Kivu-October

Wednesday, October 9th-Saturday, October 26th

Where do I start?
     These past two weeks have been truly eye-opening, and having Jerusalem as my playground is a spectacular experience which I truly appreciate.  Settling in to my new home, Beit Shmuel is located in such a great area of Jerusalem!  We have a great view of the Old City, and we are about a ten minute walk away from the Kotel (Western Wall).  We are also a five minute walk away from a very popular place to hang out called Ben Yehuda Street.

     The second night in Jeru we walked about ten minutes to a neighborhood which has many nice places to eat and is parallel to old train tracks.  It also has a beautiful running trail that many of us like to run on.

     On Friday, the 11th we walked to a street called Machene Yehuda. It is basically a street full of fresh food vendors and cheap shops.  In Israel we call it a shuk, (שוק), which translates to a marketplace.   You can find such delicious fruits and veggies there.  A challenge is walking through the market without bumping into people. If you are a claustrophobic individual, it may not be the best place for you, although it's a wonderful and unique Israeli experience if you give it a shot.  For Shabbat I went to a modern orthodox synagogue (shul) with other people on Kivunim, in which the girls and boys sat separately.  I love exploring new synagogues around the world, so I can gain a better understanding for how diverse Jewish culture is. The next day I went to the Kotel to pray/reflect with one of my best friends.  It will always be a vivid experience in my mind because on our way to and from we had a very deep conversation about the meaning behind living a purposeful and happy life.

     The cool thing about living in Jeru is that we walk to get most places in the city so we really get to be outside in nature.  Although all my classes are at my hostel, I make sure I get out and explore Jeru every single day.

     Days are long and challenging, but insightful.  Mondays to Wednesdays we have Arabic and Hebrew language classes in the morning. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday we typically have "Civilization & Society" and "Perspectives on the Middle East" seminars/lectures in the afternoon.

     On Tuesdays I have about a 3-5 hour social responsibility commitment, in which eleven other Kivunimers and I volunteer at a special place in Jerusalem called "The Meeting Point."  It is a place east of my hostel, which is close to the Israeli-Jordanian border (this area was once referred to as "No Man's Land" when Israel and Jordan was in conflict).  It is this open field where people of different ethnicity and faiths can come together to hang out and converse with each other through different events offered.  The vision of "The Meeting Point" is to provoke conversation, mutual understanding, and entertainment.  Hopefully this project will be able to inspire more parts of Jerusalem to work on coexistence.  Another place where coexistence can be found in Jerusalem is by the old train tracks and the running/biking path I mentioned before.  There, Israelis and Palestinians use the path to exercise on, or just take nice peaceful walks with their family & friends.  It's a very cool place to observe the diversity of divided cultures that have the potential to find peace.  Although the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is super complex, I am a big believer that the problem is possible to solve.
     Back to "The Meeting Point:" it's in a really fantastic location because it is at a point where the Old City intersects with the New City, and where the eastern Palestinian side of Jerusalem meet the western predominantly Israeli side of the city.  "The Meeting Point" is pretty much an open field with a stone amphitheater and potential for many building projects, which is where we volunteers come into the equation. This field is part of a very fascinating community called Musrara neighborhood and "The Meeting Point" holds events and is open to the everyday curious explorer.
http://www.muslala.org/en
      The first day of my social responsibility on Tuesday, October 15th was a very interesting experience.  We got a tour of the cultured neighborhood which has deep historical roots. At one point it was a luxurious place for people to reside close to the Old City, and there was also a time period where people in poverty flocked to the area to live.  Nowadays there is a mix of cultures and social class, and the neighborhood is sprinkled with beautiful artwork outside.  The theory is that art is a universal language that unifies many different cultures together, because it invokes thinking from the heart and soul, and makes us realize that we are all humans who have a huge capacity for creativity.  Humans are the architects of this world, and it is up to all of us as a unified body to build a diverse community with good moral values.  Musrara also has a beautiful garden, a woodworking space, and dwellings that naturally flow from one to the other, with balconies and connectors from one house to the next.  Vines organically grow on fences, and laundry drys out in the splendid Jerusalem air.  Houses seem to be squeezed into little nooks and crannies, and unique artwork is everywhere.  The labyrinth of the neighborhood makes it all the more lovely, making you feel like one visit is not as satisfying as going back continuously to explore the enigma further.  There is a small central park where I saw an orthodox family around the playground, the children frolicking and being kids.  Then right next to them we saw more people, possibly Palestinian or Israeli, it does not really make a difference.  In this neighborhood, everyone gets along.  It is a model for the rest of Jerusalem and Israel.

