this morning my friends jenna, j.e. and i climbed the mount of olives to watch the muslims pray at the dome of the rock. non-muslims arent allowed in that particular building, but if you go to the top of the mount of olives at midday on fridays, you can see them performing their prayers. it was amazing to watch so many people worship in unison. though we were a good distance away, we could hear the responses of the crowd to whatever it was the muezzin/imam was saying. j.e. commented that in america we would only ever get that excited about a footall game or something. here, this happens every friday at prayers.
afterwards we went to the shuk (jewish food market). this is always fun to do on a friday afternoon, because everyone is scurrying around getting ready for shabbat, which starts at sunset. we got falafels (yum!!) and sat on a step and at them and watched all the people. there was one older lady with her hair dyed in patchwork, parts blond, parts brown, and parts red. the older women here have very interesting taste in hairstyles. and some hippie types with bushy side-curls and dreads. there was a girl, maybe my age, wearing nondescript jeans and a t-shirt holding her large military weapon and looking very natural, in an odd sort of way. and mothers in long skirts and kerchief-covered heads juggling carrying their small children and their groceries at the same time.
last weekend i went to jericho with my history of the church in the east class. we visited three churches, the first was an ethiopian orthodox church, on a compound occupied by 4 ethiopian monks. this church was more of a chapel really. they were building another on the compound, but we were unable to go inside, because it was still under construction. unfortunately i forget the name of the man who showed us around, but he was very sweet and read us a passage from the Bible in Ge'ez (or was it Amharic?)
the next place we went was a coptic church. this church was small as well, but very beautiful, with many lovely icons, and decorated floors and ceilings. this was the front of the church, with tapestries, and pictures of jesus and the twelve disciples above.
this is a picture of the coptic Bible. on the right is Arabic, which is the language most egyptians speak at home. on the left is the coptic language, which looks very much like greek, but i am told it doesnt sound like it at all.
this is a (somewhat blurry) picture of the coptic preist who showed us around. i dont remember his name, either. im bad with names. but he was very nice, and gave us tea and cookies and dates, and later cucumbers from his garden. apparently jericho is famous for its cucumbers. who knew? anyway, here he is standing in what is believed to be zaccheus' house, which has now been turned into a little chapel. it is also, oddly enough, believed to be the tomb of several famous prophets.
this last picture is from the armenian orthodox church. this church was too beautiful to believe. every inch was decorated, every wall, the whole ceiling, the floors, everything. it was gorgeous. when we got there there was a service going on but it got over shortly after we arrived. parts of the church were still under construction, but apparently the armenians were trying to build a place suitable to hold another ecumenical council at some point in the future. ecumenical councils are a big part of this class.
ok, i hope i've written enough to make up for the weeks that have gone by since my last post. comments are always appreciated, since they let me know im not writing for nobody. speaking of writing for nobody, maybe i should start that paper...
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