Look Mom, I'm a Missionary!

Hey guys, I know its been so long since I last updated and SO MUCH has happened. I think the last time I updated you guys was before our tour. So tour info: We saw 16 national parks in 10 days, I slept in random hotels ,saw lots of great stuff, hiked, swum, and laughed. My cold got so bad I got put on antibiotics. But...I'm better! So on that note... on to the next part. (sorry I don't have time to type up the whole tour, I'll tell you when I get back!)

CAUTION: If you are a worrying relative (*cough* my mom and gramdma) you should read this carefully and do not worry, but rejoice in that I will be home soon and I am not dead, and Jesus is taking care of me. On that thought maybe you just shouldn't read this...just kidding!

SO, I am just going to go on to after the trip. The last day of our tour we had a farewell dinner. It was terrible because We had filafal two times in one day so we were all very grossed out and not hungry. As you might have heard I was sick the entire tour, and by this time I am starting to get better, but other people are starting to get sick. Anyways, so we had to get from the Israel side to the West Bank or Palestine (our city : Beit Sahour) to get where we are staying. This requires crossing a border. A very controversial border. Our bus driver was Israeli, and was not allowed to just drive over the border. So we had to get off the bus, unload the luggage and supplies. Distribute it evenly. Walk across the border. And get on another bus. We didn't have a Palestinian bus until the afternoon before. So as we're crossing the border carrying all of our luggage, we carefully distributed the boys evenly throughout the group just in case (which ended up being a really good idea) and we went through 3 turn styles completely loaded down with our luggage. The entire trip came up to about 300 yards walking in the dark through dark buildings and parking lots. The last 50 yards of our journey was a walkway under an awning with no lights. We walked (nervously) down this dark hallway. The front of our group (and our only two adults) had dissappeared and left us at the last turn style, so we were getting more nervous as we walked. We came out at a road that dead ended where we were standing. There were 5 men standing there selling strawberries (of all things at 9 o'clock at night!). They were whistling and calling at the girls ahead of me. The girls were dazed and had stopped at the end of the walkway, by the time we got there we began to push them on, having spotted our adults and the rest of our group standing by a sketchy bus up the dimly lit street. We quickly walked toward the bus and dropped our bags and were ordered onto the bus. The bus had no lights on it. It looked like the tour bus from hell. There were holes in the seats and the fabric was torn in places at the ceiling. We weren't sure what else to do besides sit and process what we had just been through. Little did we know our journey was just beginning.

After loading all the luggage onto our sketchy bus and we cranked up to pull away, I noticed that all of the buildings on our sketchy street were completely deserted, papers were blowing across the street and only one street light was working...THIS is physical evidence of political unrest. Of the oppression of one power, the true life of Palestinians. As our sketchy bus took us to our apartment/high rise, we were silent, processing what had just happened and what might lie ahead for us.

We arrived and carried the smaller luggage the 9 floors to our rooms, and used our light-less elevator to ship the luggage like big momma up. We arrived and discovered we had no blankets, were limited on food, water, and electricity, little did we know HOW limited.

The next morning we woke up and most of us went through the motions, with the slight change of having to turn the water off in between bathing and such. By lunch, an emergency meeting had been called. We were informed that we were more limited than we had previously thought. We were ALREADY out of water, and had ALREADY used up more than half of our electricity allowance. We were told to go as long as possible without a shower and due to electricity it would be a cold shower. The next day someone came down with the stomach flu and due to poor diet and showering conditions the germs seemed to have mutliplied. 4 people have now come down with the stomach flu, and 12 have the cold. Not only that but, I seem to be coming down with another cold.

Needless to say the professor (a woman) in charge put her foot down, she said we were going to ration things, but we sure as heck were not going to die here in the west bank. So we were allowed hot water for certain times in the day for washing dishes and for sick people to take a bucket and cup water conserving shower. The next step was to send away the sick people to local missionaries houses to get hot water, a warm bed, and rest to hopefully quell the disease, and not to mention the all time low in the morale of our group. So the few that were healthy ( or mostly healthy) like me, got to stay and suffer AND clean—hoping to get rid of the germs and find order in the chaos. The weekend arrived and our new professors arrived and the nice lady professor left. We got nervous, because we weren't sure if these were going to be budget nazi professors who were going to once again cut away our rations or if they were going to be merciful.

Palm Sunday was quiet, the new professors slept most of the day and since Zach and Bri, my buddies, were sick (with my chest cold—sorry guys) , and the only other girl left in my room had the stomach flu, so I stayed back from going to a coffee shop or exploring the city, such a sacrifice considering how tired I was. We literally played go fish all Palm Sunday, I actually didn't even know it was palm sunday until that night. That night we met our new proffesors. GOOD NEWS! They are merciful! They told us that Moody was going to pay—we were not going to die off. Of course there were plenty of Apocalyptic, Secret Church, End of the world jokes made before this decision but at least things were looking up now. They also instituted some structure. We had previously been eating variations of Pita for every meal—which was slowly forming a giant knot in everyone's stomachs. They gave us scheduled meals, cleaning schedules for the apartments, times for classes (not to mention they lightened our load—academically ). Basically morale was on the rise after this meeting. Unfortunately, non of our germophobe attempts have quelled the spread of disease (meaning the stomach flu and cold). We are making jokes about it slowly taking everyone until no one is healthy. I mean come on, even our German is sick, the Europeans WERE the last to go, however.