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I will meet you there." Jalal A-Din Rumi (1207-1273): Persian poet & mystic

Pictures from the first day at Musrara:

A tree that has been modified by a few artists; every artist contributes their own style to the tree
I consider it to be the "tree of diversity"

My Kivu group having fun and being kids

Workshop

Garden

     This past Tuesday, the 22nd, we coated the stone amphitheater for the winter with a paper mache/water/mud/elephant poop mixture.  It was such a cool process to make the formula from scratch and get our hands dirty.  Also all of the Kivunim people in this service project are like me and love working outside, so the positive energy makes me so happy. This past summer and while I have been in Israel, I have realized how much I like working with nature and contributing to the natural world around me.  So this experience was a great opportunity for me to build up Jerusalem from mud.  I really felt like I was contributing to this society.
     The founder of "The Meeting Point" also came for a little bit to watch us make the mixture, and his baby son and his cute dog were also present to keep us company and put smiles on our face.  The five hours I spent working there were definitely one of my best memories yet on Kivunim: people, nature, and building are some of my favorite things about life!

Elephant poop pellets!!!

Breaking apart elephant poop!

         Last week's Shabbat (Friday, October 18th) was very nice.  My Palestinian friend on the program introduced me to his mom and sister, who came from Chicago to spend the week in Israel.  His sister Isabella is such a cute seven-year old , and is so sweet to be around.  Her mom is also a doll, and I showed them my room, Isabella responding by saying she wants to have a sleepover with me one night (because she noticed I had a bunk bed).  A few of us went to one of the staff member's house for a beautiful Shabbat dinner.

    It was so nice to take about a 30 minute walk to her house as the sun was setting, and we were welcomed into her house to find her husband, her daughter, and her reading a bedtime story followed by the Shema.  Her little daughter was going to bed, and the Shema is a Jewish prayer many say before sleep.  It was just one of those beautiful family moments that I had the chance to witness.  The dinner was amazing, and the conversations we had were intellectual and symbolic.  We talked about the week's Torah portion.

Sunday, October 20th 

So on our way to Beit She'an, looking out the window we saw the Jeziree valley to the left, and the Jordan valley to the right.  We were driving in a deep valley that at one point in time was an active earthquake zone.

Beit She'an was a Roman city for about 1000 years,  and in 749 C.E. was taken over by the Byzantine empire.  The Greeks built the city in the first place.  For Christians and Muslims, Beit She'an was actually the most important city for about 1000 years.  It was important because it was a great water source because the Kinneret water runs down the Jordan River, and served as the only trade route to Syria.  The Roman king Herod was able to make a connection between two great empires, in Egypt and Babylon (Persia), giving his civilization a very fertile and plentiful experience living in Beit She'an.

We went to Beit She'an, Gan Hashlosha (Sakhne), and Beit Alpha.

    Beit She'an is a city of layers that has been controlled and altered by various civilizations throughout history. In the Tanakh (also known as the Hebrew Bible), this city is named Beit She'an.  But for other civilizations, like during the Roman and Byzantine periods, the city was called Scythopolis.

    We then drove to Gan Hashlosha to swim in a natural spring.  The water temperature is 82 degrees Fahrenheit year round!  There were cute fishies swimming around with us, and there were some water caves to relax in.

