Trip to Mount Carmel

Friday morning we left for our first overnight trip (later than planned of course because the entire country runs on Jew time). Every month we are going to be taking a weekend trip as a group somewhere in Israel. We headed north to the Carmel mountains, not far from Haifa. We started with a visit to a winery. The wine wasn’t that great and the liquor tasted like robetussen. It’s a kosher winery. This means that only people who keep kosher and who keep Shabbat can touch the wine from start to finish. So to ensure that the wine was safe, there were two guys who I think were rabbis who followed us around for the whole tour to make sure we followed the rules. Kinda strange.

After that we went to an Arab village and spoke to a woman who is doing amazing things for women’s rights in her village and coexistence between Muslims and Jews. She was the first woman in her village to ever run for a political position, and has fostered many programs to encourage good relations between the women in her village and the women in a Jewish village nearby. She was very inspiring to listen to.

We spent the night at a really interesting campsite. This guy decided he wanted to live his life completely environmentally sustainable. He built his house out of straw and mud and collects dew for his showers. They recycle all the toilet water to make it clean and use it for the plants. This guy also apparently reformed garbage in Israel. He has been encouraging people to separate their garbage in order to reduce the trash that goes to the dumps. Everything else gets recycled or composted. It’s becoming the thing to do here. We slept under this 400 year old tree whose branches reach all the way to the ground all around, it kind of looked like an umbrella. Underneath were mattresses, pillows, mats, and tables. We cooked outside and ate under the umbrella tree. We also slept under the umbrella tree. I woke up with tons of bug bites.

Saturday we went to Mount Carmel. At the turn of the century Baron Rothschild helped start the first Jewish settlements in Israel and did a lot of other great things. After he died his family built a beautiful garden to commemorate everything he did for Israel. It was very beautiful. Then we hiked down the mountain and ended at the beach. It was a great hike, made even better by my hat that the guide lent me. The views were amazing, and we got to see an ancient ruin that dates back to Roman times, I am always a fan of ancient ruins. We also picked carob from a tree. We ended the day at the beach where tiny little fishes bit my toes.

Our first trip was a fantastic one!