March to April 2010

We have been very busy these past two months. We spent 11 days in the Galilee area and 4 days in Jordan. Because I've already blogged about these two trips, I'll just include some speciality shots.

This is SKB "guarding" the students' belongings while they are frolicking in Gan HaShlosha, a warm springs park.

SKB and GOB on an overlook in Jordan.

The New King Hussein Mosque in Jordan. It is a very stunning structure. The mosque and the grounds are probably about 4 times the size of Temple Square.

Petra is always beautiful. We can see Indianna Jones at every turn.

Al-Jazzar mosque in Akko.

It is the last photo taken with my new camera. I dropped it with the lens fully extended on a stone floor.

I tried to live without a camera for a few days and finally realized that I had to replace my camera. I called one camera shop and was quoted a price of 2200 NIS. That is about $600.00 I'd paid $350.00 for the camera in the US. I tried another camera shop and received the price of 1800 NIS. So I now have another new camera, but it was more expensive.

Another photo of the Jordan River.

It was so nice to have our grandson Spencer baptized here in January. It is the most beautiful section of the Jordan River. Much of the river is just a trickle now because so much is siphoned off for irrigation pruposes. But this section of the river has been preserved.

A bird.

A goose.

A bird that came to feed her young.

This was above our porch in Galilee. One of the peaceful things about the area of Galile is the sound of birds. The "each cooing dove" refrain keeps running through my head. We don't hear traffic or loud music. The main sounds are birds and waves at the shore.

Cats.

These cats are much friendlier than Jerusalem cats. Jerusalem cats have probably been mistreated. If you hold your hand out to them, they'll hiss and scratch you. The Galilee cats rub against your legs, purr, and beg for food.

We have not been pleased with our hotel accommodations in Petra. We are looking for an upgrade for the next trip. This is the ceiling of our bathroom. It fell down during the night. The next morning we had lots of stuff on the floor.

For some reason we have antagonized the women in this photo. She is the only National Park employee who gives us a bad time when we bring students to her Park. I thought I'd snap a photo of her as she was telling our faculty member that he couldn't bring in the students because all of them didn't have their ID's with them. But, as always is the case, she finally relents and lets us all in. We have already paid for their National Parks' Cards, but she thinks that we are trying to sneak in additional students because some don't have their ID's on them. This happens EVERY semester. Maybe we'll bring her brownies next time.....

This is a church in Cana.

It is the first time I've visited Cana.

And, of course, Cana has lots of souviner shops.

Here is a typical photo of some of our students.

I took more than 1000 photos on the past two trips. Luckily, I'm only including a few in this blog. When I take photos of the students I email them to them. It has helped me to get to know the students better.