Today is Saturday, which means it’s Shabbat. On Friday nights, we have the Shabbat dinner and go through the Jewish ceremony to welcome the Sabbath. They really take it seriously here. Stores are closed. Buses don’t run. No one works. Perfect day for blogging. I’ll try to give you a quick update as to what’s been going on.
First, I would like to introduce you to my back yard.
This is the view I wake up to every morning. I heard my name being called the other day and walked outside to find camels strolling through. It took a lot of self control to refrain from running and jumping on one.
I’ve also been introduced to other wildlife in Israel. My team is convinced that I’m eventually going to get my face chewed off by a random creature I try to befriend. What can I say, animals love me and I Iove them.
We had the privilage of traveling to the Dead Sea the other day. It was one of the highlights of my life so far. I don’t say that lightly. I’ve always heard about how you can float in the Dead Sea. But this was incredible. You can’t even swim because you can’t get your legs far enough under the water. You’re walking on the bottom, then it gets too deep to touch…but nothing happens. You’re just suspended. Craziest thing.
After floating around and having every ounce of moisture sucked from our bodies thanks to the salt, we decided to go exploring. We found a hotel with a hot tub and took advantage of the opportunity. I’ll be honest, I felt a little spoiled. It was quite different from our day to day lives on the World Race.
After meeting back up with our driver, Sammy, we went to En Gedi. This is where David took refuge when he fled from King Saul.
This place was absolutely beautiful. It gave me a new view of the Psalms. I now see how David was so full of adoration when he wrote, even in the midst of persecution. Psalm 57 was written when he fled into the caves, so we took a little time at David’s Waterfall to read and take it all in.
It was an incredible place. We exited the park to wait for Sammy. Sammy never showed, but this wasn’t a big surprise. The agreement was that we would pay 35 shekels per person to get from the Dead Sea to En Gedi and back to our home in Arad. He wanted us to pay 25 upon arriving in En Gedi. We finally settled on 20 then, 15 later. The 15 later never came. After multiple failed hitchhiking attempts, we found a public bus. It was one of the best days I’ve had on the race so far.
Tomorrow we will be going to Jerusalem. Words can’t express how excited I am.
If it doesn’t fall through, I’ll be living in a Muslim village for the next week or so. I’ll close with another picture from En Gedi, as well as part of the psalm David wrote there. Enjoy.
“I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples,
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let your glory be over all the earth.”
Psalm 57:9-11
