A Day in the Desert...

*Taken from my journal on 01/28/09 after a day in the desert, preparing to spend the night with the Bedouins.*

So I'm sitting here on the floor of a Bedouin tent. An amazing communal meal with the best tea I've ever had was followed by some lively dance lessons with Moti, our bus driver. After a change into PJ's and a few minutes of watching some of our group playing ultimate Frisbee in a field of level desert dust under a black ink sky, I find myself here.

The girls are chatting in the background and a few of the guys are talking too. A few more of the ladies have gone to get ready for bed and the other guys are searching for wood so they can start a fire outside. I'm under a billowing fabric canopy, sitting on a couple of thin mattresses that rest atop colorful thatched mats that form the floor of our tent. And I'm thinking about how blessed I am.

Today I rode a camel. Her name was Albert and she was very sweet. The one behind us was named Wilber. She seemed grumpy as we were getting going, but somehow became quite friendly and kept walking up beside Albert and putting her face very near mine. This admittedly made me a bit nervous considering the groans and teeth bearing that she began the journey with. (By the way, we mean no insult to our lovely camels' femininity. But they looked like Albert and Wilber while we were riding... and we didn't know yet that they were girls...)

We rode through the Judean desert - mountains of sand in either direction as far as the eye could see beneath a beautiful, golden sunset.

This alone would be an incredible day, but is actually only the latter half...

This morning I swam in the Dead Sea and was able to stand straight up with nothing beneath my feet but water. With arms still at my sides, I could look down and see my toenail polish hovering over seemingly endless blue. Today we also looked out over Jericho, took a picture with Lot's wife and licked the mountain of salt that she stands upon, and visited Qumran and saw the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

And now here we are... camping with the Bedouins. I am 22 and am doing what those three times my age have only dreamed of. It is a quite enchanting moment and I am so very grateful.

Welcome to week two in Israel.

What a blessing. :-)