Return to a Wonderland Absent of Wonder

So, the elementary school that I was working at closed for the holidays for about 18 days. Instead of staying in Bethlehem for that time, my family was generous enough to pay for me to come home for the holidays. Even more exciting than that, is that my grandparents were also going to be at my parent's house for the holidays and they didn't know I was going to be there. My flight was supposed to get in about an hour before my grandparent's flight was, but then my flight was late and their flight was early. I raced through the airport and got to baggage claim just 10 minutes before they did, said hi to my parents and boyfriend, and then said hi to them. I can't remember how long it's been since I had seen them, but it was amazing that I was able spend Christmas with them.

I spent my first week in Georgia with my family, and had a wonderful time seeing everyone. I can say that I'm 21 and have never missed Christmas with them, which is such a blessing. As you can see from my previous post, I was having trouble working out a lot of things like, why God wanted me in Israel, what that meant for me, how I needed to change my attitude about it and how my perspective was already starting to change... things like that. Going home didn't help that along at all. I think it only confused me more. There were definitely times when I wondered if going home was the right decision. Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful that I was with my family for the holidays, but I think it slowed down the progress I was making in figuring things out. Or that's how I felt at the time. In retrospect, I really needed that break from being in the Middle East and I needed the rest and support from everyone, but I also wonder how I would see things here, if I had stayed, instead.

Our church's Christmas Eve service was on the 23^rd, instead of Christmas Eve, and we were out for a family dinner that night. Not to mention, I would have felt weird going to a Christmas Eve service on any night but Christmas Eve. So, come the night of the 24^th, we went to a local Presbyterian service, instead. Can we say culture shock? My mind was flooded with so many thoughts and questions and judgments. Here's what I wrote on my bulletin during the service:

How much did this church building cost? How many of these people attend church regularly? It feels empty and lacking in joy. Do these people have any real problems outside created social issues? I understand it's all many of them know, but there's something unfortunate about that to me. There's something about our world that seems too easy and unrealistic. This is our land of “milk and honey” in an unbiblical sense. We live in a protected bubble of ease. Where is there room for God in any of this? O Come, O Come Emmanuel and rescue captive Westerners.

Just to decipher that a bit, this church was large and ornate and beautiful. Now, I've seen larger and more ornate church buildings before, but that's not the point I'm making. The point is that, in Jerusalem, Protestant believers often take houses and turn them into their churches and they really don't have much of a sound system or pews or acoustically sound stages or anything like that. They only have what they can find. I hadn't had the chance to go to church that often during my first semester, because we were gone every weekend, but I knew enough about being a Christian overseas to know that our Western mentality felt wrong. I'm not saying that they should deprive themselves of space that they need to worship in, but instead of upgrading a nice church into a nicer one, why doesn't that money go to missionaries, or an organization in need? Also, the church was packed full of people and I had to wonder how many of them were regular church goers. I admit that I'm guilty of not going every Sunday, myself, but that's not what I mean. I can go on facebook and over half the people will have listed their religion as “Christian” when they only go to church on holidays and they only open their Bible when they're down on luck or accidentally knock it off their book shelf. And the worship at the church was so solemn. Come on people! This is Christmas! Have a little joy! Instead of standing still, grabbing onto the pew in front of you, and maybe daring to sway back in forth, how bout really praising God and letting His love flow through you and out of you? I don't mean that we all have to get charismatic or gospel style, but at least feel something. Don't just say the words on the projector or hymnal because it's what everyone else is doing. God doesn't want that and it's painful to watch. We create our world so that we are in control of every motion and event that we can. It's like David Platt says in Radical, where we even set up church and make sure we have as much entertainment fascists as we can to bring people in and enough people tithing to pay the leader's bills and then some, that there's no room for God to work in that environment. It's so frustrating to me! If you can't tell by this little rant, hah.

Anyways, so those were my thoughts of being home. I spent the next week in South Carolina with my boyfriend and friends. I got engaged (yay!). And I didn't have too many other thoughts, not too much culture shock other than that it was really shocking to suddenly be around so many people that know me and love me and support me. It was also really weird to get into my car and drive places and have any sense of freedom. Oh, and I took a hot shower every day just because I could...

A Post from Christmas in Bethlehem

I spent my winter break mostly in Bethlehem, with a detour to the states for two weeks. The first two weeks of break, I lived with a family that is in charge of a Christian American High School so that I could work at the attached elementary school. When I got back from the states, I was moved into the apartments of the top floor of the elementary school and lived with the other single woman teachers. The next few posts are unposted updates from this time.

An unposted update from December 16th, 2011:

Five days and counting until I go home!

Yesterday, I had no working itouch or cell phone; I can't get either of my laptops to connect to the internet at the house I'm staying at; I was pretty sure I was doomed to cold showers until I got back to Jerusalem; I've gotten sick with a cold; the house has no central heating and is flooded with mosquitoes; I have several mosquito bites on my face, including my eyelid; I left my Bible at JUC.

