Sunday Funday
On Sunday we woke up, had some hot coffee, and moved along on our journey through Israel. We traveled to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum. We were priviledged to have a survivor share his emotional story, starting from his life as a young boy in Poland. He provided a chilling description of his experiences at the five camps that he was sent to throughout the war. It was apparent that his resilience and optimisim for the future allowed him to continue life following these traumatic experiences. He left us with the message to "carry on the story of the Holocaust and to never let it happen again."
We went to a nearby mall for a lunch break after viewing the museum. Following lunch, Ori shared the story of David vs. Goliath with us and we then hiked to "The Cave" to crawl through the tunnels with our flashlights. Group members encouraged and provided support for the other members to make it through the small holes during this challenging activivity that left us all covered in chalk. We loaded on to the bus once again to drive through the Negev Desert to the Bendouin tents that we would be staying at for the night. Everyone on the trip was extremely pleased with the incredible dinner at this site, as we shared a meal in the tradition of the Bendouin community with five members sitting around each tray of food. The meal ended with delicious coffee and dessert and the opportunity to meet people that were participating in other Birthright trips.
Our evening activties were led by the Israelis, who separated members into teams to compete against each other for a prize. There were 7 stations that demanded team work in order to complete physical and mental tasks that were relevant to our visit in Israel. The top 2 teams fought it out in the end through singing an Israeli song, in addition to entertaining the crowd through a goofy dance. Later in the evening, we exchanged the small gifts to to members that we were randomly assigned to in the secret santa fashion to celebrate the Israeli version of Valentine's Day.
