This Morning we promptly headed up into the Golan Heights with all 150 or so Grade 9 students from Har Vagai to the highest Kibutz in the world. After receiving a personal introduction to the battle at the Valley of Tears, students viewed an educational and powerful video on a terrifying battle that took place 3 kilometres to the east during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The large contingent of Israeli teenagers accompanied by our much more modestly sized group of Canadians traveled to the actual physical valley where they viewed tanks and mines still on the battlefield. We were fortunate enough to have a local from the Dafna Kibbutz who was a veteran of this battle give a talk to all present about the harrowing encounter forty some years ago. We were able to look right into Syria, and despite the violent past of the area were subjected to beautiful scenery under the shadow of towering Mount Hermon.
Later we drove among winery's, apple and cherry orchards and through two Druze villages before arriving at a memorial for fallen soldiers were we learnt the history of one young Druze IDF solider who lost his life protecting his country less than 10 years ago. We sat with our Israeli pen pals and summarized our experiences with the Mifgash bringing our time to a formal conclusion as a group.
We then proceed to hike down a stream bed on a very technical hike with the entirety of the grade 9 class. We clambered over boulders through the heat and the dust until we arrived at the bottom of a slope with a twelfth century castle perched above us. The buses were waiting a short climb above us and we took them back to the school where students split up to be with their pen pals for the last time. Tomorrow we leave the upper Galilee and head to Tzfat. We were warmly welcomed here, experienced much and leave this region bringing many meaningful memories with us.
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