Haifa's on fire! Is it insensitive if we barbeque?

Bahai Gardens

This past Thursday, our program headed up north to Haifa for a day exploring the many different religions that coexist in this amazing city. We started the day at the Louis Promenade, where there is an incredible view of the city from the top of the Bahai Gardens, which are extravagant on their own. We gazed down the mountain to the sea and enjoyed a perfect morning of blue skies with not a cloud in the sky. Haifa means beautiful beach (hof-yafeh) and is rightly named. As we walked down the 700 stairs of the Bahai Gardens, stopping to take pictures and enjoy the wonderous symmetrical landscaping of the gardens, we learned about the Bahai religion. Haifa is a city that takes pride in its peaceful coexistance between 4 religions- Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Druze.

Ominous Smoke Cloud

After the Bahai Gardens, we headed to Stella Monastery to learn about Christianity in Haifa. We also hiked down to Elijah's Cave, where supposedly the Prophet hid for a while. As we descended the mountain, we noticed a smokey, ominous cloud not too far from where we were. We didn't think much of it, and continued to hike down to Elijah's Cave. When we got on the bus after the cave, we were informed that there was a fire near the Druze village Usafiya, about 20 minutes from where we were. Usafiya was also our dinner destination, so we weren't sure if we'd be able to make it there.

The Fire

We continued our tour at the Achmadim Mosque, where we heard about Islam and got to ask lots of questions about the religion. We also had to take off our shoes before we entered the Mosque, and since we had just been hiking, there were about 120 pairs of stinky fit in the room. Mmmm, good thing this was after lunch.
Because of the fires, we had to take an hour long detour to get to dinner in the Usafiya. It was worth the extra drive, though we ate by candlelight because they lost power shortly after the fires started. Dinner was all-you-can-eat homemade traditional Druze food: pita with different toppings, rice, eggplant, hummus, fresh veggies/salad, and a yummy cous-cous like dish made of wheat. We ate to our hearts' content then headed back to the bus.


Druze Dinner



  



Mid-shot rooftop pong with the fire blazing behind us

Ellie and I needed to get back to Haifa to stay with our friends for the weekend, which we hoped didn't mean taking the hour long detour back. It did. We basically got dropped off on the side of a road where our madricha found an English speaker that pointed us to a bus back to Haifa Tachana Hof Hacarmel. We kept an eye on the huge amount of smoke coming from a place not too far from us. From the bus station, we had to find our way to Ariel's. Luckily, I had been there before and I recognized the Horev Center. We got off the second bus, called Ariel, and finally made it to his apartment.
We welcomed Alex to Israel, greeted Guy and the Haifa boys, and went up to Ariel and Dani's roof to observe the fire. It was huge! And not very far away! We had a big night planned, though, so we began our pong tournament. Alex and Ariel dominated the table all night- Ellie and I lost many, many times, as did Dani and I and Ellie and Dani. After the exciting and a little frightening fire-watching and pong playing, we went inside to end the night in typical night-in fashion: super smash brothers and fifa soccer.

The losers :(

On Friday, we slept in then the Haifa boys came over and we had a big barbeque on the roof. We hoped it wasn't insensitive of us to be doing this while the fires were blazing, but we had the food already and needed to use it up. So, we had another delicious meal, played more pong, and enjoyed an afternoon in the sun. By then, all we could see of the fire was smoke. Helicopters arrived, dumping water as the flew by. We watched the news a lot of track the progress. Aside from worrying about the fire, Friday was a wonderful afternoon that felt like the first warm Saturday at Bucknell where everyone's outside all day hanging out. Friday night we continued our hanging out at the apartment with the boys. We played more video games, ate dinner, and relaxed.

Bros?

For lunch on Saturday, we headed back to Sandwich Bar for amazing honey turkey and Scandinavian cheese sandwiches with lots of toppings. We watched tv, napped, and enjoyed a relaxing Shabbat afternoon before heading over to the soccer courts for Saturday soccer. We played soccer for a while, but it smelled like smoke outside! After ordering pizza for dinner, we headed back to Tel Aviv. This ended another amazing weekend in Haifa.