Taking a breath both in and out, I realize the sights I have seen in the Galil and the Golan are too much for words and the things we have done are just incredible. What I remember in the beginning of the four days (before I decided to write it down on my Ipod "notes") is vague and not a lot but I'll start with that. We left Kibbutz Tzuba at seven-ish and took a nice long ride up to the Golan. What this first day was dedicated to was furthering our Jewish education despite school being over, and we put a face to the places our classes spoke about during the Independence and Lebanon war as well as both Intifadas. It was really interesting. Here we also learned the story of the famous Elli Cohen, an incredible Israeli spy. The second day was more fun than anything else, and we rafted down the Jordan River. I would like to admit to all of you that when I saw the Jordan river for the first time from a Crusaders fort way up in the mountains weeks ago. I was completely dumbstruck to see that I could potentially take one good leap across the mighty Jordan River. I'd call it more of a brook or a rather big stream, haha. Sorry to ruin the surprise for all of you who were excited to see it, but the good news is I had an absolute blast kayaking down it, and recommend everyone to do it once, twice, or even a dozen times! Well, from the next day on I kept an interesting blog on my handy-dandy electronic device, so I'll just leave it as it is:
Ok, so maybe I'm not writing on my actual blogging site this very moment, but I'll make due with what I have (my Ipod). I have decided to take my artistic liscence and write a few things I have been meaning to put on paper but just never got the chance to... In addition I felt like expirementing with words and forms of writing unfamiliar to this blog.
Coming from the light,
I see out beyond what I can feel
I see a ocean of black creeping up to the horizon met with a clump of fallen stars.
Just beyond my reach I know I'm facing where I was raised but behind me I see home.
In this direction I can envision the masses of waters, but I seem to rember the harvests of feilds.
I come out of the light to face a deep abyss.
I see an ancient tunnel and somehow the walls around me havent demaciated and turned inward.
I face the west like my elders once did.
To only view the east and envision a bold dream.
Somehow I'm in that ocean I once looked from both banks and once from above.
Once upon a time ago I knew how to swim, but my mind has seemed to learn how to fly the waters' winds.
I want to choose a fallen star but once apon a time, a time ago, the star has rectified itself into the bright black above.
Watching the earth crumble and rise I know I'll soon be ashore distant once more coming from the light to see the other side.
I wake up from reality in a dream and now my fingertips have tasted the sweet suroundings.
I wake up from reality in a dream to find my taste overwhelmed by the vast plains, hills, and mountains.
I wake up from a dream in reality and capture my hope that once dissapated into sky.
Arisen from a hazy dream in an unreal life to realize a powerful light of years of plight and black darkness met with the taste of sweet dates and honey with people in feilds of mellow regret and seas of salty tears but somehow a mysterious veil of haze has caught me by the frays of my cloth and unraveled the innerworkings of beauty by vision and secrecy covered up with names of pentip and covered over by verse unrepeated with new birth by the blooming trees and windbound leaves floating to ravishing seas vanishing onward through.
On beautiful rolling hills of the Golan I see a graceful grass being swept from side to side by the winds amassed under clouds so rich of silver, blanketed by the golden sun atop, renweded by refreshing brethe, masking many mines in the dirt as antique as time.
Mere meters away from a border I brethe Lebanon's stiff air looking into feilds barren with tall grass blond in light. A bird breaking silence across the withered fence. It might in reality stand proud and strong but the destruction it has faced north and past makes a man who faces it withered like the fallen fence where it was replaced by yet another.
Sitting on grass, itchy and green, I feel as though a spirit in me has both come and gone, our last history class on my people has arrived making the sea of questions vaporize with twice as many to take their place and a heavy air of uncertainty grip my hands unsure of what next step to take and next aspiration to follow with the coming of a simple begining to a complex end wraught with time and standstills when four thousand years made its way to pages in a notebook which four months could not fit.
Coming from the light,
I see out beyond what I can feel
I see a ocean of black creeping up to the horizon met with a clump of fallen stars.
Just beyond my reach I know I'm facing where I was raised but behind me I see home.
In this direction I can envision the masses of waters, but I seem to rember the harvests of feilds.
I come out of the light to face a deep abyss.
I see an ancient tunnel and somehow the walls around me havent demaciated and turned inward.
I face the west like my elders once did.
To only view the east and envision a bold dream.
Somehow I'm in that ocean I once looked from both banks and once from above.
Once upon a time ago I knew how to swim, but my mind has seemed to learn how to fly the waters' winds.
I want to choose a fallen star but once apon a time, a time ago, the star has rectified itself into the bright black above.
