By Rachel Schwartz, NFTY in Israel Participant, Bus 4 Bug spray is your new best friend Doing your business in nature is how you’re going to make all your friends Pack tissues...and lots of them (dude wipes if you’re a cool dude) Don’t be ashamed of singing songs as a...

I’m a city kid, and, if you were to ask me a week ago, the last place I’d want to spend my summer was the desert; sleeping on dirt and rocks, hiking up mountains, and living in the grueling heat, miles away from civilization. And yet, it was there that I found myself, spending four days with my camp friends on our trip to Israel.

The teens have been exploring the Desert. Tuesday morning the group travelled to Kibbutz Grofit, a town located on a small hilltop in the middle of the world’s longest and deepest valley that extends over three thousand miles from Syria all the way to Mozambique, Africa and is therefore called the Great Syrian-African Rift Valley.

On Sunday the teens visited the Orcam labs in Jerusalem, where they got to test out their next generation product. Orcam develops cameras that attach to glasses in subtle and sleek way in order to help people with visual impairments read, recognize faces, and tell time. Following Orcam, the teens took a culinary tour of Jerusalem’s largest open-air food market known as Macheneh Yehuda, and participated in a food science workshop with the startup Stellarnova.

On Friday, the teens left the desert and finally arrived in Jerusalem!  In the afternoon the group visited a park looking out over the Walls of the Old City and had a “Welcome to Jerusalem” ceremony with Challah and Grape Juice. They sang songs about Jerusalem that they learned in the dessert to celebrate their first ever view of the Ancient and Holy City of Jerusalem.

On Sunday, the buses began the “Kishrei Noar” segment of the NFTY in Israel program. “Kishrei Noar” is Hebrew for “Youth Connections,” and for many of the American Teens this is a highlight of the summer in Israel. During this part of the program, eight Israeli teens join the group full time for seven days.

Today, Wednesday, the teens concluded their Chavaya Experiences.  These are four-day activities during which the teens explored an interest with a likeminded group of participants. The choices included: Gadna, an Israel Defense Force immersion; Tikkun Olam Social Justice projects; and a hike from the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea.

My time in Israel has been without a doubt the best experience in my life. If I were to pick one experience that was the most memorable, I would choose the visit to the Western Wall. I’m not a spiritual person at all, but this experience was truly the most I’ve ever felt connected to Judaism and for once in my life, I felt truly connected to the Jewish community.

Saturday was Shabbat in Jerusalem as we all know, we received the option to wake up for breakfast or show up for services ‪at 10:55 a.m‬. I personally chose to wake up for breakfast, it was very good and we were offered a lot of choices. It was a nice reprieve from the desert we had been in just a day ago.