Across New Skies
Across New Skies captures the raw, funny, and unforgettable stories of Native travelers leaving home soil for the first time. From airports to oceans, each journey is a reflection of identity, memory, and bold first steps.
Across New Skies
Sharon Goes To Israel
In this episode of Across New Skies, Sharon shares her joyful, unpredictable, and sometimes nerve-wracking first trip overseas to Israel. From airport surprises to unexpected challenges on the ground, her story is filled with warmth, humor, and that unstoppable love for new experiences.
She talks about what it felt like to face her fear of heights on a mountain lift, and the moments that reminded her why she loves saying yes to the journey, even when it doesn’t go according to plan.
Sharon invited Jessica into her home for this conversation, arriving with pages of thoughtful notes and a huge heart. It’s the kind of episode that leaves you smiling.
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Episodes drop on Thursdays.
Welcome back to Across New Skies, the podcast where Native stories take flight. I'm Jessica, and here we are, episode four already. First off, thank you so much to all of you who've been listening, sharing and reaching out. I've been getting such kind feedback. And trust me, I've been thinking hard about how to make this show even better. I'll tell you more about one new idea I've got. I'm really excited and you'll get to hear about it at the end of this episode. Also, real quick, yes, I completely forgot to include a Things to Google segment in last week's episode, Monty Goes to New Zealand. That's my bad. I'll try not to let it happen again. Now, this next conversation is a longer one, and I don't want to keep you from it any longer, so let's get into it. Today's conversation is with Sharon. Okay, well, firstly, thank you for allowing me to come into your home and conduct this interview. Can you state your name and your tribal affiliation?
Speaker 01:First of all, welcome. Thank you. Very happy to help you out here.
Speaker 00:Yes, you are.
Speaker 01:My name is Sharon Selestuwa. I'm a Pima of the Salt River Indian community.
Speaker 00:Now, you traveled... Can you tell me where you traveled to? I want to say it's Israel, but I cannot remember.
Speaker 01:Yes, it's Israel.
Speaker 00:Okay. You traveled to Israel. Let's start with when that was exactly.
Speaker 01:Okay. I'm not sure. It's either 1988 or 1989 while I was attending Charles Cook Theological School in Tempe. There was a tour available to the students to go to Israel. And so I got excited about it because I've never been there. that far from home, and then it would have been a once-in-a-life opportunity. But I did not have the money. We had to raise our own about $1,600 to go. So I was telling my family about it, and then said, oh, yeah, you should go. And I said, I don't have the money to go. So they said, well, let's just start selling stuff and so on. selling food or whatever. But I was already attending the school in Tempe and living in Tempe, and so I don't know what they really did. I guess they did sell food and stuff to raise the money, and then they had contacted people all over for donations, and then they put on a... dinner and dance at the community building. And I... Next thing I knew, I had over $1,600 to go. So I was like, how did you guys do this? It was a community. You had help. It was a lot of people involved in this. Yeah. I really appreciated that. And so there was supposed to be 30 of us going on the tour.
Speaker 00:From your class?
Speaker 01:No. They were just going to combine different groups to all travel together. And by the time it got close enough to go, there was only eight of us.
Speaker 00:Oh, really?
Speaker 01:Because a lot of them heard about the conflict that was going on in the Middle East by them. So I don't know if they got scared or what. And I kind of got worried myself. But then after a while, I said, no, you know, I think this was meant for me to go and I'll be okay. Yeah. So there was... four of us from the school. And because we became a small group, the president of the school was gonna be the tour guide. So him and his wife, myself, I think there's three other ladies and one elderly. And I can't remember who the other person was. But, yeah, that was the group that went. And I don't know. I think we had a layover someplace. I was trying to write my brains to remember. It wasn't in Holland, someplace. And you flew out of Phoenix. We flew out of Phoenix, and it took us, I think, two days in the air or something. Oh, man. Yeah, two and a half days. And so we arrived in Amman, Jordan. We flew on the Jordanian airline. Okay. And then we landed in Amman, Jordan, and we got held up there. Like delayed or? Well, everybody got their luggage except me. Okay. Oh, man. So we sat there in the terminal waiting patiently and whatnot. And then finally, I don't know, we waited a whole hour. And then the president went and wanted to find out what's going on. Why are we, you know, because he tried asking people there. They said they didn't know what was going on just to be patient and wait. So that's what we did. And so he came back with these two soldiers. Whoa. And Yeah, because I was saying, what happened to myself? I'm the only one that didn't get my suitcase back. Yeah. Yeah. So here they came. They said, they want you to go with them, you know. Do you mind me asking how old you were during this? When you took this trip? I was in my late 40s or early 50s, something like that. And had you been on an airplane and been before? Well, yeah, I used to work for the CHR's community health representatives here in the community. And I would travel with two different conferences and workshops and stuff. So I didn't ever go out of the country, but I traveled to different states. So I've been on a plane. So you kind of knew... what to kind of expect. Maybe it's a different country and that's the extent of it, but not what happened, right? With soldiers coming out and asking you to