Beit Shean etc (catching up on blog entries using McDonalds free wifi!)

We woke this morning to the peace and quiet of the kibbutz, a wonderful change after waking to the garbage trucks and sirens of early morning Jerusalem. 

Our first stop of the day was Beit Shean park. I forgot to mention yesterday that we are now the proud owners of a one year family israeli national parks pass. This amazing slip of paper gets us into almost every cool place we want to go and has already almost paid for itself.

Todays destination, Beit Shean, is an even older, even cooler, even better preserved archeological site than Tel Megiddo. We spent over 2 hours exploring the mostly Roman ruins. Bath houses, amphitheaters, cardo, agora, even ancient public bathrooms! The city was destroyed in an 8th century earthquake, but enough remains that it is easy to imagine the incredible city of 40,000 residents that once stood on the spot.

Climbing the tel

Apparently, there is a tooth fairy
in Israel.

Lunch at burgerim. We haven't had much meat here, so this was a nice change. The burger choices include: beef, lamb, chicken, veggie, spicy, and one other we couldn't translate. The sides traditional fries, onion rings, or "gam v'gam" (also and also) - some of each.

We made a quick stop then at Beit Alpha. This was a synagogue from about the 4th century CE with an amazing mosaic floor of the signs of the zodiac. It was on the site of a kibbutz, and was uncovered one day when the kibbutzniks were digging an irrigation channel in the fields. 

Next stop, Gan Hashloshim a.k.a Sachne (which means warm in Arabic - for the 28 degree C year round water temperature). (Also on our national parks pass - is this thing great, or what!?). This is a huge water park, hard to describe, but see the photos...kids had a blast!

Things that make Sachne interesting (especially compared to US water parks):

- incredible natural beauty of a huge spring and pools and waterfalls

- many more hijabs than kippot (come to think of it, I can't recall seeing a single kippah since we left jerusalem). We later learned that Ramadan starts tomorrow, which might account for there being so many Muslims enjoying one last BBQ in the park. 

- many swimmers in head to ankle bathing suits (see previous comment)

- few cigarette smokers, lots of hookah pipe smokers

- few people grilling burgers and hot dogs, many people grilling lamb shishkabob

After getting lost in the town of Beit Shean, we found our way to a grocery store for some supplies and back to Maoz Haim. We headed straight for the swimming pool, but along the way, our amazing host Shimon met us with the van (including a car seat for Sylvia) to take us on a tour of the kibbutz. I wish I could do this place justice. He drove us out to the fields and showed us the clover that they harvest every 21 days and sell in bails to farmers in the West Bank to feed to their sheep. He also showed us the fence along the edge of the field which is the border with Jordan, and the area marked with yellow warning signs on the other side of the field where there is a risk of mines. The mines were planted by Israel, but at times when the Jordan river flooded, it moved the mines around and so Israel isn't sure where they are anymore to retrieve them. In fact, there was a fire on the farm a few days ago and a couple of the mines exploded. He also showed us the vibrant Jordanian farms on the other side of the border, which thrive using techniques which the Israelis taught them (a bridge to peace, I think. A successful Jordanian farmer is a peaceful Jordanian farmer). He  showed us the sunflower fields and climbed over the electric wire fence (there to keep the wild pigs out) to cut the head off a sunflower for the kids to eat the seeds while we continued the tour. We saw the army base where they monitor the border fence - the get a specific electronic signal if someone touches the fence, cuts it, or climbs over it.   There used to be army outposts every 5 kilometers, but now that the border is peaceful, these are mostly unused.  He showed us the date trees (Jonah really wants to climb up and pick them!) and a memorial for two friends of his that were on patrol and fell asleep under a tree and were killed by Jordanian snipers. He showed us the fish ponds and the dairy cows and the chicken farm. I commented that it's amazing that 400 people manage all of this, and he said (only half joking), not 400, only seven! Apparently , this is a major point of contention on the kibbutz that some work and some just don't. Just this past January, they switched over to a salary system for work done (although a big portion of the salary earned either in work on the kibbutz or off the kibbutz gets paid back to the kibbutz in taxes to maintain the common resources (like the pool we have enjoyed so much) and to support the retired members, etc. The kibbutz also earns money by renting out houses to residents (who are not kibbutz members) , renting out farm land to tenant farmers, part ownership of a plastics factory, and more. Some of their resources (e.g., the cows) are given by the government as long as they maintain a certain population of people living on the kibbutz (the tenant farmers help with making that number, which is another advantage of having them). 

He also showed us around the living area of the kibbutz... The dining hall, child care, medic, dentist, grocery, gas station, senior recreation center, the small and fairly new synagogue (most of Maoz Haim's members are secular), the laundry, the list goes on...everything you could need. 

After the tour, Shimon and his wife Ronit invited us to BBQ with them by the pool. The kids swam a bit while Shimon grilled burgers and kabob and hot dogs. He asked me to make the French fries and onion rings (in a pot of boiling oil on a gas burner by the pool - a first for my culinary repertoire). Add humus and pita and some watermelon given to us by another group also BBQ ing and it was a feast (and today definitely made up for any recent lack of meat!). Sylvia, always a trooper, hung out til 10 pm, enjoying the BBQ and making friends with Toula, their sweet dog. 

Nearly swimming!