Camels, tents, salt, and scrolls

Shalom,

We have had an eventful two days, but since I had no internet yesterday, today I am going to write about both at once.

Much of yesterday was spent on the bus, but still much happened. We started the day with a stop at Tel Azeka and looked over the area of the story of David and Goliath. It was a pretty place, but I was tired and my knee was sore and I was tired at looking at valleys, so it didn't really hold much interest for me.

The next place we went, was much more interesting, because it was a site of an actual archaeological dig. At Tel Maresha, there are many man-made caves, and we got to help with the excavation. Now, this site has been almost completely excavated by amateur volunteers, but still, some pretty amazing things are found (whole pottery, bones, coins, etc.). They find so many things that most of it is thrown away after they catalogue it. We went down into a man-made cave, where much excavation has already occurred, and were taught how to search. Each of us was given a pick and a flat spade-like tool. First, we firmly dug into the earth with the pick. Next, with the spade, we pick up the now loose dirt and sift it over a bucket, looking for artifacts. I didn't find anything, but some people did. All of us managed to get completely covered in dirt from sitting on the ground digging. After some time, we formed a bucket line and sent all the buckets of dirt to the surface, passing it from person to person. We had dug enough that I had 5-6 buckets that I had filled, and everybody else was the same. Once all the dirt was on the surface, we formed groups of three. In each group, two people held a wire sifter and one person poured dirt into it. Unfortunately, about 2 minutes in, I discovered that contacts were a VERY bad idea. It was windy and dirt was flying, so I ended up being so teared up and in pain that i couldn't open my eyes. With my luck, the bus had left. So, I was walked out of the wind and sat on a rock as everybody else sifted and found artifacts. Eventually my eyes cleared up, but they were still dry and going back to the dirt seemed like a bad idea. I was upset that I missed out on that, both because it was cool to be engaged in searching for artifacts and because I did not expect my eyes to be what kept me from doing something. I expected my knee or my asthma, but not my eyes. A few minutes later, my knee did stop me from doing something, but it was something that I would not have wanted to do anyway. The group went through a cave that has not been excavated. It was man-made, but that was over 2000 years ago, so it was small and very cave-like, and some awkward duck-walking and crawling was required. I stayed outside and took pictures of people going in and coming out. At the end of the experience, he let us take pot shards with us. These are Hellenistic pot shards, so they are about 2200 years old, and I get to take some home. I will have something truly ancient on my shelf, and that is cool. I could not believe that I was holding ancient artifacts, and now I own them. Wow.

After that, we headed to a Bedouin Ranch, where we were to spend the night. The first thing we did was take a camel ride. We rode two people per camel, and about 5 camels were tied together in a line. Before we started, the man in charge was cautioning us not to touch the camels' heads because they might bite. Be very careful, because we don't want you to get bitten. Then he says, but don't worry because nobody has ever been bitten here before. It was funny because he kept switching between the two extremes. Once we were on the camels, they stood up back feet first, so we were leaning forward as they stood up very quickly. The ride itself was fun, but very very bumpy. We went through the desert, up and down sand dunes rocking on the backs of camels. At one point we passed the bones of a dead camel, which was QUITE pleasant to see and smell, let me tell you. My camel, who we named Bob Ahmed, was very friendly with the people in front of us and apparently wanted to be at the front of the line. He kept walking up beside the camel in front of us, and even bumping the people on the camel's back. We were glad for the camel ride, but also very glad to get off.

We next went into a tent to learn about the Bedouin people. Our tour guide translated what one of the Bedouin was saying to us. As the man talked, we were first given a cup of tea then a cup of coffee with very little coffee in it. As it was, both cups were very small, perhaps a quarter or third of the size of a normal coffee cup. What the Bedouin man had to say was very interesting. He told us how they are a very hospitable people and the proper protocol for a visitor to stay in the tent. Apparently, if it is time for the visitor to leave, the Bedouin will fill the coffee cup to the brim instead of a few sips. The Bedouin may have up to 4 wives, and this is a kindness to the wives, so they have less work. They are typically nomads and herders, and they are a very secluded people, only marrying other Bedouins. He told us quite a bit more, but you can google it as easily as I can write it. After the talk, we had dinner.

Dinner was at tables about a foot and a half off the ground, and we reclined on cushions to eat. It was a lot of fun, though a few of us could only think of it as Roman style, not Bedouin. The food was fantastic, consisting of fresh pitta bread, meatballs, some kind of poultry, veggies, and more tea. We all ate until we were satisfied, and continuously exclaimed at the amazing food. I wish I could eat that way everyday, but then, if I was Bedouin, I would be the one to cook it. I do have funny story with dinner however. Drinks for dinner was juice in large glass pitchers (not really pitchers, but I don't know what else to call them). Jakob looked at them at some point during the meal and said "They use these for kitty and dog litter." We, at our table, just looked at him and said "What? I don't think so, Jakob." He insisted, "yes they do." We asked why he thought that, and he pointed at the pitcher, getting a little upset because nobody believed him, and said "It says litter on it." We looked, it said liter, and we all rolled on the floor laughing (literally, because we were already reclining on the floor).

