From Haifa I went to the Galilee and from there to the Golan Heights – a relatively small area with huge political importance – both in terms of military strategic significance as well as in terms of resources. The Golan is a vital water supply for the region, and its many streams and rivers flow [...]
I left Jordan. From Eilat I got on an express bus for Haifa in northern Israel. A six-hour cross-country journey. This is Haifa. Israel’s third-biggest city, its biggest port, and home to a ridiculously big grain silo (the big grey building on the harbour). Apparently, this silo contains enough grain to keep all of Israel [...]
Last week, I went to Jordan for a few days. Mostly to visit Petra, the ancient Nabatean capital city hidden in the mountains. It is a spectacular sight, and the 2-kilometre walk through the narrow gorge called the Siq is like entering another world. The Siq ends at the mausoleum of a Nabatean king carved [...]
So, I have left Neot Semadar behind to explore the rest of Israel. First stop along the way was a brief visit to the Maktesh Ramon, the huge canyon in the Negev desert. It’s like the Grand Canyon of Israel. As the guidebook says, it is the one place where Israel feels huge: The Maktesh [...]
I haven’t been doing too well learning much Hebrew so far. The fact that the words are written and read from right to left, and that the letters aren’t latin makes it kind of hard to get started. Especially since it isn’t the primary focus of my trip. But I have managed to pick up [...]
A while back, I promised to tell a bit more about my work at the goat yard here at Ne’ot Semadar. So this is what it looks like at the milking area of the Dir, which is the Hebrew word for goat yard. The goats come into the milking area, stick their head into the [...]
Being in such a peaceful and harmonic place as Neot Semadar, it would be easy to forget that you’re in a country that has been at war with its neighbours once almost every decade since the 1940s. But because Israel is such a small country, even Neot Semadar is not very far away from reality. [...]
One question that that my Danish relatives will be certain to ask me when I get home is “How was the food?” In Neot Semadar, that question is remarkably easy to answer because we get the same food every week. That is to say: The weekly menu is the same. So without further ado, let [...]
Last week was pretty busy not only because of Shavuot, but also because of the wedding. On Thursday, Nadav and Sharon wed in Ne’ot Semadar, and there was a big old celebration with 200 people, lots of food, lots of singing and lots of dancing, as you can see from the photo. It was a [...]
Yesterday, the celebration of Shavuot – the Jewish holiday celebrating when God handed down the ten commandments on Mount Sinai – began. It is also a harvest festival, and so, this installation was put up in the lobby of the dining hall. It is, of course, a quotation from the old testament, deutoronomy 8:8 : [...]