take, to go with them. What were you feeling? I, then I got kind of scared. I was like, my things just going through my mind. I'm thinking, why, you know, why me? I mean, what did I do? And so then the president, he said, I'll go with you. You know, so he came with me and our tour guide anyway. And so they stopped at the door of this building down the hall way, way, way down. It took us a long time to get there. And he said, they want you to go in there and unzip your suitcase. I said, why? Well, apparently when it came through the... Like the metal detector? The detector, yeah. Or the x-ray machine, one of those. X-ray machine, yeah. Because they saw something in there. And so you're going to have to go in there. There's a table in the middle of the room. and your suitcase is on there and you go in there. I said, okay. So I went in, you know, nobody in there, just me. I went and unzipped my suitcase. Oh, and he had told me, can you take out some of the stuff and raise it up? I said, all right. And were you the only one in this room? Mm-hmm. And were they watching you from a window or something? Yeah, I think they're watching me from somewhere. I don't know. Anyways, so I had taken my blow dryer And also my curling iron. That was kind of stupid because they didn't have the same kind of outlets. so of course I you know and I race out the blow dryer and then that and then after a few minutes and they they opened the door and came in and and he said has to be you because we tease each other you know we have a good relationship and so and so that was that and we finally I finally got my suitcase. I thought at first that maybe the zipper popped open and, you know, it was messed up or something. That's why they're holding it up and all that. It sounds to me, and I don't know, maybe I'm just thinking too much into this, but it sounds to me that, you know, they didn't know what to expect, but they were like, you do it so we can stay safe. Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. My goodness. So then we finally boarded. A driver came for us and And we finally boarded up and we went down to a hotel there in Amman, the city, the town or whatever we call it. It's kind of like, it looks like any other hotel, you know, like the Holiday Inn or something. You know, we went there and then we had supper that night. And there were man servers. And these men would just... You know, they pour and they'd be just staring in your face. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my gosh. It was scary for them to do that, you know. And our guy was Gene Stratmire, and he was like, oh, I think these guys are anti-you. Oh, my goodness. Were you the only woman in the group? There was four or five women and one man. The elderly men. Were you all Native? Just out of curiosity. The elderly was from Alaska. Okay. One of the churches down there. Oh, I didn't tell you that Cook School was a theological school. Oh, okay. And then the other, the women are from other res, different res, like from Montana. And I can't remember where the other ones were from. One or two of them were from the school here, where I was going to school. So, anyway. But somehow you got all the attention, everybody. Yes. It was so nerve-wracking and scary. We went to sleep, and then we got up real early, and then we went, I think the first place, I'm not sure, but I think we went to Jericho. But we had to cross over this King Hassan... border, and we had to show our passports, you know. And then we crossed over, and... How were you guys, what was your transportation? Was it a bus? Was it a van? It was a small van, yeah, and not for, I think it's an eight-passenger van. Okay, so you all fit and were comfortable. Anyways, we arrived at Jericho. We were told, you know, to always carry your own water, so we stopped there to... get some water. It was just a little building and it's got, you know, snacks and stuff. We picked up our snacks and whatever. And then there was these men outside with these camels, you know, to give people rides if, you know, you wanted to. And so I came out. I mean, it was just like this all the way. I came out and this man approached me. He wanted me to, I couldn't understand him, but he wanted, I mean, think he was telling me if I wanted to ride the camel. And I said, no, you know, I was trying to walk off, but he kept asking me and following me. And so Gene, he came over and then the man kinda walked away. And we were standing by the van and he was laughing. He said, don't get up there on that camel. He said, because they'll get up there with you and then they'll just take off. They have abducted women like that. Yeah. Was he joking, or is that for real? No, I guess it's for real. Oh, my goodness. So I was like, of course, me. Yeah, and then... You're like, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen to me. I'm getting pulled over by some kid. Might as well be me. Yeah. I doubted if the camera would have moved the repair with me on there. Yeah, and... I think our driver, he said that he was Palestinian, I think, but he kept a straight face. I can't remember where else we went. We went different places before we went to the Sea of Galilee. We went there because they have on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, they had the kibbutz, and these are those... communal organization or something where people do a lot of agricultural work and the money they get or however they help each other out, they share the money and they invest it and then whatever comes out of that, they share that for their living and whatever else. Anyway, so we went there and the food that they served was like cafeteria style, what do you call it? There's another name for it. Like family style, buffet style. Buffet, buffet, like a buffet. And they served all kinds of cheeses. All kinds of fish, all kinds of homemade jams, bread, freshly baked bread. Oh, I love their bread. Yeah, and so we ate there. I'm not really familiar with what kind of food they have. That all sounds delicious. And