and crossing the bridge.

Travelling days are always quite adventurous (and if some stomach problems are involved even more). Putting our trust in Immodium akut and you know whom... we hit the road to cross the Jordan (the tiny want-to-be-river that's left of it).
Most of the day we spent at the border (considering our travel route not very surprisingly). The "we just need to do some security checks" turned out to last for 4 hours, enough time to study the stylish girls working at the counters, proudly wearing their uniforms like some kind of latest hang-out fashion. I voted for the one with the blonded afro... What a culture shock it must be for all those jordanian men crossing!
Everything went alright (immodium inclusive) and we found a new home for the coming days, a hostel right at the edge of the old city - the view from the rooftop is great...
Let's hope we won't catch the "Jerusalem Syndrome" as it happened to other travellers before; Although Hajo would make a quite nice new Elijah or Moses, wouldn't he?

Being late today for the Temple Mount we decided to go and see Yad VaShem, the huge Holocaust commemoration complex. Being german does feel awkward in such a place especially being able to understand the video speaches of the weird guy does not add to feeling comfortable. The museum is really well done, with lots of interviews of survivors giving the victims back their faces and individual stories.
What left the biggest impression on me was walking around the trees planted for the "Righteous Among The Nations", those who risked their own life in order to help jewish people during the Holocaust.
In the end it doesn't matter which nationality or background I have - it's the everyday decisions I face that count... There's enough insanity going on of which "we didn't know of" to be blamed for. And enough occasions where we can really make a difference without even risking our lives. And some lesser situations where the cost might be higher.

Jordan...

Travelling from Beirut via Damascus to Amman brought us back into a more conservative society, again totally different from the neighbouring countries. We stayed in Amman, which doesn't have much to offer culturally - what makes it a very laidback city for tourists :-). Somehow I liked it.
We realized that we needed to take some effort to be again open for a new situation and to be willing to get to know a new city in a new culture, without just being in some standby modus... We slowed down our rhythm, had more time to pray, just walked around, spent a day at the university watching students and another day in the internet cafe - reading mails and blogs of friends...

On a daytrip we went to Mount Nebo, the place where Moses was told to go and die after God showed him the land. The site is beautiful, very quiet (in between two busloads of tourists) and we stayed for a while, watching the land.
It doesn't seem very attractive to me. I wonder if I would get excited about being shown some desertlike mountains when asking to see "my promised land" (and that is what we are looking for on this journey)...
But I guess it's like a friend put it some weeks ago. When Ahsa, the daughter of Caleb got her share of land (which was only desert) she asked her father to give her another piece of land with some springs of water as well and was granted that wish. (story told somewhere in the old testament :-)

In the evening of the same day we found a really nice oasis in one of the richer parts of Amman. The motto of the Blue Fig Cafe is printed on the napkins "against the ruin of the world there is only one defense... the creative act". We could name several people who would have instantly liked the place... It's altogether very much emerging :-). On Sunday evenings they have livemusic "turning the Old into New" - electric guitar and the traditional oud mixed together - could be easily turned into some alt worship session I guess.
On our way out one of the managers (?) cooled our enthusiasm a bit by telling us that most jordanians only come to "watch boys or girls" and don't really care for the concept and program of the place... At least WE had a nice evening*

Goodbye Lebanon

Sunday with friends...
We felt part of the community and enjoyed hanging out together a lot. Just being friends, doing friendship stuff (here dunkin donuts is the place to do that). Felt like home...

It took some time until we finally found the perfect picnic place (just felt like being together with jesus freaks...) but that was just part of the process.
Those guys are truly amazing,
they do rock! Love you.

On Monday, our last day another friend took us to the mountains to see some of the few remaining famous "cedars of Lebanon". Cedars grow so high up in the mountains as no other trees are able to grow. Some of them are 2000 years old! They start looking like other needle trees but then they become really massive, hugging would take several people. The bible speaks so much about God revealing himself in the beauty of Lebanon and the cedars are a symbol of that - so sitting under those impressive trees we had to read the song of songs together!

the righteous will flourish like a palm tree
they will grow like a cedar of lebanon
planted in the house of the lord
they will flourish in the courts of our god
they will still bear fruit in old age
they will stay fresh and green
proclaiming the lord is upright
he is my rock and there is no wickedness in him
psalm 92, 12-15

We are glad that we met some of the cedars of lebanon in the people we got to know and new friends we found - makes leaving a sad business... But we know that we are travelling the same road - as well as with our friends back in Germany and elsewhere. Good to travel together***

The beauty of Lebanon

Wow, these last days have been intense, packed with meeting people, listening to their stories, learning about their struggles and starting to become friends with them and Lebanon... It all started with googeling to find a church where we could go to on Sunday and ended up with spending the whole Sunday and most of the following days just hanging out with those great people we met there... GOD IS GOOD...
We were invited to stay with a family living in a small town by the beach and enjoyed so much being able to play around in the water, cook some spaghetties and watch a movie in the evening in a peacefull atmosphere.

A day trip brought us back to some more less enjoyable history lessons. We visited a former detention camp that was run by Israeli troops and the SLA who occupied the whole region until their withdrawal in 2000. Walking through the remaining buildings it becomes clear why the people cannot easily let go of hatred and a strong sense of injustice. The wounds are deep and the road to reconcilitaion seems impossible to take. Driving through that area reminded me once more of Belfast. Portraits of victims and martyrs, flags everywhere and the same tone of propaganda in the way things are documented...
People we talked to expressed their sense of hopelessness and frustration. Talks about a new war etc. don't help much with that. It takes a lot to keep hope alive. And yet there lies so much hope in just the beauty of the country that leaves no doubt about the creator that is still watching over this place. Travelling to the mountains both in the south and the north we were easily convinced of that.

So we are definitely enjoying our time here which makes the remaining days quite precious.
And tonight... Apocalyptica in Beirut... Yeah!

Beirut Blues

Crossing the border to Lebanon felt so good...
We found a nice hostel to stay and met with Niina, a friend from Finland we will be travelling with during our time in Lebanon. It's nice to have some company and to have a third perspective of things as well. In the picture it's us (yes) standing under a tree on the campus of the AmericanUniversityofBeirut - they have like a park there, everything looks really nice, new and american...

Beirut is a strange place to be. There's hardly anything left of the historic part of town, instead there's lots of new (nice and american looking) buildings, skyscrapers and luxury hotels. The reconstruction is still going on, lots of cranes, Syrians working on building sites... But it seems that life has not yet completely returned to the place, feels deserted somehow. And bulletholes in the few old houses left are a present reminder of the war. And on almost every street corner there are soldiers with machine guns. Don't feel so comfortable with all those weapons...

The more recent killing of former Prime Minister Hariri in a car bomb has also left marks on the city. There are boards counting the days since his death and demanding THE TRUTH - so lets hope that the inquiries are successfull and will bring light into all the chaos. As far as I understand Hariri became just another martyr (with a "shrine" set up to remember him and others that have been killed) dying for independence? and progress?. The demonstrations etc. following his death have lead to the withdrawal of the syrian troops and an anti-syrian government was established.
...

Although Beirut is an open and quite western city we haven't found really nice places to hangout so far. Most Pubs and Cafes are exclusively for the "wealthy, the glitzy and the ritzy" (LonelyPlanet style :-).
It's about beeing seen... But we haven't tried everything yet, so there is hope. And Apocalyptica will have a signing session next Thursday. Maybe there's some guys our style...