Today, I slept in, helped one of the kids here make cupcakes, took a steamy hot shower, killed a few mosquitoes, helped clean the house, and found a way to charge my gameboy DS. It's the little things in life.

We are so spoiled in America. A year ago, I would have told you that I couldn't function without all of my electronics. Hear I am, now, perfectly content without them. I mean, missionaries talk about this kind of stuff all the time, but I always just smiled and nodded in agreement. I knew what they were saying was true, but, until you're really living it, it's hard to fully grasp or appreciate what they're saying. There's something I've heard said by people that live overseas: someone that visits for two weeks think they can fix the world's problems, people that stay for a few months know that it's complicated, and people that stay for a year know it's far beyond their comprehension of solving. It's true.

When I'm at home, I can take a shower whenever I want and I know the water will always be warm; I can eat because I'm bored, I can go to the store and generally know that I'll find what I need. Everyone there basically speaks my language and has the same agenda. Our only hardships are competition for jobs and social drama – which we create for ourselves. But life is so different outside our bubble. There seems to be much less social drama in Palestine because their time and energy has to be devoted to other things like feeding their family, making money, and fighting for freedom. Those kinds of basic things, that we take advantage of, consume their daily lives so that they have very little time for who's dating who or being so unsatisfied with their marriage that they have to buy a new car or spouse. They have to bond together in order to make it through their life.

And all of this is coming from the opinion of someone who was once a “non-comforming conformist”. I still roll my eyes at typical over-spiritualistic evangelists and Christians who only converse in christianese (Words used by Christians that the unsaved masses are unlikely to understand, making Christians seem exclusive. Typically found in youth pastors, I find). I don't want to sound like one of them because I strive so much to be different and I know that people like that can push people from church.

So then, what am I trying to say? What is my point?

I don't actually need all the things that I thought I needed. I'm more thankful for what we have at home, and yet also sickened by how much we have. I'm even more sickened by consumer western ideology than I was before I came to Israel. But, that can't be all I'm trying to say...

I think my point is that when you're where God wants you to be, His will is sufficient for all your needs. Here I am, in a culture that I don't necessarily mesh with or love, absent of a lot of my comforts, but I'm not miserable or depressed or anything. Not to say that any of this is easy for me, but I think I'm so in harmony with God's will for me at this moment that I have the capacity to handle it and find small joys. Just the fact that I took a hot shower today made me happy dance.

What's saddening is that I don't know how I ended up here. I mean, I told God that if He wanted me to stay in Israel, and if He provided me with housing, then I would stay. But I know me well enough to know that this won't happen again. Not like this. It seemed too easy. And I've prayed and responded to prayer like this before, but never felt this much peace about it. I already feel like this is what I'll be chasing after forever, but only achieve it 1/10 of the time. Like, making a recipe once right and never quite remembering how you did it so well that one time. And every time you make it, it's still never quite right. Then you finally get it right again, but you don't know what you did differently. How did I do this and how do I make it happen every time?

I am constantly reminded of Romans 12:1-2

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

In retrospect of all this, I shared this with a friend while I was in the states and he said that maybe this time was different because I was doing it for God instead of myself. I didn't want to stay in Bethlehem. I was so homesick and so tired of the poor social situation at JUC that I was ready to come home and change my major, even if it meant staying in school an extra semester. But, when God provided me housing, I couldn't tell Him no. And so, I was there for God. In no way for myself. But how do I replicate that every time?

Egypt: the rest of the story - days 5-8

So the reason that I've been so reluctant to post... When I got back from Egypt, I moved to Bethlehem the next day. The house I moved into had no internet. So, I had the last two posts written already, because I wrote them while we were in Egypt, but I had no way to post them until I either moved or went back home for a two week break. Which was fine, but that meant I had four more days to write about and no motivation to write them. Why did I need to? I couldn't post them anyways. Plus, my notes for those last four days were all on my itouch and my itouch bit the dust the day after we got back to Israel. So any interesting thoughts that I had at those sites, were gone. Then I went to to America, the week of Christmas, and was so overwhelmed with family and friends that I had even less motivation to update about Egypt. What's sad is that I have lots of interesting things to talk about in relation to my living in Bethlehem for five weeks, but I didn't feel like I could write about it till I finished talking about Egypt. And the more time that goes by, the less I wanted to update.

All that to say, I'm going to summarize the last four days in Egypt the best that I can. And I just discovered that my itinerary from Egypt is no longer in the trash box of my email. Hopefully my pictures will jostle my memory enough... We'll see how it goes...

Our fifth day in Egypt started at the Valley of Kings, famous for the discovery of King Tut's tomb which has granted us much of the knowledge of ancient Egyptian life that we know of today. I couldn't tell you a whole lot about the place, though. It was riddled with vicious vendors and Egyptian Antiquity Police who were stealing peoples cameras as soon as it left their purse or pocket. So I spent my whole time there coming up with new ways to be rude to people, and sneaking in pictures. I am happy to announce that I successfully took pictures of everything in King Tuts tomb:

List of insults for vendors, and their responses to me:

Me: “I told you no ten seconds ago, why would I want it now?”