everything was good? You enjoyed everything? Everything. I'm not much of a fish eater. So I ate most of everything. Of course, they had eggs and, you know, Bacon and stuff like that too. But they had other things that I was not familiar with and I wasn't going to try. After that, I think, where did we go? Oh, we went to the River Jordan where Jesus was baptized. Okay, so did you end up going and getting baptized? Yeah, I did. I got baptized, and then they also sold baptismal water in bottles. Oh. So I bought some of those to bring back to my church. Wow. Yeah, I bought some of those. And I don't know where else. Do you remember what you were like? How were you feeling? Did you feel like a closer connection to God? Did you feel, you know, just embracing everything? Did you feel homesick? Like, what were you feeling? Yeah. I was just embracing everything because what I read from the Bible, it's like it just comes to life, you know, because you're there in person. I didn't get homesick because it's just desert area, just like out here. And I was just, like I said, I was just taking everything in. I remember I said that the guy, the driver was like stoic and he just like, he didn't really want, but because we were all joking when we're just having a real good time. Eventually he finally loosened up and then he started talking to us and stuff. So, but like I said, I remember where we went after that, but I know that when we're leaving the kibbutz, I think that we stayed there three days. Okay. Yeah. And when we were leaving early that morning at five o'clock, our guide told us, you know, that we're going to have a service on the bank of of the Sea of Galilee. Oh, I didn't tell you too before that, that one of those evenings we went and we ate at a place called Peter's Fish. And you go in there and you have to sit just anywhere because everybody's sitting on the floor and they just keep bringing food and stuff. And they bring you your main dishes, the fish and the whole fish. They just bring you the whole fish. And so... Cooked? Cooked. Okay. Yeah. Matter of fact, it was pretty good. I liked it maybe because I was just hungry by then. Yeah, so there was just, you just sit anywhere in between all the people that are eating there and locals mostly. fishermen, you know? Yeah. And they had a lot of these little round balls. Some of them looked like fried grass or something. You know, I didn't know what it was. And then I thought, Oh!
Speaker 00:You know? I didn't even want to try it, but I tried to eat a little bit of everything else other than those that had looked like, you know, grass all stuck in the ball. Yeah.
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 00:Yeah. So anyway, here we wake up early and we're out there and it's still kind of dark. You know, the sun's barely showing and whatnot. And you could always, you could see some of the fishermen way out, you know, fishing. They're still wet. You can see them. And I thought about Jesus when he called, you know, his first disciples and the fishermen were out there and he called I remember if it was James or John, I don't know, my mind is not here. Yeah, and when he walked on the water, yeah. So we had our service there, and then from there we went on to, we went up to the Mount of Olives and were there. And the others, they already went ahead wherever they went, but... Myself and Jean's wife, I waited for her. And so she said, wait for me, I'll walk with you. And I said, okay. So we were walking and then she was taking pictures, you know, as we walked. And there were some men standing over there and she kept taking pictures and stuff. And I had my camera too, but I just wasn't taking any pictures. And the next thing I know, here came two of the men towards us. And then they had these... square boxes. And inside were cameras. I mean, not cameras, a film. And they wanted us to buy their film. And Jean's wife was saying, no, I have film in here. I don't need to buy any. And she says, buy it. And kept insisting that we should buy it. And then she said, no, I'm sorry. I don't want to buy anything. So we turned to go. And then that man pushed her. I turned around and I grabbed her. and he said, he started talking, you know, he was talking his language and telling us, I don't know what he was doing, his hands were flailing. And then the other guy started yelling too. And thank goodness that the driver, our driver was still in the van. And he saw what was happening and he came running over, you know, and I don't know, he talked to them or whatever. So they finally walked away. And then he was saying, and she said, I don't know what they wanted. I didn't do that. And she said, he wanted you to buy their film. He thinks it's an insult that you didn't buy it. You know, you're American and you have lots of money, you know, and there was going on. You're better just come and sit in the van. So we just went and sat in there all that time. Oh, man. That was another incident that happened. You didn't get to go explore and walk and take pictures. You just went and stayed in the vehicle. That's unfortunate. But thank goodness the van driver was there. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I couldn't imagine what could have happened. They probably could have beat us and killed us, you know? Yeah, that's terrifying. That's when they're, you know, because of the conflict, they were at desperate times, you know? Right. Emotions are high. Everybody, yeah, there's a lot of things going on. I mean, unfortunately, it's still the same today. Wow. Now, what were you, like, when you guys were sitting in the van together and the driver was sitting with you guys? Mm-hmm. What were you guys talking about? What we were talking about, he was telling us that, you know, people are real desperate now and you really have to watch where you go or, you know, be sure to always be in a group because they'll pick on you if you... And that's what he said, too, that he was lucky that I was still sitting here in our own pursuit.