We finally went to Beit Alpha, to explore a temple that was uncovered in Kibbutz Heftsiba while a swamp was being dug up, and a beautiful mosaic-zodiac-tiled floor was discovered.  What makes this temple such a phenomenon is that in Judaism traditionally we are a non-iconic religion, and in temples we do not put up pictures of things and people.  So how did we even know this was a temple versus a church or other holy site?  Well, on the top of the mosaic there lies engravings of roaring lions, two menorot, and the Holy Ark (bingo; these are all indications of Jewish influence).  Also, on the bottom of the mosaic there is a depiction of the classic scene in the Torah when Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac.  So the conclusion can be drawn that the presence of the zodiac signs (which must have been largely influenced by the European mysticism more than 1400 years ago) implies that this was a pagan temple.  It is fascinating to see how religions and cultures influence one another.

Friday, October 26th

(Weekend in Tiberias, a religious city on the coast of The Sea of Galilee)

  Thursday, October 31st

 Today we two other Kivunim students and I woke up early to meet our Arabic teacher at a United Nation Security Council Conference for Resolution 1325 held at the beautiful Jaffa port (which is on the Mediterranean coast and right by Tel Aviv!  Jaffa (Yafo) is the older cobblestone-based part of Tel Aviv.  It is an amazing place to explore.

At the conference:  Women leaders at the forefront of promoting women's equality rights spoke about the comprehensive action plan for the resolution.  My lovely Arabic teacher Amal is an Arab-Israeli who promotes peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis.  We also met her daughter who is also an advocate for peace.

Excerpt from my diary:

Today we got lost in a maze of beautiful old Jaffa stone corridors that twisted, turned, and went up and down until we finally found our way out to the port where we would meet Amal at the UNSC Resolution 1325 Conference.  

The intention of the journey was to learn more about the presence of women at the steering wheel of politics and how full women's equality in countries represented in the UN would be mandatory and enforced.

Amal believes that we need to learn more about the present political events in Israel in order to become more active in advocating for the peace process.  I could not agree more.  Kivunim is of course about learning about past and present cultures and is bolstered by our opportunity to travel a lot outside of Israel, but it is also our responsibility to truly become informed about the current affairs in the Middle East and Israel.  On Kivunim we are taking a course called "Perspectives of the Middle East," and we have a very good professor who is helping us become more knowledgeable about the Middle Eastern issues and how we can advocate for peace.

 

 

 

Kivu-Orientation

On September 30th, about half of the Kivunim class and I left JFK at 1PM, and 9.5 hours later we arrived in Istanbul to catch a connecting flight to Tel Aviv at about 6:45 AM.  Israel is 7 hours ahead of the East Coast, and we eventually got to Tel Aviv at around 9 AM! I slept through most of the first flight (a result of my sleep deprivation from not being able to sleep the last night at home).  The last night I had a sleepover with my mom and dog, and it was really nice!  Although I was excited for the coming day, making it very difficult to sleep,  I would not have wanted to spend my night any differently. I honestly am so thankful to have been given all the opportunities I have been given to grow up where I did, and with supportive people around me.  Although I will miss my parents and brother dearly, I feel prepared to take on the world for 8 months with a new family of people whom I know I will grow very closely with.  Also I appreciate all my teachers and friends who have inspired me to become a more adventurous individual open to the outdoors who takes in everything around me.  This coming year will present to me a great challenge of balancing between what's around me and internal growth.  I know though that they will work together simultaneously to hopefully mold me into a more cultured and intellectual person.

JFK airport

Okay, so now I will split up my blog post into day by day experiences:

Tuesday, October 1^st

We went to the Palmahim beach near Ashdod.  We swam in the soothing Mediterranean Sea, and had some nice big waves to play in.  The 21 or so of us who came on the first plane met the boy and girl RA (they are super friendly, talented, and great), our director for the year, and the executive director. The Kivu students also bonded with each other, and we figured out configurations we like to call “Jewish Geography.”  Basically it was really easy for all of us to find connections with each other and to have many mutual friends even if we didn’t all live close by.  This is because Jewish camps and programs often include people from many states/countries.

