Today was our scheduled forest day. The few clouds,threatening rain and cooler temperatures did not deter our group. We made our way to the beautiful Canada Park. This is an amazing park not only in area, but in the history and archaeological finds that go back centuries. Jessica Larson, from the JNF Israel Canadian Office greeted us along with Mire, the forester. We hiked a short distance to an area that had to be cleared to prevent future forest fires and that we did….even though a light rain persisted! To warm us up, we were served ‘forest’ tea, made on site with fresh herbs from the forest – very tasty. Meir Malka, founder of the CAARI program met us and worked with us in the forest. After the area was cleared, Meir took us for a tour of Canada Park. Our picnic lunch had to be held indoors and Meir was able to use his influence and get us into one of the elementary schools. Then we had an ‘eye opening’ tour of the growing Beit Shemesh community. Time for dinner and we had a lovely one at Margo’s, at Kibbutz Zorah!
Shalom to all!
CAARI 2013
