To the Bottom of the Earth

Last weekend (before the work retreat and the Palestinian fashion show) we embarked upon a journey to the bottom of the Earth!  We didn't go alone, we took our friends with us :)

On Friday night we packed up our backpacks with all of the essential camping gear (tent, sleep bags, water purifier, headlamps) and the lightest food possible (couscous, granola, peppers, and lots and lots of water).  I consider these trips to be like a workout boot camp - we hike up, we climb down, we carry 30lb bags, then we eat just veggies and whole grains, and not very much of them because they are too heavy to carry all that way.  Is the best weight loss plan I can think of because you really have to choose between the chocolate bar and a clean pair of underwear.

We parked our car on the side of the road in the middle of the desert and headed up the first hill (pictured above) and got our first view of the Dead Sea, our destination just 6.2 miles away...on the other side of the desert.  I'll admit that I have a slight fear of heights and the first climb down took me much longer than the rest of the group. 

The area around the Dead Sea is...well...dead.  We only saw a few flowers (which smelled great!) and one or two small green oasises where water once collected.  It was beautiful to go up and down and in between massive rocks and cliffs, noticing the change in the color or the shape as we went along. 



Waterfall below. This is where the two trails "cross."



Israelis are really into hiking (but not camping) so they have books and webpages devoted to marking trails.  These are mostly in Hebrew so they are useless to us.  But there is one good site in English.  The trail guides generally haven't been updated in a few years so the first "waterfall" was dry this time and last time the "river" was really a dried up rock bed.  There are also cultural differences such as the time when "family friendly" included a 10 foot climb up a rock face.  For the most part this guide was good - but the trail itself was like walking through the desert...it was walking through the desert.  Every step gave you more and more desert. This trail guide said at a certain point two paths crossed.  My plan was to take the easy path and avoid the "400 meter steep slope down" which would be "difficult."  Well, the paths crossed, but we were at least 20 stories above the easy path with no other way down than the "steep slope." 

I was a little slow and shaky, but when we finally reached the bottom we found the waterfall and stream with plenty of time to set up camp, collect fire wood and start on a delicious dinner.  In the morning we followed the stream to the Dead Sea.  Our friends headed back to Tel Aviv and Paul and I headed to the beach for our first dip in the Dead Sea (more on this later).  After a swim we showered off and as the sun was setting we headed North in search of another camp site.  Though I usually plan FAR in advance, I had no clue where we were going (hopefully not too far or it would be dark and we would end up in the West Bank).  "What was that? Is that a trail?  Will you see if I can pull the car off the road there?" 

We pulled a U-ey and carefully exited the road onto the sandy/rocky ground.  As soon as our car was a safe distance from the traffic we grabbed our gear, threw on our head lamps and headed up the mountain/cliff.  The sign at the trail head said "no diving" so we figured there must be water - which would mean life and thus firewood....and hopefully some flat ground so we didn't sleep on pointy rocks! 

On the way up we saw our first Ibex!  Actually our first three!  The family was very suspicious of us and we didn't have time to grab the camera, the sun was setting and we had no clue where we were going or what we would find on top.  Lucky for us, when we hit the plateau there it was:  a beautiful green oasis with one live tree and one dead tree!  The ground was comparably soft with no rocks and best of all - we had an amazing view of the sunrise in the morning!  We got sooo lucky! We had enough firewood for 4 hours, there were no lights around so we could see the most beautiful starry night, and because it was the desert we didn't have to worry about wild boars or vultures.  The downside to this camping spot was that - as a green oasis it is the feeding ground for the Ibex....and the ibex....use the restroom where ever they are.  Long story short:  we smelled pretty ripe in the morning when we arrived at our work retreat!



Sunrise Over the Dead Sea - from our tent.



Dead Sea Fashion Week

Okay, so it wasn't part of a Fashion Week, it was a fashion show...and I was a model!  Wearing a dress worth worth around $3000 - with accessories of equal scale.  I modeled a 150 year-old traditional Palestinian dress...from Gaza! 

Yes, it was awesome! Yes my head was covered! No, Paul did not recognize me! No, I didn't know they had women that tall but the dress went to the ground. Yes, the sleeves were too short (or maybe that was the style).  Yes, picture here.

As a part of a work retreat one of our colleagues worked with a museum in Jerusalem to organize a fashion show for the staff, using the staff as models.  They brought 8 Palestinian dresses from the area including Bethlehem, Jaffa (Jonah and the whale), and Gaza.  All of us had our heads covered by scarves, my face was also covered very creatively! and another girl had a head cover made coins - kind of resembling a helmet (worth $3000 for the head piece alone).  But they all did the job of covering your head.

The dresses were very intricate and heavy, leading us all to wonder when we could take them off and how the Palestinian women 150+ years ago wore these dresses in the heat.  The other interesting revelation was that they chose (among the 8 models) three of the tallest women at the mission.  Models are usually tall, but the average Palestinian woman 150 years ago...I didn't picture her as tall.  We thought for sure the dresses would be too short on us, but they weren't! They were just the right length. 

I was sworn to secrecy so Paul had no clue I was participating (or that he was attending a fashion show!), so he didn't know it was me until after I was off stage.  In fact, only one colleague recognized me.

Palestinian dresses.  I'm on the far right.

Beyond the pictures and the dresses, the interesting part of the fashion show is that the other models included my boss and a few women from work that I didn't know too well.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with them backstage, try on the dresses together and talk about how we should walk and where we should stand.  Half of the women were Palestinian, but for me - an American who doesn't fully understand the history or culture of Palestine - it was really interesting to think of myself presenting (or representing) Gaza.

How would a Gazan woman walk?  Would she be shy or bashful with her face covered? Or would she be like my colleague who presented the bridal dress (which was black with red embroidery too) who was dancing around and lively?  Would she strut her stuff, twirl around the dress, make large sweeping motions with her arms to show off the dress...where did the line between presenting the dress/culture and modeling? Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, my "walk" was less then two minutes and I was instructed to sit on the ground and mortar coffee with the prop I was given. (Huh..throw in another trick of how to sit on the ground and stand back up in a 150 year old floor length dress...without stepping on it or ripping it!)