May 1

Today we packed up our bags and left our Jerusalem hostel to head to Southern Israel, the Negev. The first activity of the day was going to the Ein Gedi waterfalls. King David may have hidden from Saul in the caves there and tried to make peace, but we were not as peaceful. The group broke out into a full-on algae fight. We were there for about half an hour, and in that time, many of us took pictures of ourselves in waterfalls. This was a picture required for our picture scavenger hunt.

After a very wet lunch, we headed to the beach of the Dead Sea! Many of us were excited about this part of the day, because it was unfathomable to us, how can you float on water?? After dozens of water “a-salts,” we learned VERY quickly that the sea was ONE THIRD salt!!! After dragging all of our half-blinded peers back to shore and trying on some Dead Sea mud, we all showered off and changed to get ready to get back on the road to head to a Bedouin camp for a series of fun activities.

When the bus pulled up at the camp two hours later, we could barely see due to the raging sand storm outside. However, we could see the rows of camels lined up waiting outside of the bus. We piled off of the bus and paired up so that we could pile onto the camels. Although there were pre-camel jitters, we all pulled it together in time to enjoy the beautiful view that the camels walked us past.

After the due amount of Aladin and Indiana Jones jokes, we all managed to make our way into the Bedouin Tent where we were greeted with a traditional ceremony to greet travelers. We were poured a sweet coffee, and watched as the robed man played us songs and told us about Bedouin tradition. After that, it was time for dinner and we stampeded into the next room. We sat down on the rugs to wait for dinner to be served. When it finally was brought out, we were all faced with one problem, there were no plates. 26 teenagers eating chicken and rice in one room is messy anyways. But without plates, it was a MESS. As messy as it was though, everything tasted delicious and we walked outside to be given more coffee and cookies.

We then walked to the bus lazily and prepared ourselves for camping under the stars. We reached the campsite just as the sun was setting and set up our sleeping bags. As darkness fell over the valley, we headed out for a night walk. When we got back, there was a campfire waiting for us, and we roasted marshmallows and slowly made our way to sleep.

-          Elianna, Eli T., Hannah