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 00:Don't know what could have happened to you guys. Oh, man. And this was like your third day there? It was like our fourth day, I think. Third or fourth day. So, I mean, you've had quite a trip so far. You've gotten, you know, single down security for your blow dryer and curling iron. Yes. The camel man. Yeah, the camel man almost took you. And then you almost had to buck some guys over film. I mean, wow. That's quite an adventure. And how long did you, how much longer did you end up staying? I think we stayed there for 10 days. Oh, so it was a very long trip. It was a very long trip. Now, while you were over there, did you have a chance to call back home or were you, did you do any like postcards or did your family just like, okay, she's going to just be gone for 10 days and we'll hear from her when she gets back? Well, Back then, we didn't have any cell phones. Yeah. You know, so just, you know, I just kind of, what was happening, I just kind of brushed it off, you know, and trying to enjoy my time, you know. Yeah, and that's a great point, too, because I don't even know what the time difference would have been, and it would have been hard to communicate back home. Gee, I don't even know. Was it three hours? Four hours? Maybe a day. Maybe it was one day. Israel? I can't even remember. Let me see. It's 4.16 a.m. right now, so 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4. Oh, my God. That's a 10-hour difference. Yeah, I guess. Oh, my goodness. Oh, boy. But, you know, it sounds like you were able to, you know, you're going through all of these experiences. And I think for, you know, I think for some people, it kind of. would maybe derail the experience here or there, but it doesn't seem to have had a damper on what you wanted to get out of it. You wanted to experience everything. Right. I did. So you kind of just having that attitude maybe allowed you to move past those things really quickly? Yeah. I try to think positive about everything and I really was trusting God, you know, and putting my faith that, you know, he made it possible for me to be there. Yeah. And so, you know, he's not going to let anything happen to me. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to get pushed around maybe, but other than that, I hope nothing else. Oh, man. But that's not the end of that story. There's more to come on what happened. Oh, no. Keep going. I'm on the edge of my seat. One of those days, we went to Tel Aviv. And during our tour, we needed to go to the restroom.
Speaker 01:Okay.
Speaker 00:And so our driver said, well, okay, you can go there. And we were looking, and it was a big, giant building that was just open like a corridor, open corridor with walls, no roof. People would just walk through there, you know. It had walls, you know. on the sides and it was really wide. And I don't know if it had windows. It must have had open windows or something. So the president's wife, I can't even remember her name. Anyway, she says, I really want to go too. So he says, well, you can go in there. We're thinking that maybe there was a room somewhere, something inside that you can go into. So we're standing there looking around, looking stupid, I guess, to other people like, you know, where's the bathroom? There's just walls, nothing else. Were other people there to go to the bathroom? People would just walk through. I don't know where they're going. It wasn't like a whole crowd of people, but every so often there would be some people going by. There's no privacy. So you're just basically like, where exactly am I supposed to go? And so she said, I wonder if he's talking about those holes on the floor, you know, because those women, the women were wearing their traditional, you know, black robe that they wear. And I guess she said, I've heard they just crouch down and go to the restroom, you know. Now up to this point, where had you been going to the restroom? Good question.
Speaker 01:Laughter
Speaker 00:You've been there for a few days. I assume you're not holding it in. Especially after all that cheese. Well, at the motel for the first night and then when driving around. But all those places had like toilets that you were used to? Yeah. Okay. It was like just a regular outhouse. Oh, okay. Yeah. And like it. Jericho, and then, but for the, the kibbutz, they're like rooms, you know, that we rented for the three days that we were there. Right. So there was bathrooms in there, modernized stuff, you know. Other than that, I don't know where we went. We must have been pretty good at holding our yarn.
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 00:So anyway, that's what we did. We went and she said, you want to go? I can stand right here and cover, you know. And I said, no. Did you hold it? And she said, I can't do this in front of all these people, you know. And so she said, well, let's just go back. And so we went back and then she said, okay. Where are those holes on the ground, you know, on that floor? Yeah, you just go there, you know. And then we're like, we can't do this. We have to go to the bathroom. Aren't there any restrooms anywhere? And he just kind of left, and he sat there for a while. He says, well, I'll take you to my place. Oh, my goodness. My mom and dad's place or something like that. Okay. And I said... Okay. You weren't scared to go with a stranger? You didn't want to get on a camel, but I guess you really needed to go. You were like, it's worth it. It never happens. Well, he was taking all of us. Oh, all of you. Okay. Because we were in the van traveling and we had to go. Okay. I thought it was just you two still. Okay. So, okay. So we went where he lives. It was like kind of second floor. We went there, and we met his mother and father, and I guess he told them that, you know, we used to... Is this the van driver's parents or whose parents? The van driver's parents. Okay, van driver's parents. Yeah, and I don't know what he was saying to them and telling them, I guess, that, you know, we're tourists. Yeah, they don't want to go in the hole. Yeah, I'm sure he told them that. And so they were really nice. They were offering us... Coffee, I think, and stuff. But we didn't want to be rude, so we did drink a little strong coffee. Oh, wow. Yeah. We were there, and then from there we left, and we went to... Where did we go? We went on the border of Lebanon and Syria. Syria and Lebanon, yeah. So you went on the border of... We stopped, I don't know, I think we were just stretching our legs and stuff. And we watched the people crossing. from Syria until, I don't know. Into Lebanon? But it was like a fenced area with barbed wires and whatnot. Like crossing a border. They had to walk through there and come and I guess show their passport and then they'll let them in and stuff like that. So we just sat there and watched them, you know, do all that. There were soldiers, you know, out there.