We later took about a 3 hour bus ride to Sde Boker in the Negev Desert (Southern Israel), which is the pleasant kibbutz that the first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, resided on for his last years.

The second plane (with 28 other Kivunimers) got delayed 3 hours at JFK, and then missed their connecting flight from Istanbul-Tel Aviv, so they ended up arriving at Sde Boker at 3:30 AM on October 2^nd. THAT MEANS THEY WERE TRAVELING FOR 3 DAYS!!  Although they spent 7 hours in the Istanbul airport, they were able to bond a lot and from what I heard, they concluded that it was worth the unique experience.

Wednesday, October 2^nd

We woke up, had coffee, and gazed out at the picturesque crater right outside our hostel that shows the magic found in nature.  If you strive to be an explorer or like to read, I suggest you check out the book by John R. Stilgoe called Outside Lies Magic.

The founder of Kivunim opened up with a beautiful introduction about how we are starting here in the desert in order to appreciate the vastness of the world, and how there is meaning behind everything we open our eyes to.  No matter what one’s individual beliefs are, all of us as humans are intrigued by the greater universe in which we live in.

We then went for a hike at Ein Avdat, which had a beautiful natural spring and was a nice hike to climb.  We climbed up 90⁰ ladders and definitely toned our muscles.  Once we got to the top, we ate all kinds of fruit, which is very tasty in Israel.

The beautiful spring

What a captivating reflection

  

Thursday, October 3^rd

Today we traveled to the Ben Gurion University National Solar Energy Research Center to learn more about the intention of natural energy and how it plays a role in Israel and globally.

We then hiked in the great crater of Mitzpe Ramon, which was quite a strenuous but super fulfilling hike. It was a lot of climbing, slipping, and a few times I thought I was going to fall down the crater walls.  There is soft sandstone on the bottom of the crater, and hard limestone that keeps the outer walls strong and durable.  There are flash floods present in the desert and hundreds of years ago floods brought down some of the walls and brought the sand stone with it.  The craters change over time, and there are many layers of stone from different times.  A long long long time ago, the volcanic eruptions began molding the craters, and since then it has been evolving.  When flash floods occur today (which is rarely), they form water areas in the crater called wadees.  Sometimes there are waterfalls too, but the current would be way to powerful for people to swim in. We also learned about the rich variety of wildlife present in Mitzpe Ramon at night as well, and in the daylight you can hike up the whole crater without seeing one living animal.

We then went to a museum nearby, where we learned about the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who was killed in a 2003 NASA mission.  He was a heroic and passionate man who followed his dreams and inspired people to do what they love in life, without wasting our precious opportunity for living.  We watched a movie about him in one of those dark rooms, and once the movie ended, the screen and curtains opened/lifted up to expose us to a huge semicircle window showing us the whole multidimensional vista of the Mitzpe Ramon crater.  I am so very appreciative for being able to experience Kivunim and the incredible connection I am making with the outdoors.  There is definitely magic found outside, and I know this year I will be inspired by nature in different places around the world.  In the beginning, nature preceded humans, and the simple yet complex/intricate system of nature has taught humans a lot and led us to our own creations inspired by the natural world in which we live in. 

That night we had a intellectual discussion about the books we read prior to Kivunim, and how people can transform history, but how history also has a powerful ability to control people.  Many students expressed their ideas in a scholarly manner, and it was then that I really realized how intellectual and talented this body really is.  These students will surely motivate me to become a better thinker.
Many of us that night went to spend time out on the cliff of the crater, looking up at the stars, and feeling the breezy ambiance around us.  The stars are so vivid here in the Negev, in fact we saw the famous October planet, Venus, making an appearance!

