By: Patrick Schmidt
Last night our host artist(s) from Karmi’el gave us a wonderful send-off dinner. Great food, conversation, and music. Our group seems to have bonded with their host artist as well as with one another. It truly was a magical night. We had an early departure time this morning which made leaving our new friends even more difficult. But after the last hug and selfie we were off, only 10 minutes behind. Our morning was following the good steps of Jesus. From Capernam (the town of Jesus) to Magdala (where Mary was from) and we even dipped our toes in the Sea of Galilee.
We finished our afternoon at the Umm Elfahem Art Gallery in the Arab city of Umm el-Fahem. Said Abu Shakra its founder treated us to a wonderful spread of local foods. Before touring the museum we saw the woman’s ceramic workshop. The exhibition(s) we saw dealt with many issues from women’s rights to the geopolitical issues that confront the people of this bustling city. We left with wonderful ceramic treasures and more questions than answers about the “conflict” than surrounds the people of Israel. Most of all we left with having a new friend in Said Abu Shakra.