"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

One of many breathtaking views of Wadi Qelt

Yesterday we went for a three hour hike in Wadi Qelt, near Jericho. It is one of the lowest points on earth, making it among the hottest as well. We started the hike early, around 8:30am, to try to beat much of the midday sun. The desert there is so unlike the desert of the Sahara (which, oddly enough, is the only other desert I've seen, so it's my only point of reference. Maybe I need to spend more time exploring my own country, because rumor has it the desert here is pretty similar to that of New Mexico). There are no great shifting sand dunes, no powder fine sand. There are rocks, and dust, and scrubby, thorny trees, and lizards and prairie dogs. Wadi Qelt is a valley, so we were walking at an angle the whole time over loose rocks and gravel. The story goes that Wadi Qelt is the path Jesus walked from Jericho to Jerusalem, among other biblical events for those of you interested in the religious history of the place.

St. George's monastery was built into a cliff in the late 5th century.

It was a beautiful walk, with Bedouin homes built into caves along the way, goat herders with more goats than I've ever seen in one place,  as well as donkeys and dogs. At the end of the hike, we arrived at St. George's Monastery, which was built into the side of a cliff in the late 5th century, where it still stands today. It was beautiful, full of decadent religious art, and was a nice place to stop and rest after continuing the climb up the cliff to where our car was waiting for us at the top.

The ceiling of St. George's Monastery

Religious art inside of St. George's
 Monastery

Today was the first day I met the kids from our neighborhood, Khallat Al-Amoud, for the first Library Day of the session. We broke into two groups, and I sat in on a reading group led by one of our volunteers, who read books in both Arabic and English for the kids. It was a nice first glance into the work ahead of me. If the transit strikes here keep up and the first day of classes is delayed (which is a possibility), we may be having more Library Day type activities for the neighborhood kids, since full classes won't be happening and we wont be able to bus in the kids from the four refugee camps or the Old City.

Reading at TYO's Library Day!