Vendor: “Egyptian scarf, 5 pounds.”

Me: “I just told you no!”

Vendor: “Okay, 3 pounds.”

Me: “I'm not playing games, I really don't want it. I already told you know.”

Vendor: “You give me baksheesh.” (Which means “tip” in Arabic.)

Vendor follows me with some cat made out of “white basalt” - which doesn't exist, mind you. This guy kept following me after I politely told him several times that I didn't want it.

Me: “STRANGER DANGER!”

Vendor looks at me strangely, says nothing, but still gets closer to me and holds out object in my general direction.

Me: “HELP! I NEED AN ADULT!”

Vendor continues to hand me object.
Me: “I'm not allowed to talk to strangers. STRANGER DANGER!”

Vendor: “Do not like...” I think he meant to say that he doesn't like me.

Vendor corners and harasses one of my friends that is too polite to tell him to go away.

Me: “Hey, she obviously doesn't want it. Go away.”

Vendor continues to corner and harass her, now touching her arm and scaring her.

Me: “Hey! Leave her alone! GO AWAY!”

Vendor: “You stop talking!” Said in my general direction.

Me: “I'll stop talking whenever the heck I want to, I'm a free a woman. So is the woman you're harassing. Go away!”

And last... vendor forces object into my face.

Me: “No thank you.” I tried to be polite, sometimes. I at least tried to give them one chance.

Vendor touches my arm.

Me: “Haraam! (Which means “shame” in Arabic) That is inappropriate! You are not allowed to touch me! Be gone with you! Leave us alone!” He looked shamed after words. I felt happy and self-assured.

So, after King Tut's tomb we had tickets to visit three other tombs in the area. There are several tombs in the Valley of the Kings but only King Tut's and three others are opened per season so that the tombs aren't ruined. After sneaking in pictures in all the other tombs, I arrived in the last one and decided to take just a few more. I shouldn't have bitten the hand that fed me. One picture in a guy caught me, yelled at me in Arabic, grabbed another guard, and they proceeded to keep me from walking further into the tomb or exiting it while asking me for my camera. I told them for a good five minutes that I would put the camera away but I would not hand it over. I didn't know what they were going to do with it, or if they would ever give it back. There was no way I was giving them my camera. They finally let me be. I later found out that another student got his confiscated by the guards, and all of his pictures were deleted. So I'm glad I didn't give them mine.

After the Valley of the Kings, we went to Hatsheput’s temple. She was a fascinating woman. She created the “rebirth” rooms so that she could go into one for a week, come out, and say she had been reborn as the son of Ra. Being a man, now, she could rule as Pharaoh. Her temple was made of beautiful white stone and dedicated to Anubis, my favorite Egyptian god. I took pictures of Anubis and sat down with our tour guide the rest of the time, because it was hot.

We visited yet another temple, just before lunch. The only distinguishing factor of this one was the stone images of beheaded people at the gate. It apparently proved to the gods that the land outside the temple was safe. And I think we visited yet another temple after that, with the largest Ramses statue found:

Luxor was a fascinating place. By fascinating I mean that I never need to go there again. We had a little bit of free time to ourselves after visiting the Luxor temple and a few of us decided to go explore the markets and grab dinner before having to suffer through another sleeper train ride. So, we innocently began looking for quality Egyptian scarves. It didn't take long before hordes of men (not exaggerating too much, there, either) surrounded us and started begging us to buy things from them or come into their store or marry them. I've never been harassed verbally so much in my life. We're talking hoots, hollers, whistles, hisses, and pet names that I wouldn't let my fiance call me. I was genuinely frightened. Thankfully, a group of men from our JUC group caught up with this and they were suddenly all silent. The Egyptian men looked upon us with lust and disdain. It baffles me that women are such objects to them and deserve such little respect that as soon as a male joins their presence they no longer hit on us. I don't get it. Anyways, the JUC men kindly walked us to McDonalds so that we could grab dinner. Fun fact, did you know that McDonalds in other countries deliver?

Even though it meant getting on the sleeper train, we were all pretty happy to leave Luxor:

Our next morning started with a two our drive into the middle of no where, to stand on a mound of dirt called “Tell Yehudea”. It's significance is that it's a place named “Judah” in Egypt and may have been where the Israelites lived pre-exodus or post-exile. It was literally just a mound of dirt, though. And, of course, good ol' antiquities police followed us all the way out there and charged us money for wanting to stand on said mound of dirt.

