egypt day 8: the end!

I am skipping ahead to day 8 but don't worry, you will still get days 5, 6 & 7. They will just be a little bit out of order. :)

February 1, 2009...yep, I'm really behind!

K. Remember how I said a recurring theme in my life these days is getting up bright and early? Well nothing compared to this morning. Our wakeup call came at 2 am!!! It wasn’t actually a call. It was more like banging on the door but whatev. I stayed in bed wishing that I could go back to sleep but after several minutes Annie and I decided that we had better get up. I piled on as many clothes as possible. I had a tank top, a t-shirt, a long sleeve thermal shirt, 2 hoodies and a coat on top. Then I had two pairs of knee high socks, tights and jeans on the bottom. I also had two pairs of gloves and a scarf. I was hoping that would be enough to keep me warm. (It wasn’t.)

Annie and I were almost the last people on the bus. Oops! They gave us a really gross breakfast. I don’t even remember what it was. I must have blocked it from my memory. I was still feeling like crap and I really didn’t want to eat it or hike all the way to the top of a freezing cold mountain so I wasn’t the most cheerful person at the moment.

We drove over to the base of the mountain and started hiking up. It was a beautiful night. The stars were so bright! Brother Wilson came around and advised us to take a moment to consider the stars and the covenant the Lord made with Abraham that his posterity would be as countless as the stars in the heavens. I have definitely never seen so many stars as I did hiking up Mount Sinai. It is so cool to know that I am a part of that promise and covenant.

Honestly though I didn’t think about that for every long. I was so tired and sick that I really just wanted to be back in bed. I am very blessed and one thing got me to the top of that mountain. Love. So many people love me and I could feel the love of some of them pushing me to take one more step until I reached the top. The love of my Heavenly Father was apparent in so many ways. In the blessing I had received the night before I was promised that I would have the strength and health necessary to complete the hike. Even though I wasn’t feeling spectacular I didn’t cough once the whole time I was on Mount Sinai. I didn’t collapse of exhaustion until I reached the summit. I know that wouldn’t have been possible without that blessing. I am so grateful that Aleni cared about me enough to make sure that I received a blessing. I also thought about my friend Jake. Last summer he dragged me around Moab and on a few other hikes and always made me do things that I didn’t think were possible. We even talked about hiking Timp and he really thought that I could make it up there if I put my mind to it. I knew that he would be right there beside me encouraging me all the way to the top. I hiked by myself for a while but about half way up Angie and I started hiking together. She stayed with me all the way to the top. She stopped to rest with me whenever I needed to and when my flashlight died she shared hers with me. I am so grateful for her!

When we finally got to the top the sky was starting to turn kind of pink but all I wanted to do was to lie down and sleep forever. The only problem was that I have never been colder in my entire life! It was 6 degrees at the bottom of the mountain so I don’t even want to know what it was 2000 feet up with wind chill. It was basically inhumane. Everyone was squishing together trying to stay warm so I found a spot by Matt and rested my head on his shoulder. A little while later Chelsea came over and laid on top of me like a human blanket so my head was in complete darkness. It kind of defeated the purpose of watching the sun rise but even with all of the cuddling I was still freezing so I didn’t care at all. Here is a photo with me actually peeking out a little bit for just a second, can you see me?
When we finally got up to take a group picture (I still need to find that one...) I literally fell off of the top of the mountain. I couldn’t feel my legs and I definitely biffed it. After a few minutes my blood started flowing enough for me to shiver and I guess it was quite the show. Several people told me that they had never seen anyone shiver so hard and Jeff physically moved me over into the best piece of sunshine. People finally started leaving and I practically ran down the mountain. It was really cool to see everything in the daylight and to see what a huge mountain I conquered! It was much warmer when we got to the bottom and I just sat down in the sunshine and ate it up. I was so glad to be off of that stupid freezing cold mountain. (I do appreciate the experience, I was just upset at the moment.)

We had to wait forever for the buses to come pick us up and when we finally got back to the hotel I took a hot shower then a quick nap. I felt a lot better about life when we got back on the bus to return to Israel. We drove forever and ever and as we were approaching the Border Brother Skinner pointed out that we could see 4 countries all at once. It was kind of like 4 corners but way cooler! We could see Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Syria. They all have ports on the Red Sea. We got to the border and it felt so good to be back in Israel. It’s definitely not the United States but it felt a lot more like home after visiting Egypt. The border crossing is right on the Red Sea so when I got through all of the checks I ran over to the sea and stuck my fingers in. It was really warm and I am so excited to go back for our snorkeling trip. We drove for about 45 minutes and had dinner at the kibbutz.

We finally got back to the JC at about 11 and I have rarely been so happy to be home. Egypt was a great experience, a trip like no other, but coming home always feels so good. Especially when you are able to eat fresh fruits and veggies, brush your teeth with water from the sink and wear unwrinkled clothes…well, you get the picture. :)

I called my parents for the first time in a week and told them all about my trip and I had to confess that I dropped my camera in the toilet. Like I have already said they were so nice about it and as soon as I hung up with them I crashed in bed. That’s the end of the Egypt sojourn!