Thursday April 20

Continuing to adjust to the extreme time change we woke up late. This morning we packed our suitcases once again and headed to an early breakfast. As we quickly eat, we chatted about the night before and the amazing experiences that we were yet to experience. Our first destination was Ein Avdat. We were prepared for the worst. We were told by past years about the hot, sweaty, and horrible two hour hike that we awaited. No one was excited except for our tour guide, Michal. We began our hike learning about where we were in the Negev, the south part of Israel taking up 60% of the country. Later, as we continuously brushed off a great amount of bugs we continued along the hot path. We watched the gorgeous badlands cover our view of the clear blue sky. Throughout the hike we stopped for many photo opportunities because of the vast agriculture and small bodies of water that surrounded us. We particularly stopped at a small waterfall. We admired the waterfall and the small body of water that lay below us. The water was so clear you could see every detail of the deep lake. We could also see the exact replica of the mountains above us in the reflection of the lake. Here we were no longer taking group pictures but the waterfall got its own little photo shoot. After, we climbed up the entire mountain for half an hour until we reached the top. We screamed awaiting the response of the tremendous echo. "We made it!!!!"

Later, we took our little bus David Ben-Gurion's grave. There we played a little skit to learn some interesting facts on Ben-Gurion. Some participants were specific characters with different answers to questions, the audience had to listen and guess which answer was correct. After this intriguing activity, we continued to the bus for an hour drive to Latika. 

When we arrived in Latikva we learned the inspirational story of a Bedouin woman. Breaking through all the boundaries placed by traditions, this woman completed her dream of becoming a female, Bedouin doctor. She taught her daughters and fellow women to do the same and not allow others to tell them their limits. This was a complete different story from what we learned from the Bedouin in the Judean dessert. The views from different tribes and different sexes is extremely interesting. 

We later drove to Tel Aviv to experience the second week of our amazing journey. 

Moriah