ASB Week 2 is finally in Israel!! After a long but smooth flight we landed in the Holy land, were greeted with brownies and muffins, hopped on our 3 bus caravan and headed straight for the Negev.

 

As the landscape of this small country changed before or eyes, the green fields morphed into sand dunes and we began to think about what the upcoming week would entail. We arrived at the JNF/KKL Southern Regional Education Center where we had coffee (caffeine was a total necessity) and more cookies (sugar is always good for jet-lag as well). Itzhak Moshe, KKL’s Deputy Director of the southern region welcomed us to Israel and gave us a short but sweet speech about the importance of JNF’s work in the Negev. He told us about the Negev’s development towns and explained to us how the work that we would be doing today in Park Yerucham and Park Ben Gurion (in Dimona) will have such a tremendous impact on its participants.

 

After a second round of bathroom trips we were off again, this time to the parks to roll up our sleeves and get started working with the land. The sunshine was abundant and we were hot but we hacked away at weeds, cleared paths and removed garbage, making these parks more pleasant for its local residents and visitors. We worked with our hands, swung our pick axes and felt our first connection to the land…what an amazing way to start such an important week.

 

When we finished our work the beautiful orange buses whisked us away to our home for the week: Sde Boker, the kibbutz and final resting place of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion. The kibbutz is located on the edge of one of the Negev’s natural craters, providing the perfect backdrop for what will hopefully be a week of hard work towards fulfilling the lifelong vision of Ben Gurion: for Jews to come live and develop the Negev.

 

It’s been a long but wonderful first day and we are beat! So as they say in Hebrew, laila tov orgoodnight!