It was really wonderful to see Genevieve as well, because I hadn't seen her since March when I came to serve here in Israel, and she has since then gotten married. :) Yay! I'm sad I missed the wedding, but there are so many more experiences to be had...
I spent a lovely afternoon with the Cyrs in Akka, the prison city on the other edge of the bay opposite Haifa. I am loathe to admit that this was my first excursion into the Old City since I have been here, but in all honesty I've been so busy working and serving and trying to get enough sleep that I hadn't really given myself the opportunity before now to go and explore the Old City portion of Akka with some friends.
It was a whole lot of fun; we all met up in a sherut down to Akka, with our good friend Abboud driving. He is a well known fixture amongst the Baha'is that serve here. On the sherut also was an old friend of my parents, Patsy Irving, which was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. We took the sherut all the way to the Land Gate, at which point we got out and decided to do a little walking/shopping through the bazaar areas nearby. Well, we happened upon a music store, and that was it. The Cyrs are a very musically inclined family, so many minutes later we emerged many shekels lighter than when we had stepped in. I even got myself a little ceramic drum to practice on. (Mom would be so proud!)
After the bazaar experience we were able to go into the Al-Jezeer mosque located nearby. For a couple of shekels we went inside the compound to see one of the oldest and most beautiful mosques in the city. This mosque was present during the time of Baha'u'llah, so it was quite easy to picture many of the early believers crowded around outside to see if He was going to visit and talk to the multitude of worshippers.
We didn't have much more time to stay in the Old City (we are asked to be out of that area of town around 4:00 pm or so, mostly for our own safety because it gets pretty rowdy after dark), so Patsy, Marie-Jo and I wandered around a while longer looking for the famous Templar Tunnels before we realised we were hopelessly lost and headed towards the sea port not the tunnels. So we quickly made our way back through the maze of narrow streets and overshadowing buildings to the Land Gate to meet our sherut again to get out to Bahji and the Shrine of Baha'u'llah.
What a glorious feeling, to be able to visit the prison city area where Baha'u'llah was imprisoned for so much of His life, and then be permitted to go and visit the holiest spot on Earth, His holy resting place in Bahji. The juxtaposition of the two is a humbling and reverential experience.
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