First on our field trip we went to a place called Gamla. Gamla was a Jewish city during the time of the Roman rule. My teacher kept referring it to "the city on the hill" because it really is on a hill. I would imagine that in the time of Jesus that the people in the Galilee region would be able to look up and see the lights of this city of Gamla. We hiked down into the valley and then up along the spine of the cliff to get to the top where the look out tower stood back in the day. It was really hot and the way back up was a steep incline, but it was worth it. We could see beautiful views of the green mountains and the lake off in the distance.
After Gamla we went to a site called Qazin. Qazin was an ancient city in the Galilee region during Christ's time. In this city stands a synagogue that is in pretty good shape. This synagogue is also from Christ's time and it is very likely that he taught the people of Qazin from there. What was interesting about Qazin and different from every other ancient city we've been to is that this city had been restored from its original foundations so that we could see what it would have looked like back in all of its glory. So that was cool to see and gave me another new insight and image to have while reading the New Testament.
After we went to Qazin we headed over to a war memorial for about 15 minutes. I think it was planned mostly to humor us and our picture taking. There was barbed wire everywhere and places that were surrounded with barbed wire where mines still existed. I don't think it had any historical difference or any relevance to what we have been learning other than it was a part of Jewish history. So we got our pictures and went on our way.
When we got back to the kibbutz we ate lunch and then got ready for our "water activity", otherwise known as a float trip down the Jordan River.
It was way fun and the best part was that we didn't have guides with us! I thought we would cause in America we probably would have but not in Israel! So that was great. We had a lot of water fights and such, of course.
Originally the plan to get home, since we only had one bus, was for one half of the group to go back while the other half waited for the bus to come and get them. But our bus driver was super cool and let us all get on at once so no one had to wait. So imagine now-- 80 people on one bus! It was insane! Not to mention we are all wet and muddy. We all had to sit three to a seat and close the curtains on the bus, cause if we got caught our bus driver (Eddie) would have been in big trouble. But we didn't get caught and made it back to Ein Gev safely. Although when we got off our bus was in horrible shape so we all went back to our rooms and got shamwows, brooms, and mops to clean the bus. And I've got to say, this morning when I got on I expected it to be much dirtier than it was. We did a great job cleaning!
The other half of our group went to St. Peter's restaurant last night so dinner was pretty quite. I was exhausted from our full day so I ended up throwing in the towel early and just going to bed. Nothing provides a good nights sleep like a fun-packed day in the Galilee.
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