Masada as viewed from the Roman-footpath trail.

Remains of a Roman military camp as seen from the top of Masada.

Coming down from Masada!

After our tiyul at Masada, we stayed in a "Bedouin Village" for the night. Technically, Bedouins do not have villages, as they are\were a nomadic people. So it was actually a Bedouin-for-Tourists village.

In the morning, we were given the option of going on a little camel trek.

Show me those teeth!

The faces say it all...

Camel love at first sight!

Aviva felt too small to ride a camel, so she chose a donkey.

View from our camel hike.

Caren and Caitlin (Schmidy), Madrichot, joined us on our camel trek

Part of the hike in Wadi\Nahal Peres.

View from our lunch spot.

Jessie, Dara, Sam, Josh, and JJ on our hike in Wadi\Nachal Peres.

Our hike in the mountains surrounding Eilat.

Our hike in Eilat took us up into the surrounding mountains. The view was incredible. From here, we could see Eilat, Aqaba (in Jordan), and Egypt.

Who other than Squidget would be able to fit inside of this?

A very cute turtle at the aquarium in Eilat. He reminded me of my pet snapping turtle, named Russell, that I had for many, many years.

A view from the top of Mactesh Ramon (the Ramon Crater). It is 1,650 feet to the bottom.

Liat and Josh at the "Develop the Desert" play-area at the David Ben Gurion's house exhibit on Kibbutz Sde Boker.

O.K.: I lied in the previous post - this photo from Moran and Eyal's wedding was just too funny for me to wait to post it. From the left: Sarah (Squidget), Oren, Iggy, Yael. On the top: Etta.

Quick pre-bed update

Hi everyone,

Sorry about the lack of recent updates. It's not that there hasn't been much going on, just I have been busy and focusing my energy on programming a photo-uploading application for the Workshop 55 website. Unfortunatly, I don't have any idea of when I will be done with the application.

Since my last post, everyone on the Boneh program (North Americans and Brits) went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum and research center in Jerusalem. Everyone went through in their respective kvutzot. The new museum is incredibly well done and makes for an intenser experience than the prior musuem.

This past week, we have been finishing up our Boneh program classes and participating in different peulot (activities) to get us ready for Chofesh, Seminar month, and Kaveret.

This past thursday, all of us workshoppers from Camp Tavor went to our Shlicha's (Israeli emissary) wedding. A few photos will be posted later.

Each of the kvutzot found out where they will be living for the Kaveret portion of the Program. The four cities are: Carmiel, Acco, Or Akiva, and Migdal Ha'Emek.

Tomorrow morning, all of us North-Americans will be leaving for a Tiyul\Sikum (Trip\Final) seminar in the Negev (southern desert portion of Israel) and Eilat! My camera's memory is charged and battery is full, so you can expect photos to be posted by next weekend. (We get back Thursday night, and I will probably be too exhausted to post anything that night.)

--Dov

We had the opportunity to plan and run a carnival for the kids in the Kibutz's mercaz. Their ages range from kindergarten through sixth grade. Here, Max, Theo, and Lori are setting up their station: Fun with Oobleck (cornstarch and water).

Daniel, Kara, and Leora (AKA: Vegan) at the arts and crafts table.

Aviva, Miriam, and Talia prepping themselves for the face-painting table.

K'Tanaw and Wusie (Ilana) at the magic\chocolate table

The Children are Coming! The Children are Coming!

The extremely successful throw wet shirts at Tilly (Jeremy) part of the carnival.

Yarden, my favorite kibbutznick-kid (yes, I know I shouldn't play favorites), has taken face paint to a whole new level.

Now applying more paint!

The Requested Photos Section

As Requested: See, K'tanaw is on workshop! And finally in pictures.

This one's for Ellen Kanter: I wonder whom this bed belongs to? Could it be Leora's?

This is for JJ's mom. See: JJ is doing fine.

Etta and Noga (our madricha - face not shown). It turns out that Noga's uncle works for the Angel Bakery in Lod. She was able to arrange a tour of the bakery for us. Below follows a set of photos from the tour.

Getting ready to tour! Note the amazing hats!

The Incredible Dothra!

The batter mixing section.

We think these are hot-dog buns or croissants.

Out of the oven

Bye, Bye bread.

Bread In the cooling room.

Sufganyot, Challah Rolls, and Bread PARTY!

Only in Israel do you find adverts like "Tiger Computers!"

Our new pet cat, Patrick. Rather, he found and adopted us. Here he is cuddled up against the most comfortable of bleach bottles.

A ridiculous lizard sculpture in the forest where we ate our lunch. This day's siyur (educational fieldtrip) took us to several archeological sites around our kibbutz.

Atop the mountain where David and Goliat supposedly fought. It was an incredibly windy day!

The Scrolls of Fire. It is a sculpture that depicts the history of the Jewish people and their struggles from ancient times to present Israel.