We arrived in Israel safely

Afterr six hours flying, one stop in Berlin, and one hour waiting on immigration station, we arrived in Israel. We arrived around 3pm in Tel Aviv and our mentor was there to welcome us. During this weekend we are staying at his place in Jerusalem. We are going to start our volunteer work just tomorrow cuz our trip was very tiring =]. So until there, we are having fun.

We came on thursday afternoon, and all we did was resting. We had a very good dinner made by his wife, we hung out and quite early we went to bed. Friday at 8.00 we were all having breakfast. Amazing. Sorry norwegians, but 10x0 to israeli bread. Ok, the norwegian bread we are used to buy is the cheapest..and probably if I eat israeli bread for 2 months, I will get tired of it..but for now..delicious! (even the norwegian agrees) Ok, we had a breakfast and we went to Holocaust museum. It was huuuuuge.

Very good museum, very sad history. After spending some hours learning about jewish culture, we met a guy, Tor Arne´s brother in law. He took us to Bethlehem where we stopped to have a lunch. We tried the israeli specialty dish: shoarma! Very good food. Quite similar to a kebab, but the meat has a different taste. And quite cheap as well. After lunch we took a walk through the old streets of Bethlehem, built with beige stones and still decorated for Christmas (actually for ortodox jewish, friday was Christmas day). There were a lot of people walking on the streets and some guys trying persistently to sell anything to us. Very funny. After a long walk around the main streets of Bethlehem, we went to the inauguration of an italian restaurant to have a dinner. The owner is a friend of our mentor..so we went to prestige them. The restaurant is called Little Everest. haha the reason is..the restaurant is on the top of a mountain and there is a really good view from there. So, we had a great time with our mentor and some friends.

On saturday we went to a service in a Messianic church. Yeah..Things are different here. Friday is like saturday for us. Saturday is a sabbath day = our sunday. And their sundays are mondays (first day of the week - they work and study as though it was tuesday or wednesday). Weird! but this is how the things are. It was a lazy saturday. We didnt do to much a part from taking some photos from the roof of our building. Actually it was a really good time enjoying the sun up there and having fun. Perfect atmosphere for a west african tea. The temperature here is almost like São Paulo in winter. Its really good when we are in the sun, but quite cold when we are not.

 

Today (sunday 8th) we took our sun glasses, cameras, jumpers and went to the old Jerusalem to see where  a lot of things written in the bible happened. Tomorrow we are leaving to Jerico. So, it is time to work!

We are doing very well, enjoying the city and having fun. Pray for our next weeks working and the people and youth we are going to meet there!

Miss you Brazil.