Spending 6 weeks in Israel was an incredible experience for me. I hope you enjoy hearing about some of the highlights.
Day in the Life
First, here’s what a normal day looked like in Tabgha, Israel.
7AM – Morning prayer
7:30AM – Coffee and breakfast
8AM – Work
12:15PM – Midday prayer
12:30PM – Lunch
1PM – Cornhole
2PM – Work
4PM – Run/Lift
6PM – Evening Prayer
7PM – Supper
Tabgha has a large retreat center called Beit Noah. It’s used for groups of all kinds and sizes. Beit Noah is particularly well-known for being the favorite place of organizations working with special-needs children. Once or twice a year the kids from these groups get to come use the accessible playground and relax in the outdoor pool for a week of fun. Tabgha advertises itself as a place where everyone is a person first. This makes it one of the rare places in Israel where politics don’t create tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. Here, they are happily relaxing and vacationing side by side.
Beit Noah is mostly run by volunteers and since October there have been none. My job was to help Paul, the man in charge of Beit Noah and the volunteers, get the retreat center back up and running. I deep cleaned bedrooms, cabins, and community kitchens. For the few guests we had I prepared rooms and changed them over. I also spent much of my time working outside. Trimming trees and hedges, pressure washing (buildings, walking paths, the mini golf-course, and the pool), sweeping off roofs, and cleaning out gutters. I enjoyed all of it, minus coming face to face with a sleeping viper in one of the trees we were trimming.
Paul and I played a daily match of cornhole after lunch. Best of 3, matches to 21. After a lot of trash talk (most of it from Paul) on day 1, I beat him soundly. Days 2, 3, 4, and 5 were much the same. I was thinking I might get out of here with a perfect record. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. Paul turned it around on day 6, winning 3 straight days. I ended up winning more games, but not by much. This was usually my favorite part of the day. I’ll miss our daily cornhole matches when I’m back in Kenya.
Travel
When I agreed to come to Tabgha, I had the expectation of staying at the monastery for the whole time. I didn’t think that travel would be possible due to the ongoing conflict. I ended up being wrong about this and got the opportunity to see a lot of Israel during my visit.
My first weekend in Israel, Paul drove me to Mt. Arbel. He had to do the grocery shopping for the monastery in the nearby city of Tiberias, so it worked well for me to hike while he shopped. Getting to the top of Mt. Arbel didn’t take long and it gave me a great view of the Sea of Galilee. I also got to explore some caves and an old fortress built into the cliffside from the the Crusades and even earlier.
Later that week, all the monks had a trip planned to Bethlehem. They were checking on all the different organizations that they help to support, most of them having a mission around helping special-needs children. After meeting all the groups we went to the Basilica of the Nativity. People think that this is where Jesus was born and because of this the church is usually packed. When I was there the church was empty. A surprise benefit of coming when I did.
Two weeks later I was on a bus to Acre (Akko) on my own. The bus routes and stops are only written in Hebrew and Arabic so it wasn’t an easy journey. Luckily I had picked up most of the Hebrew alphabet by this time and could read city and town names off the signs we passed. Akko was a big port city during the Crusades and it was very cool to see the Sea Wall, explore the centuries-old tunnels, and hang out next to the Mediterranean Sea. I was also able to see the Knight’s Hall exhibit, along with an authentic Turkish bathhouse. The Knight’s Hall was a huge set of buildings and tunnels that an order of crusaders used to use as their home base. For lunch I ended up getting a tray of appetizers and a fresh loaf of bread. I’m going to miss the food here when it’s time to go back to rice, beans, and ugali.
To close out my time in Israel I went to Jerusalem. I stayed in Dormition Abbey, which is run by the same group of German monks as those who stay in Tabgha. I spent much of my time walking through the Old City, exploring the Mount of Olives, and getting shown around by a group of local 13 year-olds. They were happy to be my tour guides for an afternoon for 1 USD each. I also got to spend most of a day at the Holocaust memorial and museum, Yad Vashem. The last exhibit was a beautiful circular room, filled from floor to ceiling with bookshelves. The books contain the names of all the known victims of the Holocaust.
Honorable Mentions: Nazareth, Hippos, Capernaum, and Magdala.
Jesus Trail
When I first arrived in Tabgha, there was a book called The Jesus Trail sitting on the desk in my room. It was a guidebook for a 40-mile trail running from Nazareth to Tabgha, passing many sites that Jesus would have walked by during his life. I decided that I would like to try and do at least a couple sections of the trail.
For the first half of my time in Tabgha it rained almost every day. This meant that the trail was far too muddy for me to consider doing any of the sections near Tabgha. Finally things started to dry up and I found an afternoon to do the last 8-mile section ending in Tabgha. After work, I had Paul drive me out to the start and began hiking. I quickly lost sight of the paint blazes that mark the trail and took the next hour to find them again. The following 4 miles were nice, but the trail was still very muddy. At this point the blazes led me into a gorge. I didn’t remember seeing this part of the trail on the map I had looked at before leaving, but maybe it was just a short stretch. As I was walking through the gorge the sun went down. I decided to start walking through the knee-deep stream instead of hopping back and forth between rocks and shoreline, since visibility was only getting worse. I was 2 miles into the gorge and knew that even though the blazes still told me to go forward, I was not in the right place. I turned around and started the long journey to the mouth of the gorge in pitch-black darkness. There are lots of coyotes in this part of Israel and even though I was used to hearing them it was a little unnerving in my current predicament. That’s when I heard something moving around in the stream in front of me. I slowly crept forward until I could make out the shape of the biggest wild boar I’ve ever seen. He was blocking my path out and didn’t seem friendly. After quickly running through my options I charged at him and let out a yell. Thankfully he ran away and I didn’t have any more encounters with him for the remainder of my trek. Once out of the gorge, I made it to the nearest road and ran home. That was the end of my hiking in Israel.
After spending far too many hours with Israeli airport security, my laptop and checked bag were confiscated and sent on a different plane. Since I arrived in Nairobi about 12 hours before it was time to leave for Tanzania there was no way for me to get my things before leaving. Although having only the clothes on my back, a backpack, and my phone and charger wasn’t the ideal way to start a 2.5 week trip in Tanzania, I managed. A quick stop at the mall for a toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and 2 more outfits got me through. I’m very thankful that everything was waiting for me back in Nairobi on my return.
Thanks for reading.