Friday, October 4^th

We woke up early to go on this marvelous 5 hour hike to Nahal Akev.  We climbed straight up the crater to the top of the cliff on the opposite side of where we were staying.The other day we were able to see the view of the crater from one perspective, and being in the crater, and climbing to the opposite side gave variation and allowed us to see the world from different angles, which is a major take away from the Kivunim program.

The path we initially climbed up

Climbing up it

The Sde Boker hostel is on the opposite side of the crater we hiked up.

Once we got to the top we could see the hostel we were staying at.  It was a beautiful view, and we kept walking on the flat mountain top until we went to a Beduoin tent for a snack.  The Beduoin community consists of truly extraordinary and inspiring culture. The Bedouin people have been living a life of simplicity for thousands of years now in the desert in which they reside.  Living in tents and in an arid climate, they know how to work the land. They are the most welcoming people I will probably ever meet and they fed us tea, humus, pita, and other kinds of wonderful food. 

Bedouin wife making pita
(traditional woman cover mouth to anyone other than her husband)

Socializing and eating good food

Bedouin husband

The tent from the outside

After spending some time with the husband and wife we kept walking through the desert until we got to an amazing cliff.  See I am afraid of heights, but this experience is really helping me overcome my fear.  I am so proud of myself because although it may be easier to look down and focus on where I am stepping thereby avoiding the amazing views, I have built up the courage to look up and around me in every direction to take in as much natural beauty as I can.  This place is truly a natural phenomenon.  There then was a very small walkway right next to a cliff in which we all had to cross.  I am amazed that I did it and did not think twice about my actions, yet every step I took was also with deep intention (kavanah).  You see, when I am in Israel, I feel like I can do anything I set my mind to, and my goal this year is to really keep my eyes open, my body moving, and my mind thinking.  We then walked/crawled/hiked down the mountain on a thin snake path kind-of-spiral thing until we arrived at a spring. 

Yes, I survived this literal cliffhanger!

I am holding this jerry can (filled with water) like a baby

 We swam for a few hours and really bonded and had fun as a Kivunim body.  The water bed was filled with algae so it was a slimy feeling to sit in the shallow area- and it was almost impossible to stay sitting in the shallow end without sliding down the algae slopes into the deeper end.  A lot of people jumped off a small cliff into the water and it was super entertaining. It was quite a wonderful and once-in-a-blue moon type of experience.  I bonded with one of our Israeli guides and we talked a lot about nature and hiking.  It is always nice to connect so well to someone who comes from the totally opposite side of the world.
 

 

After spending the day in the sun, we took a huge jeep back to our hostel  (but before then I went pee in the desert!!!).  It was a very bumpy ride, as we were riding on trails that were very rocky in the crater.  Once we got to the actual road again (45 minutes or so later; the bus to the crater there took us 10 minutes), we went up to the top of the crater in a spiral-like way.  When we got back it was time to get ready for Shabbat!  This Shabbat is called Rosh hodesh Heshvan, which is the beginning of new month in the Hebrew calendar.

Kivunim experienced a Kabbalat Shabbat together at the cliff lookout. Peter Geffen, the founder of Kivunim led beautiful services in which we prayed with The Koren Siddur – a modern orthodox prayer book.  Coincidentally in Summer 2012 when I went to a three-week BBYO Judaic institute conference, we were able to take home either a reform, reconstructionist, conservative, or orthodox prayer book of our own, and I chose The Koren Siddur because I was interested in learning more about a Jewish denomination different than my own.  I brought this prayer book with me, so it made me very happy to be using it for a greater purpose instead of it just sitting on my shelf at home.  It is going to be so cool to bring this siddur (prayer book) to every country I travel to.  The melodies and prayers at the cliff lookout was so beautiful and inspiring, and although I do not know the prayers to the same extent that some other people on the program do, I feel like I can follow along, and find a way to contribute to the service by singing what I do know.  I am excited to master new prayers this year, and although I consider myself more of a cultural than a religious Jew, I find it necessary to know the prayers and understand their deeper meanings so I can preserve Jewish customs and traditions for my children, grandchildren, etc.  As we prayed in the last minutes before the sun went down, I saw the different ribbons of blues put in the sky as if a paintbrush did it, and the warm colors brought in the soft and welcoming evening of Shabbat.

