TIME TO CLIMB

Thursday, November 9, 2006

We went to bed at 9, hoping to sleep 4 ½ hours until 1:30. I went right to sleep, but then the cell phone went off at 10:30. Drat! We didn’t get it answered, but I never went back to sleep. So at 1:30, after an hour and a half of sleep, and 3 hours of lying there pondering the day, wondering what lay ahead, we got up and dressed, and went out to climb the mountain. We took the Land Cruiser the short distance to the monastery, and found tour buses—at least six. Ahkmed said sometimes there were twenty! It was cold, I wore a long sleeved t-shirt, a turtleneck, and my leather jacket, hat and gloves. Mena went up the mountain with us, but Ahkmed stayed behind. I bet he slept in the car. Those Bedouins can sleep anywhere—life is a perpetual camping trip. There were two twin beds in each guesthouse, and the three of them were in one….Ahkmed had a heavy wool blanket which probably was his bed on the floor.

We started up the mountain, and we weren’t alone. The trail was crowded with people, lots and lots of people going up the mountain, and CAMELS! Lots and lots of camels, and each one had a camel driver trying to find people who would pay for the chance NOT to walk up. I didn’t see too many takers. The camels went along with us for quite some time, hoping people would wear out. I don’t know how people don’t get trampled on. Most of the trail there is very little space to pass, but you get out of the way when a camel is coming. I learned how to say "Thank you" in Arabic quickly—"Shock-ron." I had to say it over and over and over, as I was asked "Camel?", "Ride a camel?" over and over and over.

There didn’t seem to be hardly any Americans on the mountain. In fact, I only heard one or two conversations in American English, a few more Brits. I think there were lots of Russians, few Egyptians, and what else I don’t know!

There were rest stations along the way, little huts that sold refreshments–tea, water, candy bars. As we got higher, some of them had little rooms lined with benches where you could go and rest. I peered in one of them and saw all the benches filled with sleeping people.

The walk up was NOT a walk in the park. It was hard! At the beginning we pushed hard and passed a lot of people hoping to get ahead of the crowd, but finally learned the crowd was everywhere. We didn’t take a break until we were close to the top, when it really started getting steep. There are two trails up, one is a longer winding trail, and the other is the ancient steps. Mena strongly discouraged us going up the steps—he seemed a little anguished that we would even think of it. So Brian was persuaded to go up the longer trail, but still it was a push. About two thirds of the way up, the trails converge, it’s all steps cut into the mountain, and it’s HARD!

The crowds and the commercialization may seem a little crass to some people, looking for a pristine place of solitude. But solitude is a thing of the heart, and the experience is as spiritual as you want to make it. I would guess that many on the trail were just doing it for an adventure experience. We got to the top, and what did we see? Sleeping bags! Side by side, in a long row, people were lined up, camped out, sleeping, waiting for the sunrise. There was an old church on the top, built from stones. Brian found a perch right away, a rocky outcropping right on the edge, with a drop of I don’t know how many hundred feet. He climbed right out there, to Mena’s horror—he’s a fearless mountain goat, and began to read his Bible and to pray. I stayed about six feet away—I don’t do exposure as well. It scared me just looking where he was, but I guess I should be used to that by now! I had a little corner to curl up in, and had a good time in the presence of the Lord.

I was warm enough when I arrived, but sitting still for an hour waiting for the sun to come up, I got SO COLD I couldn’t move my fingers, and was shivering. Brian later told me it was 38 degrees F, and it was very humid. After a while I succumbed to the cries of the Bedouin, "Blankets for rent! Mats! Blankets for rent!" Later Brian and Mena both curled up their noses and said they wouldn’t have wrapped up in a dirty blanket that belonged to someone else, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I gladly handed over the ten Egyptians pounds the man wanted ($2.50) The sunrise was beautiful, as promised, and I particularly loved the mist that formed over the mountains.

After the sunrise, I walked/climbed around for a while on the top, and then went down to the first warming hut. The huts don’t have any heat, but there were enough bodies in there to generate some warmth. I got a hot cup of tea which helped immensely, and then through the crowd saw Brian coming down, and went out to meet him. I was still wrapped in my blanket, which was so huge and heavy it drug on the ground and made climbing down a little awkward, but I was glad to have it! (I’ve got pictures, which I hope to post later, just don’t have time right now!)

