Kim Priore

Last night was awesome – we went into Jerusalem and saw the Temple Mount (although we didn’t get to go up because it was closed), the Wailing Wall, and my personal favorite, this archaeological park on the southern end of the Temple Mount where they’ve excavated back to the time of Christ.  Among the things they’ve uncovered are the steps leading up to the temple in the time of Jesus, so as Doug points out, while there are multiple places in Jerusalem where you can say maybe/probably Jesus might have walked here, this is one spot where we know for sure he would have climbed these steps on his way up to the temple.  SO COOL.  That was really moving.  After that, we went to pick up Doug’s friend Josh and his wife Lauren and went out for Armenian food.  And lemme tell ya, the Armenians know their way around a kitchen.  It was delish.  And it was v. fun hanging out with the Til-ton once again. 

This morning Shan and I went on a tour of the Deheisha Refugee Camp with an organization called Alternative Tourism Group.  It’s not what you would typically think of as a refugee camp – not like tents and stuff.  It’s more like being in the projects, really.  Apparently there were tents when the camp was first formed, in ‘48, then the UN built these small units, like 3 meters by 3 meters, and now there’s some bigger apartments.  But what started out as a camp of 700 people has grown in population to 11,000 – but not in dimension.  So the same space that held 700 now holds 11,000.  The kids are 3rd generation refugees.  It’s really sad.  I think the saddest thing to me was the graffiti and artwork depicting keys – keys are the symbol of the refugees because a lot of them still have the keys to the houses they were forced out of so many years ago.  We wound up the tour having coffee (eesh! Starbucks it ain’t) with our tour guide Ayman and talking politics for an hour or so. 

On a brighter note, this afternoon when Doug was done with school he took us down to the Elah Valley, better known as the spot where David fought Goliath.  Shan was kind enough to reenact the decisive moment in said battle for photographic purposes, with Doug reprising his oft-played role as Goliath.  It was fantastic.  But yeah, very cool, and again – much like the steps – one of those spots you kind of have to know about, there is no sign, no fanfare, nothing.  So it’s really thanks to my brother’s wealth of Bible knowledge that we were able to see that.

So that’s about all – my trip is more than half over, which is sad!  Still lots of fun stuff ahead of us on the weekend.  But I’m having a fantastic time, and I really enjoy the whole not going to work or school aspect of vacation.  Can’t say enough good things about that.  And of course the hanging out with Doug, Mandy, and Shan and eating yummy Middle Eastern Food and laughing a lot.  Also CNN International – soooo much better than the domestic.  Sheer heaven for an international news junkie. 

I think that’s it for now – peace out from BJ in the WB.