During Shabbat dinner, I sat next to Peter, which was really nice.  He is such a special man and he is definitely an inspiration of mine.  A worldly man, I can really learn from him and strive to think from many directions like he does.  We practiced the various Shabbat rituals, before and after eating dinner, and we also sang some fun secular songs to feel the happiness in the air.  Once of the songs we sang was “Somewhere over the Rainbow.”     

After dinner we had Oneg Shabbat, which is a time for dancing, singing, eating and having a lot of fun.  Many teens who went to the same Jewish camp growing up led it, singing songs, and teaching us different variations.  We also have this super super musically talented boy on this trip, who is one of the greatest musicians I have ever been around.  His voice is beautiful, and the way he teaches us songs and melodies is so effective, therefore giving us a profound experience.

Saturday, October 5^th

In the morning I went to Shabbat Tefillah: the experiential/alternative service.  We had discussions about our belief in G-d, and what it means to believe in religion.  It was a very interesting service.

Shabbat was very relaxing and we had much free time.  I walked around the kibbutz and watched the boys play basketball. When walking around I also saw a lot of kids and adults riding bikes, which makes me want to rent a bike once I get to Jerusalem.  I think biking is one of the best man made creations, because it gives you such a natural, reflective, but also manual experience.  I also wrote in my journal a lot about different experiences I have had thus far on orientation.

Later that night we had Havdalah, which is the conclusion of Shabbat and is very meaningful to me.  Typically, people all form a circle and sing nice sweet melodies.  We also smell spices and light a braided Havdalah candle when the lights are off, creating a very special atmosphere.

Sunday, October 6^th

Today we had a session on Photography through the Lens of Frederic Brenner in which we looked again at the pictures in Diaspora: Homelands in Exile.  It is cool to learn about Judaism in different places around the world and how many people do not realize how diverse the people in the religion really are.

Later on we met with Dr. Clinton Bailey, the expert in Bedouin culture.  He used to live in America, but he then moved to Israel and has since dedicated his life to Bedouin culture.  In fact, it was Paula Ben-Gurion who directed his life to go check out Sde Boker, because at the time Bailey was looking for a job, and he bumped into Paula one day who told him that her and her husband were starting a school in Sde Boker.  Ben-Gurion then told Clinton that he probably could get a job at the school as an English teacher. So it was at Sde Boker that Bailey grew intrigued by the Bedouin culture and decided to devote his life to something so extraordinary.  He has written many books, and has even about 1000 oral Bedouin poems in Arabic, wrote them down in Arabic, and translated them into English.  Just think about that for a second: and American born man is so fascinated by this culture that he was able to learn Arabic, know so much about their culture, and pretty much be the spokesman and advocate for the people.  There are recognized and unrecognized Bedouin communities in the Negev, in which Clinton knows every Bedouin person that he has ever encountered, which is a lot.  He probably knows more Bedouin people than the Bedouin people themselves will ever know, because many of the people stick to their tribes and communities, and that’s who they know.  In Israel, the government is talking about potentially making one main Bedouin area, as opposed to all of these towns scattered around the Negev.  It was interesting to learn so much about the Bedouin culture even just spending one day with Clinton.

He also showed us the graves of Paula and David Ben-Gurion, and we put rocks on their graves out of respect for the first Prime Minister of Israel, who made the modest decision to spend his last years helping to build up Sde Boker in the Negev. We also met and bonded with Amal Abu Sif (our Arabic teacher). She is a very smart woman who is an influential character in Muslim society.  She has spoken for the UN before, and really believes in coexistence between the Jews and Muslims.