Then we drove back into Cairo, two hours back, to look at the pyramids and the sphinx. They were pretty great, indeed. Since I was a child I've dreamed of going to Egypt and seeing the pyramids and learning about Egyptian mythology. I don't want to say it was anti-climatic, but I think that Egypt held a lot more interest for me as a child. Having been there, it's so overrun with rude vendors, tourists, and trash, that it lost a little bit of it's allure to me. That being said, I did still enjoy being there:

Because it took us so long to drive all the way out to our first site, we got stuck in Cairo traffic and missed going to the Cairo museum that night. So we all went to Starbucks instead :)

We were able to wake up early and go the next day, thankfully. I could spend two weeks in that museum and not see everything. I think the things of most interest were, of course, King Tut's death mask made of pure gold, as well as all the other objects he was buried with, and the room of mummies. They have a room with about 9 mummies in it, and the tallest one is 5'8”, I think. They were so small!

Then we rode into Sinai to go on jeep rides with Bedouins through the desert. That was pretty frightening. They practically play bumper cars with each other, out there. We got stuck in the sand once while racing our professor's jeep, and drove our jeep off a mini sand dune at another time. So we did all of that nonsense, to go surprise hiking (not the good kind of surprise) up a cliff to see another not reconstructed temple... then to go look at turquoise mines that have been completely farmed out. Meanwhile, I had to go to the bathroom and was car sick from the silly jeeps. Then we rode back through the desert, but this time in the dark – which did not make it more fun or less scary, so that we could eat a fairly traditional dinner with the Bedouins. That was amazing, actually. There's hardly any light pollution out there, so you could see all the stars. We sat under this tent-like covering on pillows and drank Bedouin tea (which is officially my favorite kind of tea) while eating chicken and rice and cooked vegetables, and singing songs around a fire. That was an experience I'll never forget.

But you know what will be even more difficult to forget? Having to wake up to climb Mount Sinai just four hours after arriving at our hotel that night. Yep, we arrived at our hotel, took a little nap, and woke up at 3 in the morning to climb Mount Sinai in 3 degree Celsius weather. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, t-shirt, sweater, leather jacket, sweat pants, two pairs of socks, mittens, scarf, and hat. Of course, at this point, I had spent all my money on souvenirs I've dreamed of buying since I was a kid and therefore had no money for a camel ride. Ten minutes into the walk my body started over heating and I was having to strip off layers and find ways to carry them. Thirty minutes in I started hyperventilating and had a sort of panic attack – I have trouble breathing when I'm concentrating on something, which I never remember until I can't breathe anymore. It also probably didn't help that I was exhausted and hiking with no food in my stomach because of course we didn't get breakfast before we did this hike. An hour into the hike, after my mini panic attack, I started feeling quite sick to my stomach. Nausea turned into sharp stomach pains and dry heaving. Two hours later, I threw up off the side of Mount Sinai and crawled my way up to our meeting point where everyone was waiting for me. Thankfully, three other people had stayed behind with me to make sure I hadn't died. I was beyond thankful for the company in such miserable and cold conditions. Once we were all at our meeting point, it was only 900 more steps, which was supposed to take us 45 minutes. Well, one of the professor's wives was moving pretty slowly too and we stuck together. We would walk about three steps, and take a break. Sometimes we would even take five steps before taking a break. We talked the whole time, and decided at some point that if we didn't make it to the very top then that would be okay. It was a generally good time, and we made it to the top, at our own pace, and saw the sun rise.

That was basically the end of the trip. We sat up there for a while longer, walked back down to the buses, and the rest of the trip was just the ride back into Jerusalem. Nothing too interesting happened at boarder crossing, other than that I got my bagged checked. And I was more than happy to shower and sleep in a real bed when we got back to JUC.

Egypt Day 2/3: I have looked into the eyes of the gods and been left wanting

I’m writing this post three days after the fact because we haven’t had much of a break since we got here and all breaks should logically be filled with catching up on sleep since we have little time for that during the night. As Dr. Wright says, “We are chasing the sun.” So, we’re up and gone by sunrise and back well into the night. I am constantly reminded that I’m here for a learning experience, and not a vacation of any sort.

Our second night in Egypt was spent on a sleeper train following the Nile from Cairo to Aswan – the natural southern border of Egypt. It was my first sleeper train experience and, as my Grandfather likes to say, it was a “missionary experience.” My roommate and I shared a room that was no bigger than 5’x3’, the heater didn’t work, and the train stopped and sped up randomly through the night so that the door to the mirror swung open and slammed shut. It was… fascinating.

When we pulled into Aswan in the morning, we went straight to our first site which was an old granite quarry for an obelisk. The obelisk found there would have been the largest obelisk to ever be built, but there was a crack through the top. It seems that, once it was cracked, construction stopped just days later. It was interesting to look at, though. Obelisks replaced pyramids as a religious structure in the 5^th dynasty. I always used to think that pyramids were built for centuries in ancient Egypt, but it seems to be a strictly old kingdom practice. The point of a pyramid was for when the sun connected with the point it looked as if and represented the god Ra connecting with the earth. Obelisks obviously weren’t tombs, like the pyramids, but their point at the top still served the purpose of connecting earth with the gods.

