The other brain "figuring it out" here.

Yahudiya Nature Reserve

Boy at the Baptism loved my camera, I liked his all white digs
From left Zivis Johannes (checkered shirt) and Thomas (white polo), SJUBVC Mike Leither (Back), and Zivi Martin (blue polo)
From left: Fr. Basilius, Benedikt, Johannes, Martin, Thomas, and Me at Yahudiya.
Much of the terrain through Yahudiya was riverside over rock and through trees.
Pictures do not do justice to what I saw and experienced , this is what Yahudiya looked like from the cliff.
Fr. Jeremias baptizing
Fr. Jeremias and the family
Swim break at Yahudiya
Can you see me mid flight?

I should introduce Mike Leither my fellow St. John’s University Benedictine Volunteer Corps member in Tabgha (see previous posts for a picture). I met him at the end of April this past school year. We have a lot of mutual friends but surprisingly never found each other in the same company for the four years. He hails from the St. Cloud area and is the eldest of three kids. He was an art major and an All-American track athlete at SJU (he looks like it, he got the nickname “Hulk” when we first arrived). He is a hard worker and very smart in the construction and creation of projects (hopes to attend architecture school in the coming years). His skills have been put to use here and he has excelled. He is a huge country music fan (attending WeFest the weekend before we left for here), has a smile that reaches ear to ear, and is very well intentioned; the latter two especially making him easy to get along with. He has a brush with the German language from his time as a boy scout but learned Spanish in school so the speaking has been a little more troublesome for him but he manages well. He has an appetite (which I can understand with the great food they provide here) that is only surpassed by his ability to metabolize what he takes in. He has a natural ability to accomplish any task or challenge he sets out to do. I am glad St. John’s sent two of us here as even though the Germans do not try to, we are excluded quite easily and often (often at times of talking).

Fr. Basilius is back in Germany for two and a half weeks on vacation and Abbot Benedikt is in Rome for the annual Abbots convention (Every Abbot in Rome, lookout for this wild crowd!). This leaves Fr. Jeramias as our leader here. He has been back from Germany for about 2 weeks and I have begun to get to know him well. He is a kind warm smart man (I know I use this to describe a lot of the people I have met) and it's easy to see how everyone gets along with him. He is eager to talk to me about American politics, as I have communicated my viewpoint on issues with him almost everyday. He will bring up issues in the news, keeping me on my toes on daily happenings, and I try to explain the best I can (without bias). It would be safe to say that we share stances on a lot of issues. I have yet to find one we do not agree upon. I look to him to clarify things here that I do not understand or agree with and he has yet to fail me with the answer needed for my problem.

We had a baptism here on Saturday 20th, which is unique because the mother of the child was the first child to get baptized in the Church when it was rebuilt in the 80's. There was a huge number of family there and they invited us to watch.