Our time in Karmi’el is officially launched. We arrived at 7:30 this morning (local time) after an overnight flight. Our first challenge was jamming our 22 giant bags into a minibus that had no designated baggage space – an exercise in patience and ingenuity! We made it to the village by mid morning where we greeted by the adult leaders and Katie’s “michpaton mom,” who chose not to leave the Village on her vacation day so she could be there to reunite with Katie. The children will arrive back from their holiday breaks tomorrow.
We spent the afternoon touring Karmi’el, where the Village is located. It is a lovely large town/small city that is a Sister City to Pittsburgh. Our guides for the local touring are Tomer and Galit, a couple who work with the local youth and also have close ties to the Village (Galit lived at the Village as a child when her parents worked as michpaton parents). We attended a street fair for Purim, a Jewish holiday that involves costumes, parades, and treats much like Halloween. Teens involved in scouting created the fair activities for the neighborhood kids. We baked pita over a fire and Alex got a temporary tattoo painted on his arm that we later learned was lettered backwards by the young volunteer, so it actually said “Purim happy.” Not that we could tell the difference in Hebrew! We also played at Family Park, an amazing public park in the center of Karmi’el. It is gated but free, absolutely huge, and full of the most innovative playground equipment for all ages that I’ve ever seen. There is also mini golf, outdoor bowling, and a full labyrinth. It didn’t take long for all six kids to drape their book bags, purses, and cameras on me and take off to scramble up the climbing equipment! I suspect they could have been happy there for the whole day.
We were joined for lunch by Tomer and Galit’s 16 year old daughter and 13 year old son. Although the kids were exhausted and pretty droopy by this point, they enjoyed chatting and exploring an outlet-style mall with the Israeli teens. We returned to the Village for a couple hours of much needed rest followed by a low key dinner in the dining hall. It’s an early-to-bed night for everyone.
Tomorrow we will spend the first part of the day in Haifa, then finally meet our families and spend the afternoon and evening with them. Now that we’re here and settled, I promise there will be no more middle of the night texts! I’ll keep you up to date on our activities by email every couple of days. Wi-fi access has been spotty even at the Village, but the kids seem to managing some communication. Everyone has been a perfectly good sport about the discomforts of traveling. So far everyone is happy and enjoying all of the new experiences.