CAARI arrives in Eilat

Views from Timna with CAARI 2008!

Message written by Anice Stark - Toronto, Canada

Dear Friends,

Here we are in Eilat! We were excited to see familiar faces and meet many new CAARI participants. All 35 of us arrived to a warm reception , but cold weather. Eilat, the warmest part of Israel, has a cold spell. It is windy and cold - even for us Canadians and Americans! All of us packed so carefully - one suitcase for Eilat with light summer summer clothes and now we are rummaging through our suitcases to find the turtlenecks, jackets and sweaters!

The cold has not curtailed our enthusiasm and we are happy to be in Israel. Friday we began the CAARI program with a tour of Timna Park, one of JNF's tourism projects. There have been many changes since we were here last - new areas to view the magnificent rock formations and learn about the ancient copper mining process from Calcolithic times, 6000 years ago. Our day concluded with Shabbat dinner and our traditional singing of songs, led by Noami Halpern.

Many of the group decided to take an optional trip to Petra for one or two days. We are waiting to hear about their experiences in Petra and Wadi Rum. We hope they were prepared for the cold!

Arnold and I have been with CAARI for 14 years - imagine that! We always like to see how the group is coming together - like we have known each other for years. Everyone is enjoying the couple days of rest from our long journey and looking forward to our tours in Eilat this week.

We miss our friends that our not with us. Hope you are following us on the blog. If you have messages, please respond to the blog or write to caarivolunteers@gmail.com Susan and Neil will relay the messages to us!

Warmest (ha, ha) Regards,

Anice and Arnold

Barry and Bev Fluxgold - Toronto, Canada

Greetings!! This is our first time with CAARI and we are impressed with the group and what is planned for the next 8 weeks. Israel is everything that we expected and MORE. We can't believe what we are seeing and the changes that have taken place since we were last here in the 1970's. What was the center of Eilat has expanded to the east and west - new hotels, sea promenade and so many new neighborhoods. Our first CAARI tour was to Timna. We were in awe with the magnificent rock formations every turn of the bus gave us a new perspective. We are looking forward to our visit to Petra and continuing our CAARI tours.

Regards to our friends and family!

Barry and Bev