The final departure

As I walked through the border leaving Israel for the last time, memories of the semester flooded my mind. I remember looking over the topography of the Old City for the first time from Mount Scopus and the Mount of Olives. I remember the first views of the wilderness, the Dead Sea, Nazareth, Cana, and Capernaum. There were class periods that went by so quickly because I was fascinated with the way that I was beginning to understand the Biblical narrative as well as class periods that went by ever so slowly in which I would play hangman with my fellow students. I remember the first time I walked through the maze of barbed wire and the towering wall into Palestine to hear my taxi driver tell of his family's house that was destroyed for the wall's construction. I think of the Jews who I have lived so close to and observed so intrigued. I think of countless conversations of how the Jews everlasting covenant will be fulfilled when "He who does not know the Son, does not know the Father."

The bus rides were rather long: 5 hours to the border and 6 hours to Cairo. At the Egyptian border we were told that we would have to go back to israel to obtain a Cairo visa. This was a problem for we had checked the embassies website, talked to various people, and come to the conclusion that we could get the visa at the border. To make matters worse, th embassy would be closed so we would have to spend the night in Eilat completely eliminating any adventures in Cairo by the time we got there. The man told us to go sit down and I started praying. "Lord, we researched ahead and thought this was the right thing. It doesn't make an ounce of sense to me, but if you want us to spend our time and money in Eilat instead of the adventures we planned for Cairo, Your will be done." In a few minutes a tour group guide came to us and explained the situation. We could pay him to obtain a visa, add us to his tour group list, and pay off the passport control. It was a straight up bribe. Dr. Wright would be proud.

We were joined in our sherut to Cairo by a couple from Chile who were traveling the world and dancing in Tango competitions. Their limited English provided for interesting conversations and miscommunications. Some of my favorite moments were when we would speak broken English with the Egyptians and then again try to explain to the French speaking Chileans.