Today we all went to Kibbutz Misgav Am right on the border with Lebanon and Syria, in the Galilee, to hear a speaker. From The hall we sat in, we would have been able to see into Syria, Lebanon and Israel, but it was extremely foggy, so we had very low visibility. None of the students seemed excited for the speaker, as later on in the day we were all going paint balling, and this seemed to engulf everyone’s minds. The cold and rainy weather did not help the mood. This gloom was short lived, as three words into his talk, Ariyeh had the whole group laughing and nodding in agreement. Ariyeh talked about his life experiences and his political views. He was born in Ohio and made Aliyah when he was 21. He fought in the 6 Day War, the Yom Kippur War and The First Lebanon War, so we were hearing views from a veteran. Ariyeh had extreme right wing views, and was able to communicate his point across to everyone in a humorous, witty and clever manner. His talk ended with a roar of applause, and sparked great debate and discussion on our bus ride to paintball. 

James B

  As we travelled to paintball, there were shouts of joy, fear and the occasional Israeli singing/ dancing in the aisle. It was a very tension filled trip as people were extremely excited to shoot their friends with paint pellets but were also just as afraid to take a couple of shots to the arm or leg. But finally we arrived and as people struggled to traverse the mud and sludge I wondered how we would be able to cope with being shot at. Once we were all settled in a little shelter we were greeted by some helpful Israelis who were happy to put up with all our silliness and still managed to teach us the basic rules (which few obeyed) and get us ready to take out some stress on our friends and even teachers in a game of capture the flag paintball. As the game started people rushed to find cover because of the massive build-up of how painful getting shot would be (turned out to be a lie). The game was finished after a few minutes and everyone started to walk off the field in their multi-coloured clothing and some who hadn’t finished using up all their paintballs started firing at people on their own team. It was a great experience to have and the bus ride home was filled with funny, amusing stories and lots of bruises due to it.  

Toby Sherr