Speaker 01:Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 00:We watched them for a while and then we loaded up and then we We went into the countryside. I couldn't tell you where we were going, but the countryside, and then we stopped because we saw a tank in this one place. We all, stop, stop. Oh, my goodness. And so he stopped, and then we wanted to talk to that soldier that was guarding that gate.
Speaker 01:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 00:And he said, I don't think he'll talk to you. And so, of course, I had to ask him, can I take a picture with you? Oh, my goodness. You know, a picture. And he says, yes. Well, like that, I had to take a picture. I'm trying to find all that stuff before our thing, you know, our get-together here today, so I could show you. But, yeah, I took a picture, and then that. And you never know unless you ask. You know you've got to try. As usual, Gene, our tour guide, he says, I don't know about you. How do you do that? I'm like, I just try to be friendly. And so, okay, so we went. And from there, we went to, did we go back to the kibbutz? Because we would travel for a long time. Yeah. But we didn't sleep anywhere else. I know it gets dark, but I don't know. I mean, it was a long time ago. You know, your memory is really, really great. I think it is. Anyway, whatever day it was, we went to the Dome of the Rock. I wrote it down here. It's a sacred place in Jerusalem. the rock over which the shrine is built. The rock of the dome has this silver big dome. I don't know if you've ever seen it on the news. It's real. You can go in there and it's like inside a cave. You can go in there and there's like All kinds of rugs, you know, beautiful rugs spread all over the floor. You're supposed to take your shoes off and go and like a place to pray and whatever else. And then when you come out, you come out a little ways from there and you come to the wailing wall. You see the Muslims there. Yeah, at the wall. And they're like, you know, they pray. They stand there for hours and hours and whatnot. We were there. And then they have a place where you can, they have paper you can write a prayer on there. And then you take it to the wall and there's gaps in the wall and you can stick the prayer things in there. Did you get to experience that? Did you get to experience that? Yeah, I wrote a prayer, you know. That is really cool. So there's, yeah, oh man, I can't imagine. Wow. It seems very powerful. It's just like a lot of, I don't know, shared energy of like prayer in that area. You know, it was, I don't know. I mean, I didn't understand that. what they were doing at first, you know, staying there and all that. And there was a lot of them, you know. And I thought, what are they doing? And then he said, they're praying. Then I said, that guy's been staying there forever. So they'll stand there until whenever they finish their prayer, you know. I thought, you know, I could never do that. But how they, what's the word I'm looking for? when you get yourself to do something continuously and be so dedicated to doing it. Disciplined. Yeah, disciplined, to be so disciplined to do that, you know, and to learn all the prayers. I don't know whether, see, I didn't understand whether they pray from the heart or they pray the prayers that are given to them to pray. Right. You know, so like the Catholics, they have a long, you know, to pray. And I didn't really understand that part. But there was an air of spiritual thing going on there. And so it touched me and it drew me to the wall, even though I wasn't going to do like they're doing. Yeah. But... to think that you will leave a prayer in the wall, but that it would go anywhere. I mean, it has that power to travel to wherever and touch others. So I wrote my prayer and left it, and we left them there. That's amazing. I think that because of the traveling, the driving, it took us... Most of the day, you know, to get to our destinations, you know, like they plan for like four stops maybe for that day. But of course, you have to travel from one end to the other, even though to me it seemed like it's not that big, you know, area. Right. But it did take us a long time. Just out of curiosity, do you remember what side of the road that they drive on? Is it the same as here? Or was it the opposite? I never know which country drives on the opposite and which one drives on the same side. Where did your driver sit? Was it in the normal spot or was it in the opposite spot? It was the normal. Oh, okay. So it was probably the same side of the road. Yeah, I think it was the same. We traveled on dirt roads mostly. Really? You know, they're not all paved. Wow. Yeah, we'll see. Just like home. Just like home. Yeah, it was. I just felt at home there. I mean, I wouldn't want to stay there. And then the other place that we went to was called the Mount of Masada. The Mount of Masada. There's a whole big story behind that. Everybody wanted to go up on top of the mountain. It wasn't just a little mountain. It was a big, tall mountain. Oh, man. Big. I'm claustrophobic, and I'm also afraid of heights. Yeah. And to get there, you can either walk it or you can ride the lift. Oh, was it like the lift? Yeah, and... the boxes, I guess, that you get inside of. It wasn't really that big. And so it just so happened that everybody wanted to get into the one that we got into. Oh, my goodness. It was so scary because it was old, that cart, you know, that we're riding in. It's just like rusted here and there. Oh, no. Okay, so here we go. And I'm like... You know, and I didn't want to look. I was just, you know, trying to think of all kinds of other things and whatnot. And then I was kind of okay just looking straight ahead. But once I went, I just wanted to see. I went and I looked down and I was like, oh, my God, it was beating so fast. Oh, my gosh. I just knew this happened. seeing this thing we're riding in is going to break and it's going to fall off. And I try to tell myself, think of something else. And anyway, this quick along and there we went and we made it up on top of that mountain and went and saw the ruins of that place when we were ready to leave. Gene and his wife, they