day 4

Dear caroline and jenny,

           I'm finally all caught up! This morning, our first stop was at Masada. Not knowing anything about it, I had no idea what to expect. We started driving and the farther we drove, the farther into the middle of nowhere we got. Now I was starting to see what I originally thought all of Israel looked like. Dirt. There was an occasional bush, tumbleweed, or tree but other than that, nothing but dirt.

Like I said, allllll dirt

            Masada was really cool because its all giant mountains that are all dirt. There was a cable car that took us to the top of the mountain and they had lots of preserved tiles, mosaics, and rooms.

Here is a little bit of tile in one of the rooms with me and Sus

            En Gedi was our next adventure. We pull up and it looks just like Masada, in the middle of nowhere with LOTS of dirt. There were a few more trees and bushes, but not much.  We hiked a little bit and got to the lower waterfall to find a bunch of girls in the water with their clothes on screaming and jumping around…interesting. Our stop at En Gedi was very short partly because there wasn’t much to see and we were hungry and hot.

I don't think those girls were thinking because they had to keep hiking after this...

            It was real hot and we were all glad to get back on the bus to cool off. We didn’t know what the weather was going to be like, so we had on layers just in case but most of us had on jeans. Not a good thing to wear in the heat. Qumran was next on the list. This is the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. There were random caves in the side of the dirt cliffs/mountains. This is the cave that is ‘supposedly’ where David was but we have no way of knowing that for sure. 

            After lunch we went to the beach at the Dead Sea. Coolest thing I have ever experienced. I’m sure you guys know, but there is so much salt in the water that nothing can grow in it or live in it. The bottom of the Sea is all black mud, it looks really nasty but it is really good for your skin. The bottom of the Sea is all mud and shells. At one point I sank down to my knees in the mud. When you get in the Sea, you sit like you are in a reclining chair and float with your arms and feet in the air!

It looks gross but it was so cool!

            On the way back to our hotel, we drove through Jericho. It made me a little sad because everything looked so poor and dirty..We went up to an overlook and we saw a camel and the most precious children on the planet. They kept waving and asking me to take their picture. Med gave me a few one dollar bills to give them and they swarmed me when they saw what I had. One of the smallest girls there jumped off a 9 foot wall just to get $1..It was so sad but they were just so excited that it brought a smile to my face. Scott told me afterwards that I can never go on a mission trip and help kids because I will come home with all of them..

We had a very packed day with lots of walking but we got back to the hotel surprisingly early! Oh I forgot to mention, we are now staying in Jerusalem at an actual hotel. Tonight, I got a ring with 1 Corinthians 13:13 carved into it! I got it sized for my ring finger, kind of like a promise ring I guess? And we went on this one street with lots of shops and had so much fun! You two would absolutely adore all the people I’m on this trip with! They are quite the handful, but I love them all like my family!