Next, we went to our first temple on Phile Island. It was originally on a crumbling island of granite so that, years ago, they leveled a new island, broke the temple down into 1500 pieces, and transferred and reconstructed the whole thing. It seems to be an old temple to Isis that was reconstructed by the Greek Ptolemies when they came and ruled in Egypt’s last recorded dynasties. So, the temple is essentially Egyptian but with a Greek flair. For instance, instead of the column caps being just palm trees or just papyrus or lotus, the Greeks made composite column caps and mixed all three. Also, in order for a Greek to be able to rule Egypt as Pharaoh, he had to be reborn as an Egyptian. So, next to the temple is a bath house where the Greek man wanting to become Pharaoh would shave his head and bathe for a week or two while convening with the gods to be “reborn”. Here, we have obelisks replaced by parallel rectangles on either side of a door so that the sun meets just above the door and the sun rays are like Ra’s arms surrounding the temple door. This was the common practice for religious sites from here on out. This is also the time period in which people started being buried under ground, instead of in pyramids and such. At the entrance of these temples, the Pharaoh is depicted as sacrificing something to Isis so that the Pharaoh can name himself as the guardian of Egypt. (Here's the temple I'm talking about):

Just for a little background in the history of the gods of Egypt: Isis is the goddess of motherhood and is married to Osiris, the god of the underworld. Together, they had a falcon-headed son, Horus, the god earth. Horus’ wings represent protection and his eye has healing powers. Horus married Isis’ best friend, Hathor who is represented as a calf and is another goddess of motherhood. Anubis is the pet of Osiris, and is the god of mummification and protects people while guiding them to the afterlife. It’s a lot of complicated information, but this is my favorite part of Egyptology because it plays a part in all of Egypt’s ancient history.

After Phile Island, we came back to the hotel and ate a quick lunch so that we could run down to the Nile and catch a boat to some island. I’m not sure what the island was, but we got to ride camels! I’m pretty pro at riding camels. The guy that was supposed to be guiding me just handed me the reigns, and “yipp”ed my camel to go faster. So, in a matter of seconds, I had to learn how to ride a camel and hold on for dear life because camels can canter pretty quickly. It was frightening and exhilarating, all at the same time. We rode the camels to Saint Andrews monastery, where Saint Andrew sought solitude in the wilderness. I couldn’t tell you what else is important about it, though, because I was far too excited about riding the camel back to the boat. Yep, I can ride camels like a true Egyptian.

After the camels, we took the boats to a Nubian village. This has been the best part of my trip so far. We spent an hour or so with a Nubian family. I don’t think there’s any politically correct way to say this, but Nubians are real Africans. They are the self-proclaimed true Egyptians. They live in little huts and make their money by farming and selling homemade goods. The family we hung out with also keeps crocodiles as pets. Or maybe they were alligators. Anyways, I got to hold one. They’re awfully cute when their mouths are rubber-banded shut and they can’t bite you. Then we drank hibiscus juice with them and a man from a neighboring house came over – a cute little black man with missing teeth and a guitar. He played songs about our names and made us dance to them. It was a really good time.

That was the end of our night. I really enjoyed Aswan. The weather was nice, and the Nubian influence there is amazing. I hate to say this, but I’m really tired of getting hassled by Arabs in Israel and Egypt. But Aswan, because it’s so far south, it has a much more African influence. And the people are nice and considerate and act like respectable human beings.

We had to be and on the bus by 6:30 the next morning to spend a day exploring temples. I am so sick of temples due to that day. We visited the Komobo temple, Ed-fu temple, Karnack temple, and the Luxor temple. They were all really fascinating at first, but after a while they all start to blur together. I’ll do my best to distinguish them and make them interesting for you.

Komombo means pile of gold and was devoted to appeasing Sobek, the crocodile god of the Nile, and Horus. So, people would bring in piles of gold to appease the Nile god. This is another temple that was rebuilt and used for the Ptolemies. There is a calendar chiseled into the wall here. The Egyptians had followed a lunar calendar for a long time, but the lunar calendar doesn’t follow the flood of the Nile. Because life is centered on the Nile in Egypt, the lunar calendar didn’t really work for them. So they invented the solar calendar. Every day, there is a holiday in which something must be given to the gods at the temple. So this calendar, at Komombo, names every day of the year and then lists the holiday that is on that day and what must be brought to the temple. The Egyptian calendar follows 10 days a week, 3 weeks a month, 4 months a season, 3 seasons a year, and 360 days a year. And the Greeks, which gave our Western culture everything we have today, were in Egypt around this time. So, it’s plausible to reason that we may be highly influenced by Ancient Egyptians.

I can’t emphasis enough just how much religion controlled the lives of these people. No one could become a Pharaoh without it being passed by the counsel of gods. The people had to pay taxes to the temple to “appease the gods”. Even when the gods are depicted in the temple, they are drawn holding an ankh. An ankh is a symbol that represents the key to life. And the Pharaohs had to be blessed by the gods to be given the ankh. As fascinated as I am with Egyptian mythology, I am so glad I’m a Christian! God gives life freely to me. Looking at those pictures of those gods, I just felt like they were holding life hostage from the people and the thought made me feel uncomfortable and left me wanting and desperate. Yep, so thankful that I have God.

