My Birthday

Right after breakfast, Kent and I drove to a Nature Reserve/National Park called En Gedi. It is about an hours drive south from Jerusalem. Of course, since we drive in and out of the west bank, it usually takes longer returning to Jerusalem than it does leaving. The first entertainment for the day was:
We came to a strip of highway with shops and camels for tourists, along both sides. There was also a traffic sign that said "Watch for incoming vehicles". Right after we passed the sign a camel loped across the road in front of us! Oh, we wished we'd had the camera out!!!!
The first half of our day in En Gedi was spent wandering up and down Wadi David. It is called Wadi David because En Gedi is where David hid in a cave from Saul. This was at the end of the walk -- beautiful, huh?
There were several bus loads of school girls there. They, of course, took every advantage to soak themselves and their classmates (actually, I think their teacher started it) in another waterfall like the one above. That was a lot of fun to watch. They would also break into song or chants as they walked along -- sounded like girls' camp! Teenage girls are the same all over the world.

After our walk we had lunch in the pavilion by the gate and loved watching the birds and feeding them part of our apple. You know us and birds!

This is called a Hyrax. We saw several of these all along the way on both walks. Pretty cute.

Our second walk was up and down Wadi Agurot. It is called Wadi Agurot, because the Agurots lived here. . . . Just kidding! I have no idea why it is called that! There were parts of this trail where you could either continue on the dry path or walk in the river. It was very lovely and we enjoyed watching others get wet as we stayed on the dry trail. Here are some views:

We were flown over several times by F16s. Usually 3 or 4 together.

Sorry, this isn't a very good picture but the animal in this is called an ibex. We saw many of these. Some of them standing on their hind legs and eating from acacia trees. One of the males that we saw had big curved horns that would have been as long as his body, if they were straightened out!

When we got home, I was tired and took a nap. Suddenly there was a soft knock on the door and I opened to find no one there. But, on the floor in front of the door was a plate of cookies and our net of Christmas lights was covered with birthday pictures from the children that live in the Center. It was such a sweet surprise! I called out "Thank you" in case they were still around and then closed the door.

A few minutes later I could hear whispering and then a chorus of "Happy Birthday" outside my door. I opened it again and there were all of the children. They all showed me which pictures they had colored and the littler ones even gave me a hug. It was so fun!!!!!

Plate of cookies:

After dinner we went up to the student lounge and watched "It's a Wonderful Life" with some of the families here. It was a perfect birthday!!!