bible land!

this was the woman's work...baking bread had to be done every day. it took almost all day.
after i tried shepherding the guide gave the baby to me so it wouldn't get hurt. aww...! haha

2 {great} ways to cope with walking around in the {heat} of egypt

2 {great} ways to cope with walking around in the {heat} of egypt

odds and ends

typical evening...studying together. this is one of the classrooms here.

three of the four roomies
spikey balls and plants are every where here.
shopping is great. here we got free humas and pita!

ode to {kosher}

to be kosher here you can't have meat with dairy...so no pepperonis, sausage or chicken on the pizza. just tuna. tons of soggy tuna right from the can. you can't even see the cheese. we missed pizza so much we thought we'd give it a go....
{shar} loved it.
scott and i...not so much.

ethiopian church

{shar} my roommate and i at the ethiopian church. really an interesting place. pictures of african american saints and Jesus.

nutty putty caves!

scott and i after crawling, sliding, shimming and {SQUEEZING} through dusty tiny dark caves. SO FUN! more pictures from other people's cameras to come.

trodding the wine press

{bell caves}

we got to sing in this limestone quarry caves. {i got to lead!!} the acoustics were incredible! the light shafts made for some fun photos too :)

{slinging}

charge!!

goliath {scott}

killed by....

david {me}

mt. sinai...the {hike}

what an incredible experience! we left at 2 am and hiked for a couple hours to the peak of sinai to watch the sunrise.

{children} of maresha

{emmett} kids

professor emmet brought his wife and children with us to egypt. it was a blast having them around. this is {sarah}

and this is {will}. he is a hoot! i love playing star wars with him around the center or having serious batman chats....

{mosque} in egypt

some of the girls in the group...farthest left bottom row is {jane} she was in my ward last year, farthest right bottom row is {casey} she was in my stake in georgia, and purple scarf is my roommate here {jillian}.

meet {scott}. check out the columns in his glasses.

roommate {jillian}. she loves history and musicals and folk dancing around the room!

a lesson in {humanity}

its universal...mornings are too early to actually get dressed. especially just to water the cement. people really are the same all over the world. :)

ode to the {nile}

Son of the old Moon-mountains African!
Chief of the Pyramid and Crocodile!
We call thee fruitful, and that very while
A desert fills our seeing's inward span:
Nurse of swart nations since the world began,
Art thou so fruitful? or dost thou beguile
Such men to honour thee, who, worn with toil,
Rest for a space 'twixt Cairo and Decan?
O may dark fancies err! They surely do;
'Tis ignorance that makes a barren waste
Of all beyond itself. Thou dost bedew
Green rushes like our rivers, and dost taste
The pleasant sunrise. Green isles hast thou too,
And to the sea as happily dost haste.

--john keats

pyramids at {giza}

how egyptian is this? it was incredible. we even went inside the pyramid-- which was just like the scene when carpet was trying to escape the sand cave thing in aladin-- rectangular and small! when we got inside we sang i am a child of god. it was great, but the other tourists in the pyramid were a little confused as it echoed all the way up!

reflections in the {desert}

we had some solo time out in the desert to think. i was struck by the juxtaposition of how minutely small i am in this world and how much eternal potential i hold as a child of glory. it's no wonder the 3 major religions of the world were started by men wandering in the desert. it has a way of making your evaluate the eternal perspective.

a {basillica} church in jericho

Wilderness of {Zin}

how long we have wandered as strangers in zin, and cried in the desert for thee. we hiked here in the wilderness of zain, where the children of israel wandered. what an amazing landscape!

{spelunking}

went went spelunking in an old cistern and had to wear regulation hard hats. it was incredible to see how the people of the desert were able to invent ways to save water to survive.

{Zacheus's} Tree

on the way to jericho we stopped by the actual tree that zacheus climbed into to see Jesus since he was short in stature.

dang {paparazzi}