On a lighter note, Tuesday afternoon we got our first tour! We went to Bethlehem which means we walked 2 miles up hill (60 degree incline) and had to send three people back in a taxi because of a nose bleed and barfing—no joke we are soo sick. I got to see Manger Square, and the Church of the Nativity, and the grotto where Jerome translated the Latin Vulgate. It was cool, but there were only like 10 of us by the time we reached the top of Bethlehem. We had (SURPRISE!) filafal for dinner and shopped some. I made a lot of friends. The Palestinian shop keepers are extremely friendly, and I got some really good deals. Bri and I agreed that it was because we were cute haha. The proffesors were nice enough to splurge and get some of us a taxi back to our apartements.

The culture here has been super hard to get used to. Mostly Muslim Christians which is not what it sounds like at all. Meaning we have to be careful what we wear. NO SHORTS/TANK TOPS. And we have to be careful not go anywhere without a guy. The men here stare you up and down with no self reserve, its very unnerving.

Ok, so trying to be positive, I am taking an Independent Study these two weeks on Bethlehem (what an opportunity right?) so I have no obligations to lectures, I just have reading. So I took this opportunity to sit in on a class that I will take my Senior year (why not get ahead?). Its nice to just enjoy a class and not have to worry about the 12 page paper being assigned or the reading haha. I am doing well. I take a shower every 3 days. Baby powder has become our best friend (for greasy hair) and though morale is still low and people are very moody and sensitive, I think we might just survive until april 6^th! Everyone has started counting down, of course I am as well but I am also counting my teen age years away. Next Tuesday is my 20^th birthday. Though I am excited, I am super nervous. I feel like I am on the edge of the rest of my life, and somehow I feel as though I have to act differently, or get more serious, or actually consider what my life is going to look like seriously. As much as it gives me a knot in my stomach (or is that the pita?) (or the stomach flu?) to think about, I look back and see how much God has done in my life so far, and realize how much he must still have in store for me ahead. Pray for germs to die and iron stomachs for the next ten days as we battle through sand storms and limited showers (or bucket baths as we have been calling them). So take a long hot shower, flush your toilet, and show little ankle for me! Love you guys!  

Movin' on UP!

Well goodness gracious. Last I wrote I was asking for prayer to get through the 10K, and we made it! We ran it in an hour and eleven minutes. The Fantastic Three (Ideas on a new name?) (From Left: Zach, Brianna, and I) ran together the whole race and though I may have slowed them down a bit, they didn't leave me. When we were entering the old city in the race, Spider-Man gave me a high five!! I was so excited, I didn't even get tired till the 8K mark, I was proud of myself and the rest of the Fantastic three, and those others that ran with us!
So leading up to the race was a busy week of way too much class and homework. Friday night after the race I got sick and had to miss out on a final which I had to make up the next day...that was fun. Our new prof.s got here Saturday and Sunday and we were glad to hear that we were going to get both of those days off. Monday after being in class for all of a few minutes, our prof told us that our notes would be graded according to who took the most. So naturally people started getting really competitive to take the most. Some tempers flared. Some people looked like they were going to cry and there were the few us like me, who just sat back and watched it happen...and post a hunger games related facebook status. Needless to say after being berated by a ton of us, he changed it to a slight amount more tolerable.

Its been kind of nice here. We have 4 hour class days in which we learn about the life of Christ and then we get the afternoon off. One day this week me, bri, and zach all went into the old city and literally just wandered around. Another afternoon we went to the mall and ended up sitting in the food court and talking till dinner so we ate Israeli pizza hut. Which was a slight contradiction for me since, in LaGrange, you just don't go there. But it was better than NO pizza haha. SO FUN. Another afternoon, I went to the Biblical zoo, it wasn't super biblical, but I LOVE animals so it was quite the recharge for me, wasn't the same as seeing Prissy though.

Today (Saturday) We went to church (Kay-Hee-LAH), been there, done that, and it was fun. And then we had like 2 hours to study before having to recount the entire Life of Christ (OT references and interpretations) in order in 11 headings in 2 hours. Sadly to say Jesus never even washed the disciples feet in my essay world...You'll have to find some OTHER way to get to Heaven guys...sad day.

On a lighter note we are leaving in the morning (FINALLY!!) for our 10 day spring break tour, I hear rumors of archaeological digs, camel rides, Dead sea swimming, Bedowin tent staying, and so much fun stuff...looks like we're not going to sleep properly or eat on time or even walk at a normal pace for the next ten days. That usually means my next post will be a grumpy one, but lets hope (and pray of course) for high spirits, sleep on the stinky crammed bus and plenty of filaffal to eat :)

Israel is treating us well though, our group hasn't started snapping too terribly at each other yet...Prayers for safe travels, good attitudes, and INTERNET!! (probably spotty for the next week) See you guys on the other side!