Sunday, we did a lot of cool things. We packed up our things and left the Leonardo Hotel in Jersualem, and drove to Sderot. We met Laura Bialis, a tour guide who showed us what it was like to live in a town that was constantly under surveillance and getting hit by Qassam rockets. Laura talked about how you have fifteen seconds to get in to safe quarters once the loud speaker says “Red Alert” when a rocket is launched.
Then, we stopped at a children’s playground and we saw a bomb shelter painted as a caterpillar. I thought that this experience was very emotional because the people of Sderot have to live in constant alertness because a rocket could be launched at any given moment. Afterwards, Laura took us to a Kibbutz outside of an army base that was exactly 1 mile from the Gaza Strip. We were able to look out across the valley and see the boundary line in the near distance.
Next, we had lunch in Sderot and formally said goodbye to our Israeli soldiers. We all made speeches and gave many thanks for everything that we had learned from them in the past four days. We also showed them the original posters with imagined pictures of them, that we made the night before meeting them. We all had a good laugh!
After that, we participated in a community service event where we played games with a bunch of children. It was fun to see everyone laughing and having fun with the Israeli kids.
Finally, we began our journey to the Bedouin Tents in the Negev Desert. When we arrived, we had a traditional Bedouin dinner, sitting on the floor under a huge tent, then we had a welcoming ceremony where we learned about their traditions. After that, we took a walk through the desert. This was my favorite part of the day because it was completely silent and dark in the desert. Kobi gave us 20 minutes to go off on our own, find a comfortable spot, and enjoy the silence. Afterward, we got together and individually said what we thought about and we were able to open up to each other. Also, we saw a shooting star. Sababa! Before bed, we sat around a campfire and Alex brought out her guitar. We had a sing-a-long and people from other groups joined in with us. That was fun, as well. Then we went to bed.
Sleeping in the tent was an experience in itself. It was freezing, and everyone ended up cuddling next to each other to keep warm. After breakfast, we rode camels and donkeys through the desert, which was an awesome time. Then we went to Masada and climbed up the Roman ramp.
After having a tour on the top of Masada, Courtney, Hana, Karen, Caelynn, and James had a Bnai Mitzvah Ceremony. This was an amazing experience, having the opportunity to be called to the Torah on top of Masada. I truly loved this experience.
After climbing down and having lunch, we drove to the Dead Sea. We covered ourselves in mud and wrote out RUTGERS across our bodies. The Dead Sea was an unusual experience because the water is completely different from the beaches at home. Floating was exhilarating. We had lots of fun putting mud all over each other and taking lots of pictures (sorry, but we can't upload them to this blog in Israel). After that, we drove to Netanya and stayed at the Galil Hotel.
These were some of my favorite days of the trip.
- Courtney Davis RU ‘13
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