Ma as-salaamah Nablus

The office

Sharia An-Najah Al-Qadim, where I lived and worked.

Jacob's Well. Jacob, son of Isaac and Rebekah, is the ancestor of the tribes of Israel and most religions associate this well with him. This is supposed to be the well where Jesus asked the Samaritan woman to give him water.

Fadi

My Askar regugee camp class threw me a pretty amazing party with food and presents. These are some of my girls.

The crazy boys.

Fadi, on the far left, standing like the disciplinarian he necessarily was during classes.

The poor turkey they slaughtered for me on Thanksgiving. We are taking a break on our walk to the oven shop.

At a Ceili (pronounced like Kaylig or Kaylee or something. I have trouble understanding those Scots and Irishmen.): traditional Gaelic line dance. Way fun; I don't know why we don't have its equivalent in America.

Not-so-clean Nablus and the posters of martyrs found all over the city.

Bombed void where a soap factory used to be; on my route home from classes.

My falafel place and falafel man. Mmmmm.

So many emaciated and skittish kitties.

With hills comes stairs. So many stairs.

That's my apartment up there!

Sad that it's the last time I'll enter the volunteers' apartment.

But excited to go home for Christmas!!

Masada and Jerusalem

Warning: more background info than usual. Feel free to skim.

Masada

After Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 AD, the Great Revolt ended. Masada, inhabited by Zealots who had earlier fled Jerusalem, was the last city to hold out against Rome, surviving another 3 years.

This city was really, really high up and not exactly conducive to agriculture so they stored food in these huge rooms.

Remains of Herod's palace. He fortified Masada in the 30's BC in case of a revolt.

The Romans spent months building this ramp by which they breached the city wall. When they entered the fortress, they found the 960 inhabitants had burned the city and committed mass suicide. Because Judaism strongly discourages suicide, they drew lots and killed each other in turns.

This picture must have been taken long after I'd finished climbing the mountain. I look far too spirited.

Jerusalem. Again.

Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of 972 documents, including texts from the Bible. The section above is all of Isaiah.

Room of the Last Supper. I apologize for the fuzziness but I didn't have time to adjust my camera settings before a pack of Asian tourists swarmed the room with cameras ablaze.

City of David

This underground tunnel in the City of David leads to the Pool of Siloam (where Jesus sent the man who had been blind from birth). It's at the end of Hezekiah's tunnel, which was built in 701 BC and used by citizens of Jerusalem to safely obtain water. I was mentally prepared to brave the tunnel but chickened out; it was really dark and my only source of light was an Ipod flashlight app.

Pansy route out of the tunnel.

Jerusalem Archaeological Park

Ancient temple steps, leading up to the wall of the Old City of Jerusalem

Remnants of Jerusalem's main street, running the length of the West Wall along about one kilometer, in the late Second Temple period (like when Jesus was there).

Collapsed on the paved streets are stones of the wall of the Temple Mount enclosure. They were hurled down by soldiers of the Roman legion after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

Nerdily thrilled to be exploring underground excavations.

Mount of Olives

Jewish Cemetery

Church of Mary's Tomb

Garden of Gethsemane

Riding Buses in His Footsteps

The Galilee and Bethlehem

Mount of Beatitudes

Where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. I loved it once I wandered away from the church and people and hiked down the mount, stopping along the way to read Matthew 5 on my Ipod.

Walking from Mount of Beatitudes to Capernaum

Kafernahum

Some remains of Apostle Peter's house

A synagogue built in the 3rd century A.D. on the location of the synagogue of Christ's time.

Nazareth

Bethlehem

Some lady kissing the place where Jesus was born. That is, she was kissing the floor of one of the two shrines in the cave where Jesus maybe was born. Not the most spiritual experience for me. Lots of people crowding and taking pictures and a priest agitatedly telling us to quickly exit before the service starts.

The city of Bethlehem

By the barrier wall

My camera died right after this and I regret a picture not taken. More graffiti on the Wall, in big green and red letters it said, "Merry Christmas World. From, the Bethlehem Ghetto." Leaving the isolated tourist area of Bethlehem, the city is rundown, dirty, and depressing along the border of the Wall.