Sunday - Olive Pressing and Prayer...

Sunday, October 18, we had an Olive pressing activity in the Center! It was so so awesome.

We started by putting freshly washed olives into the press, by the bucket. Then everyone took turns on the press, pushing in a circle, so the wheel of the press could smash all of the olives. We got going really fast, too. People were running around, it was really fun and kind of intense.

This is Sam, filling my bucket with green olives. I heard it was best to wait until they were black, but I guess here at the Center we're just a peculiar people or something ...

This is me pushing the press...not a very good picture, to show the press or what not, but I'll try to get a better one up here...

After all the olives were good and smashed, we put the mush into woven baskets to go under the press....we had to use our hands, and they were way way nasty after. It was fun though. I was glad that we're all in college, and therefore no olive-mash fights were started. It would've been gross. Really nasty. But fun, I suppose :)

This is Kyra and I putting our mush into our woven basket. It was all over my hands. Like I said, I'm grateful there was no food fight.

Here is a little better picture of the press, and us putting the mush in, you can also see a little bit better.

After the baskets were put under the press, then they rigged it with stones and pressed the oil out of the mush and into a basin. It is really sweet. That was basically it, which was wonderful.
Here's the press, with the stones to add the weight to press it.

And one of the other end of the press, where you can see the oil spilling out into the first basin, and then a larger one just outside of this picture to the bottom-left.

Then we went out into the city for the rest of our day!

Kathryn, Kyra, and I (yeah, I know, no "K" name, so I shouldn't have been allowed...) Decided that we were just going to go out for a few hours, because we refused to stay in. We had a big midterm due, that was basically a research midterm, for our Palestinian / Islamic perspective class. So we set out to do some site visits for our Old Testament class, and also to get some Lunch. Sundays and Mondays are always sack lunch days here at the center, and they're usually the same thing...and they've just gotten old and lost whatever lustor they started with...

Anyway, so we decided to do some sites in west jerusalem, so we called a cab to take us over there, so we could just walk back. Because there were only 3 of us, it was 10 sheks instead of 7, which was okay. We were just glad that we didn't have to walk up the big hill to the city :). So we told the cab driver that we wanted to go the Dormition Church, which is on the south west side of the Old City. So, he took us to the North East Side. Direct opposites. Let's just say that communicating with language barriers isn't the funnest thing. For us or the cabbie. He was a little irked that he had to go all the way around the city, and we were a little irked that he didn't know where it was when we told him the name of the place. But, oh well. We got there eventually, and it was a good day :).

So when we got to the Dormition Church, there was a lovely sign saying "Church closed on Sundays between 11:45 and 12:30 for prayer." It was 12:00 on the nose. Great. But then we saw underneath the sign a little line that says, "Open Invitation." And we thought, "Sweet! We'll go in and see it, and we'll just have to say a prayer. Not bad at all, do-able." So we went in :). It was really cool. We just quietly listened to their service. I don't know really how to describe it. I didn't take any pictures because that would've been tacky and irreverent, but we were in the congregation with three other people, and there was a group of about fifteen people standing in the apse of the church, circling the altar. They were just kind of reciting at first, and then they started to sing. Included in the 15 people, about half of them were monks. And they had the most beautiful prayer / song service I've ever heard. They all just knew the parts, and there were a few solos, and just the acoustics and everything were so perfect. It was very touching, to see this small gathering of people worshipping like that. I think that's what I've liked most about being here, is gaining and understanding and appreciation for the way others worship. I may not believe in it, but I do see real humility and devoutness from everyone here.
This is us making growling faces after having to walk up a hill anyway, even though we took a cab (the goal of taking a cab was so we didn't have to walk up the huge hill and the long, long walk around the city), and our driver didn't know where to go. But we were kidding. And that's the Dormition Church behind us.

A better picture of the Church.

Anyway, after that we went to the Last Supper room, or a representation of it. The Last Supper room is in a basement of this other church, but the Dormition Church claims to have it, and it's in an actual upper room....Which doesn't make sense, by the way, because if it was the real room it would be below city level now, even though back then it was an "Upper Room." But we went and saw it, and it was interesting.

This is me in the Upper Room area. Tons of people were there, and you can even see some Nuns!

Kyra has this thing about nuns, so we took a picture of her and Nun, but had to be sneaky about it...

Then we saw the Tomb of David. Who knows if it was real, but of course they have a room where people go and see, and the tomb is covered on both the men's side and women's side (two separate sides) with a curtain, so you can't see it at all... I bet there's just empty space behind it...but that's just my cynical side coming out haha, whoops! The sites are all very interesting...but sometimes I can't help but think, "umm...yeah right..."

This is a statue of King David outside of his Tomb, with Kathryn and me.

Me and David's tomb. You can see the covering that's over it. And there's even a Harp, because David was famous in his kingdom for playing the harp.

Oh well! After those three sites, we went on an excursion through the city, through Zion's Gate, which I've never been through before, which was cool, through the Armenian quarter, which I've also never been to cause it has less shops and etc. and is slightly more residential, and then out of Jaffa Gate, down into West Jerusalem and to Sbarro's Pizza! We were craving pizza.....yeah....so we had pizza, a breadstick, a soda, and a salad for a pretty reasonable price! It tasted delicious. I love the food here, but I honestly am so excited for American food again :). Mmmm! My taste buds will forever be altered slightly from being here, in a good way, and I've gained a new appreciation for a bunch of other foods, but I think that I just love American food. The taste of home, you know?

This is me going through Zion's gate. I had to commemorate it :)

This is a huge group of soldiers that we saw in the city, and had to take a picture. Something weird is happening with my shirt...
But Military service is mandatory here for all young adults, for two years, starting at age 20. Everyone does it, both girls and boys, and they take them on tours on their free days and educate them, and show them around. I think it's part of an outreach / education program for the young adults, and it just happens to provide them with a standing army, so there you go.

Those were the last pictures I took of this day, sorry! But this is the rest of what we did:

Anyway! After that we had an adventure walking back through west jerusalem and to the Old City without a map. That was fun. We walked past this underground prison. I'm not really sure if it's in use or not...but we had the creepy thought that we'd be walking over prisoners, if we were.

Then we went back to Omar's for Kathryn to pay for her Olive Wood, and he gave us a ride home so we didn't even have to go up the big hill on the way back, either!

It was a very pleasant day, and I loved getting to go out into the city and just waltz around. We were discussing the fact that when we see tourist groups now, we don't feel like them. We feel, of course not like locals, but at least like we're familiar with it. Visitors maybe, instead of Tourists. It's really great :)

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this! I love you all!