The past few days can definitely be described as (what Amy and I call) "extreme traveling." We have done so much, and we haven't even made it to Jerusalem yet! (Speaking of Jerusalem-- I have handwritten nearly all of your prayer requests, including the ones left at facebook, and I will definitely be done by the time we get to the wall.)
For the past two days we have been in Tiberias, in northern Israel. It is so exciting to finally be in an ancient city. From our hotel we can see the Sea of Galilee, and I'm hoping we get to walk all the way down to the water soon so that I can try to walk on top of it. (This is surely a simple thing, no?) The 'mifgashim' (Israeli soldiers)
have arrived, and they are pretty cool.
Amy: The mifgashim are all such wonderful people. A few of them are struggling and getting a little bit frustrated with speaking English, but they are all able to communicate if you speak clearly and are patient when they are speaking. One of the female soldiers, Yaara, is rooming with me and Sara now! She basically works in army human resources, and she interviews new soldiers and decides which position would be best suited for their personality. She speaks English fluently, and she says she learned from American television shows. She is definitely on Jewish Standard Time, though, and she's been late to almost every event we've done.Sara: The soldiers arrived on Thursday, which was our first full day in Tiberias. It was a pretty awesome day. In the morning, we headed up north to the Lebanon border. The border, at a kibbutz, is literally a fence across a rolling hillside. We got an added bonus because when we arrived, we could hear morning prayers coming from Lebanon over a loudspeaker. The voice was slow and melodic and sounded eerie, but I could understand how it might be soothing for the people living there, as well. Adding to the eerie-ness was the view-- we could see the yellow flag of Hezbollah on the closest hill. We got to hear a speaker from the kibbutz, an American-Israeli who had fought in four wars, including the first war with Lebanon. He was intense and fascinating to listen to. Finally, after the speaker, I walked over to the fence on the pretense of taking a picture... then I reached through the fence and took a rock from Lebanon;-)
We also got to visit Tzfat yesterday, which is the city where Kaballah (Jewish mysticism) was born, about 1,000 years ago, where we were able to see a (pretty cool) speaker and run around town eating lunch and buying a gift for our "Secret Santa" (funny, on a Jewish trip.) After Tzfat, we went rafting in the Jordan river, which was so fun and refreshing. We weren't allowed in the water, but I "fell in" when an Israeli soldier "pushed" me. Naturally, he dove in to "save" me, as well.Amy: The group of people on this trip who we've been getting to know over the past few days are fantastic. A lot of people who Sara and I have been sticking with actually live in Los Angeles, and I'm positive that we'll hang out together when we get home. Last night, after the Shabbat dinner, a group of us all went in someone's room and played cards and talked for hours. We actually stayed up until three in the morning, just visiting. We've bonded a lot about all of the annoying rules we have on this trip, like how we can't walk around town without a chaperone (which of course is understandable...but it seems ridiculous nonetheless). I feel happy and safe with all of these new friends we've made.
Sara: It's worth noting that the reason we were able to stay up so late last night is because today is Shabbat, the day of rest. Finally, we've all gotten a chance to sleep! Tonight we're going out to have dinner in the city, and then tomorrow we see the Syria border and head to Jerusalem.
Until next time, much love,
Sara and Amy
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