jericho and the west bank

hi friends! 

for our field trip this monday we had our first trip into the west bank. we will go there a total of three times while we are here in the holy land. 

all of our trips to the west bank have to be ok'd by the first presidency. when i was signing my papers to come here to jerusalem, i had to go to notary to have two witnesses see my sign my life away as i acknowledged the dangers of traveling to the area surrounding the west bank, gaza strip, and golan heights. it's kind of funny that the faculty here act like it's not really a big deal and such a hassle that we can't go there more often... in my opinion, better safe than sorry! 

it literally only took about 30 minutes to get to the west bank. there is no designated border (or at least not that i noticed..) the only thing that really signified it was a lack of israeli flags, and suddenly everything was in just arabic, and not hebrew. the style of the advertisements were a little different, too. the quality was the same, but you could tell there was something different. 

as we traveled we saw a lot of bedouan shanties along the highway as well as some camels just roaming the desert. it is crazy how quickly the landscape changes here once you get out of jeru and head towards the 'wilderness.' we truly were in a desert. i don't know why israel fights so hard to keep that land. it's not populated and it's totally terrible. oh well. 

our first stop was a monastery in the middle of nowhere. seriously, who knows how these crazy people found this place and decided it was a good idea. our bus went down these crazy hairpin turns down and down the jordan river valley then up to the top of this mountain. as soon as we got there some way dark skinned bedouan guys jumped on us trying to sell us random funny stuff straight out of china. they were super random things like fedoras. yeah, who knows. you could tell they have spent some serious time in the sun. there were also a couple of donkeys with some sweet saddle swag they were trying to advertise for rides. i would have been down but faculty made it very clear we were not to ride the donkeys. unfortunate.

we hiked up to this little covered thing that overlooked his HUGE canyon. it was intense. i felt like i was at the grand canyon. along the rim were a bunch of crosses. this area is the area believed to be the place where christ wandered during his forty days of fasting in the wilderness. supposedly, we were on the mount of temptation! pretty cool stuff. so that's the monastery is really there. i was kind of exaggerating. the crosses mark a trail that pilgrims take to follow the footsteps of jesus. it seemed pretty treacherous, and dr. belnap told us that the area is very dangerous, lots of bandits. i guess in 1995 a german couple was shot and killed on the trail. a couple years ago when byu was there they had to have security escort them on both sides. on our trip we had one guy from the center come with us. i don't think he was armed or anything so i'm not really sure what he was doing but he was always kind of off to the side or breaking trail for us and you could tell he was always looking around. it was a little comforting. i guess. haha. 

the monastery is literally nestled right in the wall of the canyon. it is very petra-esque. it was cool to learn about. it has had a presence for about 300 years but recently the greek orthodox church has acquired it. obviously monks don't have children so they rely on recruiting to keep it populated. kind of crazy right? they had little shacks in holes in the wall where the monks go to experience solitude and draw closer to god, but most days they stay in the main compound. it was very cool. i like the site a lot.

our next stop and the main part of our day was spent at jericho! the oldest city in the world. a citadel there dates back 10,000 years and is therefore the oldest building in the world. can you believe i just saw that? i can't. there is  a huge tel (mound) they have excavated there. it was interesting to see the contrast in the preservation as opposed to an israeli archaeological site. palestine obviously doesn't have the funds.. but at the same time they had this super cool cable car, an amazing gift shop and restaurant at the bottom, and a nice building with an educational introductory video by UCLA at the base of the tel. it was honestly so nice. it was only the tel itself that was missing reconstruction that most of the israeli sites have. it was super american- the whole video was english with no subtitles. and the gift shop was very western and pretty nice... like i said, really interesting. the people were really nice too. i felt really safe. the fact that i was in the west bank really hit me when were sitting on top of the tel and dr. belnap pointed out an old refugee camp next to us. it is no longer in use but the government has kept in intact as a reminder to the people.

jericho was honestly beautiful. what struck me most was how green it was. i felt like i was in a real bonafide oasis. there were palm trees and fruit farms everywhere. totally not what i expected. also, a lot of the homes and buildings were surprisingly nice... kind of how you would picture a nice arabic city in a movie or something, with tan stucco and  spanish tile roofs, lots of pomegranate trees, fountains, and lots and lots of palm trees. 

-this is a draft i never posted but figured better late then never. missing my days in jerusalem a lot- almost on year later now! not missing the heat so much :)
xo