wanted to walk down. And I said, why are you walking down? They wanted to know we all wanted to walk down. I'm saying, I don't know. I mean, I'm scared to write that, but heck no, I'm not going to walk. I'd be laying on the side of the pad gasping for air. Nobody's going to care. Yeah, so anyway, I I was able to write it back, but I thought, oh, we're not going to have to be doing this anywhere else, you know, because I ain't going. So it took them... Well, they're used to walking, you know. So it took them a couple of hours to come down that mountain. And how long was the lift? Was it just like a couple minutes? Or was it like 10 minutes, 15 minutes? I'm sure it seemed like a long time because you didn't want to be there. Yeah, I think it must have been 10 to 15 minutes probably. But it felt like a day. Yeah. Now, was it swaying at all? Was it like... Yes, it was. It was so old. And with people not standing still, it was like, oh my gosh, just get off. Yes, it was swaying. I don't know, like from here to... I don't know. Maybe that trailer that's in the field way over then, past that, that's how far we had to go. Yeah. So I'm just, my heart is just beating not thinking about it. Well, all of the people that you knew that were riding with you, how did they feel? Did you guys talk about it? Did they feel like? I didn't say anything. I didn't want them to know I was scared. To act like I was brave. They were just talking and taking pictures. Oh, so they had no, they didn't have a care in the world. Were you sitting or standing? Standing. Oh, man. I'm going to take my breath in. Yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Take a minute. I'm also afraid of heights. So I'm feeling everything you're feeling. My ears are hot right now because the swing can't do it. Can't do it. I just, oh, I don't know. I have to make sure I have like a tight grip on things. And I always just imagine this is just awful. But like, I imagine like, if I hold on tight, no matter what this does, I just got to hold on really, really tight. Yeah. Is there one worse because you're standing in the middle and there's nothing to hold on to unless you want to grab one of the people or, you know, that was. It wasn't. Okay. One question though. It wasn't closed though. Right. It wasn't closed? It was windows? Okay, so at least it wasn't like... Open windows, but it was closed. Okay, oh my goodness. I think it was like from here to my waist, the man on all the sides. Oh my goodness. Okay, so you make it down, and then they're still walking, and you've got to sit there and wait a couple hours before they get back. Yeah, thank goodness for that, because then I was trying to pull myself together.
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 00:And then right across that, we went over to the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea. But before we got there, there was the Qumran Caves, and they were like big, huge cave openings, and there was water flowing through there. And there were people swimming. And the... Women were already on this side. The cave was kind of like this, you know, with the openings there. So it kind of separated the women from the men. And the driver said, you know, if you want to go swim, you can go and swim. And so, of course, I had to go. Nobody else wanted to go. He said that the water's real warm, you know, and all that. But he said, don't go on this side. That's the man's side, you know, and you can't swim on it. So I went over there and I got in there and swam and whatnot. And the women all stopped and were looking at me. I didn't ask... They were naked, waist up, I don't know, maybe all the way. I don't know. I guess you're supposed to take your clothes off. I just jumped in with my clothes. With your shoes, too? Oh, no, I took my shoes off. You took your shoes off, but you just jumped in with your clothes. Yeah, I had shorts on. Yeah, I guess you can call them shorts. They're like Bermuda pants. Yeah, and I came out, and then his wife was saying, Did you go over there? Did you take your clothes off too? I said, no, I didn't know you were supposed to. You would have if you knew. Yeah, right away. No. I love this place. Never mind, I don't really want to swim. Clothes and shoes up from the van are sitting there and laying there all the way to the pool. So after that, then we went over to the salt sea And some of the people, some of the ladies got in there for a short while. You know, you can't drown because there's so much salt. You're just floating. You float. Yeah, that's what I've heard. Yeah. You don't sink. You don't sink down. Yeah. Do you remember, did you happen to taste it? Was it extremely salty? No, I didn't taste it. But from what I know, people said that it's real salty. Did it feel, did you, did it feel different? You know, did it feel different than regular water? I mean, other than you, like, what was that sensation of like, I'm not going to sink at all? I didn't, I didn't get in there. No, the other two ladies got in there. Oh, this was a different area. Yeah. The other ladies got in there. It's just a, it's a big lake. So, and then people were out there sitting on top of the water. With their clothes on? Yeah, with their clothes on. Goodness. If they had said you had to strip, I would have jumped right in. No. Oh, no, just kidding. Yeah, so... I know that we traveled for days and whatnot, but I cannot tell you where we slept. I can't even remember, because we only were supposed to stay three days at the caboose, but these places weren't real all close by, you know, so. Anyway, we finally, the day before we were going to fly out, we ended up in Jerusalem, Jerusalem? Oh, wait, wait, wait. I missed. Did I already say something about the garden tomb? Oh, yeah. They said that there is two places where Jesus, they say Jesus might be buried. One is at, I wrote the name. One is at the tomb. And one is in the place called the Church of the Holy Sceptre or something. And it's to say that that's his actual burial place. But other Christians say, other believers say that it's there at the garden tomb, which we went to first. where it's right close to where he was crucified. There, it's like a