Last fascinating thing from Komobo, we learned about medicinal practices of the Egyptians. Okay, I have to go through this whole spiel to get across what awesomeness I’m about to hit you with. So be patient. Head injuries: CAT scans were invented quite recently and they are only popular in America. So what do people in other countries do when they have internal head injuries? Well, there are two indicators of internal damage. One symptom is blood shot eyes, and the other is numbness on one side of the body. When this happens, it means either too much pressure has built up inside the brain or that there is internal bleeding. When there is too much pressure in the brain, the easiest way to fix this is simply with elevation. But when there is internal bleeding, a surgeon needs to open up the brain and drill a hole into the skull so that the blood can pour out of the skull. Fun stuff. Well, this is where it gets kind of cool. The equipment that surgeons use for that surgery, are the same exact ones that the Egyptians used! The Egyptians were advanced enough to know how to cure head injuries! Okay, I was fascinated.

Anyways, after Komobo, we went to the Ed-fu temple which was kind of boring and dark. The only interesting thing was that there was ancient paint. And I’m fascinated when a site is still painted. It is beautiful, and it gives us a picture into what the place was really like:

Then we went to the famous Karnack temple in Luxor. Karnack was pretty amazing. It was built and expanded upon by every Pharaoh from Thutmose III to Shishak. Karnack forms the corner of a triangle between the Hatshepsut temple and Luxor temple. People would travel between these three temple, offering goods to the gods. The walkway leading into Karnack is lined with Ram-headed sphinxes, which represent the god Ammun (a creator god). The temple has a hundred something columns within it, styled at the top with opened and closed lotus flowers. The closed lotus flowers always sit in the shade, as if you’re relaxing in the shade of the god; the open lotus flowers always sit in the sun as if they are growing in the rays of the god.

There is actually something Biblically exciting at Karnack. Shishak records his war invasions into the land of Canaan and writes of going up against cities on a war path to Jerusalem. We know from the Biblical record that Shishak came up against Jerusalem, but Reheboam decided to just submit to Shishak and become a vassal state to Egypt. So, on Shishak’s wall that lists the cities he conquered, Jerusalem is not listed. Some historians want to say that this is proof that the Bible is lying, but there is an easy explanation for this. Shishak’s wall lists all the cities around Jerusalem that he conquered. These cities are on a direct path to Jerusalem. But Shishak didn’t conquer Jerusalem. Jerusalem just agreed to pay tribute to them so that there would not be a battle. It makes sense that Jerusalem’s name isn’t listed on the wall, since there was no actual fight there. What’s really exciting about all of this is that this is one of the first exact chronological links that we have between Egypt and Israel. It’s a foundational base on which we can factually structure Egyptian and Israelite time lines. Okay, maybe it’s not that exciting to all of you who are sitting at home and never thought twice about the historicity of the Bible, but it’s extremely exciting for biblical historians. It also should be exciting for apologetics, since Shishak’s wall seems to prove that a Biblical account really did happen.

After Karnack, we settled into our hotel where I had a really interesting dinner conversation. I should begin by saying that I really do like the college that I go to, but I wouldn’t say that I’m in love with it. I feel no exceptional personal attachment to it. And I’ve never really thought of it in comparison with other colleges because my only other knowledge of other universities is based on the one semester in which I attended an all girls secular school. Which I know is not enough of an experience in which to judge CIU. That being said, this particular conversation forced me to think about why I like it. I was sitting next to two other students, both of whom attend reformed Christian colleges. I really don’t know what “reformed theology” is. In fact, I have no concept of theology other than that people seem to get into petty arguments about whether we are predestined or have free will (by the way, Paul talks about both as facts so they both are facts. Just thought I’d get my opinion on that matter out of the way) or if using birth control is a sin. Theological arguments always seem so silly to me because we waste so much time arguing about it, when we could be putting all that energy towards… oh… I don’t know… worshiping God or something worthwhile. My roommate here has taken 5 theology classes because her college is based on some sort of theological foundation. My school only offers two theology classes. That’s it. Just two. She’s not even done with all of her classes! So, my roommate and one of the other students were having a really deep discussion about theology, using words like “CRC” and “OPC” and a bunch of other acronyms that went completely over my head. When I obviously didn’t know what they were talking about, they began asking me about my school and why we only have two theology classes. Well, CIU is a missions based school. Our slogan is “To know Him and make Him known”. We offer other majors, of course, but the great commission of Matthew 28 is what drives the foundation of our college. We are essentially a non-denominational school that believes in the “unity of scripture”. They brought up the point that this can be dangerous because then people tend to pick and choose what they want to believe from all different theologies and then there’s no cohesion to their beliefs. I can see where they’re coming from, but then they’re assuming that just because our school doesn’t claim a denomination that everyone on campus is non-denominational. Which isn’t true. I am in no way indicative of the rest of the student body at CIU. I’m actually probably in the minority as far as theological knowledge goes. Not to mention, just because we’re missions based doesn’t mean that we ignore other subjects. CIU just wants to make sure that their students understand the importance of missions, and how it’s integrated into the church and our daily walk with Christ. All that to say, I really like my college. I am just not built for theological nonsense. I just want to understand the Bible in its original context and then disciple other people with that knowledge.

