Adhan and Shabbat

First of all, I realized that I haven't written about one of my favorite things I experience every day, multiple times a day, here in Jerusalem. That is the "adhan," or call to prayer. When I first got here (and was not used to the time change yet) I woke up to it every morning around 5:00. The chant blares through all the speakers from the mosques 5 times a day and the people faithfully turn toward Mecca to pray. It is pretty incredible how devoted the people are here- both those of the Islamic and Jewish faith. Tonight I got to experience Jewish devotion and worship. We aren't usually allowed in the East city after dark, but we all took a field trip to the Wailing Wall to experience what it is like the day before the Sabbath. The wall is separated by gender, so all the girls grouped together and we made our way through the crowd to the wall. There were groups of Jewish girls and women standing in circles singing songs and many people were standing toward the wall reading their book of scripture aloud and in silence. Many were praying. Some had written their prayers down and put them in the little cracks in the wall and others prayed as they touched and kissed the wall. It was pretty neat to see and touch the remaining wall of Herod's temple. After we saw it, we made our way back up toward the entrance and found the boys from our group wearing their kippahs and dancing and singing in the circles with the Jewish men. It looked like quite the party! Unfortunately, as girls we were not allowed to join in. Watching it was quite the experience in itself though! I wished I could have captured some of those moments on my camera, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. Here are some from another day.

It has been so fun to be able to explore the city. I went with some friends on Wednesday and as we were walking through the streets, we made friends with a local who insisted on taking us on a tour to see his church. We followed him up and down the streets to the church of the Holy Sepulcher where he stopped and after he talked for a while, he offered us coffee ad tea. Though we had to refuse, it was a kind gesture  and we all felt a little more cultured having spent a few moments with him.