Lowest Point of our Lives

As all y'all should remember this was the weekend we were allowed to escape the poverty, overwhelming cold, and slight boredom that we had been experiencing in Nablus for the past 3 weeks.

We are absolutely amazed that we've only been here for three weeks. It seems much longer than that.

So on Thursday we visited Tel Aviv and saw Jerusalem (the old city) from afar. It was a miserable cold and rainy day so doing much outside of the car was not an option. We drove up the Mount of Olives where swell saw her first olive tree and she wept at the beauty and yumminess of it's bounty.

Following our rainy drive we were taken to Jerusalem Mall where we wandered around for a couple of hours and Swell was able to pick up a few "necessities" mugs, a milk frother, a pillow and other things. The mall was a mall.

Driving into Tel Aviv and parts of Jerusalem is like driving into Anytown, USA and visiting the mall was like visiting Anytown Shopping Center in the USA - except I felt for some reason that that the Jerusalem Mall attracted slightly sluttier customers. Perhaps I've been out of the USA for too long and I'm short changing the plethora of slutty dressers there. My apologies if I've under-remembered the sluttiness of the USA.

Anyway our first day of freedom was fun but not all that exciting. It was wet and cold but nice to see new things. Our next day promised to be fun filled but we were unexpectedly hit with the lowest point we will probably ever experience.

We were picked up by a very nice driver and taken toward the Dead Sea. Our first stop was to be Masada - a very cool old fortress that was the last stand for the Israeli's when they were conquered by Rome. There were a great many relics of rooms and baths. They showed were the wall was breached by the Romans. It was just neat to see a part of Israel of which I was unaware. It was also neat to see the Dead Sea from atop the Masada mountain and looking across the sea and through the haze we could see Jordan.

It was on our drive to Masada that we reached what will probably be our lowest point.

That's right we drove right through the lowest point on Earth. It was great. We were further below sea level than one can be without getting wet.

It was kind of cool.

When we reached Masada we took a cable car up to the top and looked around for an hour or so.

After that we hopped back in the car and stopped at the dead sea. It was cold and both Swell and I were sans bathing suit so we just looked at the sea and Swell looked for rocks. I was happy that by not going in the water I can continue my great quest. Not many people have a quest like mine. It is my life goal to get as close to as many bodies of water as possible without actually getting wet. So far I'm doing alright. The Pacific ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean, Dead sea and countless lakes and rivers. I should keep better track. It would make for an impressive conversation.

Following the Dead Sea we went to Jericho. After a very long and annoying wait at the Jericho check point (Jericho is Palestine, we were in Israel) we finally made it into Jericho and went to the Mountain were Christ fasted for 40 days and was tempted. I found it ironic that at the top of this cable car where Jesus himself fasted for 40 days the main attraction is... of course... a restaurant. We sat and ate and looked out over Jericho and talked to our driver about how hard it is for him to enjoy himself when he knows that below us lay a city - the oldest city in the world - that is being absolutely destroyed by the Israelis. Tour buses no longer go into Jericho as there is now a ring road around the city. The checkpoints make it difficult to get in. Israel does not allow produce grown in the lush Jericho valley to be sold outside of its borders. Jericho went from having a vast economy to the poorest city in the West Bank all due to the actions of a foreign country on the transit of goods and people. No employment, bombed out buildings, rude checkpoint guards who closed the checkpoint for 20 minutes or so while we were there - just because. It was disgusting, educational, but at the same time enjoyable.

We have been told more than once this weekend about a lack of respect shown to Arab people. About being treated like animals instead of people. Being talked down to instead of being spoken to.

We were soon too experience the life of a Palestinian, the humiliation, the distrust just because you don't carry an Israeli passport, the Israelis would soon steal our time, and create in us a sense of anger that was not there to being with. All because we were to pick up a friend from the airport and our driver had dark skin.

I'll write more about that tomorrow after I reflect on it a bit more.

I'll leave you with the fact that the people talk about the ungodly winters in Winnipeg everywhere - even in Israel and you may overhear people talk about how no living thing should be able to survive the harsh hinterland that is Manitoba. I listened with glee and thought to myself: "Canadians are hardy folk with nary a complaint about the weather. Rather than complain about how cold it is they just go to the local 7-11 or Macs store and get a slurpee. Drinking the frosty drink with the winter wind howling around them. Not a care in the world. I, for one, am proud to be a Canadian."

I'll also leave you with the question: Have you ever heard "Happy Birthday" sung in such a way that you were in awe of the singing and the whole restaurant would gasp in unison at the beauty of 12-15 men singing happy birthday in Spanish? We have. A group of priests were dining in our hotel restaurant and we were truly in awe of the beauty of them singing happy birthday. It sounded like a group of monks chanting a beautiful prayer. Amazing.