Day 9.5: Animals abound.

 Yesterday we had a half of a day of work, and so Shelby and I went off into the Negev--no matter how many times I say this I am amazed that I'm doing this. So we started to leave the village and we saw this scruffy guy. He was so cute, that we wanted to talk to him, but he was a bit timid. I talked him into coming over to us, and we loved him up. Then we left the village and headed down the hill into the valley. We stopped a bit down the hill, and Shelby realized that he was following us. So we loved him up a bit more. The further we went, though, the less he wanted to be with us. He eventually turned around and went back.

Me holding Ezuz.

As we got to the bottom of the hill, we decided to walk to another nearby hill and up it to see what we could see. Um, did you guess we could see the desert? We could. We also saw down into Ezuz. Again, it is unfathomable to me that I can look over to see Egypt.

On our way back to the village we were met by the gatekeepers. These mastiffs are huge! And a bit intimidating. Almost every family in the village keeps a dog because there are coyotes and other desert creatures.

Well, it turns out that these masters of the road were just looking for some love, which they got. They must have known that both Shelby and me are dog lovers. But seriously, look how big that dog is compared to Shelby, who is not hobbit sized, I promise.

Then we were near the Arzuni's place, and this big tom cat was sitting beside the trail. The animals here must really be in tune with the people, because he, too, was just looking for some love. We loved him up a bit and then headed to dinner, which was fantastic!

On Friday nights, Shabbat to y'all, we have a big meal outside sitting on mats upon the ground. It was a big treat last night because we had chicken. We have had chicken twice since I've been here; each of the other meals has been vegetarian. Since much of the work is very physical, it is nice to be able to reward my body with some cooked flesh. They cooked the chicken in an outdoor oven. It was slow roasted on a wood fire. Just dang. Or, for those of you who've seen the video, "Damn, damn, damn! That's the way chicken's supposed to be!"

It is always nice to sit around and feed the body with food and the soul with conversation. Our group, including the family, includes persons from 10 years old to the mid 50s and from three different continents. We wax poetic about love, life, politics, and really anything, telling stories and laughing into the night.

Then, imagine our surprise when we found a cake that the 13 year old Rotem made for us. It is chocolate and delicious. I was hoping to lose some weight while working in the desert, but I'm not so sure this will happen because life is indeed rich!