Sunday, January 1st 2012
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Shana Tova to our family and friends at home!!
It was hard for all of us to wake up on the first morning of 2012 (late night), even after the amazing rest from Shabbat. This morning we quickly ate breakfast and packed the bus to make it on time to Yad Vashem to hear the Holocaust survivor speak. She told us about her hometown in Poland and how she was only three and a half when the war started. She lost her whole family, but was able to make a new family after the war, and was adopted by a few different families over time. She impressed upon us the importance to continue sharing stories from the Holocaust so it can never be forogtten.
Yad Vashem was an impressive building, and as we drove up I was taken back by the angular, concrete building. Our tour guide told us that the museum is in the shape of a triangle to represent the jewish star, two triangles one over the other. The building is only the shape of one triangle to symbolize the huge loss that the jewish people expeierenced. He told us that of the 18 million jews that lived worldwide before the Nazi regime, over a third lost their lives because of the Holocaust, and we still haven't recovered to this day.
After Yad Vashem, we went to an area to each lunch where there was a variety of things to eat including the usual falafel and schwarma as well as a McDonalds. After we ate, we got back on the bus and drove south to the Negev (desert) to visit Prime Minister David Ben Gurion's grave. We learned that Ben Gurion (or BG as he is often called by us) loves sheep. We were shown several beautiful photos of the late Prime Minister with sheep. There was a little faux-talk show game we enacted, with great acting and accents by all participants, BG was Prime minister until he decided to resign to live on a kibbutz called Sde Boker in the Negev. He believed the state of Israel would never survive if Israelites didn't settle in the desert, so he led the people by moving there. The graves were beautiful and we each put a stone of them. It was dark, but we could see that the surrounding sand dunes and valleys were gorgeous.
After visiting David Ben Gurion's grave, we arrived at the Bedouin tents. We grabbed "matresses" and sleeping bags and arranged our sleeping quarters. Having known the situation beforehand, there might have been a rush to settle near the space heater. Once settled, we were given an official greeting by a Bedouin man named Salaam, which consisted of coffee grinding, homemade instruments, and singing. The greeting was followed by a family style dinner which did not include any chairs or plates. In my opinion, this was the best dinner yet! Every table received chicken, corn, pita, and side salads; the vegetarians were given delicious substitutes. The Israelis arranged a fun game for all to play which cultivated into singing, doing push-ups, and sharing funny stories. The night ended in a bonfire with marshmallows and loud singing of popular Israeli and American music.
