Jessie and I awakened on her birthday, ate some yummy pita bread, cheese, and salami that the nuns had set out for us, and then set out for Sfet and Capernaum. We found our way to the bus station, asked many Nazarenes which bus to take and where to get it, and ended up sitting at the station for three hours without ever catching a bus. So, somehow we missed the bus to Sfet and Capernaum, and couldn’t take a taxi or another bus in time to get to the cities before all of the Jewish stores closed for the Sabbath (Friday and Saturday).
So we decided to roam the city. We went from one side of Nazareth to the other, roaming through shops. We passed by a spice shop and stuck our noses in the door, following the smell. A Palestinian man called us into the store and invited us to share Arab coffee with him Arab coffee is made by boiling water on the stove, adding a heap of strong fresh grounds, and bringing the coffee to a boil. Once it has boiled, stir it and boil again. Then, once the grounds have drifted to the bottom, the coffee is ready.
We sat around the table with the store owner and his neighbor, drinking rich delicious Kenyan Columbian blend Arab coffee together. They told us about Palestine and their businesses and invited us to keep in touch with them. We bought a couple pounds of coffee beans and hopped, skipped, and jumped throughout the Muslim Quarter to see the church on the spot of Mary’s (mother of Jesus) home where the angel Gabriel told her about her pregnancy, and later on, to the synagogue where Jesus preached.
We found that we were a little disappointed in the city of Nazareth; it was old of course, but it had been rebuilt over the years and the old city was merged with the new. We didn’t feel like we were close to Jesus because he seemed so far away due to the numerous renovations in the thousands of years since his time there. The way that the holy sites are created is based upon tradition. For example, the house where the angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her that she would be the mother of Jesus had had monasteries and Christian churches on the grounds since soon after Jesus died. Then, after Muslims had taken over, the Crusaders came and took back the area, building a church upon the spot to commemorate it. And so it goes – often the Muslims have taken back over the buildings and then they’re rebuilt yet again – so it’s not like the churches are what Jesus would have seen – most of the places where Jesus was were not churches at all – they are now to commemorate his being there. So, we hoped that Jerusalem would be more what we had imagined – walking where Jesus walked, seeing what he saw, etc. We did feel, however, that the geography of Nazareth was much the same as when Jesus was there – so we realized the steep hills that he climbed and how dusty his feet would have been – we experienced firsthand how the washing of the feet would have been significant!
We made it back to our room in the convent in time to change, eat another picnic meal, and get ready to go out with Saleem to the hookah bar to celebrate Jessie’s birthday.
So we decided to roam the city. We went from one side of Nazareth to the other, roaming through shops. We passed by a spice shop and stuck our noses in the door, following the smell. A Palestinian man called us into the store and invited us to share Arab coffee with him Arab coffee is made by boiling water on the stove, adding a heap of strong fresh grounds, and bringing the coffee to a boil. Once it has boiled, stir it and boil again. Then, once the grounds have drifted to the bottom, the coffee is ready.
We sat around the table with the store owner and his neighbor, drinking rich delicious Kenyan Columbian blend Arab coffee together. They told us about Palestine and their businesses and invited us to keep in touch with them. We bought a couple pounds of coffee beans and hopped, skipped, and jumped throughout the Muslim Quarter to see the church on the spot of Mary’s (mother of Jesus) home where the angel Gabriel told her about her pregnancy, and later on, to the synagogue where Jesus preached.
We found that we were a little disappointed in the city of Nazareth; it was old of course, but it had been rebuilt over the years and the old city was merged with the new. We didn’t feel like we were close to Jesus because he seemed so far away due to the numerous renovations in the thousands of years since his time there. The way that the holy sites are created is based upon tradition. For example, the house where the angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her that she would be the mother of Jesus had had monasteries and Christian churches on the grounds since soon after Jesus died. Then, after Muslims had taken over, the Crusaders came and took back the area, building a church upon the spot to commemorate it. And so it goes – often the Muslims have taken back over the buildings and then they’re rebuilt yet again – so it’s not like the churches are what Jesus would have seen – most of the places where Jesus was were not churches at all – they are now to commemorate his being there. So, we hoped that Jerusalem would be more what we had imagined – walking where Jesus walked, seeing what he saw, etc. We did feel, however, that the geography of Nazareth was much the same as when Jesus was there – so we realized the steep hills that he climbed and how dusty his feet would have been – we experienced firsthand how the washing of the feet would have been significant!
We made it back to our room in the convent in time to change, eat another picnic meal, and get ready to go out with Saleem to the hookah bar to celebrate Jessie’s birthday.
(The picture above is our view of the Greek Orthodox Church in Nazareth)
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