JERUSALEM

“Now the dogs are barking tonight, Now the men will bargain as they stand beneath the light” – Peter Breinholt

I spent a semester in Jerusalem in the fall of 1994.  There is a special place in my heart for this historical city.  It was a real treat to be able to share it with Yvonne and walk it’s extraordinary streets together.  It would be difficult to describe our experiences here in a way that would do it justice, and I don’t want to bore you with a travelogue…. So, I’ll simply say that we did a lot of walking, and I enjoyed every step.  I  had even more fun watching Yvonne see these sights for the first time.  It was enchanting.

A few highlights:

We stayed in a charming convent and "pilgrim house" within the walls of the old city.  The view from outside our room was as good as you could ask for overlooking the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with the Mt. of Olives in the distance.  It was right on the Via Dolorosa and actually one of the stations of the cross in the supposed path that Christ took while carrying the cross.  The name of the convent was Ecce Homo, Latin for the phrase uttered by Pilate (Behold the Man).  Tradition is that we slept very near the spot where Christ was presented to the crowds with the crown of thorns. (http://www.eccehomoconvent.org/en/content/presentation)
The view from the balcony outside our room

The western “wailing” wall

BYU Center for Near Eastern Studies

The View from BYU Jerusalem

The path of suffering where Jesus carried the cross


Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu


The walls of the old city (I’m hiding out like Nephi’s brothers)

   

The Mt. of Olives – Graves and Olive Trees

Tradition says that Christ was buried either near here: (church of the Holy Sepulchre)

Or Here: (garden tomb)

Probably more important is this:

We thought these were interesting (notice what is not allowed at the school ;)

PETRA

“Well you don't know what we could find, Why don't you come with me little girl, On a magic carpet ride” – Steppenwolf

I’ve had several people ask for more info and photos about our recent trip. So, Here is Part #1 of the trilogy:

"Lucky” Anniversary

Yvonne and I celebrated our last anniversary a bit later than normal because I had more of a break between semesters. It is a bit of an adjustment to realize that you don’t get a Christmas break when you are working in a Muslim country.
Anyway, because it was our "Lucky" Anniversary (at least I think that is the term)... 11 years on the 11th of Dec, I wanted to do something fun. I've been telling Yvonne for the last 10 years that she is pretty lucky because I have taken her to Hawaii every year for our anniversary. That was going to be hard to beat, but a few weeks beforehand, I surprised her with the news that I had arranged a trip for the two of us to Jordan and Jerusalem. My folks were just finishing up their mission in Prague and I had contacted them to see if they wanted to join us for a trip to the Holy Land on their way home. They responded with: "it sounds like fun, but we would rather not. Instead, we would love to come to Dubai and babysit the kids while you and Yvonne go by yourselves." Well, I didn't argue with that too much.
We spent an amazing day exploring PETRA. Now, I wouldn’t say that I’m much of a world traveler, but I have been a few cool places like Zion’s National Park, The Great Pyramids in Egypt, Teotihuacan Ruins outside Mexico City, The Alhambra in Spain, Mt. McKinley in Alaska, Volcanoes National Park, and others …. Let me just say that Petra is cool enough to compete with anywhere.
Cameras (at least when I’m behind the lens) never do places like this justice, but here are a few pics anyway:

The Treasury (Indiana Jones “chose wisely” here)

You could climb almost anywhere!

Quite the luxury box in this theater

Look close to find me…. this pace was HUGE!

Yvonne had fun climbing around too

Time has almost erased this camel and master

Matt & Yvonne in Petra VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

…. Stay tuned for Part #2, Matt & Yvonne in Jerusalem.

Listen to the Music

I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, In Perfect Harmony" - The New Seekers

Birthday Excitement Pt.2

“Let 'em cry, let 'em giggle, Let them sleep in the middle, Oh, but let them be little.” – Billy Dean

I mentioned that our kids like birthdays, right?  Well, they also like animals.  And, they really like juice boxes and chips.  Recently, they got the chance to put all those things together for the super-fun birthday party of their good friend Mia.  We got to go to the Dubai Animal Sanctuary for the party.  There were party hats, horse rides, ducks to feed, all kinds of rabbits, turtles, birds, and all the chips they could eat.  Even Talon was so excited he was saying “Meeeeeaaaah, Meeeaaaah” all morning before we left.
Check out a few photos and some video of all the fun.

 

Birthday Excitement!

