Hit and Run

Must post quickly tonight, limited Wi-Fi access. Drove through the Sea of Galilee region. Sermon on the Mount. Cried. Crossed the border into Jordan. Saw the ruins in the city of Jarash. Amazed. Ended at Mount Nebo where Moses died after he saw the promised land. WOW!  Behold the pics.

Unexpected Pleasures

1. The bus has Wi-Fi.
2. The IDF dog trainers look like male models.
3. The meals are mostly delicious vegetables.
4. Israeli red wine does not give me a headache.
5. We have physicians and a nurse practitioner in our tour group.
6. I brought plenty of cozy tee shirts.
7. The weather is perfect.
8. Prunes are available at every breakfast.
9. We had the pleasure of dining in the homes of Israeli citizens.
10. Most of the public restrooms have soap.
11. I've made new friends on the trip. 

Night Reflections

The experiences we're having here are coming fast, one right after another. Our tour guide teaches in several Universities in the US including Berkeley and LSU. I feel like I'm back in college cramming an entire semester into two weeks. My brain and body are exhausted as we fall into bed each night, so I haven't once had time to dwell on my crummy job...Baruch Hashem...praise God!

Today I realize my worries are trivial compared to what's happening in this corner of earth. Israel. It's complicated. An underground hospital with safe rooms.  Sounds of explosives in a neighboring country as children eat popsicles on a nearby kibbutz.  For this spoiled, sheltered American, it's mind blowing...

...and I am grateful to be where my eyes are opening for the first time in a very long time.

Yikes! Syria!

I am hearing live mortar fire from Syrian rebels as our guide shows us a large military division near the Syrian border. Juxtapose the place where we are standing...the site of a deadly battle in the Golan Heights, the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Somber and moving, our guide lost a friend there.

Before the explosives, we had a nice shopping excursion in an artist colony called Zevat. Yes, I was buying!

Bombs and Healthcare

Since when is a hospital tour interesting?  It is when it's a hospital that can survive three weeks underground during intense missile attacks from Lebanon and not skip a beat. Such is the Western Galilee Hospital that we visited today.

Bomb that destroyed much of the hospital during the second Lebanon War in 2006.

A safe room, one of many in the hospital where patients are moved when the hospital is under attack.

A young patient in the innovative hospital

This is where you want to be in an emergency

Impressions

I couldn't ask for a nicer group of people to be with on our tour. Even the guide commented on how cooperative everyone is. And they're fun!  Most are from Canton,  Ohio. The others are from Colorado, Seattle, Boston, and Arizona.

Cut to the Chase

I am too tired to tell you  exactly where we went today.  It was pure nature in Northern Galilee at the Lebanon border.  Just look at the pictures.