Day 5

Friday we started off the day by going to Jimmy's Olive Wood shop.  He and another olive wood store Omar's have catered to BYU and LDS students and tour groups for years.  I wanted to get each of the kids a piece of olive wood for later on in life and we also wanted to get John's mom a nativity scene.  I sure am glad that I bought a nice nativity 20 years ago, because my nativity set without the BYU professor discount would have cost around $500 or more.  I don't remember what I paid for it, but I am sure it was in the $100 range.  Let each of the girls pick out a Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus piece and I bought the boys a statue of Christ.  Jimmy is a great salesman, his father opened the store for us and we waited while he came in.  We had intended just to stop in and look around but as soon as he came in he gave the boys an oil flask and the girls a gift too, can't remember now what it was.  The gifts along with the fact that he made a special trip into the store encouraged us to do all of our shopping at that time. Of course after we thought more about it we realized we needed a couple more things for gifts, so we did make one more trip back, but it was nice to get the shopping out of the way.

Heading out for the day. 

 Taking a rest at the top of the big hill we just walked up.  You walk through the Kidron Valley going and coming from the Center, so both coming and going you get to walk up will. 

 Outside Jimmy's shop, with none other than Jimmy.

We then headed over to the Christian Quarter of the Old City to have lunch at this little Christian/Palestinian museum/restaurant.  Hard to explain, but in a nutshell this Christian woman that my parents work with through BYU runs a humanitarian museum showcasing typical Palestinian life through the years and also employs Palestinian women to cook for her catered lunches.  It gives the women employment that they otherwise would not have.  Coincidentally, a good friend of John's and thus mine from our BYU days lives in China.  Her husbands aunt and uncle are also volunteers at the BYU Jerusalem Center and they were also visiting them during Christmas.  The last couple of years we have been lucky enough to see Heather and her family during their summer visit to Utah.  This past summer, during their visit we put it together that we would be in Jerusalem at the same time.  How fun for us!  So the background to this is that we met up with them for lunch that day.  It was a great cultural experience for the kids and also fun since we had the room to ourselves.  Three long tables were set up, so we sat as groups.  One table was for those over sixty (our parents, and their aunt and uncle) another table was for John, Heather, Aaron, the little kids, and I.  The last table was for the older kids and Kevin and Anne Marie.  There was plenty of food and with our own private room it made it much easier with the kids.  We were also able to visit easily. We had such a nice time visiting with old friends and enjoying authentic Palestinian cuisine.  After our lunch we had a tour of the building and they showed us the furnishings of a typical Palestinian home through the ages.

This was the door that lead to the museum.  Beautiful door but I would have never noticed it if it weren't are destination.  You can't tell from this picture, but there was so much going on around the door, it was just tucked in amongst so many shops.

 Inside the museum, the kids look so interested in the history of the Palestinian people!

 Hannah and Grandpa

One of the dinner tables.  

On top of teh museum with our hostess Nora, a Christian Palestinian whose family goes back thousands of years.

After we left the museum/restaurant my mom headed back to the Center with the kids that were done for the day.  Hannah, John, my Dad and I headed to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  The church is the supposed Crucifixion and burial site as well as the creation site and the center of the universe.  The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not my favorite spot in Jerusalem.  It is dark, Gothic with incense and lots of people, anything but holy.  He skipped the lines and walked around the church without waiting to touch the supposed holy sites.  There is one spot were a large vase type structure represents the spot of the creation of Adam and the center of the universe.  We took pictures there.  A funny side note, supposedly one of the professors, likes to push the structure off, just a little, it is not bolted down  so the center of the universe is moved.

 This was the Ethiopian group that we kept running it that day.  Very colorful outfits.

 Hannah is truly the Center of the Universe.

I am the center of John's universe. :)

After the we left the Church of the Holy Sepulchre we went to find the Upper Room.  The site of the Last Supper with Christ and his disciples.  It is a beautiful, simple room.  A large group from Ethiopia was there singing hymns.  It was quite beautiful with the acoustics of the room.  A few were casting out spirits, which is different than the way we do things, but interesting to see their beliefs and devotions.

Inside the Upper room, the church built over the tradtional site of the Last Supper.

The following pictures are from Hannah on our adventure through the city exploring.

There were so many cool doors.  I am glad that she captured some of them. 

We then headed through the Jewish quarter back to the Western Wall so we could experience that at sundown on the eve of Shabbat.  Sabbath starts at sundown on Friday night and goes until sundown on Saturday night.  I remember when I worked in New York City, many of the people at my firm were Jewish and the devote would leave quite early during the winter months on Friday to make it home before sundown.

This golden menorah has been prepared for the temple, when it is built again.

View looking down to the Western Wall

The above pictures are all of the Jewish Quarter.  Newer than the other quarters.

The Western Wall was full of people worshipping and large groups of youth singing.  It is one of my favorite memories of my time in Jerusalem.  We used to love to be there at sundown and hear all the prayers and singing in preparation for Sabbath.  We ran into some others from the BYU Jerusalem Center and visited with them for a bit.  We then headed back to the Center on foot.  We are supposed to be out of East Jerusalem before sundown, but since we stayed for sundown at the Western Wall we did not make it back.  Walking up the hill to the Center was a little unnerving.  There were groups of male teenagers hanging out along the walk home.  One group had a boy wearing a slim mask that jumped out at my dad as we passed.  We just kept walking fast and didn't let on that we were uncomfortable and we made it back safe and sound, but it did feel good to be back inside the walls of the Center.

John and Kevin getting ready to approach the Western Wall.

Up next to the Western Wall.

It was a wonderful day.  It reminded me of a typical day when I lived at the Center 20 years ago.  Shopping, exploring the city, Western Wall at sundown, and walking home at the end of the day.  Great memories.

Walking back to the Center.

View of the Jerusalem Center as we walked back home.

That night after dinner we went up to the student lounge and watched the movie Elf.  It was fun for the kids to hang out and enjoy some traditional Christmas things as well as be on vacation.