Day 15
Today, after breakfast, our driver Fausi (sp) picked us up and we  headed  north out of the city  and we retrieved Khaleil  close to his  home.  Continuing  north we went to Mt. Gerazim, the traditional  site  of  the sacrifice  of  Isaac by Abraham.  The town situated there  is  the  home  of  the  Samaritans - one of  two  places  where  they  live.  They are fewer than 800 people now.  They keep traditional Jewish law, only use the first  5 books of the Old Testament  their text,  and  their  women rule the household.  During  their  monthly  cycle, they are  isolated  from  the  community  and  their  families must care  for  them.  Reminded me of the  Red Tent book.

Here they still do sacrifice on  the  day of Atonement and people  from  all  over  come to participate and watch  the  event.  During  the  festival of booths, the tent is adorned  with  all kinds of fruits  and  vegetables.  They claim to  have  the  oldest  copy  of  Torah in existence, which is carefully  hidden  as someone broke in and stole the 800 and 700 year old copies!

From there we went to Nablus (whose ancient name is Shechem) and began our visit at the site of Jacob's  well.  It is a beautiful Greek Orthodox church whose iconography, glass work, mosaics, frescoes, and furniture  are the handiwork of their priest, Justinian.  The icons in this church  ate some of the most beautiful  I've  ever  seen!  I hope the photos  I  took  come  out!

We then went to the market  in Nablus, the largest  in Palestine.  Nablus  is the second  largest  city after Jaffa.  We experienced  an olive  oil  soap factory, the second oldest in Nablus, but the oldest  functioning!  Olive oil soap smells simply wonderful!!!  Clean.  The whole  process  is  done  by hand.  We watched  the  man who wraps the  soap for a bit.  He can wrap a bar in 4 seconds!  Totally amazing  place.


In the market, we shared a  traditional snack called Kinaffa Nabutzia, which starts off as ground corn(?) topped with goat cheese.  It is baked, turned upside down and then topped with just a little  honey water.  Oh my!  Lunch was traditional Palestinian...assorted salads, chicken and this most amazing  bread!  Baked in a pizza - type pan topped with sour herbs and almonds, it truly  was  one of the best meal I've  had!

It  was  a  good  thing  that  after lunch we went to the Sabastia  National  Park  and walked around.  This is the site  of  Samaria of King Omri fame.  Greek before  that, this  site  is  way under developed.  It would be huge!  It's  estimated  that 90,000  people  lived there!

On our way home, we dropped  off  Khaleil.  This was the  mostly  beautiful  day weather wise that we had.

Almost everyone  is  sick - coughing, blowing, and Beth's cold went to her eye.  But by the afternoon  it was almost back to normal.  So far I'm OK health wise.