Wow. What a trip. This past week and a half included so many different aspects from seeing a civil war over the Syrian border to playing soccer with non-English speaking Arab teens to explaining what “I.C. Next” means to total strangers. And as much as Amnon kept reminding us that this was “his trip” and NOT ours, we truly enjoyed ourselves and created new and lasting relationships. I think one of the most important parts of our trip was growing closer to “our Israelis” in Beit She’an . We built lifelong friendships and learned a lot about the daily lives of Israelis.
Each night, several of us stayed up all night with Tina writing the blogs that kept you updated on our adventures in Israel. We composed these partly to keep you parents off of our backs when we return home, and stop you from prying the information out of us. But they were also to show you how much we learned in each jam-packed day. While the blogs analyzed our educational experiences, they did not mention the “behind-the-scenes” mishaps and excitement. Our time sitting on a tour bus (yes, there was a LOT of driving) and in between activities was just as educational. We grew closer as a group and became more comfortable around each other. I definitely know everyone much better and look forward to working with them and being closer friends next year. Our time between planned activities, which was not much, was used to take in the surroundings and learn about Israeli culture and atmosphere first-hand.
One interesting fact to throw out is that our I.C. Next trip dodged dangers in the north, middle, and south (southwest) of Israel during our trip. We heard war bombs go off in Syria while looking over the border, saw an immense forest fire while viewing Hertzel’s grave in Jerusalem, and missed rockets in Sderot that flew in the day after we left. These events gave us a sense of all the dangers of Israeli everyday life and showed how society overcomes together and life goes on.
As many of you know, the theme of our trip was exploring the dynamic of Israeli families, which included Bedouin lifestyles, Arab lifestyles, and of course Jewish-Israeli lifestyles. We even interviewed random families on the streets. My group happened to interview an American family at Emek Harefaim in Jerusalem and then we saw them again near the Kotel. For those of you who have been keeping up with the blogs, you can read about some of the amazing stories. For those of you who haven’t, I encourage you to get reading! Our trip was very educational and we wish to pass on our new knowledge.
On that note, the second year of our program is all about engagement and our purpose is to return to Cleveland and engage other teens in learning about Israel. Our magazine will come out next year, as well as a mobile photo gallery which will feature pictures that we took of families in Israel. Amnon had us each taking hundreds of pictures a day, so yes, there should be a few good ones among the mix.
I had a truly moving and unique experience and learned so much these past 10 days. My Hebrew improved a bit (which isn’t saying much), I got to experience Israeli life in a “non-touristy” way, and I made so many new friends. The trip was unforgettable, and this program will always be AFU-WOFI to me.