July 18th

Natan with his team during the tournament on the last day of camp

Campers and coaches after the tournament

After the final assembly, campers waiting for the bueses to pick them up

The ping pong player (I never learned her name, but we had a special connection through ping pong)

Moses (one of the coaches) and a camper

The Manof girls (the one on the left from Ethiopia was almost kicked out of camp the first night, but they let her stay and she ended up being an amazing contributor to the entire experience - voted "best spirit" award by her team and also by the coaches. During the talent show she played guitar for one of the local Arab women coaches, who sang a beautiful Hebrew song, that brought tears to my eyes (not surprising)

Oscar (an Ultimate player from Columbia) and campers from his team

Coaches Kerek, Sabrina (from Singapore) and Asif (parents from Pakistan)

My sweet son Natan

A lot of coaches (in white) with local coaches "Mr. Fantastic" (in red - I never learned another name for him), Nadin (in yellow - my friend and translator), and the woman with the beautiful voice (in blue)

My Kibbutz family from 25 years ago - Lior, Maya (age 7), Leah (Maya's mom), Lavi (Leah's son, age 4), Judy (My kibbutz mom), and me

In 1984, 6 months after we got married, Christy and I spent 1.5 years traveling around the world. Near the end of our trip, in the summer of 1985, we spent a few months on Kibbutz Gesher Haziv in the very north of Israel, just a few miles from where the Ultimate Peace camp was being held. I spent my last evening in Akko on the kibbutz. Judy and her daughter Lior toured me around the place. It is so different now as Gesher Haziv has privatized, as many of the kibbutzim have. But we did locate a few places that I remembered - the volunteer housing, which has been converted to a coffee shop, and the huge dining hall, which doesn't seem so huge anymore.

Passion fruit, from Judy's tree - it is amazing to see what Israel produces. Not only did we have fresh passion fruit at Camp Manof, but also fresh lichis and fresh figs (there are not many things better than a fresh fig)