Reflections from Day 7

This morning we went to the ancient ruins of an Edomite city where an Israeli archeological dig called Beit Guvrin was taking place. Upon arrival, an extremely enthusiastic guide named Mark gave us a history of the area. He explained the history through an archeological structure called a tel. He explained that a tel is a hill with layers of ruins chronologically stacked on top of each other. Having some background information, we descended into an active cave dig nicknamed Buffy. One of thousands of caves in the area, this cave was originally an ancient basement that the Edomites inhabited. Mark explained that when the Jews took over the land, the Edomites either converted to Judaism or left the area. One family that converted included King Herod's grandparents. For those who left, they did not want to leave free housing or dishes for the Jews, so they threw all of their pots into their basements. Two thousand years later, the Temple teens started uncovering ancient pottery shards. Ranging from handles of vases to pieces of oil lamps, the artifacts were untouched by human hands for thousands of years until we found them. There were also bones of animals that the ancient people slaughtered and ancient charcoal that the used for fire. After digging for some time and filling buckets with the dirt that we thought did not have any artifacts in them, we started a schlepping line. This entailed all of us lining up the stairs to ground level and handing the buckets of dirt one by one to the top. After finding some really neat stuff in the dig, we left Buffy to go spelunking. We descended into a series of ancient basements that were connected when they were discovered. Lit by candlelight, we saw where ancient peoples kept their pigeons and grain. Afterwards, Mark debriefed us and we got to take some of the pottery finds that the archaeologists did not need. 

Jared

Afternoon

None of us had gotten much sleep the previous night, so during our two and a half hour bus ride to Yokneam, all but a few people fell asleep. Our chaperones thought this was hilarious of course, so they went down the bus aisle taking pictures of everyone asleep. These should be available for your entertainment soon. Upon our arrival in Yokneam, everyone stumbled out of the bus to work on a service project, which was painting a large cement bench area located behind an apartment complex. The purpose was to make the area into one that Yokneam residents would be able to enjoy. We accomplished our goals, painting the walls with bright, pleasing colors. 

Covered in paint and dirt, we met up with our host families and played mixers for a few minutes. Then we went to our host families for delicious dinners. Once the sunset, the Atlanta group, a group from St. Louis, and our host families gathered in an open field for a nighttime hike. Once we were split into four group, we began hiking through the field, first in our groups and then in pairs so that we could get to know each other better. Unfortunately the fields were covered in cacti, so the hike was painful. However, we were given hot tea, cookies, and a campfire at the end of our hike, which made it mostly worth the pain. Luckily, we stayed on an actual path for the hike back to our original meeting spot, where we met back up with our host families to go home and finally to bed. 

Katheryn