Pastoral Kfar Blum

... from the area. Tyre was once a popular beach/harbour town for holidays and retains so much charm that we hope it becomes so again.

All in all we loved Lebanon, a country that spent too much of our early lives in the news for all the wrong reasons. Today it is a fast paced rapidly evolving country, optimistic that tourists and investment will flow more and more - fingers crossed or as they say in these parts, inshallah.

... a ramp up onto the mountain over the course of 3 years. The Jews didn't want to be taken alive, so they chose 10 soldiers to kill everyone in the complex, and then 1 of them to kill the 9 others and then himself. Apparently 2 women and 5 children survived by hiding in the tunnels, and told the Romans the story. So a pretty dramatic story.
After Masada we headed towards Jerusalem. Spent the night there in a hostel in the Muslim quarter, and introduced Tjitske ...

... for several hours, which caused quite a bit of drama. And some people are getting kicked out for random reasons, like "he coughed on the apples" (this guy actually managed to be allowed to stay after all). Basically, if the volunteer coordinator doesn't like you he'll find a reason to kick you out of the kibbutz. There's many volunteers wanting to come to Bar'am, so they don't really think twice about kicking people out. Anyway, we'll have a lot of new people again. It's actually ...

It was so hot again! I managed to hitch hike to Tiberias but it was far too hot for hitch hiking, I waited for a bus to the north, I waited and waited for a long time and when it actually arrived I am not sure what happened but I didn't get up - I don't think I quite believed it was the right bus so it just sailed on by! oops!! I took a picture of 3 guys; it could only be in Israel, an Orthodox guy in full gear, a modern looking kid with the Jewish cap which is ...

... tomorrow - not today!! Still it wasnt a problem and so I walked to a junction and tried hitch hiking up the massive hill to Kefar Haruv.

After 10 mins of dehydrating in the sun I was picked up by a nice lady who gave me a lift to the door of Kefar Haruv! She was very interesting and told me loads of info about the area. The drive took us from the Sea of Galilee up to the Goalan heights which is a massive plateau situated high above the lake - it is ...

... aggressive sounding yelling match before they all stormed of in opposite directions. Later, the driver kindly explained later to me that these "Arabs" were "no good boys" and that they were looking at me inappropriately. I'm not sure that they had been, but I suppose that one doesn't always notice these things? After a few hours, we were at Haifa, and I watched, again, a little wearily as one by one, each of the nine passengers got off, leaving me and my ever so friendly ...

... Located in the Golan Heights and 3800 feet above sea level, Mt. Bental offers stunning views of Mount Hermon and the Golan, as well as several Druze villages and a network of old bunkers and trenches. Due to its advantageous observation point, Mount Bental is a key strategic point for Israel. In the Yom Kippur War of 1973, it was the site ...

... soirée je regagnai la capitale. Tyr, située à à peine 25km de la frontière israëlienne, a été à la fois violemment frappée par la guerre civile, la guerre de 2006 et, plus généralement, guère mise en valeur par des décideurs de confession maronite. J'ai à peine abordé le bordel culturo-religieux libanais, pourtant fondamental ; seulement évoqué. Nous ...

... has ravaged the south greatly and therefore it was dangerous to send your children to school every day. People in the south are also poorer and therefore all the help they can get around the house or at the store is welcomed. Mary has been through war and all the hard times in between which I have never had to experience. Dahia, the suburb we were in, is one of the places Israel bombed heavily in the 2006 war. Hezbollah, however, was quick to rebuild most ...

... ascetic way of life and their emphasis on ritual washing, some have tried to make a connection between the Essenes (apparently now the term of choice is no longer Essenes but "Dead Sea Sect") and John the Baptist. Doreen explained that there's not really any Biblical reason to connect them, but some modern scholars are intrigued by the possible link. It was already very hot by mid-morning. In the heat and humidity of the Dead Sea basin it never seems to cool off ...