Israel. July 20, 2021. Day 3. And now the real work begins.

Here we are. Day 1 of the JNF Educators tour. It was quite an interesting day.

I had to get up at 6:20am in order to be downstairs by 6:45. I had a few bites of waffle for breakfast (who was even hungry) and we boarded the bus. Officially on the job. Time to start the real important work… you know, giving out name tags.

Our first stop was the Alexander Muss High School in Israel (AMHSI). When we got there they had a bagel spread, which was nice. We started out with an ice breaker and then Orit Rome, the CFO of AMHSI, gave an introduction about the school. We got a tour, some time to sit in classrooms, and then heard from a few select kids. One of them was a boy from Florida who said that he came to AMHSI because he didn’t believe in God and wanted to find his connection to Judaism. He said he found it when he learned about the sheva Mitzvot Bnai Noach (the seven laws of Noah) and found the values within the laws align with his own values. We left the school, but not without taking a group picture, and headed to our next stop, Shuni.

“The area originally known as Shuni was a flourishing settlement in Roman times, as archeological finds from the period show.” That’s about as much as I know. There was huge delicious meat lunch. Also, they have aluminum covers on soda cans so the top doesn’t get dirty. Major highlight of the day.

We walked around a little and then planted some trees, because, you know, JNF. From there we drove to Lotem. “LOTEM is the leading organization in Israel offering accessible hikes and educational nature activities around the country to children and adults with special needs.” We spoke with a visually impaired woman and then walked around the area to see the accessible activities and pathways. They also made the participants wear masks over their eyes for the “experience.”

From there we drove to our Hotel, Kibbutz Nof Ginosaur. The room is fine, probably the same size as the Tal Hotel, but the air conditioning isn’t great. Neither is the shower. Anyway, we had dinner, which was really fantastic. It was like being at a cruise buffet, but everything was kosher. After dinner, the participants had another session, but I met with Robyn, our future au pair! She is from a Kibbutz about a half hour away and drove to meet me. She got to see all the drama going on with the rooms and roommates, so I’m sure that was enjoyable. There’s one woman who doesn’t want to room with someone who is coughing (which I totally get). We’re pretty sure it’s not COVID because she’s been tested twice, but she needs to get herself checked out. Someone else was told the trip would be different from what it is, so she’s upset and that’s fun to deal with too. Anyway, we are excited for Robyn to come in October.

After programming ended, I went night swimming in the Kineret with Zohar and Moshe. It was extremely rocky, but pretty nice. It got cool by the end, which I’m sure I’ll miss tomorrow because it’s going to be hot as hell.

Good day.