After dinner, we went to our tent. It was a very large tent with pallets laid out and one light for the entire tent. On the pallets were thin sleeping bags. The pallets themselves were very thin, and I had a hard time sleeping that night. Apparently, I did fall asleep, however, because when they turned on the light at 4:45 in the morning to wake us, I heard stories of a gigantic porcupine that came into the tent during the night. Apparently it woke Professor Arnold, who was sleeping near the door, and he pointed a flashlight at it. It retreated from the light, after lifting its quills threateningly. Prof. Arnold said that he didn't know what he would have done if the light hadn't worked. It was the only thing he could think of to do without waking the other 25 of us sleeping in the tent.

As I said, we woke at 4:45 so we could hike up to Masada for the sunrise. Before we left the Bedouins, we had some tea and biscuits, then we were on our way. The bus dropped us at the bottom of the Roman ramp, which we walked up to get to the top of the mountain. There was not easier way up, so it was not pleasant for my knee. In fact, it was hard, but I did manage to get up with only some soreness and two slips. We then went to watch for the sunrise. When it did finally come, the promised beauty was not there. Clouds were there instead. I must say, the sunrise was a bit anticlimactic. We then proceeded to walk all over Masada, including up and down tons of stairs, and by the end my knee was truly hurting and I was lifting myself up stairs by the railings. Masada itself was cool, but I think I missed out on how cool because I was preoccupied with my knee, or it could be that I am getting tired of ruins. We'll see which it is as the week finishes up. To get down Masada, most of the class went down the Snake Path, but 5 of us rode the cable car. I heard later that I never could have done the snake path, so I made the right choice with the cable car. When we landed, we had to walk through some deseart around a building to a hostel so we could have breakfast.

After breakfast, the day got enormously better. We went to the Dead Sea, where almost all of us got into swim suits and got in. It was very cold at first, but we discovered, as we got deeper, that you could recline in the water and stay afloat. You could even stand vertically on nothing without treading water and you would float at upper chest level. The water felt thick, so it was hard to move around in, but we did it anyway. You could go pretty far out in the sea, because it was impossible to sink. I had been told a few days ago that it would make my knee feel better, so I was hoping for that when my knee was hurting this morning, but I didn't believe it. It actually did help quite a lot. I could move around without pain, and I stayed in there for over an hour. Since I left, I have had no pain and almost no aching. I wish I could spend every day going in and out of the Dead Sea, because my knee would almost never hurt.

After the Dead Sea, we went to Qumran, the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. As we waited at the gate, it was funny because Prof. Arnold was quite literally bouncing in anticipation. When he sat, he couldn't sit still because he was so excited. He has spent a lot of time studying the Dead Sea Scrolls, and did his dissertation on them, so he was very very excited to see Qumran. We were chatting before we went into the introductory movie. Every movie we have see in Israel has promoted Zionism and stressed that Judaism has been there pretty much forever. We were trying to figure out how they would do this with Qumran, since it didn't really fit. They actually did not do it, but instead went rather crazy. Sometime during the movie they started talking about how John the Baptist had gone there and learned and left just before he was initiated. I was sitting there in shock, then I looked over at Prof. Arnold who was either laughing very hard or writhing in pain. It was terrible, because there is no good evidence for that. Later Prof. Arnold told us why some people say that, and it is all pretty sketchy and could be applied to pretty much any community. So, the movie was terrible, but the site was really quite amazing. We coulding walk on all the wood bridges set up for visitors, since they were being repared, and so there was only one entrance to the site. We explored that, quickly, and saw the city (town? settlement?). I saw things there that I have only seen pictures of, which was also true for Prof. Arnold and everybody else. It was cool to look up at the caves and imagine how people would have gotten up there.I don't know that the city was as cool for me as the caves, though. Those caves are something new. They are not another set of ruins but instead are where so many ancient scrolls have been found. Now, I just want to see the Isaiah scroll that came out pretty much whole, and it will be complete for me. We did get a little rushed through the city and didn't get to see everything, just to end up back at the hotel by 5, which seems silly to me.

All in all, it has been a good couple of days, and a more relaxing couple of days than we have had on this trip. We relaxed with the Bedouins and relaxed in the Dead Sea. We have spent a lot of time on the bus, so we haven't seen as much in such a short amount of time, which makes it easier to digest. It was a good time in the trip to slow down, so tomorrow we can pick the pace back up.

L'hitraot chaverim, see you later friends.