Nature Hike in Mansur El-Aqab and Community Service by Rosalie Whitehill

'My:Impressions' by Rosalie Whitehill:

Tuesday may have been the best day ever at school for me.....but I am truly enjoying each day with my happy students.

The wonderful time I am having at my school, the smiles and hugs of the kids, the high fives as they pass me......and the fun we are having with our activities are making this trip very special for me.  It is amazing how it keeps getting better as I know more of the youngsters.

They had an assembly, the second since I've been here and this was for family day....kids sang and danced, (and I loved the music)  read poetry and did some wonderful rhythm activities with drum sticks and the back of pails.....after which the principal introduced the other volunteer,

Gloria Kaufman, and myself to the audience and she, who is fairly good with Hebrew spoke to the kids, mostly in English and then we sang a bit of one of the songs that both of us are using with our groups.  The smiles on my kids were as wide as they could have been.....they make me feel so appreciated....nothing better than that.  After the assembly, I watched as the kids put the floor mats and chairs back in their place so that the auditorium became a gymnasium once again.....no custodian around here!!  And the groups I worked with were so responsive and seemed to enjoy themselves so much......a teacher in the room during my session said she enjoyed the singing and would miss me and the good times we appeared to be having.....I will, too!!!

After lunch, we went to the Ramat Hanadiv Park, (a beautiful park designed as a memorial to the great benefactor of Israel, Edmund Rothschild)near Zichron Yaacov, for a hike, which yours truly opted to miss in favor of reading my kindle on the bus......a smart move, I think, since the ground was not level.....and I had already seen the gravesites of the Rothschilds. You can read more about this wonderful park on Google.  Dinner was at a fun restaurant in Caesarea.

Much love to all of you,

rosalie

THE HIKE - Manzur El Akeb

CAARI participants hiked the distance from the the Baron Rothchilds' resting place to the Manzur El Akeb Arcaeological Site yesterday as the sun set. The hike was at the height of the winter wild flowers blossoming. white and pink Cycleman, red Anemones, wild Garlic, Hubesa (a green leafy local spinach and many other colorful wild flowers.

Once at Manzur el Akeb,  CAARI toured the large 2nd Temple period ranch with Olive Press, Wine press, a winnowing area, indoor mikveh and underground storage,  Manzur El Akeb was a Jewish family's ranch/estate apparently burnt in 70 CE

The ranch was in use about 1500 years ago when a larger house was built. CAARI met the bus in Ramat HaNadiv to eat dinner in the ancient Port of Casarea built by King Herod the Great between 22-9 BCE as the largest man built port in the ancient world.