But here we were. In Israel. This was really happening. When I got on the plane (June 29th) I was 42. When I landed (June 30th) I was 43. Yes, the first day of my visit to Israel was my birthday. So cool!
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| At the Ben Gurion Airport. |
From the airport, our JWRP group loaded buses and we headed to Tiberias. Our opening class by Lori was on "Don't Blame, Don't Complain". We were given rubber bracelets and every time we complained about anything, we were to switch our band to the other wrist. If you could go the whole trip without having switched your band, you'd win a prize. Ha! I don't think I made it out of the hotel before 'complaining' how slow people were moving out of the hotel to get to dinner. I eventually got a rash on my wrist from the band and had to take it off. Sometimes it was easier to do 2 complaints at once and keep the band on the same wrist. :) Yes, I know this wasn't the intent of the exercise.
Dinner on Monday night was at a restaurant called "Decks". This restaurant was outside and overlooked the water, the Sea of Galilee. It was a gorgeous setting. Usually the previous groups end the evening at Decks with joyous dancing. However, an announcement had been made just after we were done eating that the bodies of the three boys who were kidnapped had been found. It was not a happy time but one of instant sorrow. All 200 women came together and formed a circle, with our arms around each other. We stood there signing beautiful Hebrew songs and comforting each other. It was not the typical kick-off and we saw first hand how Israel grieves for their own.
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| Decks Restaurant |
It was a very long day of traveling with very little sleep on the flight over (despite meds prescribed by my doctor to help me sleep). I collapsed in bed as soon as my head hit the pillow.
On Tuesday we started the day with a lecture from Lori on "Love and Marriage". I really enjoyed this one and hope to incorporate some of the lessons with my relationship with Jeff. I walked away from the class realizing how amazing my husband is. Did you know that Jeff ALWAYS takes my phone calls? No matter if I am getting him in a meeting, on the road, in the bathroom, wherever, he always, always, always answers my calls. That's pretty spectacular. After over 10 years of us being together, I didn't fully realize this. Yes, this is the way it should be, but its one of those things I had taken for granted. It's pretty special to know that my calling him takes precedent over everything else.
The other big thing I took away from this class is that I should get off the phone when he comes home. Ha! It took Lori halfway around the world to explain this concept to me. Yet, I can clearly remember Jeff saying years ago, I should get off the phone with Heather now that he was home. The example given was, if Oprah had walked through our door, would we actually stay on the phone talking to whoever? No, of course not. Oprah would be given our full attention. Why doesn't our husband deserve that same respect? Why is he not as important or more so?
Tuesday mid-morning we took a short bus ride to Tsfat. We started our time in Tsfat checking out a Mikvah. I thought I knew what a Mikvah was for, but my understanding went only so far. We got the COMPLETE ins and outs of a Mikvah. The explanation and tour went on way too long. It could've easily only been 45 minutes instead of 2+ hours. I would've liked more free time in Tsfat to walk around the town and shop. There were some really cool little shops. I bought Ian beautiful tallit he will wear for his Bar Mitzvah. Of course, just thinking of Ian on the Bimah wearing this tallit (with matching kippah!) had me tearing up. We are still 4 years away from this milestone event and I'm already very emotional. I am sure the shopkeeper thought I was looney.
Next came kayaking on the Jordon River. I had been looking forward to this, but in reality, I wish I had sat this out. The river was way too shallow. We could barely move and kept getting stuck on rocks. Dawn and I shared a raft with Suzanne. The entire trip down the river was supposed to take 1 hour. Our trip took 2 hours! We were the first bus to get in the water. Not only did bus #1 pass us in the water, but bus #2 and bus #3! Then we were passed by the Birthright kids. And I think there were some summer camp kids in the water too. It was not fun. It was needlessly stressful. And I was very ready to be done 'kayaking' after about 20 minutes. Early on in the kayaking journey, my bathing suit top broke in the back. I was wearing a life jacket, so I wasn't really exposing anything to the world. However, under my LOOSE life jacket, I knew I was hanging out. Dawn and I kept taking turns pushing (while walking) the raft along the shallow river bed. At one point we finally hit deep, deep water (the ONLY deep water in all of the Jordan river) and I was hanging on to the outside of the raft. I was in no danger and was very happy to finally be moving. A raft comes up along side us and the guy offers to help me get back inside our raft. For some reason NO ONE was having the issues paddling and moving; it was just us.
So this guy tries very hard to lift me back in my raft. He falls out of his boat and grabs on to me, while doing his best to get me up. My hands are still holding on to the side of the raft (I am not in any danger!) and my hat shifts off my head and covers my face. I can't see a thing. In his effort to help while we are still moving along the river, this guy is grabbing me everywhere. All I can think about is pretty soon he is going to start getting a handful of my boobs. Remember, they aren't really strapped into my suit. I can't stop laughing, can't see a thing and therefore laugh even more as another guy is on the other side of our raft telling me to grab his arm and he will try to pull me up from the other side. I can't stop laughing and my upper body strength is basically like a wet noodle. Once I am finally back in (not the most graceful entrance into a raft), I look over at my rescuerer (now that I've got my hat off my eyes and back on my head) and realize he is very, very cute. I say to him, "Are you with Birthright?" -- meaning he'd be like 20 years old. He says, "No, I am your tour guide." Holy smokes! I am now a bit embarrassed. I've come to find out, this tour guide is married and has 5 kids (ages 7, 5, 3, and twin 1 year olds). Yowzer!
We knew the bus was going to leave at 5:30pm sharp. At 6:00pm, when we were still in the water, trying desperately to make our way to the exit, I knew we were in trouble. Eventually we made it out of river, but not without even more comedy. Right before you get to the finish area, you have to go down a small waterfall. They tell you to position your raft perfectly straight when heading into the waterfall. We followed directions to a "T" and still managed to get hung up on the one rock formation on the waterfall. Yes, we had our own cliffhanger going on and other rafts were swooshing by us as we are jacknifed on the rocks in mid-air. Oh my! This required another rescue.
Fortunately the bus waited for us. We thought for sure everyone was going to be pissed we kept them waiting (for a really, really long time!!), but to our amazement, they all came up to us and gave us hugs and said they felt bad for what we went through. What really special women we were traveling with. Incidentally, the boy sitting in the seat right in front of mine on our flight home from Tel Aviv (9 days later!) turned around and said he recognized me from our kayaking trip. He was one of the Birthright participants who witnessed my rescue with our tour guide. With all this kid had seen on his trip and me attempting to get rescued still was fresh in his memory. Yowzer!
The day is not done yet! We are now off to Adir Winery for a beautiful dinner outside. It was so lovely. Our cities were split up and we sat at tables with a good mix of women from the other cities. I got to know a really cool girl from Philly. After dinner, Lori recognized the women who were celebrating birthdays either that day, the day before or the day after. My city leader presented me with a huge platter of delicious fruit. I shared it with everyone who wanted some.
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| Adir Winery |
It was a 3 hour bus ride to the hotel in Jerusalem. We didn't arrive to the hotel until 1:00am. Yes, this was another very long day. I collapsed in bed as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Stay tuned for Israel, Part 3.....I better figure out how to sleep while standing up.
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