Not the Micheal Jordan that played for the Bulls, but Jordan the country.
Last weekend I was planning on heading to Eilot, which is a city in the south of Israel that sits on the Red Sea and my plan was to take the midnight bus on Thursday night and then hang out there for a couple of days. Well, the bus filled up and I was unable to get a seat.
Instead of taking a taxi back home for 30 shekels I planned on sleeping at the bus station. I stated talking with 3 American Christians who had also missed that bus. While we were sitting there and talking one of the employees at the bus station told us we had to leave and could not wait at the bus station any longer. Since these guys didn’t have a place to stay, I invited them to stay at my apartment for the night and then we could head out tomorrow.
So the 4 of us crashed at my apartment for the night. They also invited me to go to Petra with them. Why not, I have wanted to go to Petra anyway, why not with some other Christian guys.
After taking a few buses, taxis and crossing the border we ended up in Petra. Pretty desolate. It is dessert and mountains, nothing more. On our journey to Petra I found out that they are hardcore Pro-Palestinian and work for a newspaper in the west bank. Needless to say we had some heated conversation all throughout our time in Jordan and I did not associate with them when crossing the border back into Israel.
These guys had been working for the newspaper for about 2 and half months and were very adament about their position. They had become so devoted to their cause that they felt like God had ordained them to spread news about the occupation to the world. Not only that but they had become anti-Israel to the point of being angered whenever they would see an Israeli soldier.
I will write another blog in a little bit about the Palestinian issue. Sorry to only give a teaser now, but I have already written more than enough.
Anyways, while in Petra we slept outside under the stars one night and in a hostel the next. That first night we went hiking through some canyons until dusk when we finally found a spot that was beautiful and gave an amazing view of the starry sky. We then woke up the next morning, hiked all of Petra which was about 10 miles in all and then stayed at Valentines. It was a hostel that cost less than $3 dollars per night and we watched Indiana Jones.
1 Comment
July 17, 2008 at 8:14 pm
shalom amigo. i’m enjoying traveling vicariously through you.
i feel like indiana jones is an extremely appropriate movie to watch while around the holy land…maybe it inspired you to search for the ark of the covenant or even the holy grail.
peace bro, stay strong.