June 27, 2007

Travis' blog

Oh my was today hot!!! (Turns out that it got up to 109 degrees. But we didn't know that until much later.) We started off with our next photo shoot at the Garden Tomb. They wouldn't let us in at sunrise as we had hoped, but after some careful reading and discussing of the scripture, we figured that Christ talking to Mary Magdeline could easily have happened hours after sunrise. So we decided to take it for what it was worth and showed up when the Garden Tomb opened at 9 am. The first ones there, we took full advantage of the quiet, tourist-less tomb and started setting up. Who knew that at 9 am the sun could be so brutal? Especially wrapped up in muslin cloth as I was? ~sigh... what I don't do for that boy. :) With the help of a nice volunteer there named Rory, who loved Travis' camera, we were able to take the picture. We ended up staying there until about noon. (We had to pause a couple of times in order for a tour group to pass through.) On our way back, we stopped, yet again, at Aladdin's. I'm realizing that it's a lot more expensive when you have to pay for food and board every day. (Ok, I paid for that with the Center, but it was in all one lump sum at the beginning, so I've forgotten about it. :D)

Upon returning to the hospice, Travis changed film, and I fell asleep. When we finally left, we stopped at the top of the hospice to fill up the water bottle and pay off our bill. While Travis was in doing that, I just sat and listened to three Muslim women talking to a guy staying here. One of them had on the full headdress and at one point, turned and, noticing me eavesdropping (they were rather loud, for the record... and right next to me) commented on how beautiful I was. (awww...) Then searched for the word to describe herself. "You are beautiful, I am... what is the word?" I assumed she was looking for 'ugly' but since I didn't agree with the description, I didn't volunteer the word. Finally, the guy figured out what she was looking for and supplied the word for her. Upon which, I promptly disagreed and told her that she was also beautiful. By then, Travis finished, so we left.

We continued our quest of seeing all of the Via Dolorosa stations open, so upon finding yet another one open that we hadn't seen before (#5) we went in. Then stopped at the Internet cafe, then found Station 7 open as well. (We're not sure how we missed #6...) On our way towards Jaffa gate, we happened to see a BYU pennant for sale at one of the shops. Stopping to take a picture, a tourist sitting behind us started talking to us. Travis explained that he had gone to BYU, hence why he was taking a picture of the pennant. Then the merchant asked if we were Mormon, we said yes, then the guy asked where we were from, we said Utah, but that we had grown up in Idaho. Upon confirming that we were still Mormon after moving away from our parents, he asked what we believed about being born again. Then the merchant piped in with, "They're not Christian, they're Mormon!" We laughed, but then told him we were, in fact, Christian as well, which the merchant didn't believe. But we tried to answer his question anyway. Travis explained that we believed in being born again, though not in the same way. That we had to firmly believe in Christ in order to get to heaven. Apparently we had misunderstood him, so he clarified. "After you moved away from your parents, you were still Mormon? I had a defining experience in my life that confirmed my Christianity." So Travis explained that we also believed that you couldn't ride your parents' testimonies. You have to gain your own in order to make it to heaven. He was satisfied, and we probably said more about religion than we should have, so we left.

For lunch we found this really good little cafe just outside of Jaffa gate that served sandwiches that were rather tasty. My favorite, however, was the bottom of the menu—"Service not included." Haha! After lunch we went to Mazada tours again to pay off our bill there. Then, considering the heat and the time, we decided to skip the rampart walk that we had been planning, and went to Hezekiah's tunnel instead. Travis had let me wear a pair of his pants that zipped off into shorts for the tunnel. (Calm down mom... it was simply so our pants didn't get wet. We are not vile sinners.) So, entering the tunnel, the bottom part of the legs came off and went into the camelbak. Let me tell you, it was much nicer to only have a little strip of shorts wet than more than half of the legs of your jeans. Halfway through the tunnel, when the water was rather low (only to the tops of our feet), Travis decided to be brave and take a picture. Needing lots more light and a long exposure, he set up his mini-tripod and we used our headlamps to light the tunnel for the exposure. Including having Trav walk down the tunnel shining his light on every surface he could find. It was rather entertaining. And we did it several times.

At the end of the tunnel is a little gift shop run by a man named Abraham. (I'm supposed to give a plug for his shop, so here it is.) While there, we discovered that he also had widow's mites and is a sweet talker. Oh, and he provides certificates of authentication for his goods. One widow's mite, one Roman coin, and a promise to come back and photograph a silver dinar later... we continued on our way. In trying to decide how to get to the real pool of Siloam, we unintentionally enlisted the guidance of two boys. One was 12, one was 9. They were experienced in their touring and was sure to tell us what was Roman and what was Byzantine and that the running water we saw was from Hezekiah's tunnel. It was rather cute, so I didn't mind giving them 3 shekels at the end, although I'm pretty sure they expected more and weren't incredibly happy about it. Along the way, the security guard for the end showed up and was laughing about the boys helping us. At one point, he tapped me on the shoulder and started mouthing something like, "Blah, blah, blah" ... or ... yapping... (hard to describe in writing...) and pointing to the boys. It made me laugh. We finally made it out, while discovering a way that we hoped would take us back to the shop w/o having to pay for the tunnel again.

On our way home, we decided to try going through the Palestinian cemetery. The gate was wide open, so we just crossed our fingers that we wouldn't get in trouble. It seemed legal enough, though. It provided some great views at Travis' favorite time of day with beautiful light, so we walked slowly through to get the pictures he wanted. By the time we got to the Old City, we feared finding dinner in time, so we headed straight to the pizza place down the way, this time ordering mixed grill. This was unlike any mixed grill I've ever had here. Instead of being, well, mixed, it was a patty of lamb, some cubes of chicken, and several typical salads. Oh, and french fries. We also decided to try lemonade with mint. I was a little skeptical, but took courage from Travis' daring and decided to try it myself. I'm glad I did, because it was delicious. We're going serve that at Christmas dinner. :) In fact, I started writing down a menu for Christmas dinner. Oddly enough, Travis, the one who really wanted to try it, only thought it was ok while I, the skeptical one, loved it. Then... it was back to the hospice and bed.