Israel:Day Eight

Greetings all from the stranded tourist,

Well the rumors were true when we got back to the hotel. We went to dinner while the Educational Opportunities (EO) staff worked diligently to get us booked on alternate flights. We gather in the lounge after dinner and await news. Here comes Tom, some have flights and some don't, hold tight more info to come. Enjoy some coffee and pretzels and relax and wait. Here he comes again. They have been successful in getting 36 out of 68 of us flights. Time for them to load onto the buses to get to Tel Aviv. You can sense the frustration and disappointment in the rest of us who didn't make the flight. We gather downstairs to here the plan
 EO has set us all up in rooms and is working on getting us flights home. We are all confirmed into JFK leaving at 11:30 p.m. On Friday. What? Not Thursday? No Friday. The disappointment rises. We get everybody keys and get them settled into their rooms. At this point, apart from the group leaving for Jordan tomorrow, I'm the only Elder here that has been to Israel, so I have become the default leader of our motley crew for the remainder of our time. There are a few who desperately need to get home, so EO works their magic and we get 7 more out that night. We are down to 25. We try to get folks to see the blessing of two more days but things are still a little raw.

Once we have done all we can do for the night, I head to the lounge and tell Dia the bartender I need an American sized cup of coffee. He holds up a beer mug and says it is the biggest he has. PERFECT!!!! I drnk coffee until the wee hours of the morning and finally head to bed.

I get up early to see the Jordan crew off. We have flights all confirmed all the way home and EO has authorized is a guide and a bus for the day and EO is picking up the tab. How incredible is that? Oh the choices we have. We settle on three: the temple mount sifting project, the main part of the Israel Museum, and the night spectacular at the citadel of King David.

At 10:30 we hit the road. The first stop is the sifting project. A number of years ago the Muslims were excavating on temple mount and simply throwing debree into the valley below. The Israel Antiquities Authority got permission to gather the debris and transport it to another location. Now they allow tourists to work with the archaeological staff to sift through it looking for antiquities. We had a ball, dump a bucket of material on the shifting screens, wash out the bucket, spread the material and wash it down, then sort through it in a systematic way looking for pottery, mosaic pieces, arrow heads, coins, glass, etc. Our group found one ancient coin and lots of pottery shards. We had a ball, I know I don't have a calling to be an archaeologist, but something compels you to do one more bucket thinking the next one will have a treasure. They summarize our time by categorizing and dating our good finds and we are off to lunch. A local place, not one of the tourist destinations. It was delicious.

Next stop, the Israel Museum. There is a gigantic model of Jerusalem at the time of Christ which really helps put things in perspective. Some head to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, others head to the main building. It is a giant museum. There is an archaeology section that takes you from pre Canaanite thru today, a history of Judaism that includes four reconstructed synagogues from around the world, two giant art galleries, and an area of exhibits from other nations and cultures. Two hours isn't enough to take it all in. Back on the bus headed to the hotel for dinner.

After dinner we are on the bus headed to Jaffa Gate to go to the Citadel of King David for a light and sound show. No one is really sure what that means but we have been told it is spectacular. And they were right. For the show we are seated in the middle af the ancient crusader fortress watching the history of the land of Israel projected across every surface
if the Citadel. It is an incredibly moving presentation and is an incredible finale to a spectacular trip. Tomorrow is a free day.

Your brother in Christ
Faron