Ultra Orthodox News

“All travel has its advantages.
If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own.
And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.”
- Samuel Johnson

To Blog or Not to Blog that is the question

As many of you know I'm new to this blogging world. It all started with with my trip to the Middle East. I was packed and ready to go with my brand new "real" camera and a heart full of optimism, promising my friends and family that I would capture the heart and soul of the area with not only my photos but also my stories. Many photos and weekend travels have made it onto my blog pages. But...the real, raw, heart wrenching and even published stories have failed to make the cut.

After spending some time here I've had my own internal struggle regarding whether to blog about certain subjects and experiences that I've had during my time here. I have spoken with a few friends and family members regarding this dilemma. There are many reasons why I have chosen to censor my blogging during this time in my life and would rather report back "off the record" so to speak. No, I have not been co-opted by the CIA or the Mossad.

Far from it in fact. I have seen and experienced so much first hand that it is all swirling around in my heart and mind. So when it comes time to express these thoughts and feelings I think of Jack Nicholson in a Few Good Men screaming at me "You can't handle the truth" and maybe I can't. Maybe I can't handle how much my views have changed, how far I've gone from where I started, what others might say or think if I share the "truth" my "truth" my story.

So being a new blogger I turned to my fellow bloggers for some direction. I can't tell you how many days I have spent, what I call, Blog Hopping. Almost more fun than the Bar Hopping of my college years. Definitely more enlightening. One certain Blog that I hopped upon had a very profound quote. A quote from Judith Barrington on the topic of writing a memoir. Now I'm not high on felafel, I KNOW my blog is nothing close to a memoir but something within it rang true. Something about her writing shook me to the bone and I saw my reflection in her words. Perhaps that's why she is an award winning writer and I'm only a struggling blogger. Perhaps but either way here are HER words of advice.

"To write honestly about our lives requires that we work at and refine our artistic skills so that our memoirs can effectively communicate the hard-won, deep layers of truth that are rarely part of conventional discourse. It requires, too, that we grapple with all the ethical questions that arise when we shun commonly accepted definition of loyalty: questions like "can I really tell that story or will it hurt my mother?" By demanding our "loyalty" in the form of silence, some of the people we are closest to have coerced us into collaborating with lies or with myths. We cannot, however, respond to this coercion by rushing into print. We must examine our responsibility as writers to those we write about, even while holding fast to our truths."

Judith Barrington, "Writing the Memoir"

Our Bedouin Adventures

PETRA JORDAN made my heart beat faster and jump with joy. From the first steps across the border to the nice driver and welcoming Bedouins I met at the rest stops, little shops and around the trail. It was a different vibe all together from Israel. And this weekend trip was just the change of speed I needed to remind myself that the world is big and full of beautifully constructed nature and in some places the goodwill runneth over from perfect strangers. My travel buddies and I had some fun and here are some of my favorite photos from the visit.
Driving to Petra I snapped a photo of this young Bedouin on a donkey with a small herd of goats.
As some may be asking, as I was when I arrived, what the heck is a Bedouin exactly? Well with a quick google search I found that The Bedouin are a nomadic group of mostly Muslim dessert dwelling tribes. They have strong honor codes and as I found out at one of the rest stops a long the way a history of folk music, dance and poetry.
At one of the rest stops I made friends with one of the young Bedouin guys who had a drum. I asked him to share some of his music while I drank my strong turkish coffee and waited for my friends. He happily obliged. When the guy beating the drum then turned to me and asked if I had any folk songs I thought for two seconds and with a laugh and a question in my voice said "La Cucaracha?". I looked around to my travel companions who had now gathered around and received a round of laughter and approval. Our new Bedouin friend signaled to me to start and he would follow. So I started in "la Cucaracha, La Cucaracha" after this first verse two then four then everyone from my group joined in and we were soon clapping and singing while our friend drummed. It was fun and we all piled back into the tour van and headed to our next destination.
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Our group walking around Petra
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Not sure if you can see this but the detail is amazing. You can even see the strap on his sandal.
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Photo of camels and amphitheater in the background. Petra is magnificent and jaw dropping but I think my camera gave the same amount of attention to these beautiful creatures. For everyone's sanity I edited down the camels to this photo.

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What do you see? Elephant?
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Walking in a narrow area toward the treasury. This is the most well preserved building in Petra and I think the most beautiful. Its hard to believe the Nabateans constructed Petra as thier capital around 100 BCE. Dang that's old.
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Posing in front of Al Khazneh aka: The Treasury.
Al Khazneh was originally built as a royal tomb. Its Arabic name Treasury derives from a legend that bandits or pirates (arrrggghhh) hid their loot in a stone urn high on the second level. Significant damage from bullets can be seen on the urn. Local lore attributes this to Bedouins who are said to have shot at the urn in hopes of breaking it open and spilling out the "treasure" within. Yup, its made of pure standstone. No booty to be found.
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There are many elaborate tombs to admire in aw in Petra but I decided to hike up to one of them and see what I could find inside. Its not as elaborate inside. But I still was able to take this beautiful photo.

Wait! How did this get in here?

Queen Rania of Jordan. You go girl!

prejudice

“Travel is fatal to
prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
-Mark Twain

the traveler

“There are no foreign lands.
It is the traveler only who is foreign.”

