Goldberg sighting

So our first Shabbat here in Israel was spent with Brandon. Sam and I had a great time with him and his friends. We went to stay with them in a house at Qirat (i also saw it spelled Kirat) Gat which was somewhere southwest of Tel Aviv. The ride there was interesting, sam and I spent our times talking to either a pair of soldiers working in Intelligence, and another that was part of the infantry.

The infantry soldier was actually from up state new york and had decided to join the Israeli army before going to college here in the states. He told me all about what it was like in Gaza during Israel's retaliation on Hamas. He personally saw Hamas hiding in houses with families and children as shields. He said He watched Hamas send little children on reconaisance missions and also arm them with guns and RPGs (no wonder kids ended up dying). Now i'm looking forward to a supposed 18month peace in Gaza, but it sounds like they're probably using it to restock up on weapons to begin their terrorism again in another 18 months.

Sam had a more political conversation with the intelligence soldiers about politics and other things. He got some israeli's view on obama (maybe he'll elaborate more, but it sounds as if they're unsure what to think about him as his track record isn't well known). although the two sets of soldiers were quite different types of people they both agreed and said, "why the heck are you going to Qirat Gat?"

then the time spent with brandon was great. Basically, one of his friends in his program is being put up by herself in a nice 3 bedroom house, so it was easy to sleep the six of us. Brandon does not actually live here though. we cooked and ate and drank and had a really nice time. I know sam has met brandon a couple of times but it was especially good to see that they got along well and that we all just had a great time.

hanging out

saturday we walked around the town and even went to the zoo that Diana (one of the girls) works at. there was a tortoise walking around, and passion fruit growing naturally. the animals were of a petting zoo nature, so nothing crazy, but it sounds like they're used a lot in therapy with children. besides the zoo, most of the town was disgusting. there were beautiful areas of it. but for the most part it looks like a third world village. Although most of the place was gross, the house we stayed in was very nice and very clean and even had an olive tree in the front yard as well as some really cool looking bushes. so we were in the nice part of town. other than that, brandon has some great friends and i hope to hang out with all of them again soon. i think he said he wants to come to tel aviv in a coupld of weeks so should at least be seeing berg (brandond for those uninformed of his nickname) soon.

Diana with a few day old goat

in typical brandon fashion he impressively caught a lizard

here's a fruit in the front yard that kinda looked like a bird. (this new camera takes amazing pictures) (canon sd880)