As long of a day as this was, it was not quite the end. At 7 that night, we walked over to the Luxor temple. I could tell you about the Pharaohs that built it and the gods and stuff, but it’s really only interesting if you know anything about Ancient Egyptian history and even then, it was just okay. Although, I’m sure it was a lot more exciting at night than during the day. The most significant thing about it is that this is the temple where the “rebirth”ing rooms began that were later developed by the Ptolemies. Two Pharaohs used it previous to the Greeks, because they were only half royal blood and needed to be reborn full blooded so that they can rule. Funny how even back then people corrupted the political system in order to get what they wanted.

I know it's been over a month since I've posted!

DISCLAIMER: This post and the next were written during my trip in Egypt. Sorry they're so late. I'll explain in after the Egypt posts are up.

I’m going to combine days 1 and 2 of my Egypt trip, since our first day was just a 15 hour drive through Cairo. Also, these next few blog updates about my time in Egypt may be slightly different than my last posts. Our field studies for Physical Settings are mostly about geography and how the land affected the people in the bible. Egypt is much different. It’s more about just visiting the sites that we’ve talked about in our History of Ancient Egypt class. While I’ve been dreaming about visiting Egypt since I was in 5^th grade and discovered the History Channel, I find that I’m reflecting on worldview and culture and people groups more than anything else. I feel like I’m widening my views on people as a whole and that I’m on the brink of getting “it”, whatever “it” is. I’m not sure how to explain it any better than that. But, without any further ado, Egypt day one -

Like I previously stated, our first day to Egypt consisted of us leaving Jerusalem at 6 am and driving down to Eilath. Eilath is a site along the Red Sea where Solomon built a trade port, with the help of Pheonicia and Egypt. The possible place, where it was, is a tiny island just off the coast that now has a Crusader castle on it. But, it was really pretty. This is Egypt in December:

Beautiful weather, lots of wind, and lots of sun. Unfortunately, this was our last look upon beauty for miles to come. We spent the next six or so hours driving through the Sinai Wilderness. Yes, I mean the wilderness that Moses and the Isrealites spent 40 years walking through. I looked at it for a whole minute before my Dramamime kicked in and I fell asleep. That being said, I would not have wanted to spend 40 years there. It looked a lot like New Mexico. This is when my first “worldview” thought kicked in. We have it pretty good in America. I mean, we have everything. From sea to shining sea, we have mountains, canyons, deserts, and forests. We have all sorts of climate and weather. We have places for shepherding and cattle and diverse farming. We have places for trade. I don’t mean to sound ethnocentric. I just mean to say that we really do have everything all within our country. And yet, Americans are known for being loud, rude, and fat. What does that say about us as people? Where is the pride for our land? I don’t mean pride in our culture or heritage. Our heritage consists of us having stolen land from unassuming people and stripping of its resources for all it’s worth. And our culture hit an all time low when we made Lady Gaga famous. What I mean is that the Israelis cling to their land and protect it with their life because it’s all they have and they’re proud of it. Same for the Egyptians. They know how dependent they are on their land. We only use and abuse our land. We have no sense of permanence or thankfulness in America. We take what we want and move on as soon as it doesn’t suit us anymore. And that worldview has seeped into everything that we do. Don’t like your job? Move somewhere else. Don’t like the music at your church? Choose another one. How spoiled are we? I don’t know where I’m going with all this exactly. But it’s something that has been plaguing me since I arrived here.

We arrived in Cairo at about 8 pm. According to our tour guide (who’s really nice and actually knows his stuff), 8 pm is early for Egyptians. Since it’s so hot during the day, they mostly work at night. We stayed at the Saphir Hotel and it was pretty amazing. Look at all the pastries I had at dinner:

Some may call it excessive, but I say that I’m just broadening my pastry knowledge. Anyways, nice hotel, I slept really well, and was ready to go when I woke up in the morning.

Our first stop was a set of two pyramids in Giza, built for Sneferu during the 4^th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom (2613 BC-2494 BC). But Sneferu died during the building, so his son, Khufu, finished the project. The first pyramid built here was the Bent Pyramid. Half way through the building, they realized that they were building at the wrong angle and finished it in a different angle. So it looks really awkward:

Instead of killing the architect for being such an imbecile, they let him live and built a second pyramid in the right shape – the Red Pyramid:

We were able to crawl around inside the Red Pyramid, but the Bent Pyramid was too unsafe to go inside. Apparently the ceiling is very unstable. Something funny about the Pyramids is that they Ancient Egyptians didn’t want anyone robbing them, so they covered they Pyramids in sand hoping that they would just appear to be sand dunes. The problem with this is that Egypt is a very flat land. There aren’t sand dunes anywhere. So they kind of stick out awkwardly. Way to go, Egyptians. For such an advanced civilization, they really didn't think that one through. Anyways, first Pyramid experience! It was pretty exciting, but we didn’t get to crawl around into too many rooms. I’m sure the Valley of Kings will be much more exciting.

