The Temple Mount, Moslem rioters and the Israelis.

It's been in the news a lot so I thought I should go take a look for myself. This was the scene during Friday noon prayers in Jerusalem today, Feb 23, 2007.


You can see the dig site on the ramp in the middle of the picture. The Golden Dome (This is where Moslems believe Mohammad went into the heavens to get his revelation from Allah.) is above and to the left. The El Aksa is the grey dome above the ramp and to the right.

Those are rows of police cars lined up near the ramp.



The second picture is a close-up of the top of the ramp. You can see hundreds of police in riot gear as they waited to make sure any attempt to riot was instantly eliminated. They did not enter the platform of the mountain and the prayers finished with only minor tension today.


That didn't keep the media from being ready to capture the action if there was any. I saw two satellite vans ready to broadcast.

Zealous 8:2 video

An African Game Park

The pastor offered to take us to visit a game park and we were happy to accept. The animals were cooperative. This lone buc was the first to greet us. He stood proudly near the road and did not move as we came close. You can't see it from this picture but he has his back to a herd of wildebeests.









Not long after we saw that first buc we found some Zebras. They too proved to be brave and stood directly in the road, waiting for us to go away. We sat and watched them for a while and then we did as they demanded, we turned and went another way.
We found a small herd of giraffes and these two seemed to be quite curious about us. The huge bull giraffe towered over the trees. I can't see it in this picture but I saw him stick out a tongue that extended about a half meter (20 inches) out of his mouth.


This lizard was rather shy but I got a picture before he rushed off into the reeds. He was over 4 feet long (1 1/2 meters). I don't recall the name of the lizard but perhaps I will edit this post with the name later.

A visit to Durban, South Africa...

We have moved to Durban for a few days. This is a picture of the harbor from the window of our guest house. We took a short trip to visit a school where Becky was invited to teach in the compound of the school. While she spoke a troop of monkeys invaded and gave us quite a show. I did manage to get a picture or two but most were not clear. Here is one that at least shows a tiny face from the top of the tree.

I couldn't help but notice the houses along the road to the school. Here is one of them that was close enough to see.

Visiting South Africa

I am making a visit to South Africa this week. We are staying at the mission house on the strand near Cape Town. The apartment is less than a block from the ocean and I did manage to get a nice swim yesterday. Here is a picture from our window...