Update on Day 1

Here is Dr. Varqa. He is the last living Hand of the Cause of God, and is still going strong at 95 years old. He gave a very sweet talk to the pilgrims last night about the importance of sharing the message of the Baha'i Faith. He asked audience members to raise their hands if they were the head of their household. There was some giggling and fidgeting and not many raised hands. He smiled and said, "You are ALL heads of your households, and as heads of your households it's your job to spread the message of Baha'u'llah." After his talk, various pilgrims offered prayers in their native languages: English, Persian, Arabic, Swahili, Hindu, and French.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's go back and fill in what happened on our first day.

We are feeling almost human this morning after crashing at 9:30 last night. Yesterday was a very full day, and today promises to be even more so. (It's our seventh wedding anniversay, by the way. What a way to celebrate!) But we have a little time to catch up on the action from yesterday:

After breakfast, we took a taxi to the Pilgrim Reception Center, affectionately referred to as the PRC. It’s about a 5-minute cab ride from the hotel. We were deposited in front of an iron gate, which left us nonplused until we saw the call button. “Hello, are you here for pilgrimage? Your surname, please? Please push the gate open and be sure to push it closed behind you.”

We were among the first to arrive, and found ourselves in the PRC dining room with cups of coffee and Bahá'í families from Chicago, Toronto and Melbourne, Australia. After an hour or so we were ushered into another building (the PRC Annex) and got our pilgrim ID badges, informational booklets and Israeli health insurance. After a brief informational meeting at 10 a.m. (“No spaghetti straps, no strapless tops, no bare bellies. Make sure the taxi has the meter on . Avoid crowds. Every Israeli restaurant is required to have a guard at the door – don’t go in a restaurant without a guard.”), we were excused until after lunch.

Took the bus back to the hotel. Gary dug in his pocket and eventually found 11 New Israeli Shekelyim for the fare. Mary Lou felt very proud of him and very much like an experienced traveler to be able to use the local public transportation. Then we took a walk up the main commercial drag and successfully found an ATM and a place to buy a plug strip for our various electronic devices, plus adaptors for the plugs.

After lunch we went back to the PRC and met our pilgrimage guide, Marcia. (For the friends in Pasadena, Marcia is absolutely the spitting image of our dear Sara Prince, in looks and demeanor, circa about 45 years ago. Amazing!) She gave us the rundown on our schedule for the week. It turns out the Declaration of the Bab is not going to be celebrated here this week -- the World Center observes certain Holy Days according to the lunar calendar. However, later this week we will be observing the Ascension of Baha'u'llah, which is going to be quite an event!

We are in Group B, with about 40 or so other pilgrims. (There are about 270 pilgrims here altogether.) We went around and introduced ourselves. We have people in our group from the U.S., all over Canada, India, New Zealand, and Ireland. We were a bit suprised to find that Americans were in the minority in our group -- the country with the most group members is Canada, eh?

After the scheduling meeting, we finally made our first official pilgrimage visit. We gathered in the old Pilgrim House adjacent to the Shrine of the Bab. We were greated by two members of the Continental Board of Counselors (one of whom, Dr. Penny Walker, we'd had the pleasure of meeting when she visited Pasadena a few years ago), who welcomed us and then escorted us to the Shrine of the Bab.

We walked up the gravel path, removed our shoes, and entered what we had been told is the holiest spot on the globe. We went first to the room in which the Blessed Bab is interred. After a few moments for individual prayer and reflection, the Tablet of Visitation was recited by one of the Counselors. It was indescribable. After a bit more time for individual prayer, we moved to the room in which the remains of 'Abdu'l-Baha are interred, and Dr. Walker recited the Tablet of Visitation again. And again, it was indescribable.

Eventually we made our way out of the Shrine and enjoyed our first up-close-and-personal view of the Terraces and the gardens. We have been amazed to find that the vegetation here in Haifa is exactly the same as the vegetation at home. We discovered that an amazing number of plants from our garden at home are also planted in the Baha'i gardens! What a thrill! (If we knew plant names, we'd tell you which ones. Will post photos later.) We were also surprised to discover that, in addition to the oft-photographed Terraces, the gardens extend a good distance to either side and include all kinds of fabulous plants including a huge number of succulents and cactuses. (Cacti?) We had a good tromp around the middle terrace before going back to the PRC for Dr. Varqa's talk, described above.

When we emerged, a line of taxis was waiting outside the PRC. Apparently the locals are well aware of the Baha'i pilgrimage schedule and are anxious to have the pilgrims' business. Our driver said "20 sheckels or meter?" and we were pleased that we already knew that the meter fare is less than 15 so we gave the right (less expensive) answer. Can't blame a guy for asking, though.

Which reminds me... in our travels at lunch we stopped into a shop with a handwritten sign saying "Baha'is welcome." The proprietress was a trip -- she showed us all kinds of Baha'i jewelry and tchotchkes and assured us that "nobody in Haifa takes care of the Baha'is like I do." We procured the long-desired 3-d refrigerator magnet depicting the Shrine of the Bab, plus some other souvenirs, and departed despite her entreaties that we stay longer and look at the whole stock. Very funny.

Back to the evening. As part of our top-floor Executive room at the hotel, we have access to the "business lounge." Popped in there to discover a fabulous buffet of appetizers, drinks and desserts that eliminated the need to find a place to buy dinner. Have we mentioned that the food in Israel is fantastic?

And that, dear friends, brings us to where we last posted... jet lagged, overwhelmed, and very very happy and excited.

Today: Bahji and the Shrine of Baha'u'llah. Stay tuned.