A rainy day in the Golan Heights

After we got a good night rest after our long trip to Israel, we loaded the bus once more and start the day In the Jilabun river with a 3 hour hike. This hike was challenging, as we had to cross rivers, hike up steep hills and trek down rocky mountains, but it was also exhilarating and the weather, for this part at least, was perfect!

After we had lunch, as the rain started pouring down throwing a wrench into our plans. We had planned on going to Mt. Bental, but instead made a surprise visit to a local kibbutz to visit one of our Israeli peer’s home. While there, we spoke with an American immigrant who settled in to the kibbutz before getting a personal tour of the living quarters. It was amazing to see how the families live their lives compared to how we live in America.

Our last site of the day was the Kineret cemetery, and heard our wonderful guide, Iftach, tell us the stories behind some of those amazing diseased Zionists. After the short lecture, we broke down into groups and started a discussion about our own identity. Most of the participants had never been asked to vocalize his/her self identity, so this was a chance to really allow them to “dig deep”. Make sure you ask them about this, there were definitely some amazing and interesting answers.

After wrapping up our day we headed back to Kibbutz Afik for some shnitzel and some group activities. We played some hilarious name games and a group wide game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Tomorrow we will be heading on some more Israel adventures. Check back for some more pictures and blogs throughout the day!

Good night!