Satell Teen Fellowship Israel Trip 2007: Day 7

June 27, 2007

Tammuz 11, 5767

Israel, Day 7

Desert Experience

 
Before leaving Kibbutz Ha’on, we took a morning swim in the Sea of Galilee. We left kibbutz Ha’on in the north and drove for an hour to get to the Beit Guvrin National Park, where we did “dig for a day” at an active archeological site. Beit Guvrin was built on biblical city of Maresha. At the site, we dug for insight into the life of those who came before us. We found shards of pottery and other things like animal bones. After we dug for a little while, we went on a tour of the underground archeological site: it was very cool. We had to climb through tunnels and we were underground in the caves during the whole tour. We can learn much about life and culture from studying texture, traditions and artifacts.
 
After we went to the dig, we went to a kibbutz for lunch and some pool time. It was very refreshing to swim on that 115 degree day. From that kibbutz, we drove a short distance to Shilat cliff where we did rappelling. That was very cool; we had so much fun! It was very scary at first but it ended up being a lot of fun. It was a good experience because, even if you were not scared at all, it was an amazing experience to start 100 feet above the ground and then bring yourself to touch the ground. Each of us needed to grapple with our trust, fear and own self-confidence.

That night, we stayed at Neve Shalom, a co-existence village in the Judean Mountains. It overlooked the city of Tel Aviv with an amazing view of the city in the distance. At the village, we had a speaker named Bob who was an educator at the village.  Not all the Fellows agreed with him, but it was a very provocative argument.  It was a packed day, learning, fun, fear and friends.
 
Love,
Dave Wong and Will Tankeloff