day 6

            Going into today, I had no idea what to expect. But if I had set any expectations, they would have been blown out of the water. For real. Today was AWESOME! It was our first day of the sports camps! We have basketball, football (soccer), volleyball, and swimming! Each sport is at a different camp and some are at different times so for most of the day, it was just DeeDee and me!

DeeDee is one of the best swim coaches ever. She coached the US National team, Honduras National team, Chile National team, and now she is coaching a swim team in Iraq! She was a teacher/swim coach in the states for 20 some years, lived in Mexico and Chile for a while, and she is now living in Iraq. She just opened her own school in northern Iraq and she is an English language teacher! She is such an amazing woman of God and I have learned so much about swimming, life, and Christ this week!

We got to the pool around 7.30ish and met the other swim coaches Moosa and Elias! Moosa doesn’t speak a lot of English, but enough for basic communication, and Elias speaks great English and would translate for us! There were kids from age 20 to age 8! All the older swimmers (high school age) spoke English but the younger ones did speak a lot of english. At first, I was afraid the language barrier would be really difficult but it really wasn’t! I picked up some Arabic words pretty quick and whatever I didn’t know, I just got Moosa or Elias to translate for me! As a whole, I think practice went really well this morning! Especially for it being our first time with the kids and not really knowing where to start with their training.

Coming in, I didn’t really think I would make close friendships with the kids here but I was waaaay wrong! Sabine Hazboun changed that thought very quickly. I became instant friends with her. Sabine is the Palestinian National Champion Swimmer. And did I mention she just turned 17 a week ago? Yeah..ridiculous! She is leaving in a couple weeks to go to China to train for a month and then she is finishing her senior year of high school in Barcelona, Spain! She is going to be training and going to school there. There is about an 85% chance that she will be swimming in London for the Olympics next summer..CRAZY! Her family runs the Catholic Action Center is Palestine and they are all very strong Christians. Sabine is such a sweet girl and I am definitely going to stay in touch with her! aka I will go to London with her next summer for the Olympics :)

It’s only day 1 of camp and I have already met so many great people! I cannot wait to spend more time with them the rest of the week!

love yall!

day 5

            HOT. HOT. HOT. And that would be an understatement. We started the day in Masada which is in the middle of the dessert. Basically, it is a giant mound of dirt and rock with zero shade. To get to the top there are two options: hike up on a little tiny snake path or take a ski lift type thing up to the top. Clearly our guide chose the ski lift because we got there right as it started to get real hot. Masada is where King Herod lived with his 239834697298347 slaves. He had several palaces that overlooked the Dead Sea from the top of Masada. Back in the day, the Dead Sea water level was much higher and much closer to the mountain. This is the site that got destroyed and lead to the downfall of the Jews. Fun Fact: When a soldier of the Israeli army completes their 3 years of service, they have to pledge to always protect Masada to prevent another fall of the Jews!

            Next, we drove down the road about 20ish minutes and went to Ein Gedi! Ein Gedi is where David hid from King Saul when he was trying to kill him. David found one of the caves that was in the rock and hid there for a few days. At one point, David got out of the cave and found King Saul and had the chance to kill him but he didn’t. Instead, David just cut off a piece of the King’s robe. There are several trails in Ein Gedi that lead to different waterfalls and/or the very top of Ein Gedi which would be a verrrry long hike. We took about an hour hike and went to a couple different waterfalls and they were breathtaking. David’s Waterfall was beautiful. It was so tall and the view looking back towards the Dead Sea was incredible! Most of us had on our bathing suits and took a short dip in the pool and stood under the waterfall and got a nice massage!

            Qumran was next on the list of places to see in the middle of no where. We literally got off the bus, watched a short film about it, toured it, took pictures, and got back on the bus in a grand total of 30 minutes. It was probably the shortest stop so far! Qumran is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. These scrolls had the Old Testament written on them and they were found in random caves on the side of a mountain. Fun Fact: Ester is the only book in the Old Testament that doesn’t mention the word ‘God’!

            Now time for everyone’s favorite…the Dead Sea! It was so much fun! Fun Fact: If you swallow the Dead Sea water, you could die within minutes of swallowing it. The water is so salty, that it dehydrates your body so fast, that your organs cannot function and they will all shut down. After hearing that, I second-guessed whether I really wanted to get in or not! But we all got in anyway and put mud allll over us! Back in March, I just put it on my arms and legs but this time, we got a little more adventurous and put it on our face! It burned like heck but it was so worth it because my skin was so smooth afterwards!

            Jericho was our last stop of the day. We went to a shop that sold all the Dead Sea products and some random pottery before going to dinner. There were probably 10 peacocks just hanging out outside the shop! There was some bird and (it may have been a peacock but I’m not sure) and it sounded EXACTLY like Kevin from the movie Up! Being the child that I am, I totally freaked out and got so excited! I wish I could have recorded it making the noise because I’m pretty sure Pixar found that bird, recorded it, and used it as Kevin’s voice…We drove to this very elegant restaurant where we met Taysir Abu Saada. He wrote the book, Once An Arafat Man and he is President/Founder of Seeds of Hope. After he talked to us for a little bit about his story and his foundation, we ate a fabulous dinner. My true Rinehart colors were shining during this meal…It was probably the best dinner I have had in years! (no offense mom…) All the salads, pita, and meats were so delicious. And we had this super tart lemonade with mint leaves and it was just the perfect compliment to the entire meal. I could go on forever about it but I’ll stop before I embarrass myself!

            Today was a very looooong day! We left the hotel before 8am and didn’t get back til about 10.30pm and we were going non stop from place to place. I am so exhausted but it was totally worth it. The sports camps start tomorrow and I am pumpeddd! Good night!

Love yall!

my bad...

I'm so sorry I have been so awful about posting for the past few days! We have been so so busy and the internet crashes like every 10 minutes..We are at a different hotel now, so I'll try to get all caught up tonight!