Day 3

We got to bed about 10:00 but I knew from experience that we would all be awake soon.  I also knew to expect the Muslim Call to Prayer around 4 or 5 in the morning.  It is still one of my vivid memories from 20 years ago.  I woke up around 2 am and was awake off and on until the prayer started.  Caroline came and got in bed with me.  (We had a boys dorm room and a girls dorm room which actually ended up being a kids and Kristin's room and a John and Kevin's room. ) We lay in bed listening and I was so excited I could hardly stand it.  Soon after I got up showered and was ready for the day.  Caroline was also up early, but the other kids took a little bit longer to get up.  I didn't want to rush them since I didn't want tired, grumpy, jet-lagged kids.  So John, Caroline, my dad, and I headed into the Old City to start exploring.

Our first stop was the Austrian Hospice, to see the view from the rooftop, however, since there was still snow on top from a big snow storm that hit a few days before we arrived, it was closed.  We headed to the Western Wall.  Not a lot had changed since I was there, but one big change was the check points within the city.  Before you could go anywhere you wanted but now a check point is set up on both sides of the entrance to the Western Wall.  Also, to get onto the Temple Mount you must go through a security checkpoint and show your passport.  We had not gone up to the city with a real plan, but there was no line to the Temple Mount, which is highly unusal so we decided to see if we could get on without our passports.  The guards at first told us to come back the our passports, but then they let us enter.  It is a large area which is controlled by the Palestinians.  On the Temple Mount sit two mosques.  The Dome of the Rock and El-Asqu Mosque (the smaller mosque).  The rest of the area is large open areas.   All over you would see small groups of either women or men sitting and talking.  We asked one of the groups what they were doing and they said the study the Koran.  The land on which the Dome of the Rock sits is important to the three major religions of the world.  Muslims, Christians, and Jews believe it is the site where Abraham went to sacrifice his son.  Muslims believe it is a scared spot where Muhommad was brought in his Night Vision and it is the location of the First and Second Temples of the Old Testament.

After we left the Dome of the Rock we headed back to the Jerusalem Center to meet up with everyone else.  Our next stop of the day was to an elementary school in a Palestinian neighborhood.  We drove over and it was a small little school tucked in around some other homes.  Nothing to indicate a school was there.  My mom and dad, Caroline and Grace went into one classroom.  John, Hannah, Josh, Benjamin, and I went into another classroom.  We spoke to the kids in English and taught them about dental hygine.  We taught them a little song.  The main purpose is to be a positive BYU presence and to give the children the opportunity to hear and speak more English.  We were at the school for about 45- 1 hour.

Our next stop was to the Seven Arches Hotel to see the view of the Old City (similar to the Jerusalem Center's) and to ride a camel.  A man is there with his camel and donkey and for a fee you can ride the camel around the parking lot and get a picture with the view of the Old City in the background.  Josh, Caroline, and I rode together and Hannah and Grace rode together.  Benjamin was happy to stick with the donkey.  Not quite so scary. 

  As you can tell getting up and down is a little scary.  It feels like you are going off the front end.

We also drove by the Seperation Wall.  Another new addition to Jerusalem.  It was built to divide Jerusalem from the West Bank.  It has supposedly helped with terrorist activity but it hurts many innocent and good Palestinians.  Palestinians in the West Bank can no longer travel to Jerusalem without special permission, which is RARELY granted.  Many who live only a few miles from Jerusalem have not been there since the wall was built.  Some had to quit their jobs because they no longer were able to travel to work in Jerusalem anymore.  It is easy to see both sides of the arguments.

After a stop for lunch near our car we walked down to the Garden of Gethsemene.  It is a small enclosed garden of olive trees.  Some of the olive trees are dated back almost 2000 years.  We read the account of the Savior in Gethsemane and then we went into the church.  I knew our spiritual moments would not be the way I dreamed in my head, but they were nice in a much more simple way.  No one ever asked me what the warm feeling was they were feeling, or stated that they were feeling the Spirit, but I hope as they grow older and they think back they will have warm feelings and memories.

We then crossed the street and entered the Old City near the Via Dela Rosa.  We walked up and stopped at a couple of churches along the way.  Hannah had come down with a cold before we left and when she gets a cold her asthma kicks in.  She was having a difficult time with all of the walking so we went slowly. We made our way over to Shabbon's.  He is a friend to all the BYU students and definitely caters to them and makes friends so that they shop with him.  He looked the same 20 years later, although he was missing quite a few more teeth.  He immediately pulled out gifts for the kids, earings for the girls, and flutes for the boys.  We did some soveniour shopping and then headed back.  One of the BYU rules is that you have to be out of the Old City by sun down.  Since it was December our days were short, and we usually needed to leave by 4:30 to make it back in time.