Israel - Holy Cultures Day 15
Israel - Holy Cultures
Day 15 – Friday, October 29, 2010 - Travel to Tel Aviv/Enjoy A Day in the Life of a Bedouin Community/Visit Bedouin Village, Women’s Association/Bedouin Lunch/Farewell Dinner
Our bags were to be out in the hall at 8:00 and we had plenty of time for breakfast before leaving at 9:00.
Leaving the Dead Sea we traveled north east back to Tel Aviv via Be’er Sheva and a small Bedouin community of Laqya.
On our way Ran gave us a quiz about camels; the beast of burden of the Bedouins. He also told us about the Grand Circle Foundation that supports local humanitarian causes around the world.
Overlooking Be’er Sheva, we stopped at the Palmach-Negev Brigade Memorial to those who fought in the desert battle of Negev in 1948. We made a short stop at a mall in Be’er Sheva just to get a look at a modern Israeli city and to get some medication at a pharmacy for one of our group members.
We arrived in the small village of Laqya, where nomadic Bedouins were encouraged by the government of Israel to settle. In these settlements the nomads are provide with medical care, schools, and other social services.
In what OAT calls “A Day in the Life” we were welcomed into a home by several of the Bedouin women. Hesen was one of the first four women to begin the community center in 1986. We were offered a bitter coffee, to remind us all of the hard life of the Bedouins.
Along with her friend Zahana, the two women gave a demonstration of making cheese and yogurts, spinning yarn, and also showed us their local wedding ceremonial dress.
The women took us to visit the goats and the sheep and then we walked to another area where they were baking bread called lafa or Bedouin pita bread. A woman named Zenab was baking the bread over a round cast iron baking oven and of course we all were able to taste!
We ate our lunch in a Bedouin tent and were treated to maklube; baked rice, vegetables and chicken dish, served with cucumber and tomato salad as well as more of the lafa. After lunch we had a sweet tea representing the good life of their tribes.
Listening to Hesen tell about the Embroidery Project, we learned of her trials helping women to know their personal rights and of the efforts to bring education and employment to their center.
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Gennie had brought school supplies for the children and we present them to Hesen. We were given an opportunity to go to the Center where women can sell their embroidery work.
We left Laqya at 2:00 and we arrived in Tel Aviv at 3:30. We thanked Firas, our bus driver and then checked in to our hotel. We had a fantastic view of the Mediterranean and the sunset from our 9th floor room.
There was just enough time to shower and get started packing our bags for our journey home before we met at 5:45 for a closing get-together in one of the hotel’s meeting rooms.
Our Farewell Dinner was at a near by restaurant; Café Café. We have truly enjoyed this group and hated to say goodbye to those who would have very early morning flights.
We set our alarm for 3:00 am and tried to get a little sleep. Our scheduled flights are to Paris, to JFK, and then home to Denver late on Saturday evening.
More information will be posted when we get home and have a chance to wrap up this Overseas Adventure.
Accommodations: Dan Hotel, Tel Aviv, IL - - - Meal: B, L, D
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Comments
Making Lafa – Bedouin Pita Bread (1:30)
Palmach-Negev Brigade Memorial
Zahana and Hesen
Laqya Bedouin Tent
Maklube
Port of Jaffa Fortress, Tel Aviv
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