big giant hill, and there's an opening there. It's not real high. You'd have to crawl in, kind of, or walk away and bend over to get in there, the tomb. And on top, to the left of it, it kind of looked like a skull there. Yeah. Wow. But that place, that garden, it's got flowers all over. They fixed it up real nice and whatnot. And then when we went inside of it, it was kind of a funny feeling. To go inside. And it's real cool because, you know, I don't know if you ever lived in a moth house and, you know, you wet the floors to sweep it and stay cool inside. Yeah, it's kind of like that. And we came out and they were having a service and other people were there too, you know, other tours. So we sat there and we took part in the service. And then after that, we left. I don't know, I felt some way after it didn't leave me, you know, it just kind of stayed with me. And then from there we went to Holocaust Museum. We went in there and they have like, you know, old pictures and relics. All kinds of stuff. It just really affected me real bad because of the things that Hitler had done to the Jewish people and how he used their bones and their skins to... make purses out of their skins or coin purses and using. It was just too much for me. I just told them, I can't deal with this. I got to go outside. So I did. And they were in there for a while. It just made my skin crawl. And it wasn't the same kind of feeling I had when I went in there. And the tomb. Yeah. You know, it was a different feeling from what I had there. It was surreal. I just, I was like crying. Yeah. You know, so emotional just knowing that he would be, who would be so cruel and evil, you know, to do what he did to people, human beings. Yeah, there's a difference between like reading it, reading about it or watching news reports about things. But when you're there and you see, I can only imagine it's just more real. It seems more real, like it actually happened. And yeah, I think I would probably be affected by it as well. That's right, yeah. So we left off, you know, you had to step outside to take a moment for yourself after... going and seeing all of that. What did you do next? How long were you out there? Did your group understand? Did they understand? Were they understanding of why you had to step out? Yeah, they did because when they came back, I was still kind of crying, you know. And so when they came back, everybody gave me a hug, you know. And I said, I told him, I said, I just couldn't bear to see all that stuff, you know, and knowing that those are people. Yeah. You know, just I couldn't bear to look at anything. So, yeah, they understood. That's only the hard part through the whole thing, seeing that. And then... From there we left and we went back to Amman, Jordan, to the hotel because we were going to fly out the next day real early. We got there. And they told us that they didn't have reservations for us. Oh, no. And it was getting dark, you know, already. So they were arguing about it, you know, that those reservations were made, you know, months in advance and all that for the tour group and all that stuff. Anyway, the manager finally said, well, we can put you up in a chalet. I didn't even know how that meant at first, but it's a real fancy two-story building, a home, a doctor's home, a doctor who was out of the country for now and that we can go ahead and use it for the night. And it had like, I think six bedrooms or six or seven bedrooms and four bathrooms. So we said, okay, you know, for the same amount of what our rooms cost. Yeah. So we went over there. It was just a short distance, a short walk. And we went there, and we settled. And, you know, I was just thinking, like, Why can't I remember if we even ate it? There was no restaurants really to eat it. Did we take sandwiches? I think we just lived mostly off the snacks we bought at little small places that we stopped at. Because I don't remember ever eating anything real. I think I might have lost tampons. Anyway, well, putting that aside. So we all got ready, you know, to go to bed and whatnot. And then we heard a scream in one of the bedrooms. And then one of the ladies came running. Oh, two of the ladies because there's two in each room. The other two bedrooms were downstairs, but everybody was sleeping upstairs. And they said that they saw somebody peeking in the window. We're upstairs. Yeah. Peeking through the window. And so Jean got up. And he went and was looking, and then he looked out, you know, the window, and he saw a stepladder, and there were some men climbing back down after, you know, and I guess they heard their screaming stuff. Yeah, and so he called the front desk and told them, you know, that there's men trying to break in. So the police came. you know, came and were looking all over and whatnot and didn't find them, but they left their letter behind. Oh, my goodness. So most of us couldn't even sleep that night. Wow. Yeah. And then that's your last night there, isn't it? Yeah, our last night. Oh, my goodness. You have to make it exciting for us. Go away. We need rest. We're supposed to be at the airport early. Yeah, that's what happened to us, and... I don't know when I finally fell asleep because I was trying to stay up with everybody else. I was tired. So we loaded up on the plane the next morning. We made it and flew back. I think I probably just slept most of the way because I don't remember if we even made a stop or anything. I think it must have just been a straight flight. It couldn't have been because it would have taken us. They'd have to feel locked somewhere. yeah maybe yeah you probably did stop I don't know actually I don't even know, maybe we didn't need to get down. I don't know. All I knew is we arrived in Sky Harbor Airport and my family was there and I told them, I said, where's a bit nanny? I want that Grand Slam and some coffee. Were they excited to see you? Yeah, they were all happy to see me and whatnot. I just enjoyed my, I think I had pancakes or something. Because, you know, even though they have meals, they're not all like that. They don't serve that kind of food. Even though they do have scrambled eggs every so often, but at the Caboots, you