Posted on October 29, 2009 in 2009 Pilgrimage to the Holy Land - 0 COMMENTS
Days Seven & Eight
by Rev Fr Chris Flesoras
After a bit of confusion, we departed the hotel about 8am for the Sinai Desert (traveling with a group is quite an experience). Father Demetri gave a very informative talk on the Christian traditions that are found in the Middle East as well a talk on the Crusades. Both topics were lively and very interesting to all of us.
The Judean desert was beautiful and quite vast. We briefly stopped at the Dead Sea for a bathroom break, we will make a longer stop on our way back for those who wish to wade or float in the Dead Sea.
Our last stop before going to the border was the city of Akbar on the Red Sea. It looks like an oasis in the desert with high-rise hotels. Mike, our driver, informed us that there are some similarities between Akbar and Las Vegas; we assume he meant the presence of casinos?
Genevieve and I walked across the street from our stop into a shopping mall. It wasn’t quite the Galleria, but it seemed like a fine place to shop. We entered through a metal detector, went up the escalator and found the food court. Although the food court was familiar from back home, minus the Arabic, I had never seen girls, probably 18 or 19 with and of all things, waiting in line for pizza from Sparros, A falafel, fries and a coke later we made one more stop at the candy counter down stairs before returning to the bus; the chocolate covered oranges were outstanding).
We have arrived in Egypt. We passed through the border, between Israel and Egypt, receiving stamps in our passports at each location. Once we put our things on the bus and met our new driver, guide, and police officer (assigned to any group of Americans traveling through Egypt), we departed for St. Katherine Monastery, approximately 200 kilometers from the border. Travel time to the Monastery is about 2 hours. Unfortunately, our arrival will be after Vespers, although we have time to visit the brothers, the gift shop, etc.
Within Egypt there are five Bedouin tribes in south Sinai and other peoples that are native of Egypt at least for about 1,300 years. Eighty-five percent of the tribes in the south work with tourism, 10% work with the government and 5% work the sea. Regardless of tribe, they are united under the Egyptian name and in the Islamic faith. There are approximately four million people that call the Sinai there home (some of whom are members of another eight tribes in the north).
The first town that we passed was Taba, although the first tribe is found in Neweiba. There are approximately 2,200 in this tribe, the Tarabeen. We made a brief bathroom stop at a cafeteria across from Neweiba, which to Presbytera Lisa’s surprise was owned and operated by a Korean family!
The second tribe is called Omzina, which is made up of approximately 3,500 people. This tribe, in association with the first, is the five percent that work the sea (by the way, Mohammad, our guide informed me that the fishing is excellent).
We arrived at St. Katherine Monastery late in the evening. A few of the gift stories were open, but the Monastery was not prepared to receive us. One of the monks, Fr. Ephraim, welcomed us and encouraged those of us who were hiking to the top of the mountain to return for Services rather than stay to watch the sunrise. Those choosing not to hike would meet us at the Church at about 6:30am.
Although it was dark, we were able to get a sense of both the immensity of the complex as well as holy history of the monastery. We departed for our hotel for dinner, less than a mile away, had dinner and prepared went to our rooms. It would be a short rest, about 2 hours, for those of us who would hike to the top of Mount Sinai.
Pound, pound, pound at the door to the room! After I put my heart back in my chest, I realized that it was our wake-up call at 11:30pm. We had 15 minutes to meet on the bus to depart for the Monastery parking lot to meet our Bedouin guide, Eed, who would lead us up and down the Mountain, approximately 10 miles. He has been leading groups on almost a daily basis for the past 13 years.
Ten of us, including Eed, began walking at midnight. Although it was the middle of the night and the sky was filled with millions of stars, we still carried flashlights to better illumine our way. About fifteen minutes into our walk we were greeted by Eed’s fellow Bedouin with their camels who would take us up the Mount on camel for $15. Three members of our group chose to ride the camels while six of us would walk with Eed. Our entire group would meet at a small plateau to walk the last 750 steps together.
Along the way, we rested at various Bedouin huts, receiving their kindness and enjoying their hospitality. Even at this point of the morning, I was amazed to reflect upon the activity on the Mountain; it would be nothing to what we would experience later in the morning.
We arrived at Church of the Transfiguration on the top of the Mount at 3:30am. After a few photos and more importantly a prayer outside the chapel, next to the cave of the Prophet Moses, six of us headed down the Mountain for services at 6am while 3 would stay for the sunrise at 5:45am.
The walk down was much easier, although it was a little slippery at times. We were also greeted by hundreds of people with hundreds of flashlights, all heading up to the Mount for the sunrise. And, the camels, I could not believe the camels. At one point, we thought that we were walking by a few that were seated. As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, we couldn’t believe the amount of camels – we must walked through a maze of close to 100 camels!
At a few moments before 6am we arrived at the Monastery. We entered through a side corridor cut through what looked like solid rock. We washed up, offered our gratitude to our guide and entered the sixth century Church constructed by Justinian. We were under the impression from the night before that Orthros would be prayed at 6am, although they were just about to recite the Lord’s Prayer on account of a very short Orthros Service.
The Church itself was amazing! After reading so much about this Monastery and enjoying many an informative conversation with Fr. Makarios Mannos of St. Katherine Monastery who currently resides in Utah and serves the Metropolis of Denver (and who served at Gianna’s baptism), I was now standing and praying in the Church of St. Katherine.
At the close of services, one of the brothers allowed me to venerate the altar table. I was then informed by a kind, younger brother of Sinai with an Australian accent, that our group would venerate the skull and the hand of St. Katherine. We lined up on the left side of the Church and waited to venerate her Holy Relics behind another group of pilgrims from Romania.
Our next stop was the museum. Father Ephraim joined us in the museum, taking us to each room and providing a quick, but thorough explanation of all of the items found therein. We then went to the Burning Bush, the well outside of the Church, and the chapel where the remains of the holy fathers of the Monastery are kept including the Holy Relics of St. Stephanos, who was one of the brothers. Our last stop was the gift store and then it was back to the hotel.
Once we departed the hotel, our guide Mohammad shared some interesting regional facts, although I didn’t hear much as I caught up on a bit of sleep, only waking-up before the border with Israel. It was then a matter processing through Egyptian and Israeli passport control. Back to Jerusalem for another full day tomorrow.
