Greening the Desert
On Sunday morning the group was awoken with a trip to Yad Vashem, the Isaeli holocaust museum. Those of the IDF in our group were dressed in their full uniforms, as representatives of some kind. The structures were all beautiful in its surrounding environment with subtle kind of symbolism, like the long wooden bridge leading to a modest window-door, which we were told was like a black hole of history. We were all gathered to an area around the side of the scholarly buildings to meet our very informative and somewhat entertaining guide for the tour of the museum. Before we began our tour we were individually given little electronic radio receivers with headsets attached, so our guide could talk seemlessly as if he were among all 50 of us without even raising his voice. The tour was a duffucult kind of education, where no one really wanted to watch but knew that it had to be done anyway. Some wept, some were terrified, but we were all in horror of the elaborate detail that we were lead through by our guide. There were so many documented surivival stories playing on all the walls of all parts of the museum... I regret not being able to hear each of their personal accounts. As our guided tour through the museum finally reached its end, also with a symbolic bright opening of light in the back, we were given the opportunity to hear a Holocaust survivor tell her story. We returned the radios to our guide and continued on to our next activity, a Jewish National Fund-sponsored ecology project. After driving far away from the city, we finally arrived at a small forest of shrubs in some part of the desert. Our job was to prune the trees that had been planted years before so that they would be at a lesser risk of wildfires, grow more evenly upwards, and require less water to survive. Broken into teams of 3 and given a small machete, we cleaned the forest as best as our time allowed. Overall I think there was a general feeling of amusement, being able to break the monotoney of travel-and-listen to finally participating outside with sharp objects and being helpful in the process. Next we traveled south to the outskirts of Isael's Negev desert, where we were going to stay at a Bedouin village. It was a long drive, so we entertained ourselves by telling jokes over the intercom on our bus. After arriving we immediately dropped off our backpacks and went to the small camel farms in the back of the tents. It was a little intimidating to think that there would be two of us riding on one of the humped monsters, but after a little preperation we were up and on our way. It was a short and structured ride along the side of a small canyon in the desert, and despite the saddles personally made me uncomfortable in ways I previously didn't think it was possible, it was a beutiful sunset and a fun experience. After dinner we were invited to meet a native Bedouin, and he explained to us how his culture is a surviving society in the wastelands of the desert. He explained to us that previously the Bedouin norm was polygomy, but in a modern world it just isn't practical and monogomy is the most common lifestyle now. The most entertaining, and also the most simple method of communication they have between tribes is to grind coffee. They grind coffee in an almost musical way, which he says invites nearby tribes to their tents and participate. The Bedouin lifestyle appears very well refined from hundreds of years of being nomadic. When the hospitality was over our group made a bonfire and, for the first time I can recall in up to 15 years of my life, we roasted mashmellows to make smores. We all indulged a little and broke off respectively to the group of friends we've made along our trip. I personally had an extremely enlightening conversation with our group's guide, Yonaton, as we discussed zionism and religion for hours until the fire died down. Our group of 50 young men and women were then arranged to sleep under the stars in one giant tent. Although we didn't all go to sleep immediately, good times were definitely had by all. The morning air woke me up hours before I'd set my alarm, so I did the best I could not to wake the others around me as I went outside and watched the sun rise over the desert. I don't think I can describe something that was this beautiful, the calm of it was just overwhelming. Eventually the rest of the group woke up groggily on their own, and we went to hike along a dried creek in the Negev desert. It wasn't hard for us, but the rock surface definitely made it hard on our shoes. We finished up and drove to a the nearby geological wonder, Machtesh Ramon, supposedly the largest naturally formed crater in the world. It was a fantastic panoramic perspective, and while we looked down the cliff of the crater, the Isaeli airforce showed off by flying very low to the ground at very fast speeds. After the crater we drove even farther south into the Negev and arrived at the small park of Sde Boker. It was inhabbited by wild rams that grazed its grass and were surprisingly lucid as walked into the park. We had some small activities as giant bees flew around us, and as we payed our respects to the resting place of Israel's first prime minister, Ben Gurion, we were treated to another unbelievably beautiful panoramic view of the mountains. We continued northbound now as we arrived at a small village called Tzel Midbar wher we were greeted with a green activity of building mud-bricks. We learned how to make lightweight bricks out of mud, clay, and cardboard recycleables, like old egg cartons and newspapers, to combine them and help build sustainable shelter. Even though we weren't skilled, the groups competitive nature drove us all to do the best we could, and some of us ended up with some great bricks. After lunch, we went to the Dead Sea so we could experience the intensity of the salt and genuine products of shops around it for ourselves. Even though I'll question the need to buy $25 mud, the stories of floating without a device were absolutely true. We all took pictures of each other in the water too deep to stand, but with both our hands and feet up in the air without any problems. It is an experience everyone must try. After the Dead Sea, we drove to the base of the majestic Masada mountain, which is notorious within Birthright for its hike needing to be done insanely early and long winding snake trails. But after unpacking, showering (finally after two days!) and recharging my camera, I'm more than ready to take it on tomorrow. -Cameron Sherr
