Birthright Israel: Day 6

Day 6 started our 2-day outdoorsy adventure. These two days were jam-packed with hiking, climbing, crawling, sleeping in a tent, swimming, riding animals... let's just say the shower at the end of Day 7 was an incredible one.

We started our southern travels by first going to Hirbet Midras.  There is an archaeological site there with incredible mosaics and huge columnbariums from the Roman period, and a Byzantine church, but we didn't stop at any of those places - that may be something to keep in mind for my next trip back.  We went to Hirbet Midras to crawl around in the caves that the Jewish rebels dug to hide out from the Romans in the first century.  It was a really neat experience - definitely not one for the claustrophobic, as some of those caves we had to slither on our bellies to get through and other than our flashlights it was completely dark.

Alex, descending down into the caves.

A group of us in the first bigger open space down in the caves - note the holes in the wall for doves, oil lamps, and other storage.  The only light in there was that lantern Tony is holding - thank goodness for low-light camera settings and photoshop!

Sara, fellow UCI student, doing the Anteater hand sign before descending back down into the narrow caves.

Becky emerging from the caves.

Me pretending to crawl back out of the tunnel (it was too narrow to really get back into properly).

After caving and getting thoroughly dusty, we went to Shvil HaSalt, which translates to "Path of the Salad." It is on a quiet little mushav (like a kibbutz with less socialism) about 1 mile from the Egyptian border and 1 mile from Gaza, which was a surreal place to be, knowing the turmoil we were so close to. While there we picked fresh fruit and veggies they grew there on the farm, and they were all amazing!

Our guide, who moved to Israel from South Africa, describing these pasta tomatoes to us.

Brittany in a forest of cucumbers.

Sunflowers

Picking sunflower seeds

Picking carrots

Delicious carrots!

Baby strawberry

Ali and Ariel picking strawberries

Pomolos as big as my head!

Releasing homing pigeons wearing our fruit necklaces!

Releasing the homing pigeons!

After the Path of the Salad, we went into the Negev desert, where we would spend the night.  Our first stop was Ben Gurion's tomb.  Ben Gurion was the first prime minister of Israel, who declared its independence in 1948.  He preferred the quiet life of a kibbutz nearby, and lived out the rest of his life there with his wife - which is why his tomb is in the middle of the desert, not in an important or prominent cemetery in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

Anna and I near Ben Gurion's tomb overlooking the Negev desert

View out over the Negev

Yonit placing a stone on Ben Gurion's grave

We then went to our final stop of the day, a Bedouin encampment.  We slept in big giant Bedouin tents, ate in other big giant Bedouin tents... the name of the entire thing on the itinerary was "Bedouin hospitality."  Bedouins are an Islamic nomadic people that live throughout the middle east... though the Israeli government has been cracking down and forcing the Bedouins to settle down, they're still a very hospitable, peaceful people, and this encampment pretty much caters to big tour groups like ours to go have a rugged desert camping experience.  It's good that they've been able to secure such good business.

ANYWAY, we went to the Bedouin camp, dropped our stuff in our tents, and joined together to light our menorahs.  It was particularly windy, and they didn't stay lit long, but we tried to shield them for as long as possible.  After candle lighting, we had a traditional Bedouin feast.

Rabbi Dov and Alex, lighting their menorahs / helping relight extinguished ones.

Myself and Katie, relighting extinguished menorahs.

Traditional Bedouin meal

After dinner, we went on a hike out to the desert in the dark, and had time to commune with the silence of the desert, land of our people, and reflect quietly.  It was a good break from the constant saturation with the same 40 college kids.  After the walk, some of us sat up late talking around the fire - I talked to the Rabbi a bit about Judaism and my unique place within it (not being born to a Jewish mother, and therefore not Jewish in the eyes of the religion, but Jewish to anyone who sees it as a race, such as the state of Israel, etc. etc.), called Loren, and eventually went to sleep.

[As always, I do not put every single picture I take into this blog.  To see the entire album of photos I took while on Birthright, go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtashalocke /sets/72157628872433827/ When I get to my extended, post-Birthright part of the trip, there will be a new album for those photos as well.]