We left our hotel after three nights there for the River Jordan. The lake, Sea of Galille, is part of the river, so we did not have to travel far. We stopped at a tourist spot where the water is still clean an one can go down to the water to renew baptismal promises and be in the water in which Jesus was baptized. We pretended to go through the ceremony again while the fish nibbled in our feet. It is a strange feeling at first to have fish do that with many screams when they first felt the fish. After a while you get used to it.
The strangest part was watching a group of Portuguese pilgrims in the group adjacent to us baptizing themselves with Protestant style baptismal gowns. The Portuguese speakers from around the world tend to be very Catholic, but here was a group re-baptizing and to themselves, neither one of which is correct. There is one baptism (according to Paul) and one cannot baptized one's self. Oh well.
We next traveled down the road to the Valley of the Kings, which is the lowest spot on te face of the earth. Around us, the change was dramatic as instead of the fertile valley around the lake, we were in the middle of the desert. Tony shared that there are a people that live there, the Harwani, who have octagonal shape blood cells (the only ones in the world), and, because of that, they are immune to mosquito bites. They can easily go into a swamp with no fear of being bitten as the mosquitos leave them alone.
We arrived at the city of Jericho, the most ancient city on earth. We passed the ruins of the old, cursed site where te original city was and headed into the newer part. The newer Jericho is a city of 25,000, but only 250 are Christian. We had mass at what is the smallest parish in the Middle East , which serves those 250. It was a humble parish, but did have a school that serves children in the town in spite o religious background. They have to hide an image of the Blessed Mother inside of a glass case, since the Muslim children are taught to put gum on it to disrespect it.
On our way out of town, we passed the site of the sycamore tree that Zacchaeus climbed to get our Lord's attention. There is still a sycamore tree, but will be the last because of the amount of water to maintain it. It is located on the property of a museum paid for by the Russian government and Vladimir Putin. It was strange to see Russian investment in such a site.
The city of Jericho is an oasis in the desert, but the mountain immediately adjacent to it is the driest one that I have ever seen. It is the desert mountain that biblical experts claim was where Jesus retired to be tempted, as the temptation would be stronger by still be able to see the oasis below. The are Greek Orthodox monasteries in the caves on the side of the wall, as there were earlier Byzantine monasteries there since the fifth century.
Our travels continued to the city of Bethany. Betania means house of the ill. It is thought that those unclean and ill people from Jerusalem were sent there to be isolated from the rest. It is a very dirty city as it falls under no governmental authority. There were massive piles of garbage and plenty of commerce filling the streets. Maria said that it reminded her of the streets of Tijuana.
The city contains the house of Martha and Mary and the tomb of Lazarus. The tomb itself is now within a mosque as during the Persian take over, a mosque was built over the tomb, since he is seen as a prophet. The construction was poor, so the roof has collapsed on top of the tomb. The Muslims have created a Muslim style tomb now and charge Christian pilgrims a fee to enter in order to raise funds to enlarge their mosque. They have allowed the archaeologists to excavate only one meter into the original tomb, which sits under the wall separating the church and the tomb. It is sad to see so many mosque right next to churches, as a way to prostylecize.
The original church over the house of Mary and Martha was quite beautiful with one of the most expensive tabernacles in the world as it is built from a green rock that is only found in this area. We listened to the story of the story of the raising of Lazarus and were going to pray in the church, but another group was coming in for mass. We had to conform ourselves with parter outside. I found a dark chapel with a couple of others and prayed for a good 20 minutes, while the others (including Maria) took a camel ride and took pictures of the gardens. I will try to get Maria to send me te picture of her on the camel before I post this entry.
Our next stop was the Christian cooperative that supports the Palestinian Christians. It combines 72 local merchants who work to keep their faith in the holy land by hand making products for sale. They have better quality, cheaper prices, and offer life time guarantees in addition to being made locally instead of the made in China products that are sold elsewhere. The more I have listened to Tony share of the struggles if the Christians there (we never hear anything about them), the more tempted I am to see if we can do something to support them somehow from Modesto. We all helped a little by purchasing quite a bit while there, but it doesn't seem enough. Some of us actually bought so much that we might have to donate some of or clothing to be able to fit what we purchased.
We ended the day by driving to our hotel, which is actually the Pontifical Institute and part of the Vatican. It actually looks like a castle with a view over the Old City of Jerusalem. The rooms and the food arent as nice as the last hotel, but the hotel is much more majestic, and it only houses pilgrims! I went by the chapel expecting to see a small room with a tabernacle and a crucifix. What I found was a massive church with rock walls, high ceilings and space for at least a couple hundred people. What a chapel! The rooms did not but the cafe had a large screen tv, so at least I did not have to go hunting for a place to watch the World Cup.
Tomorrow we head for the western wall, the Dead Sea and the Garden of Getsemane.