- Robert Louis Stevenson

another scary bus story

http://haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=801449&contrassID=19

the 19 bus adventure

Yeah I had a little bit of an adventure after work yesterday. I left around 5 and decided to take the 19 bus (my regular bus) but instead of going to the bus stop I usually go to (about 6 blocks away) I decided to try out the bus stop by my work (2 blocks away) and see where it took me. So here comes the 19 bus and I get on...then we go around and around and all over the dang city. It starts to turn from dusk to night and then we pull up to an area that looks like a hospital / mall/ I dont' know what and what's important to note about this place is that there is a check point. Now I'm worried because I have only gone through checkpoints when I've gone into the West Bank never IN Jerusalem. Anyway, so the bus stopped, the soldier gets on the bus, quick walk through and he gets off and we proceed into the enclosed area. We pull up to what looks like a bus station.
The bus pulls over, everyone gets off, and I walk up to the driver and ask if its going back downtown. I had no clue what was going on, where I was etc...because I knew that the central bus station is downtown...so the driver tells me to get off and that it was the last stop. Then mumbles something and points forward. So I get off and walk a bit around other buses all of which are unmanned. Once passed the empty buses I see another bus stop. I wait for the 19 and sure enough here it comes, I get on and sit and pray it heads back to the city.
It started going on the same route but back toward the city. I started to recognize the neighborhoods again and got almost home when an Arab bus pulls up to the Israeli bus and starts honking! Oh goodness seriously! The two bus drivers stop in the middle of the street, start talking, I have no clue what they are saying, its all in Hebrew. Then the Arab bus pulls up ahead of us after all the traffic started honking behind us. Our bus driver gets off and goes to talk to him. After about 5 min people start getting off the bus. I stay on with the majority and wait it out a bit longer.
I was close to home but NOT THAT CLOSE and it was night time, and I live in East Jerusalem where it's mixed between Arab and Jewish neighborhoods and lord knows I'd prob make a wrong turn although the one thing I have going for me is that I've been told that I look nothing like a Jew (whatever that may be). Most of the Jewish population stays out of the Arab neighborhoods out of fear for their safety. I have been in these Arab neighborhoods during the day, I have been on the Arab buses and have never felt afraid but now that it was dark I didn't think I wanted to push it. The first sign that you are in an arab neighborhood is when the signs cease to have all three languages (Hebrew, Arabic, English).
Moving on past all my wild thoughts, the bus driver finally gets back and continues to drive, no big deal not like any of us have anything else to do! geeez! Well I didn't but after what I had already been through I just wanted to get home. I have already spent the better part of two hours on this tour.
Alright so I made it home safe last night and was tired and happy to be back. But then, today I ran into one of my friends at the bus stop and we went to get some dinner together and she told me she just had the craziest adventure. Turns out she rode the 19 bus "just to see where it goes" too. I started laughing and told her I had just done the same thing the night before. We started laughing about how crazy we were to just ride it around like that. She agreed with me about how horrible it was to go all over town and she ended up at that same checkpoint too. Just another day in the Holy Land on the 19 bus.

Light

" There are two ways of spreading light - to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. " -Edith Wharton

Round Dos of the Old City

I was welcomed by The Man himself in what looked to be a very fine Persian Rug. Peace Jesus..
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Damascus Gate
Just inside the gate one can find the Arab bazaar and marketplace. Filled with many colors, blaring Arabic music and people moving quickly and with purpose. This may have been why I didn't stop to snap any photos. There was also a large IDF presence.

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Holy Sepulchre!
Look what we stumbled upon. I might have missed it since this looked just like any other unassuming small doorway until right before you walk through it.

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The main entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

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I thought this was a great photo showing the size of these doors. Everything inside this church seemed to be over the top.
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Once you walk in the doors this is what you see. To be honest it's all very overwhelming. The large mural in the background, the gold plated hanging candles and visitors kneeling down to touch, kiss, and even put food and drink on the The Stone of Anointing/Unction. It's believed to be the spot where Jesus' body was prepared for burial.

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The Mosaic found in the entrance depicts Christ's anointing for burial

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Tomb of Christ itself is enshrined in a large boxy shrine decorated with candles and gold leaf.

The shrine, referred to as the edicule, is supported by scaffolding on the outside due to earthquakes and is where many visitors light candles and pray. The guy below is blowing them out and removes them once it becomes full.

There are two small rooms inside the shrine. The first is the Greek Orthodox Chapel of the Angel, which features an altar containing a piece of the stone rolled away by angels at the Resurrection. A low door on the side leads to the tiny Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, which contains the tomb of Christ itself. This is the 14th Station of the Cross and the holiest site in Christendom. Here a marble slab covers the place where the body of Christ was laid and from which he rose from the dead. A vase with candles marks the spot where his head rested.

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The edicule is located in the rotunda. The dome is decorated with a 12-pointed star whose rays symbolize the outreach of the 12 apostles.
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Calvary
The Greek Orthodox Calvary, which contains the actual Rock of Calvary around which the church was built. The rock can be seen under glass on either side of the main altar, and beneath the altar there is a hole that allows you to touch the rock itself. I must note this was the most extravagant part of the church. I spent the most time here just looking at every detail. I enjoyed it very much and only wish this photo could do it justice. I suggest clicking on the image to enlarge it and see the detail.

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A stairway that descends to the large Chapel of St. Helena

On the stairway walls are many small crosses carved by medieval pilgrims. .
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The Catholicon is a Greek Orthodox cathedral with impressive thrones on each end. The lady on the bottom right of the photo was completely covered and was reading. She interested me 1st because she was behind the red velvet rope VIP style and 2nd because she was the first ultra religious female I had seen. Other than her, I had only seen different denominations of male monks, priests and patriarchs running around behind velvet ropes.

looking up while standing in the middle of the Catholion

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A little bit of symbolism and Irony. In the distance you can see the Wall being built by Israel to seperate and keep the Palestinians out of Israel and the Wall that is built around the Old city.