OUR LAST DAY HERE

We are leaving to go home tonight and will be back in the USA Sunday am very early. There are still lots of things for me to tell you about. Of course, there are alot of things I missed and I hope to be able to show you my pictures and tell you more stories. The only way, though to appreciate and understand Israel is to actually experience. I can't tell you how happy I am to have been able to see this place up close.
After Petra and our first night at the kibbutz of Hagosshrim, we went to visit an elementry school in Kiryat Shmona, one that is supported by the Jewish Community Fund of San Francisco. This school is in a very poor area of the Galilee. It is also not far from the Lebanon border. Therefore the school has a bomb shelter beneath it. Actually almost all buildings and even homes in Isreal have bomb shelters. How would you like to be constantly reminded of the presence of war with a bomb shelter under your home? A couple of years ago these children and their families had to spend almost a month in bomb shelters due to the recent Lebanon war. The shelter at the school is for short term use until the parents can pick up their children. It is three of four rooms. brightly painted with comfortable pillows, a library, VCR, and other things to distract the children. I felt very stiffled in this place and can't imagine having st spend time in a place totally cut off from the outside. Many of the children have become traumatized by the threat of war and panic when any kind of an alarm goes off. They know they have 30 seconds to get into the shelter if the sirens go off notifying them of incoming bombs. Much of this area was damaged by Lebanonese bombs years ago. They are still in the process of repairing much of the city.
Later we met with a former divisional commander of the Central Sector, Colonal Kobi Marom who showed us the Lebanonese borders and explained the situation at this point.
We had lunch at his restaurant (of course) and then took a peaceful hike through the Tel Dan Nature Reserve located on the largest tributary of the Lordan River and the Biblical settlement of Dan. This was a very lush, green peaceful area with the sound of running water and the presence of trees and lots of other greens and wild life.
The end of our day found us touring in jeeps climbing to the Golan Heights in the footsteps of the IDF soldiers and their battles in the six day war with Syria. We were also able to enjoy the natural scenery and gain an isight into the strategic complexity of the Golan.
Back to the kibbutz for dinner and a short lecture by a woman from the Kibbutz who tried to explain where the Kibbutz was going to be in the future.
We then each received awards for taking this trip. Mine read: I celebrated my anniversary 10,000 miles from my husband award".
Yestereday we went to Safed, a center of Jewish mysticism and a great artist's colony, then to Tel Aviv where we had lunch, visted a great street fair, market place and noticed the difference in the modern city versus wehre we have been. See you at home. .