners crawled on hands and knees down long, dark, squishy passages. The twists and turns sometimes required some real gymnastics, and to add to the joy were occasional mud puddles. It would be an absolute no go if you were at all overweight or claustrophobic. I had a tiny daypack on my back that I had to remove and sort of shove and shuffle it along in front of me. It was a total blast. Even if we never did find the bones. Not for lack of searching! We spent hours there. The weather was perfect, the birds noisy, and we were filthy. Absolutely filthy. It was quite an introduction to the Holy Lands for our girls!

We dragged our mud covered bodies back to Jerusalem in time for supper, and then found our next apartment. It’s right in the Old City, so we feel extremely special. The power was out on the Old City streets for some reason, so it was kind of amazing trying to traverse the place after dark. Little flashlights bobbed around, motorbikes would rip past and shop keepers mostly just gave up and closed shop. It was a “Dark Market” as one guy theatrically said as we went by. He made it sound very spooky and it gave us a good laugh.

And now about the situation. I was extremely wrathful this morning when I read the news. There are flat lies in there. One reporter said that the Old City was a ghost town, they didn’t let any muslims in, no one could go on Temple Mt., everyone was searched coming in… Another reporter claimed Damascus gate had a checkpoint and Jews could walk right past but no one else could, blah blah blah, total hogwash. Like total. There was even a video of the checkpoint, but we exited the gate at the time of the video posting and there was nothing of the sort going on. Yes, we did see one group getting checked once, but that’s it. The police in the city are laughing and relaxed, scores of Muslims go onto Temple Mount, we just don’t know what to say. Yes, there’s definitely a war and a lot of people are hurting. But. What IS the truth? And why are the journalists making this stuff up? It’s so inciting. It seems the only way to live happily is to embrace what is around you. The cheerful Arab kids that gift you Coke and one falafel, the funny merchants, the scenery and the bird songs. Let the rest go.