Afterwords, we went to an outdoor museum in Giza. There were some interesting things there. For instance, there were three statues of Ramses II. Apparently, there are hundreds of statues of the man. He was possibly the Pharaoh during the time of the Exodus, though that is widely disputed. Most scholars don’t even believe in the Exodus, but, for the ones that do, there is more evidence as Ramses II being the Pharaoh during that time. All of his statues depict him as a young man stepping with his left foot forward. This is because the Ancient Egyptians believed that you thought with your heart. So, you step forward with your left foot because that’s the same side as your heart. One of the statues of him, is 75 feet tall! And, it’s not even the tallest one of him. Here’s a picture:

The detail that went into this is incredible. One of the reasons for this, is that the Ancient Egyptians also believed that if you didn’t make a copy of something in this life, or if you weren’t buried with it, then it didn’t come with you into the next life. That’s why the Pharaohs were buried with food and possessions. Whatever happens in this life is relived in the next life and you’ll want all your favorite things with you. So, if there is a statue of you made and your fingernail is missing then you won’t have that fingernail in the afterlife. Everything is cyclical and recurring, which is so very different from Jewish or Christian worldview. It seems so… encroaching, to me. I don’t know if that’s the right word for it, but it’s the only one that comes to mind.

Also interesting to me, is how Egyptians believed that they were the “pure” race. Even when building the pyramids that we visited, priests had to come and plaster the land that the pyramid was going to be built on, pray over and anoint the plastered land, remove the plaster, and pray over it again. That way the land was made clean and reborn so that only Egyptians would ever step on it, from there on out. Even imported trees were taken to the priests to be cleansed before they could be used for anything. And this ideal still exists in Egypt today. Anyone know who Nasser is? I didn’t until today. I’m not even sure if I’m spelling his name right. But, apparently, he was a president of Egypt a while back. He was pretty close with the Coptic Church and supported it. But, he believed in a pure Egyptian race. So, he nationalized all businesses so that, if any Jews or foreigners owned businesses, they had to give their business to the state, forcing many of them to leave the country. A few years later, he decided to shut down the synagogues in Egypt so that the rest of the Jews had to leave. Before Nasser, there were 300,000 Jews living in Egypt. I’m not even talking about Israelis, I’m talking about Egyptian Jews. There was certainly a population of Jews in Egypt, because many Jews fled there during exile in ancient times and there has always been a group of them in Egypt since then. After Nasser died, a peace treaty was made and 1 out of the 10 synagogues was opened and is still functioning. There are about 200 Jews in Egypt today, but I’m surprised that there’s any at all with such a strong Muslim and Coptic Christian presence in the country.

After the museum, we went to the stepped pyramids and saw the site for the possible first writing for Semitic language. I would love to post pictures, but we weren’t allowed to take any. The most noteworthy thing there is how closely tied Ancient Egyptian language is to Ancient Semitic language. We also went into a tomb for a Pharaoh’s daughter and were able to look at all the inscriptions on the wall. It’s amazing what lengths these people went to in order to make sure that they had what they thought they would need in the afterlife. Things like food and sacrifices to the gods and their pets. They needed enough to last them a whole lifetime. Makes me glad that I’m a Christian and I never have to worry about that. We also went into a museum to Imhotep, the chief architect, high priest, and vizier to the Pharaoh. He was a pretty important guy. They had his mummy in there. He kind of looked like a midget. I don’t know if that’s due to the mummification process, or if he was just really tiny. I’ve heard that people used to be a lot shorter in ancient days. That’s why the doors on all the Crusader and Coptic Churches are so low.

Our last stop was at one of the synagogues that had been shut down, along with a Coptic Church that survived Roman persecution. The way it survived is that it was disguised as a house, in a village. A pretty clever disguise which seemed to have worked, as it is one of the only churches that survived that time. This is where I realized that the church was covered in Arabic writing. I instantly associated it with negative things because, in Israel, any time I see Arabic writing I know that it’s a mosque or something that the Muslims took from the Jews or Christians. And I had to completely change my thought process for Egypt because I just happened to be standing in a Christian church where the followers happen to be Arabic because their Egyptian. It’s not a negative thing here. It’s interesting to me how something so ingrained in one culture as a bad thing, can be a normal and good thing in another culture. I’m having to really reassess the way I see things, now. And I never thought that I was one to think in absolutes. I’m a military brat. I’m fairly well traveled, at least in the states. I didn’t even have a difficult time readjusting to Jerusalem, other than putting up with the men there. But then to go from Jerusalem to Egypt is weird for me because they both seem to be “Middle Eastern” cultures, but there are still important differences.