Monday, October 7^th

Today we went to a K-8 Bedouin school, and the kids were so very precious and passionate about learning.  They are happy to go to school, and it was truly amazing to see smiling faces on every single one of the children.  Many of them have big goals, like to be a doctor, engineer, etc.  They sang us songs, and the director of the school showed us to different classrooms.  The kids definitely liked to giggle and they were so excited to see us—I bet it was overwhelming for them at first, because they never have visitors, let alone from another country, but I think our presence really inspired them to grow up and work in professions that we will probably soon work in.  The teachers in Bedouin culture believe they are friends with the students, not just instructors, and they have a very special relationship with each other.  Bedouin schools are very new in their cultural history, and it is amazing how successful and progressive their education already seems to be.  There is a 6:4 girl to boy ratio as well, which is a very interesting piece of information.  Also, these kids and the Kivunimers instantly connected and language was not a barrier, because communication is not just oral, it is also based on physical relationship.  But nonetheless, although it was easy to communicate with the children, hearing them speak beautiful Arabic has inspired me to learn Arabic even more.  They sang for us and we went outside to plant trees for the school, and played a game of soccer with them (soccer is such a universal sport).  I am totally satisfied with our visit at the Bedouin school, and I hope all these students follow their dreams throughout their meaningful lives.

We then went to Ben Gurion's desert home Tzrif, and learned more about how the modest man had the main dream of establishing a Jewish homeland. Then we went to Avdat, which was a place of ancient ruins that we so great to explore.

We spent the night at the desert home of an inspiring Bedouin man named Abu Jarabia. Jarabia has three wives and about 15 children.  We also met his righteous brother who served in the Israeli army.  Although he was an Arabic Bedouin man who was part of the minority in the army, he still felt an obligation and meaning behind serving.  While I was listening to the presentation, a Bedouin toddler came up to me and motioned to me that wanted to go on my back as if I was his mother and I was honored to care for him. He was this adorable child with big brown eyes, and interacting with him showed to me that language is not a barrier and tangible interactions sometimes speak louder than words.

The family also made us delicious soup, schnitzel, and other types of Middle Eastern food, and they entertained us in this colorful Bedouin tent.  The cloths and the padding we sit on are all pretty patterns which make me happy because I love variation. After listening to inspirational anecdotes in the tent, the family told Peter how appreciative they are to have us come and visit them.  Peter answered by saying “No, thank you,” because it is the Bedouin people who help teach us about a unique community. In the end, both parties benefit from the encounter, and we both learn about cultures that are different from our own.  Peter told us that this experience with the Bedouin people served as a great introduction to the diverse encounters we will have with people while traveling during this year.

After dinner we got in our evening clothes, and roasted marshmellows in a bonfire while drinking tea to keep us warm.  We had about 10 different people play songs on the guitar while we were all around the fire and it was so special—even some of the Bedouin men hung out with us and played the guitar.  We sang together as a unified community, as a global peoplehood.  There was also a beautiful view of the city of Beer Sheva (the only metropolitan area in the Negev), and the city lights were twinkling from miles and miles away.  This night was just one of those times when I say to myself, “I love life.”

We slept in this shack warehouse type of thing—all 51 of us.  We slept in silk liners inside a sleeping bag on top of the Bedouin style cushions, which was an experience I am so happy I had.  It reminded me of camping, but the fact that we were in a different country just made it even better. Our RA sang us a lullaby to sleep.  Some people were very uncomfortable and nervous to be in this living condition for the evening, but it was one of the first Kivunim experiences in which we felt challenged to get out of our comfort zones and be fully immersed in a different culture that is also reality—even if at first that reality is unknown to us.  Oftentimes as tourists people will go places without fully throwing themselves into the foreign culture, but if we want to learn how other people live, I truly believe it is necessary to become a keen traveler who takes in everything around them, including experiencing a new way of life.  To get the most out of experiences, people really have to live in the moment and keep all of their senses open.  Although not every moment may seem preferred, life is a quilt of different feelings and reactions, and so we should be exposed to things in which we first think may seem awful.  After this year, I believe I will truly understand the “don’t judge a book by its cover” type of saying.

