By Samuel Freudenberg
Today we got to wake up slightly later than the previous morning because we didn’t have to eat breakfast in the village this day. Instead, we were traveling to a Bedouin village for a traditional breakfast. The house we stopped was surrounded by beautiful gardens and trellises, and we were invited to sit at shaded tables in the middle of the garden. Beside the house, there was an delicious spread of food on the table that the owners of the house were handing out of the kitchen window. There was hummus, pita, olives, lentils, potatoes, goat cheese, shakshuka, falafel, and fresh tea and coffee. The strength of the coffee particularly affected James Votruba-Drzal, who reached another wild plane of existence as soon as the first drop hit his lips. He proceeded to exclaim, “I’m seeing new colors. I don’t know, everything’s just more vibrant.” It can go without saying that we were concerned and awaiting James’ imminent coffee crash. We were also invited into the Bedouin tent that was erected in the middle of the garden. It was very dark inside, but our eyes quickly adjusted to reveal rich, colorful tapestries and low couches around the entire tent. The owner of the house and tent shared with us a short explanations of the Bedouins and played us some music he made with a coffee grinder. It was an amazing way to start our third day in Israel.
Our next stop was the high school in Karmiel. Each of us got to meet in small groups with some of the grade 12 students there who were proficient in English. It was so interesting to here about what ways their educational and daily lives were different and similar to ours. The biggest contrast that we found was that their final years of high school focused on preparing for their service in the army, while ours are focused on preparing for college. Additionally, we got to meet a girl from that school who had won a contest to come visit Pittsburgh from August to next June; we talked to her about specific places to visit and possibly making plans to meet up with her.
The rest of the day was spent at the village. After eating lunch and resting for a couple hours, we finally got to return to our mishpachtonim, only this time, bearing gifts. We were giving them the Xboxes that we had got for each family. Each person spent their afternoon a little differently, but it was clear from our meeting at the end of the night that we all had a wonderful time getting to know all the children in the village better. Instead of eating dinner with our mishpachtonim like the night before, we all gathered in one of the outdoor spaces for a communal seder. There was karaoke, dancing, and delicious cheesy pasta. By the end of the night, we were all tired, but at least our fridge was filled with a whole lot of chocolate pudding back home. So far, we’ve all had amazing experiences, but we’re already realizing how the brevity of our trip is going to sneak up on us. We will just have to enjoy every moment from now on as much as possible.