Watching the earth crumble and rise I know I'll soon be ashore distant once more coming from the light to see the other side.
I wake up from reality in a dream and now my fingertips have tasted the sweet suroundings.
I wake up from reality in a dream to find my taste overwhelmed by the vast plains, hills, and mountains.
I wake up from a dream in reality and capture my hope that once dissapated into sky.
Arisen from a hazy dream in an unreal life to realize a powerful light of years of plight and black darkness met with the taste of sweet dates and honey with people in feilds of mellow regret and seas of salty tears but somehow a mysterious veil of haze has caught me by the frays of my cloth and unraveled the innerworkings of beauty by vision and secrecy covered up with names of pentip and covered over by verse unrepeated with new birth by the blooming trees and windbound leaves floating to ravishing seas vanishing onward through.
On beautiful rolling hills of the Golan I see a graceful grass being swept from side to side by the winds amassed under clouds so rich of silver, blanketed by the golden sun atop, renweded by refreshing brethe, masking many mines in the dirt as antique as time.
Mere meters away from a border I brethe Lebanon's stiff air looking into feilds barren with tall grass blond in light. A bird breaking silence across the withered fence. It might in reality stand proud and strong but the destruction it has faced north and past makes a man who faces it withered like the fallen fence where it was replaced by yet another.
Sitting on grass, itchy and green, I feel as though a spirit in me has both come and gone, our last history class on my people has arrived making the sea of questions vaporize with twice as many to take their place and a heavy air of uncertainty grip my hands unsure of what next step to take and next aspiration to follow with the coming of a simple begining to a complex end wraught with time and standstills when four thousand years made its way to pages in a notebook which four months could not fit.
May 25:
Syria is right here as I stand and lift my gaze and sight the captivating mountain hermon in my sight while the rolling green farming feilds dramatically change to yellow as the border is met on the Valley of Tears where liters were cried and the big tanks shouted from within when faced with blood spilled for my vantage point in this world.
Through the darkness another clump of stars appear, origins unknown, I have gained a wisdom unparalleled to my days as a phase in my life comes to a close while life and her wisdom often do propose a solution while sitting here, glancing to these stars I have not yet found, to only look up and see the stars looking directly back at me with glee.
May 26 (Today):
What an interesting start to today. Despite school being over last Thursday, waking up at the impossible hour of 6:30 came as a unwelcomed surprise. Despite it, I dragged myself out of my warm bunkbed and made my way to the chedar ochel and then the bus. We then arrived at a place I'm unsure if and got an intro on what we were about to do. Twenty minutes and a short ride later I was faced to face with an Arab teenager my age. Broken into classes and than smaller groups we were supposed to have a dialgouge with third generation Israeli Muslim Arabs in Dir Al'sed (no idea if I spelled that correctly). To my amazement they spoke pretty amazing English and all knew Hebrew either fluently or well. Some even knew an additional language. Talking with them was really great. Although it was artificial and quite short, it was a memorable experience. They all had high expectations for themselves (ex: doctors) and they seemed to like Israel which was surprising. They told us they were discriminated against, but at the same time, they realized Israel holds potential and great opportunities. They also said how they would love to travel Europe and some even want to try and live in Germany, Italy, Spain, and some said Jordan was a good place too. It wasn't political or anything like many of us hoped it would be, but it was still a nice insight to people our age that the media seems to make out as either victims or aggressors. It shed a new light. Not every Arab has an extremist views. Not every Arab is filthy rich rich or poorer than dirt. Not all of them hate me for being American or Jewish, or wanting to live in Israel. A lot of them just simply want to live and be left to live. They want to make a family and a life for themselves. It's really that simple. I just desperately wished the news and the media could just shed light to this fact. I wish that the world could see 120 Jews and approximately 60 Arabs could sit in a room and have a good time together. Haha, call it naive or idealistic, but imagine an Israel where this didn't just happen by slight chance or because of a program, but happened because of a general interest in one another.
Right after, we took a long ride to another village. We arrived at a Druze village. We went to a house were we were served food and a piece of their culture. We were taught about their religion (or at least what wasn't secret) and I really liked their values and ideas. I'll stay Jewish, thank you very much, but their religion really fascinated and interests me. Reincarnation, their holy scriptures, their flag of colours representing their patriarchs, and everything else our guide spoke on intrigued me to say the least. Oh, and they have incredible food, haha. We then went shopping in the village shuk. Today was a nice, relaxing, informative, interesting close to our trip up in the north. It was beautiful everywhere I turned, and I can't wait to go back and explore the Galil and Golan again. In fact, I hope all of you get a chance to see even a fraction of what I saw and hopefully more. It is really just... mind-blowing.
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