All the girls on Shabbat

The boys on Shabbat

We spent our second Shabbat in Israel at Kibbutz Keturah participating in services and other activities with the members from the kibbutz.  It was a very restful day filled with swimming and a soccer game with some of the kibbutz kids.  After Havdalah we headed to Eilat and went to King’s City which turned out to be an amazing amusement park based on the bible.  Sunday morning we left the kibbutz and headed to Mitzpeh Ramon where we rappelled down a 45 foot rock cliff, part of the Ramon Machtesh (crater).  After finishing the rappelling we headed to an overlook of Ramon Machtesh and saw many Ibacks (gazelles) running around right in front of us.  From the overlook we could see the whole Machtesh and the various colored sands of the area.  Then we went to one of the only two alpaca ranches in Israel where we learned about alpacas, goats and llamas and had the opportunity to feed and pet the animals.  While the alpacas were fairly friendly creatures they did spit on a few of the kids. After leaving the alpaca ranch we drove north to Maccabim, a suburb of Modi’in located mid way between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  At the hostel we met another Keshet group with kids the same age.  That evening both groups watched the World Cup at a nearby country club outside on a big screen.  We enjoyed meeting new people while watching the big game. 

Rapelling at Mitzpeh Ramon

Independence Hall in Tel Aviv

Monday morning we headed into Tel Aviv where we went to Independence Hall where we saw and heard about Israel becoming a state.  We sat in the same room that had been used in 1948 when Israel became a state. From there we headed to Jaffa and went to Nalaga’at Theater Company, where we participated in a sculpture in the dark workshop with blind members of the company.  There we were in complete darkness where we sculpted many objects, mainly one item that we thought a blind person would want to see if they had their sight again.  We also had the opportunity to ask questions of the blind members and hear their stories. This included the story of Bezah, who has been blind since birth and has climbed Mt. Everest up to 20,000 ft. and has run several marathons including Berlin and Amsterdam in 3 hours and 15 minutes! Following the workshop we ate lunch at Kapiche, their restaurant where the servers are deaf.  We had a great lunch and also learned some Israeli sign language from the people working there. After lunch we headed to the beach in Tel Aviv right along the promenade and swam in the Mediterranean Sea. We had a great time swimming and relaxing on the beach.  After the beach we went to B’nai Darfur and listened to a Darfur refugee talk about his experience coming from Sudan to Israel.  For dinner we went to Dr. Shakshukah in Jaffa where we ate Shakshukah, a meal of sautéed tomatoes, onions and herbs with a fried egg on top along with bread, couscous and vegetables.  The meal ended with cake and mint tea.  Many of the kids bought sharwalim, flowy colorful pajama pants at a nearby shop.

Packing food boxes at the Jaffa Institute

Amongst all our hard work at the Jaffa Institute

Doing our part to help plant trees

Sheep hearding at Neot Kedumim

Today we headed back to Jaffa to volunteer at the Jaffa Institute; first we helped pack boxes of food for families in need for the high holy days.  Everyone found it very rewarding to spend some of their time in Israel helping those who are less fortunate, and Adam Gray got to practice both his Hebrew and Arabic.   Then we headed to the actual school building where we spent time interacting with the kids doing various activities.  Some helped sew pillows, while others helped teach first aid, some even tried to participate in a mock legal case unfortunately the lack of English spoken there made it hard to understand.  Afterwards we went to the Nahalat Binyamin, an open market in Tel Aviv, where we enjoyed some delicious shwarma and falafel.  There we were able to peruse through the market where there was a plethora of t-shirts, fruits, arts, and other cultural products.  In the words of Joshua Grove, it was awesome.  Next we drove to the Palmach Museum in Tel Aviv, where we learned about the history of the IDF and the founding of Israel.  The museum itself was very interactive and informative about the Israeli partisan forces before the IDF.  On our way back to the hostel we stopped by Neot Kedumim, a biblical nature preserve, where we herded sheep and goats and saw the burning bush (well just planted some trees actually).  Then it was back to the hostel for dinner and prepared ourselves for the army program that is coming up.

Amanda & Noah