Jericho

Today, we went to Jericho. We saw the place Jesus wandered for 40 days and 40 nights, where the walls fell down, and where the first city ever built stood (the oldest one they have found anyway). There is a tower there that dates back to 8000 BC. We also saw Herod's winter palace where he died. He had all kinds of illnesses including worms in his testacles. That was my personal favorite, but there were a lot of bad things that happened to Herod before he died. He killed a lot of people.

It is incredibly hot in Jericho, which explains why Herod made a winter palace there. We all sweated a lot and wanted to stay in the bus. We did hike around quite a bit. There was a cool monastery on the side of a cliff. St. George's Monastery. It had lots of cute blue roofs. We also aggravated a merchant when we didn't buy anything from him. We were a bit confused by his anger.

 

As we were driving past the incredibly hot Judean wilderness today, we saw some boys playing soccer. My buddy Jeff said, "Look at those brave, brave children." The poor goalie was sitting down looking miserable in the heat. I thought he would sink into the ground. I am grateful to live in an air conditioned building.