SO.
I've been really tired lately, doing a lot. So I've been catching up on a lot of naps during the late afternoons when I get home from my day trips, but in doing so don't feel so bad.. apparently late day napping is a normal Israeli thing to do.
I feel like I've seen more than I could have seen or experienced here in Israel and have been taking er' easy lately. My own choice of course.
Yesterday Sharona and I decided to hit the beach, crack some beers and relax. It was really nice. White sand, blue cool Medertaraniln Sea, Heineken and sun. TOO BAD the sun here is like the hottest in the world and fries you like a Belgian crepe! (I just wanted to say crepe..) I wore SPF 50 applied it every 30 minutes. The rest of me is brown, MY LEGS however.. Lobster red.. and sure as hell feel like a lobster had its pincers on them a few times. Ugh. Brutal. BUT I wouldn't trade the sun for anything because sadly Nova Scotia has horrible weather..
It's very strange in the city Tel Aviv. It may be modern and have terrific streets with colourful markets and people.. but underneath this fun active city.. is a very disturbing reality. I'm sure I mentioned this a few times before but I can't walk the streets of Halifax and point out places of suicide bomb attacks. It just bothers me so much that it happens. It's an unfortunate and just plain shitty situation. You can flower coat it or say "Its okay, it happens" no. It's messed up. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have sites, city grave stones if I may to walk passed and remember what had happened there.
My friend Sharona works in the Hotel Industry like most such as myself, well bartending anyways. Very common great job, good income, high hospitality. Not even three blocks from her work was a suicide bomber that unfortunately her ex had been involved in the bombing (he was security for the site and was injured). He had a ten cm nail shot through his side from the bomb, was launched 12 feet away from the site, landing on a car. People shouldn't have to have these occurrences as memories. The bus bomb that only happened in March on the 24 of 2011, drove passed it yesterday. Its a beautiful city and people continue on with their lives, we need to have a respect for that. Israel has strong people, with good hearts. Think about that for a while before you go walking around your city, we are lucky. Very lucky, that we have such a safe country to live in. I really hope you all appreciate it, because after this trip, my insight has completely changed and I feel sorry for those of you that don't realize how easy your lives really are. I understand you cannot compare anyone's life, but you sure as hell can learn from others and appreciate the one you have more than you did before. Phew, anyways as you can see I am very passionate towards the stories and people and sights I have been to.
The photo's above are two from one of the farms I visited. This one was a rose farm, Thai workers whom get paid 6 shekels which works out to be about two canadian dollars and hour to work the fields here in Israel, mind you this is by choice. Accommodation, fresh water and food is provided free of charge and the workers usually sign a contract of five years. I still felt that their living conditions were poor, the work environments were also poor, but I was told it was better than Thailand.. I stand to disagree but everyone has an opinion about everything.
The third image is of my most FAVORITE house in Israel. It belongs to Jacob's brother and his wife. His wife is a self taught oil painter/ ceramics master. Her works were fabulous and her house was beautiful. Full of her work and crafty interior decor I had to photograph this space!
I leave for Turkey on Sunday and will miss all the people I've met here greatly. It makes me sad just thinking I only met this people a few weeks ago but grew to have a strong connection with them. I hope to keep them as friends for a long time and see them again soon in the future. I feel I will definitely have plans in the future to re visit Israel, now that I have new family here it's a good enough reason to come back.
Like I said before, I plan on posting their stories with their photos when I arrive home :)
Some strange things I will definitely miss about Israel though which I can't remember if I mentioned in previous posts, would probably be the dogs barking at night, 4 am wake up to Muslims prayer calls from across the Palestinian border, random gun shots at 2 am from Palestinians shooting guns in the air and all the fantastic grand market places scattered throughout the cities.
I would also like to say, I miss all my friends and family back home. They have been nothing but fantastic supporters of me before and during my travels. I hope you are all doing well and rockin' Halifax for me. We're all going to have a ton of catching up to do when I get home. I send my love.
Post soon!
The End
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