Yesterday was an action-packed day outdoors, traveling to and through the Negev desert.
After waking up for the last time in our Tel Aviv hotel, we made our way south to the archeological site at Beit Guvrin. We got our hands dirty as we helped archeologists sift through 2,300 year-old caves, last inhabited by Jews who lived in the time of Judah Maccabee. And almost all of us dug up pieces of ancient pottery!
From there we headed to Yerucham, a city in the Negev famously populated with Jewish immigrants from Morocco, Tunisia, and elsewhere in the Arab world. We had lunch on the patio of a Moroccan family who told us their story of immigration and confrontation with the predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish culture of mid-century Israel. The lunch was an awesome mix of North African foods, and the conversation was both thought-provoking and serious. We continued further south after lunch, making a pitstop at the kibbutz Sde Boker, to pay homage at the gravesite of David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel.
Just before sunset, we arrived at our final destination: the Kfar HaNokdim bedouin village in the middle of the Negev. We each hopped on a camel and made our way through a small canyon before heading back to the main camp. Once we got back, we listened to a bedouin woman share what it's like to have lived all her life in Israel's bedouin community. We enjoyed an authentic dinner and sipped amazing bedouin tea. After that, we walked just outside the camp to stargaze and meditate on our trip thus far. Finally, we made our way to a giant bedouin tent where we set up camp for the night, where we tried to get in as much sleep as possible before our morning hike!
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