A Heavy, Yet Important Day
Today was certainly a heavy day; we continued our journey today by waking up early to experience Yad Vashem. Walking through Yad Vashem is nothing short of an incredibly moving experience. For some this was their first time at the memorial but for others, like myself, this was their second, third, or fourth time back. Everyone said, regardless of how many times they have visited Yad Vashem, they it was a powerful experience. Yad Vashem has done an amazing job creating a memorial and museum that really expresses the depth and importance of such a tragic set of events. My personal favorite memorial on the campus is the children's memorial. I distinctly remember walking through this memorial many years ago. It had been something that I had wanted to experience again for quite some time. Walking through is indescribable, it's something that should really be experienced. Overall I think that while our visit was incredibly emotional and difficult, it was still an important visit to help all of us remember.
The afternoon was not much lighter, as we traveled to Sderot, a city in Israel that is close to the Gaza strip to learn about normal life so close to a dangerous and controversial piece of land. As an American, I think it can be extremely hard to imagine what it's like to be in danger of attacks at any moment, unlike here where a bombing could happen at any time. I've been consistently impressed with the people who live around Gaza and the preemptive actions that have been taking against the threat of bombings. The shielded playground we visited gave us a powerful impression of how these people continue their daily lives despite everything.
Unlike the rest of this day, our evening was much lighter. Our journey took us just north of Gaza where we learned about agriculture. This specific farm focused on gene splicing through cross pollination of various vegetables. Our hosts showed us the result of around ten years of splicing peppers, a large four “butted” sweet red pepper. After trying some of their delicious veggies we returned to our bus and began to finish the night at a nearby kibbutz.
