Sick in the Holy Land

I don't know if I already wrote about this but we went on an awesome field trip last Monday to a lot of different sites to learn about the geography of Jerusalem and its surrounding areas. I took a ton of pictures that I will put up later but this is a picture of the chapel in the Augusta Victoria Lutheran Church of the Ascension that is just near us on the Mt. of Olives.

Of course, I would get sick the first week here...

After a few days of allergies, I caught what I thought was a cold. It ends up that I have pneumonia but I was put on some antibiotics really quickly and am in the process of recovering. Unfortunately this means that I haven't been able to do a lot of exploring in the city in quite a few days which, in turn, means that I have very little to write about.

Today is the Sabbath and last night we went as a group to the Western Wall to welcome in the Sabbath at sundown. I have never seen a group of people so happy to welcome in the Sabbath day. While many were praying up near the wall, others were singing and dancing in circles with their arms around each other. There were so many military men/women, each on their respective side joining in the festivities. The women's side is about 1/3 the size of the men's side, both were equally crowded.

Because I was sick I got to ride with security over there instead of walking. The drivers are crazy here! I have been in one taxi and a few buses/vans but we were cruisin! And they use the horn like it's goin out of style!

I found out today that our branch consists of a lot of members who live in the West Bank and can't make it through the Separation Wall to come to church with us. This is such a foreign concept to me, oppression and constraints on travel and worship. We can't talk to anyone about the church and this is supposedly the only church building where visitors aren't welcome.

Nyquil PM is my new best friend. Pita bread with the sweet sesame butter spread that they have in the Oasis here is my new favorite food....yes, this beat out my love of ice cream, as crazy as that seems.

We leave for Turkey in one week!!!!! Bon Voyage my friends