know, that's the only place that we really ate. Now, when you think back of this trip and everything that you just told me, like, what kind of feeling does it give you? Obviously, when we were talking and having this conversation, I could feel that you were reliving every moment as you're telling me. Is that something you do often? Do you think about this trip often? I think about it every once in a while, not often. Just every once in a while and think about how God has a hand in our lives and making all things possible. because I forgot to tell you that in the paper, the next day when we're at the Lebanon and Syria border, the missile, a missile landed there. Probably about two hours after we left, it landed. Yeah, it hit there. And so, you know, God had a hand on us all the way through. He made it possible for me to be able to get the, funds to go on that trip. And then all the things that have been happening, you know, it wasn't real serious, but, you know, I don't know, maybe just to let me know that, you know, even all these things are happening, I'm still there, you know, you still keep your faith and trust me, you know, I'll take care of everything. So just like before I went to the seminary, I knew he did everything, just making a way for me to get there and go through it and be done, and then providing me with all the things I need to be able to do my ministry. Because that's a whole new story, too. Well, thank you for sharing that. You know, honestly, that was quite an adventure. And I feel so honored to have listened to your whole story in this whole trip. And it's just really awesome to hear and awesome. You had like a really great attitude about it. You were going to have the best time no matter what. And it sounds like you got a lot out of that trip and it had its highs and lows. But you tell a great story. That was awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much. Wow. Huge thanks to Sharon for sharing her story with us. She invited me into her home for this conversation, which is how a lot of these interviews are recorded. And you know what? I'm just so grateful for the kindness and the hospitality. Not only that, Sharon came prepared, like seriously prepared. She had pages and pages of notes, and I just so appreciate the time and care she put into reflecting on her trip and sharing it with all of us. Thank you so much, Sharon. She just has amazing energy and a joy for life, and she just radiates. I really enjoyed hearing her story. And I think she met every moment with curiosity and strength, and I just really had so much fun. We actually sat and talked for a few hours afterward, just getting to know each other. This was the first time I had met Sharon, and it was so meaningful and just a generous conversation, and I loved it. All right, so let's get into a few things from Sharon's story that you might want to look up. Things to Google. Electrical adapters, I think we can learn something here. Depending on where you're traveling, you might need a special adapter to plug in your electronics if you're bringing stuff from home. So it's definitely worth checking before you pack your hair tools, all right? Camel rides, if you're planning on riding a camel or really any animal, let's try to Google how to spot legit ethical operators and maybe how to avoid the shady ones. That one might take a few Google searches, but I think it's worth it. Time zones. It's super helpful to know how far ahead or behind your destination is from your local time. It'll help with jet lag, planning, and staying in touch with folks back home. All right, guys, before we wrap up, remember how I mentioned at the beginning of this episode that there might be a few changes to how this podcast rolls out moving forward? Well, buckle up. No, no, no, no, I'm joking. Nothing dramatic, don't worry. But starting now, Across New Skies will follow a five-episode rhythm. Four guest conversations, followed by a fifth episode where we slow things down and dig a little deeper. That fifth episode is called The Layover Lounge. Layover, you know, the place where we can pee, call home, grab a snack. No, no, no, no, right, right, right, right. It's not a real layover. But it is space to pause, reflect, and unpack some of the more technical or serious travel topics that come up in the conversations. Things like customs, passports, terminals, all that stuff we don't really get into. And you know what? Maybe I'll even pick one of the things to Google and actually Google it. Then after the layover lounge, I'll take a week off to rest and reset. I know what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking. This chick already needs a break. We just got started. And you know what? You're not wrong. You're not wrong. But I am a one woman band over here, editing, scheduling, recording. I might have bitten off more than I can chew, but I'm going to try to keep with it. And also, I co-host another weekly podcast because apparently I just really enjoy chaos. I don't know what it is, but no, no, no. In all seriousness, though, Life happens, so if I ever need to hit pause mid-season, I just ask for a little patience and understanding. I absolutely love doing this, but I also love staying functional as a human being. Thanks again for listening, for showing up for these stories, and for being a part of this journey. I am so glad you're here. If you want to send an email, you can send it to acrossnewskiespodcast at gmail.com. You can also find the show on Instagram and Blue Sky at acrossnewskiespod. And yep, that's it. That's the end of the show. That's all I got. Safe travels and we'll catch you next week. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. While some stories are based on true events, details may be misremembered or creatively retold. I don't fact check, and I'm not a travel expert, so please don't take anything here as legal or travel advice. Some portions of this show may use AI-assisted tools to enhance production. And remember, these stories belong to the people who tell them. I'm just here to listen. Theme music, by permission, Ecstasy on Park Ave, by Secret Tween. Across New Skies is hosted, edited and produced by me, Jessica Joaquin.