Alive

We are at the half way mark of the summer and Nesiya is going well. The kids are good, the experience is intense and I just had my first night of 8 hour sleep in over 3 weeks. We arrived in Jerusalem on Tisha B'Av (Monday) and went directly to the Kotel (Western Wall). It was a very bizarre experience for me as an educator. A day that mourns the destruction of the Temple, visiting the Kotel has the potential for a very powerful experience. Yet I don't like going there, I don't find religious meaning in a wall and find I get more frustrated than anything else when I am there.

We had spent the previous 2 weeks up north in the Galilee and Golan and the 2 weeks before that in the desert. Lots of conversations about the individual vs. the community and discussions about what kind of communities we would like to build for ourselves. I have many a journal entry written on these topics but neither the time or energy to retype them here.

We go to Tel Aviv Sunday and then to Kseifa-a bedouin community near Beer-Sheva where we will be doing a 3 day program with Arab teens. I am very excited for this part of the program. I think it will be both challenging for the Israelis who never really interacted with Arab peers before and discussing the reality that they are all citizens of Israel and for the Americans who most likely never factor in the Bedouin community when they are painted the picture of Israel.

After Kseifa we have one long week of arts programming down in Ein Gedi and then wrap up August 11 with the kids and Aug 15 in the office. Whew!

Until then...