Through the works of the street artists, a counterculture and its domain for political discourse is revealed.
Hello Friends and Family!
This blog is to keep you updated with what the group has been doing around the beautiful country of Israel and will entail details such as sights, sounds and all of the other great events. We have been having so much fun right off the bat that we are a few days behind on the blog, so our social media committee is going to fill you in on what we've been doing up to this point.
Saturday was a very chill day, which was very much appreciated by most of the group after all of the busy and exciting days we have had so far! We got to sleep in and had an optional breakfast at 9:30am, which was the perfect way to start Shabbat. Our first group activity was at 11 am; Michal (our Israeli trip leader) started the activity by asking us to go around and share our least favorite chore to do. At first we were confused, but played along with her directions. Thank you for a fun morning Michal!
We talked about what it's like to actually live in this country that we've all grown to love and face the issues that they do. Many of these issues have to do with serving in the army, which is a part of most Israelis' lives in ways that we can't really imagine, even though we've gotten a pretty good idea of the experience through our new Israeli friends' perspectives.
After breakfast, we got together and played the speed dating game to get to know each other. It gave us time to meet each and get to know each person on the trip more individually. During our break before lunch, we all hung out, throwing around a frisbee or football, listening to music and playing with the dogs that were around the kibbutz. Many of us walked around exploring the kibbutz together. Some of us found a small garden with fresh fruit and an avocado tree. We also found a free outdoor gym. It was very cool to explore.
We were lucky enough to have a special guest come talk to us after the tour was completed: our security guard's grandmother, Drora Schlacter. We sat in silence as we listened intently to her survival story of the Holocaust. She told us of how she had traveled to a few different cities and her encounters until she eventually ended up in the United States. The entire experience was extremely moving.
We began today by visiting arguably one of the most important sites in the State of Israel, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. Upon arrival, we were greeted by Shoshana, an official museum tour guide, who led us on a truly humbling three hour tour of the museum. Following the completion of the tour, we had a group discussion overlooking Jerusalem about each of our personal experiences in this museum. Everyone had a different take away from the experience, but one thing was clear, we must never forget the atrocities that occurred.
Following our discussion, we boarded the bus and began drifting down the Jordan River. To me, this was the highlight of the day. While the water was a little cold, and everyone insisted on splashing around, the time we spent on the raft talking and laughing as a new group is something I will remember forever.