Tuesday, October 8^th

The next morning we traveled to Beer Sheva to Ben Gurion University, where we met with the first Bedouin woman in Israel to receive a PhD.  Her name is Dr. Sarab Abu Rabiah, and she spoke to us about challenges for Arab women (especially Bedouin women) to have the opportunity to study at a higher educational institution.  But in the midst of challenges, her main point was to be very respectful and also follow your dreams.  Follow your dreams, be the best person that you can be, etc.—I always thought that educators just said nice mantras like that to encourage us to work hard—but really, now as 18 year olds, it is really time for us as individuals to achieve what we want to achieve. Peter told us that 18-25 are the golden years of a person’s life in which their cerebellum and brain cells are developed enough and also efficient enough to learn much more than any other age.  It really makes me realize how important it is to take care of myself during my “golden years” so that I can produce as much as possible in a way that I feel best reflects my dreams and intentions. 

After Rabiah’s inspiring talk, we drove to Tel Sheva, which is another Bedouin town. We met with the founder of “Desert Daughter Cosmetics,” Mariam Abu Rakeek.   She was the first Bedouin woman to get a college education outside of Israel.  She went to England to study marketing, and was fascinated by Lancôme, Estee Lauder, and other beauty lines there.  Her grandmother was an organic village healer.  Mariam’s entrepreneurial mind adopted all the formulas from her grandmother to then create a revolutionary business of selling organic cosmetics.  Peter made a comment about how she is like Bobbie Brown in America, which made me smile because my dear mommy back home works for them!  She was a beautiful, righteous, and inspirational woman whose main point was that everybody is a beautiful individual, no matter what they look like.  Her dream is once day to make her company an international business, but not losing the natural organic touch.  She does not want a global business that makes products in factories, her dream is for women around the world to organically make the cosmetics in their areas and sell them to people nearby.  Mariam receives pretty good business now, but at one point she was in debt and owed a lot of people money.  She promised to pay it off and did, and it taught me how being an entrepreneur is a tough enterprise in which you have to be very dedicated and loyal to following through with your ideas.

               The last thing I want to say about these two righteous women is that they spoke perfect English.  Think about these women for a second who came from very little in an environment where many women were illiterate, and the fact that they are so competent and defied all odds is incredible.  

We then drove to Masada, explored the museum, and stayed in the hostel.  We reflected on our wonderful week of orientation, and we realized how fortunate we have been to have such amazing people on this trip with us, students and staff alike, and how the people we will be meeting this year will really help mold us into the people we want to be.  We will give back to the people we will meet, but they will also give us the priceless gift of inspiration and wisdom, like the Bedouin people did for us this past week.

  

 

Wednesday, October 8^th

               We woke up at 4 AM because today was the day we would be hiking up Mt. Masada to experience the beautiful sunrise on the top of the ancient creation.  It was a glorious experience, and the hike up in the dark starlit sky took about 45 minutes.  As we kept walking up, the sky got lighter and lighter, and eventually we saw the beautiful Dead Sea in the background. I have definitely gotten better with heights over the course of our 4 hikes this week, because I didn’t think I would fall off the mountain this time like I used to think would happen prior to this trip.  Once we got to the top, we sat on top one of the walls, and dangled our little feet out into the cool morning air.  45 minutes later our dear executive director arrived at the top with his daughter, which is super inspiring because he has one prosthetic leg.  We stayed on the mountain for a little bit and explored the palaces and the holy sites there further, and we took the cable cars down.

After Masada, some of us went to float in the salt concentrated Dead Sea, and appreciate the last moments of our Kivunim orientation before heading to Jerusalem.