More Pics from Akko!

Here's some more shots from our project in Akko!

In the Galilee- Great Pics!

The last couple of days have been a blur! From Jerusalem, we headed to Akko, where we toured the Old City, ate a Hummus Said (famous Hummus Place), and then spent the afternoon working with Jewish and Arab kids at the Sir Charles Clore Youth Center. The Center is right near the neighborhood where Jewish-Arab riots started this last October during Yom Kippur. We arranged a special project where the children, ages 5 1/2-10 1/2 were split into pairs, with one Jewish and one Arab, and asked to draw a picture about the "future they want to see in Akko." Take a look at what happened, it's amazing. At night, everyone on the trip had a blast staying with families in Deir el Asad, an Arab village in the Central Galilee. Today, we spent the majority of the day visiting the Golan Heights, and getting a first-hand perspective of the conflict from the northern Israeli border, and then we came to Carmiel to work with Makom BaGalil (Israeli non-profit)'s Jewish-Arab youth circus! Now, we are spending the night in Shorashim with a couple of incredible families here.

More Jerusalem!

The past two days have been incredible- everyone is really bonding as a group! Last night, we had an amazingly eerie visit to the Kotel, and were able to look and see the entire temple mount (with the Dome of the Rock and Al-Asqa mosque), and today, our friend Jay Rosen visited to tell about what it's like to live in Jerusalem--then, the students took to the streets of the Old City for a look at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Kotel in daylight, and some shopping at the Shuk! Photos, from Top (Biting in at Black Burger; the first reflection; Ashley at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher; Nandan and Jay discuss Jesus's tomb; Gabby, Yasmin, and Jay in the Church; Gabby and Yasmin look pensive; lunch; checking out the market; view from above the Temple area)

Arrived in Jerusalem!

So, we are now in Jerusalem- staying at Beit Shmuel. We just got back from our first event, a lunch with students at the Yad bYad (Hand in Hand) school in Jerusalem, it's Jewish-Arab mixed school, the kids were amazing! Here's a link! Hand in Hand

And some pics (above)!

Now we're off to the Machene Yehuda Market before Shabbat!

Flying into Israel!

Finally in the air, after six months of planning and preparation. It’s hard to believe it, we’re about two hours away from landing. It’s funny because for a while we thought we wouldn’t even get to this point. At first, we had accepted 15 people out of 45 applicants--but after the Gaza incursion, the economy crash, and other general problems, we came down to 6 total. But the thing is, I think we 6 are going to be just as effective as a larger group--why? Because our impact per person is greater. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t nervous however...I was worried that someone wasn’t going to show up...that I would get a phone call the last minute. But no one did. Everyone came. And now, we’re getting ready to have the time of our lives. Also, to top things off we ran into Berry Sakharof and his band, who are on our flight. He’s the equivalent of Bono or Bruce Springsteen for Israeli Music...absolutely amazing, and we hadn’t even left New York!