"Squeeze the World"

For Sunday, we went to the Arab church I might be helping, and, though we had an interpreter, we were confused a majority of the time. It was good fun. Afterwards, we went to the Valley Jezreel, more popularly known as the Valley of Armageddon. We saw the mountain where Elijah spent a great deal of time and raised a boy back to life, and went to the Springs of Harod, where Gideon divided his forces. It's now a popular park for people to lounge and smoke narguila. We played frisbee golf instead. Then we saw Beit She'an, some of the best preserved Roman ruins anywhere. There was an ampitheater, temple, public latrine and baths in recognizable condition. One area was only recently excavated, and we found a handful of Roman Glass. Then we went back and watched the World Cup game in a pizzaria. Let it be known that I knew Italy would win and rooted for them the entire time.

We even saw scattered Italian flags the next day (Arabs get way into their futball) as we traveled around to north Galilee. We saw the Mount of Beatitudes and the beach nearby where Jesus confronted Peter after the resurrection. We also saw Peter's house and the ruins of Capernum. The Roman Catholic Cathedral looked like a spaceship hovering over Peter's house, and the Greek Orthodox church (which commemorated the same place) a few hundred meters away was the same color as Pepto Bismol and looked like sherbert. One of the coolest sites was Nimrod's Fortress, a huge structure looking over Golan Heights. It was well preserved with great rooms and arrow slits, but a few hallways held bat colonies. The wind up there felt great after our long trip in the sun. We also visited Banias-the headwaters of the Jordan River, and Coffee Anan. Coffee Anan means "coffee in the clouds" and is a play on the name of a UN official. It has an old Israeli bunker and overlooks Damascus and the Lebanese border. Now (two days later) there's some activity in the area, so I'm glad I got to see it when I did.

The next day was my 19th Birthday and orientation day at Nazareth Village. Afterwards, we walked through some of old Nazareth and saw the Basilica of the Annunciation. For dinner, we went to a Bedioun settlement for an entertaining (and tasty) meal. I had my first and last sip of Turkish coffee, but their tea was very nice.

Today was the first day of work at the Village, and they did their best to exhaust us. I have done very little with animals, other than pet and wrestle dogs or cats, but today I got to shear sheep. And since they wanted it in view of the tourists, we also had to drag it across the village before wrestling and tying it down. Then we had the actual work of shearing with first century style clips. Needless to say, I am exhausted and really should sleep. Good night.