Seeing Poverty

Our first full day in Israel began in a four-star hotel outside of Tel Aviv. They were nice to us by giving us a basket of fruit for our journey. Our day was spent touring the northern section of Israel. Our guide was Armenian, so we were able to go to some places that were normally not visited due to some travel restrictions within the country. We saw several old towns and cities. We had lunch in Haifa and, I was able to see Lebanon from our restaurant in the mountains. We left there and headed to Nazareth and saw the boyhood home of Jesus. Everywhere we went, our tour bus would be surrounded by kids asking for money. We were told not to give them anything, because it would just bring more kids out. But, we did have that basket of fruit from the hotel. So, just outside of Nazareth, we asked the driver to stop the bus, when we saw a group of children gathered along the side of the road. They came up to the bus, thinking they were going to ask for money. Instead, we gave them the basket of fruit, and a riot broke out. We stayed in the bus and watch the kids fight over the fruit. One boy grabbed a grapefruit. Others fought him for it, and the fruit exploded. The parts of the grapefruit went all over the ground, and the kids scooped it up and ate it. The one boy just had the peel left, and he displayed it proudly to the others and walked away. It was our first look at seeing extreme poverty in Israel. We also didn't give away any more fruit. We made it to our evening stop which was a kibbutz. The food was great, and we got to see something of an oasis. The girls and I also experienced another treat--brandy candy. It was hard candy with liquid brandy centers. We had a good time with that, and the adults didn't know why we laughed a lot that night. We were having a good time on our trip to Israel. That would change soon enough.