First Visit To The Old City!

Today started out extremely early with the prayer call at 3:20 then again at 3:55. It's beautiful, but a very different kind of beautiful. It's always a man chanting and its in a lot of minor keys. I still have to figure out if there is some order to the notes, but I will be grateful for when Ramadan is over so we won't be awakened too early. After the prayer call it was day time for my body so I hopped up and got ready! My blow dryer blew up and scared the heck out of me but the women over here have you use blow dryers right? I'll grab one tomorrow. Following that I was early for breakfast and sat on the Oasis(our cafeteria) balcony reading the scriptures and watching the sunrise. It was an amazing experience... there were roosters crowing all over the valley, something was magical about it. The air was heavy with humidity and it was so peaceful watching the billowing clouds and the sun peaking through it.

Following breakfast we got instruction, got in groups of seven and walked to the Old City for the first time today... Wow, so different than what I ever imagined. It's beautiful. The walk there was a fight for your life. The traffic here is CRAZY! There are "speed limits" but no one keeps them and we're on a hill so buses and cars zoomin' by while we make the trek through narrow streets. We got to the walled city and it was HUGE! There are certain places we aren't allowed in and we were warned again and again by Brother Jackson to be weary of the pick- pocketers and they were everywhere! Those little bandits are not getting any of my belonging! Brother Jackson is over the students here and we were so blessed to have him as our guide! He lead us to so so many cool streets, Roman catholic Hostle/worship area. We could walk up to the roof and over look the whole town. It was breath taking. We'll go up there again and i'll post pictures. As we looked over the town we could see the three places that the Christian, Jewish, and Muslims believe to be the most holy place in the world... all within a block! It was amazing.
Then we continued to the place where it is believed that Christ was crucified, was whipped and where his body was laid. Brother Jackson told us that for us, such as the sacred grove, we like to keep things like they were back when the event happened, but these people like to build big churches over the area to honor the event. It was a good explanation to me because if not I may have been offended for the elegance and manner they portrayed this sacred event, but it makes sense. It was interesting though because three different religions; the Greek orthodox, Ethiopian, and Roman Catholics all are fighting over this room that they believe he was crucified and can't get along so this middle area they have three different parts to the church for every religious group. The middle building was falling apart, but they can't agree on who to fix it so they just braced it with metal rods. We could even hear the wood creaking standing there. Outside on the roof top the Ethiopian.. forgive me i can't remember what they are called, but they built their "memorial" right of top of the roof! There was a tree there that was believed by these people where the ram was found in the thicket for Abraham to sacrifice instead of Isaac. We wondered through the cities that were filled with vendors and eventually to the West side of Jerusalem.
It was a night and day change. It's as if we fast forwarded into time thousands of years. It's much more modern and they have more money.. I'll explain one time why when i fully understand it. It was a busy, exhausting day, but completely worth it. I can't wait until this city will be like the back of my hand!
We came back and had more orientation and get to know you games. What a blast. I love the people here. They're so wonderful. We made bets on who is going to get married after the program and i'm excited to see what happens.
I have lots of homework to do before 5 tomorrow morning so i better say "Shalom!"