Hello Everyone!
This trip to Israel has been amazing, prosperous, and so fulfilling. We have really exerted ourselves culturally to try new foods, physically by hiking mountains and walking through deserts, and spiritually by growing in our relationship with God while on this journey. With that being said, Melat and I are going to share the crazy adventure we went on today in the City of David.
The City of David is an Israeli settlement that is also known as the Jerusalem of ancient times.
Pictured left (top) you can see the overview of the biblical Jerusalem before you enter underground (below) which houses the Gihon Spring, the major water source for Jerusalem for over a 1,000 years. Located underground is a 2,000-year-old water tunnel that has very narrow walls, 5-6 inches of water in its pathway, and a sloping ceiling that is both high and low in different locations.
Navigating throughout this tunnel was both an adventure and a challenge. For starters, height served as an advantage for some and a disadvantage for others. In terms of basketball, if you were a guard the water in the tunnel most likely went past your knees up to your quads while us taller people were safe right around the shin/knee area. Unfortunately, if you were a post player it was very likely that you would not only bang your head a couple times on the low ceiling areas, but we had to walk through the tunnel like the Hunchback of Notre Dame in order to fit (pictured below). With about 12 inches of space between the walls, this is not something we recommend for individuals that are claustrophobic. Towards the latter part of the journey, everyone decided to turn off our flashlights and trudge through the tunnel in complete darkness.
After reading about this wild experience, you probably think our team is a little crazy. Truthfully, I would not have wanted to complete this journey with any other team on this earth. In the short amount of time we have been in Israel, we have grown physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally as a team. This trip is the beginning of what will be an exciting season of Liberty Women’s Basketball.
Thanks for reading our blog post!
-KK Barbour #30 & Melat Sissay #5
