Jericho with the Al Jundis!
Trip Start
Dec 10, 2007
1
6
12
Trip End
Jan 10, 2008
Jericho,
Palestinian Territory
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Aunt Jen told me we were going to Jericho, with the Al Jundis, my adopted family in Jerusalem. Apparently Aunt Jen always had traditional "Al Jundi" days with Sami and his brothers, Azzam, Mazin and Riyad, their wives and kids. Aunt Jen keeps talking about how big all the Al Jundi kids have gotten since she first met them, seven years ago. I asked Aunt Jen if in seven years she would comment on how big I got, but she just laughed and said that paper boys don't grow.
Anyway, Aunt Jen told me some really cool things about Jericho. One thing is that Jericho is the oldest city in the world that has been inhabited continuously. Also, Jericho is the lowest city in the world! On the way to Jericho we passed signs telling us when we reached sea level--and then we kept driving lower and lower and lower
Jericho...the oldest city in the world...
. Jericho is near the Dead Sea which is the very lowest place on the earth. I wanted to go there and float, but Aunt Jen said that it might be dangerous for me, even though I have a protective layer of lamination. But Jericho was really nice. I got to check out the fruit and vegetable markets and saw where they are growing lemons and oranges. And they grow lots of bananas in Jericho and I got to ride on the banana truck!
Of course I had a great time with all the Al Jundi brothers and wives and kids and all of them wanted to take their picture with me, some of them many many times.
Sami and Mazin and Riyad made a barbeque with chicken and kabob and Aunt Jen said it was just like the good old days. I pretended to understand what she meant, but since I was only drawn a month ago, I don't have a real sense of what "the good old days" really means.
But Riyad tried to teach me how to smoke and everyone thought that was pretty funny. And Mazin held me a little too close to the barbeque and Aunt Jen got worried and said that her nephew Alex would be so upset if I actually caught on fire
...and the lowest city in the world!
. I'm not sure if my protective layer of lamination does any good when it comes to fire...but the best part of all is that i actually got to ride a real live camel! Alex loves camels! In fact, Aunt Jen has started a camel collection for Alex and she buys him camel statues everywhere she travels! She took a lot of pictures of me on the camel so we could send them to Alex. I said I thought he would like the camel photos almost as much as the photos of me getting shot at and tear gassed. Aunt Jen said that she's not going to show Alex THOSE pictures...
I got to eat some ice cream which was nice because I never had ice cream before.
We had fun in Jericho until long after dark and then went back to Jerusalem...