The walk down was beautiful, the mountains are rugged and wild. They look nothing like the Rockies which I’m used to. We took the ancient monk’s steps going down—there are 3700 of them! It was awe-inspiring, a very harsh, rough, unforgiving landscape. I enjoyed the climb down, and didn’t regret not taking that route up—we wouldn’t have seen anything in the dark, and it would have been treacherous in the dark as well. I could have done without the camels, but in a way, that was also part of the experience. The crowd was part of the community we all live in, going to meet Him together—it actually contributed to the overall experience.

My muscles had about given out when we got close to the bottom—I was TIRED, a combination effect of no sleep, being hungry, and the very tall, steep steps. And when I got up the next day, my calves HURT like crazy—I could hardly walk, and going down steps was excruciating. I kept pushing myself, however. What’s a girl to do??

We went straight to breakfast after getting off the mountain. I looked awful, felt filthy, but was afraid I’d collapse in the shower if I didn’t get anything to eat. Breakfast certainly didn’t compare to the quality of last night’s supper. Some stale bread, hard boiled eggs, and a strange soupy thing that was milk with tiny hard noodles. There was some veggies and cheese too—and I ended up eating a LOT of food—I was STARVED. After breakfast, we went and showered, checked out of the guesthouse and then toured the monastery. Again, the crowds were HUGE. The monastery is only open for tours from 9am to noon. The eleven monks were roaming the place, they all had long black robes, long beards, and long, long pony tails! Brian really liked the look. I said if they ever got tired of monastic life, they could go join a rock and roll band. Mena didn’t think that was a bit funny. He is very enamored of the monastic life. I watched what I said after that.

The monks claim to have the original burning bush there in the monastery, in fact, that is why the monastery is built there. Helena, mother of Constantine, who traveled throughout the Holy land identifying holy sites 1600 years ago, found this place, and the Chapel of the Burning Bush was built there, right next to it. It is said that the roots of the bush go far deeper into the ground that any other tree—also, that no other bush exactly of this sort has ever been found anywhere in the world. We got to see this ancient chapel, where religious services in the name of Jesus have been held longer consecutively probably than any other place in the world. That is impressive. They also have another, larger chapel built in the 600s, a vast collection of very old icons, and probably the best antiquities library in the world. That collection is now being shown in the US—ha! We come here, it goes there! But the library is never available to the public here anyhow. I did see a copy of the writ of protection that was given by Mohammed in the 600s and signed with his handprint–wow!

I was so tired at this point I thought I was going to be sick. I had felt a little queasy on the mountain, again, lack of sleep, exhaustion, and possibly bad water all contributed to this. But what I really needed the most was sleep. We finally crawled into the Land Cruiser and sped off down the highway. We weren’t going off road today at all, hallelujah. As soon as we took off, I laid down on a pile of luggage, and went immediately to sleep. When I awoke, an hour and half had passed, and we were pulling into another Bedouin encampment for lunch. A repeat of yesterday. Tuna, cucumbers, tomatoes, little baby bananas instead of oranges, and Egyptian bread instead of Bedouin. There wasn’t much difference.

When we climbed back in the truck, I went right back to sleep. I woke up briefly as we went through another military checkpoint, and then back to sleep until we reached the border—three hours in all. I think I could have slept standing up.

We said goodbye to our new friends, Ahkmed and Mohammed. Mena accompanied us to the first passport station (you show your passport to leave Egypt, and again to enter Israel.) This time there were a lot of people at the border—they all wanted out of Egypt!- Just as we were saying goodbye, Mena said to Brian, "perhaps you would come back and speak to our people at the church someday?" I hope it can happen. It would be awesome to be a part of what God is evidently doing in Egypt!

We walked out of Egypt, (the Exodus!) got in a cab, and went to the airport. Hassled again by security, had a chicken schnitzel at the snack bar, and flew to Tel Aviv. I slept on the plane too, and got to the hotel in Tel Aviv at 9, knowing we had to leave to catch our flight to Athens at 3:30. We’d had quite an adventure in the Sinai!