Saturday, February 4, 2012

On Monday we went on our “Shephelah Field Trip.” The Shephelah is a region of low hill country in Judea. Shephelah literally means low hills. This region housed many Bible events, some of the more exciting including the David and Goliath story, as well as many of the conquests described in Joshua. 

Standing above the site where David killed Goliath
We visited many different Tels and hills, and enjoyed the wet, rainy weather -  a statement completely void of sarcasm. “Winter” in Israel translates to “rainy season.” Though it can be annoying to prepare for all the water, we’re learning to enjoy it as much as we can. There are plenty of bright sides to be found in the rain, as any good cross country runner could tell you. Here, our bright sides include beautiful green hills that make you feel like you’re in Scotland, and not in the middle of a desert. It also makes for plenty of good stories. The times we’ve spent running through the rain back to the center and getting splashed by cars, but laughing too hard to care that we’re soaking wet.


An example of how green the hills here are!
After all of our escapades on various green hills, complete with a rendition of “The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music,” we went to the caves! We got free time at the caves to explore on our own, and wander through the various rooms. Since caving is one of my dream jobs, I was overjoyed to be given free reign. Some of the caves we went into were fairly simple, but others wound on and on. We spent a good 25 minutes or so in one of the caves, finding various pathways and cool rooms. We finished our caving experience with the Bell Caves, where we all met up once more and sang hymns in a natural acoustic wonderland. We then returned to the Center; soaking wet, hungry, and completely satisfied. 

Standing in one of the caves

We found a rock perfect for the Little Mermaid pose. The girl with the red hair was encouraged to duplicate it... Haha.



The actual Little Mermaid pose...



We found a room that was dedicated to putting children into time-out in... or something like that. I'm demonstrating  with a classic Morgan pouty face.
More caving
Wine pressing. Becca has a good face; I was distracted by the fact that we actually got it to move!
After 25 minutes of being underground, natural light was a welcome sight.
Sitting in a tomb!
More tombs! Excuse the dusty camera lens... It was super chalky in there.

5 comments:

  1. What era are the caves? How old is the tomb? Looks amazing, even coming from the woman who had an anxiety attack all the way through the Lewis & Clark Canyons. :-}

    ReplyDelete
  2. Obviously I meant Lewis & Clark *Caverns* (blush). HIghlighted Annie's hair, looks bright and adorable. Slava doing better, knock wood. MCT play is Pied Piper. I'm guessing the little kids will be rats. :-} Just a guess.

    So good to talk to you. Hope classes are going well. I know you're learning so much just by being where you are. Love you biggsie biggsies!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Annie is a Townskid in the Pied Piper. It was a *very* tough year! Lots of good kids didn't get in. Very proud of her!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I found your camera cord. It was on the counter near the sliding glass door among some tools. Now you'll have two! :-}

    ReplyDelete
  5. Heyyy!

    YAY Annie!!! Did Slavy try out? So proud of her for getting in. That's cool that it was a tough year! That hopefully means that the show will be really good. :)

    The caves are super old, can't remember exactly, but I'll find my notes sometime and fill you in. They were very reminiscent of Lewis and Clark Caverns, just minus the stalagmites and stalactites. Plus, we got to explore them freely, rather than on a guided tour, so I appreciated that. :)

    Glad you found my camera cord... :/ I feel kind of ridiculous. But I guess now I have a back up. Haha. Thanks again for your guys' help with that.

    I love you soooo much mommy. Thanks for checking up on me. It means a lot.

    Love love love,
    Claire

    ReplyDelete