“Youth is like diamonds in the sun, and diamonds are forever…

… so many dreams are swinging out of the blue, we let them come true” – Alphaville

There is not much that can compare to the excitement of birthdays for twin girls about to turn 3 years old. Abigail and Saylor have been excited for their birthday since… well, since their birthday last year. They have been excited at every single birthday for the last year. Partly for the person whose birthday it was, but mostly just for birthdays in general and because it meant they were one day closer to their own.

At the end of January their birthday finally came… and Yvonne and I were not even in town. Fortunately, even though they have been excited for quite some time and know what a birthday means (presents, cake, candles, songs, etc), they still don’t really have a good understanding of dates and calendars. So, we got away with some selective truths and were able to celebrate their birthday only a couple of days late after we got back from our trip to Jordan/Israel.

I think one of the best presents the girls got was to be able to celebrate with Grandma & Grandpa Anderson. They don’t really realize that they were able to see the tallest building in the world or visit the largest mall in the world on their birthday, but they did know that Grandma & Grandpa came a long way to be there. Plus, they got to make their own birthday cakes!

Here are a few pics of their big day.

Here a short video clip of some sweet birthday dancing…. if you can call it that ;)

Duty Free

“Well I'm just people watching, The other people watching me” – Jack Johnson

A while back some good friends treated us to a night out on the town.  We got to go see a few matches at the Dubai Duty Fee Tennis Championship.

OK, so the name doesn’t sound as good as Wimbledon, or the US Open… and I don’t really get the whole “duty free” thing, but this was some world-class tennis.  It included 4 of the top 10 ranked players in the world.  We got a to see a match with Tomas Berdych, the 7th ranked player in the world from the Czech Republic.  The second match we saw had the 16th ranked Ivan Ljubicic… yeah, try pronouncing that last name :)

It was a cool experience and a lot of fun.  The tennis was amazing and exciting, but I really was more fascinated by the whole culture of the event.  I’ve played enough tennis to know what was going on, and even watched a fair amount on TV back in the Agassi/Sampras days, but I never realized the almost ceremonial nature the sport.  From the precise routines and posture of the ball boys/girls and the uniformed performances of the line judges, to the orderly, quietness of the spectators, this was definitely not the same crowd you would find at a football or hockey game.  A few times the I had to chuckle to myself at how seriously everyone oohed an aaahhed after a good volley.

Overall, it was fascinating and fun.  We had a great time watching tennis, the supporting cast, and the other spectators.  We just might have to go back next year.

Here is a photo of Yvonne and me at center court about 1/2 hour before the action really got started.

Surrounded by Protests

"Well this is the world we live in, And these are the hands we're given
Use them and let's start trying, To make it a place worth living in" - Genesis

A couple of weeks ago Yvonne and I went to Jordan. The day after we got back, we read in the news that the King of Jordan had just "fired" his entire government to start over. This was right at the same time as the ongoing protests in Egypt. It was a strange feeling to see some of the political upheaval that was going on relatively close to where we live. The feelings were even stronger since we had just a day before been in a country that was now making drastic changes.

Earlier this week, I saw the map below showing counties that are facing protests, unrest, and revolutions. I decided that it is as good a time as any to fire this blog back up and share some of our experiences.

As you can see, the UAE is practially surrounded by countries that are in different stages of unrest. It is fascinating, sad, exciting, and confusing all at the same time. The media, politicians, and others all seem to offer differnt reasons for the unrest, and different possible outcomes. At times things are portrayed as black/white or good/bad, but I don't think that is the case. It is very complicated, and I would guess that each country/region would be difficult to really compare to the others.

One thing I feel comfortable about is that we are relatively safe in the UAE. This is an Arab country much like many of the others, BUT, the unique mixture of government, infrastructure, wealth, culture, and freedoms here make me believe that there is little chance of the type of protests that are happening around us. So, friends and family, do not worry. Athough we are surrounded by protests (see map below), we feel safe.

View Protests across the Middle East in a larger map

A few quesetions...

• When is it ok to rebel?
• When is it ok to fight against a rebellion?
• When is violence (killing) justified?
• What would I risk for my freedoms?
• Is it worth the risk to fight for more freedoms when the result might be chaos or loss of freedoms?
• It is ok to work with "bad" people who have "evil" intentions to accomplish what you feel is "good"?
• Is it possible to have long-lasting freedom(s) without democracy?
• Would I have courage to stand up?