Adventures in the North

Another packed day. We started out going to the ancient city of Safed (Tzfat). This city is the home to Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah). After touring a 500 year old synagogue we headed over to a local artist's studio and learned about the hidden meaning behind his art. I kid you not, he blew our student's minds. Make sure to ask them about this. Then we headed to the Candle Shop to do a little shopping before boarding the bus.

We continued our journey at the Hula Nature Reserve. We rented bikes and rode the 5 mile loop looking at wild life and meeting a group of soldiers whose unit trained dogs. We were a little worried about these city kids on bikes but our students were real troopers. We ended up having a nice lunch there as well. Many of our kids chose to eat traditional Druze Pita.

Getting back on the bus we headed to the Golan Heights. We went to an amazing lookout on the border of Syria and Lebanon and, in addition to talking about the different historical wars with our neighbors, we spent some time talking about the current civil war in Syria. It was a little surreal to be looking out on the land as we were speaking about it.

We then headed to a local olive oil factory where students sampled the products and tried the skin care creams and washes made from olive residue. We then headed back for dinner and finished the night with a special drumming workshop where students sang and danced to traditional Arabic songs.

We head the Jerusalem tomorrow.

Some pictures from today: