Then the trip through the desert to get to the border with Israel. Everybody very nervous, because of the questions we could be asked and to which we all had to give the same answers.
Jerusalem. What an intense city! The people, the monuments, the markets, the traffic, but, most of all, the presence of God, everybody´s God, everywhere. Orthodox jew boys passing next to us and covering their faces with their books, so that there would be no possible contact with us, girls. Arab boys yelling “enti helweh” (you are beautiful).
Then travelling by bus along River Jordan, the desert of Sodom and Gomorrah, St. George the Chozevite monastery, the Dead Sea, the amazing-amazing site of Masada... Strong images, mainly from the Old Testament which I had studied at school when I was 9, were coming back to me.
And then, the long trip to Sinai. A once-in-a-lifetime experience. The thrill for 'end-of-the-world' or 'middle-of-nowhere' places has never left me since. We arrived late at night, after travelling through a lunar landscape that the full moon had turned blue. We got in bed just before the lights in the monastery went off, woke up at 4 in the morning, got dressed in the dark and walked to the top of Mount Horeb to watch the sunrise.
So many the faces of that trip…
Left: Cairo, Café at Khan-El-Khalili market
Centre: Israel, St. George the Chozevite Monastery, Father Ioannikios
Right: Sinai, bedouin helper
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