From Petra I returned to Aqaba, ate great Shwarma, then back into Eilat. I hung around Eilat for the day, but i found nothing to do there that i didn’t do cheaper in Egypt. Hence, I moved straight on to Jerusalem, where I stayed for 10 days.

Jerusalem truly is a city of 3000 years. Amazingly, the city is still split up into the old and the new. The old city, city of the ancient kings, still has remains from the time of David and Solomon. One such example is the Kotel/Western Wall, the last remaining wall of the Second Temple.

Despite all the religious tension in Israel, it is incredible to see the 3 major religions of the area in one place. The Kotel, the Dome of the Rock, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I managed to get to the Christian quarter of the old city on Christmas day, and it was an awesome place to be!

At one point I decided I wanted to go to the Dead Sea, so I did! Beck and I caught went to the Dead Sea, and spent 10 minutes getting into the freezing cold water (its winter here!). Covering ourselves with dead sea mineral extract mud, we got into the water, and floated! It was unreal. We then walked to Masada, yeah, from the dead sea! and when we arrived, we were told that it was closed for the day. Far out, it was only 3pm!!!! Might go back this weekend or something like that.

The end of the week proved to us that we would have to get into gear for study mode. The MDA (ambulance) program required a full week of study, involving studying from 8:30am -> 9pm, including food, and then studying our selves afterwards. Wow, we barely slept. Fortunately most of us in the course passed, and we have been volunteering on the ambulances since then.

It has been nearly 3 weeks since our first shifts, and we are having a great time. By the book, we are meant to be volunteering on the White ambulance, which is the lowest level. Being Israel and all, we have all had a chance (if not more) to be on the ICU (intensive care ambulance). For me, i have had most of my shifts on the ICU, which is great!

Infact, my very first shift was on an ICU – thats a cool story, i’ll tell you about it. I arrived around 6:45 to my shift, where an anxious paramedic comes to me and says – quickly, we need another person on the ambulance. We arrived at a house of a 200kg woman, who smelt like she hadn’t left her couch in weeks, and was sweating, leaving a noxious set of fumes behind. She was having problems breathing, and after heaving her into the chair (half-out), she was into the ambulance. Now it gets fun. Halfway through preparing an IV, the paramedic turns to me and says – do you know how to do CPR? I nodded certainly, causing him to rip open her shirt (and fat fall everywhere), and command me to do CPR on the little bit of her chest not obstructed by fat. Sorry with my obsession with the fat, but it was so overpowering that it got lodged in my brain like a clot.

For 15 minutes, I was doing compressions which i found out was very tiring. It was amazing to see how i was providing her pulse which I got to see on the Lifepack. We arrived at the hospital, still doing compressions on the patient on the stretcher, and then got to see all the cool stuff the doctors did in the emergency room.

Admittedly, from that point I had hope to see lots of really intense stuff, but old people are a bit of a disappointment sometimes! Regardless, I have seen a lot, from CPR to amputations to trauma in car accidents and falls. All this in less than 3 weeks! Yikes!

I am staying currently in Ra’anana, one of the richest areas in Israel which has its ups and downs. Ups – cool houses, very clean area, lots of parks, etc. Downs – very expensive. If anybody would like to send me a msg or something – my mobile number is: +972 525 851 099. I would love to hear from you.

So, at this point I must leave you all, and if you write back to me, and let me know what is happening with you, you will find more emails in your inbox .

Keep well, and have great holidays,
Seb

The following day, I got on a Felluca (see photo) which happened to have my mates which I met the day before on the Abu Simbel tour on. This was great. 2 days mindlessly sailing down the Nile on a traditional sailing boat. We all had a fantastic time, until the last night, when our captian and crew hand gotten very drunk and had been smoking marijuana all night. It wasnt quite funny in the morning, a groggy kid (he must be 13-14, although he said 17) gets up and climbs the mast to untie the sail. One other person was up, hears a giant THUD, and i hear a mate yell ‘OH SHIT what do we do?’. At that moment i was well out of my bed with my med pack in hand. I knew just what had happened. The kid fell a good 8-9m from the mast and landed on his face on the deck. It wasn’t pretty – 2 teeth through the bottom lip and who knows what else…

The Captian woke up, and whilst we were giving him the available first aid, he started making us breakfast and didn’t care about the boy. Typical egyptian…To make things worse, there was no wind so we couldnt sail very fast – ended up using the oars. Oh man… we tried to wave a cruise ship, but the stupid tourists just took photos of us. Then at the shore the captain told us not to do anything, it would make things worse (for him), but i didnt care and found some help. It was good to give it to somebody else to deal with. More interesting detail happened, but i’ll wait for the face-to-face story.

Then arrived back in Luxor, and travelled to Hurghada, caught a disgusting ferry to Sharm el Shiek (everyone was sea sick), and a bus up to Dahab. Dahab is a sea side bedouin town where everyone sits on the side of the beach eating excellent food very cheaply. I was there for 4 days, climbed Mount Sinai (photos) and saw a truly brilliant sunset. Went snorkelling at the blue hole, which was a little disappointing (barrier reef is too good!), and a couple of days laying about.

Moved over into Jordan for 2 days, where I went to the incredible rock city of Petra, featured in the Indian Jones movie!! I have been desperate to see that movie for weeks now .

More importantly, after Jordan I returned to Israel, spending about 90 minutes at the check point watching the security empty my bag etc etc…. Missed the first bus to Jerusalem, then the next one because I forgot to buy my ticket and it sold out. Arrived quite late at night, and went to a newly made friend’s (from the bus) house, where he made me tea! He walked me to the old city and showed me free accomodation (woo!). I have been in Jerusalem for the last week (with a 2 day side trip to Tel Aviv), with Beck mainly, exploring the old city, eating food from the Novotel for free (thanks Academy), and meeting up with people who we havent seen since we finished school. It’s great to be in a place which I feel so at home in so instantly. My hebrew is improving, still understanding a lot more than I can speak, but hopefully it will get much better soon.

My MDA program starts on Jan 02, which both Beck and I are looking forward to immensely. It should be nothing short of an incredible experience allowing us to see the not so touristy side of the promised land.

Keep well, and stay in touch
Seb