Friday, March 18th & Saturday, March 19th
We spent Friday working at the Baptist Village, began as an orphanage in the 1950's, but over time the orphanage closed. Now it hosts conferences, sports camps, concerts and seminars and church services.
Our group was divided into smaller groups and worked doing various chores around the compound. My group started out working in the Orange orchard, digging up asphalt that had been dumped on the side of the orchard many years before.
We all enjoyed eating oranges right off the tree, and some of us climbed the trees. As I mentioned in previous posts, the fruit in Israel is incredible. I'd never had an orange straight from a tree. It was incredibly delicious.
That evening we enjoyed a group dinner with the rest of our tour party. The next day, there was not much to do except pick up trash, for we completed all the other work the day before.
Since we were through by lunch time some of us played basketball and we all just hung out the rest of the day Saturday.
We did meet some interesting people while we were digging rocks out of the ground on Friday afternoon. A Jewish Christian woman who was visiting from Italy, came with her daughter and the daughter's boyfriend. Neither of them religious, despite the fact that both lived in the area. We arranged for her to get a tour of the place. On Saturday, two Jewish young men came by while we were hanging out around the basketball court and asked if we had a cassette player. We got into a conversation and discovered one of them could dunk. So we begged him to show us. Sure enough, he had game!
It was interesting too that the houses we stayed in had blast doors and windows, for they had been built during a tumultuous time in Israeli history. We assumed by the note on the wall and the emergency supplies (incl. water) on the shelf outside the room, they are always ready, for it is after all, Israel.
Since my sister, daughter and I had to fly to Germany in the morning, we needed to wake up at 2 am. So, we said our goodbyes and went to bed extra early that night.
We spent Friday working at the Baptist Village, began as an orphanage in the 1950's, but over time the orphanage closed. Now it hosts conferences, sports camps, concerts and seminars and church services.
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| Orange Orchard at Baptist Village |
We all enjoyed eating oranges right off the tree, and some of us climbed the trees. As I mentioned in previous posts, the fruit in Israel is incredible. I'd never had an orange straight from a tree. It was incredibly delicious.
That evening we enjoyed a group dinner with the rest of our tour party. The next day, there was not much to do except pick up trash, for we completed all the other work the day before.
Since we were through by lunch time some of us played basketball and we all just hung out the rest of the day Saturday.
We did meet some interesting people while we were digging rocks out of the ground on Friday afternoon. A Jewish Christian woman who was visiting from Italy, came with her daughter and the daughter's boyfriend. Neither of them religious, despite the fact that both lived in the area. We arranged for her to get a tour of the place. On Saturday, two Jewish young men came by while we were hanging out around the basketball court and asked if we had a cassette player. We got into a conversation and discovered one of them could dunk. So we begged him to show us. Sure enough, he had game!
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| Note on the wall near the door to one of the bedrooms in our living quarters |
Since my sister, daughter and I had to fly to Germany in the morning, we needed to wake up at 2 am. So, we said our goodbyes and went to bed extra early that night.
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| Delicious oranges |
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