Manot

Several months ago the Jewish Federation in Ohio set up a penpal program between families in Toledo and families in our partnership region in the Western Galilee. Our friends' penpal family happened to be a family with a 13 year old girl, a 10 year old boy, and a 2 year old girl. Such a coincidence that we started exchanging letters with them too. So, despite being up late last night, we got up early to drive an hour or so, through gorgeous mountain roads, to Manot, a tiny moshav where they live. The moshav is only a few years old, so the houses are new and beautiful. The family could not be nicer. Jonah said, "they are just what we would be like, if we were Israeli." Despite very little common language, the kids did great together. Jonah and Gilad played video games. Shachar and Ella are managing somehow (with the help of google translate on the iphone) to talk about music, shopping, etc. Their 2 year old Mica is already in love with Jonah and follows him everywhere.  And Sylvia is in heaven with an endless supply of dolls, strollers, toys, puzzles, and books.

The welcomed us with an incredible Israeli breakfast - every kind of cheese, homemade jam, bread, fruits, salads, yogurts, etc. We got to know one another, saw around the house (Abe and Daniel talked architecture/engineering), etc, then we loaded into the cars to go to Rosh Hanikra. This awesome spot in the northwest corner of Israel is a cliff on the Mediterranean Sea which has been formed over the years into dramatic grottoes. We took a cable car down into it, and then saw a short film about the place. We then started to take the tour (in Hebrew), but after 2 minutes, we discovered it was more fun to explore the grottoes on our own. You could walk through the caves, and hear and feel the waves crashing against the rocks. There was one tunnel carved out by the British for a train from Palestine to Beirut (and from there on to Turkey and eventually Europe). Obviously that tunnel has been closed and the train no longer runs, but it is something to imagine a day when Israelis might take a train to Europe passing through friendly neighboring countries. We then drove to Adamit Park (a JNF park) for a short walk and the most amazing views of the entire area, the border with Lebanon, and another really cool rock formation (a sort of rock bridge over a cliff - where a nice couple from Be'er Sheva was rappelling). By now, we had worked up an appetite again after the huge breakfast, so we stopped for lunch at a Lebanese restaurant. Maytal and Daniel ordered for the adults an array of salads and kabob (and for the kids hamburgers and schnitzel). It was delicious, but more food than we could possibly eat. I really liked the Majadra (a lentil and bulger dish - yum!). It was at lunch when we discovered to our dismay, that they were not going to let us pay for anything all day! We battled a bit over paying the bill, but they have the advantage of being able to talk to the waited, so they treated again.

By this time we were all hot and tired, so we came home for showers and a rest. The kids played some games (a card game like Uno - Taki), chess, mancala, took showers, ate some cake that Shachar had made, played basketball outside, tried to teach each other Hebrew/English, and so on. Around 8 we drove to Nahariya to the boardwalk. Every Saturday night in the summer they have a huge festival. Their kids wanted to go first to the haunted house so we did that (the kids came out terrified!), then we started at one end of the boardwalk where about 300 people were doing Israeli folk dancing (they all seemed to know all of the steps!), and walked to the other end where a band was playing covers of American classic rock songs (with an Israeli accent). Their kids got temporary tattoos, Sylvia got a bubble blower, we all got pizza and ice cream. A really fun day with really nice people.