I should become a tour guide here...

From the 15th-22nd my brother visited. He’s 5 years my senior and was always a person I tried to emulate growing up so naturally we share many traits. I introduced him to everyone here in Tabgha and immediately everyone made comparisons and saw the resemblances: personalities, jokes, laughs, smiles, etc.



It was good to have him here. He also served in the Benedictine Volunteer Corps, in Newark, NJ. Obviously not too comparable Israel and New Jersey, what we both share with our service is how extremely different our cultures were from what we were raised in. So in a large way we had many of the same challenges with just a different face. He was good to bounce questions off of.

Damascus Gate and the greater Old City of Jerusalem

Whenever the two of us get together we seem to regress back to adolescent feral boys (my parents are wondering how that’s a change for us). We had a lot of fun, some may say too much fun, but even in the moments when it may have been easy to get irritated with the other (mostly him with me on my navigation skills…lack of), we were laughing.

It was almost like a fantasy or some strange dream you have because as a child I would have never foreseen him and I in Israel. There were moments with indescribable views and moods where we were just left enthralled in silence taking it all in.



We are beginning the busy season for guests here in Tabgha, as our first big group just left and now I can’t imagine how fast time is going to fly from here on out. I kind of feel helpless like time is whizzing by me and I can’t grab onto to it to slow it down.

Gethsemane garden

Early Friday morning we had daylight savings. As miscommunication has been my motto this year, our cook Ibrahim said “we get one more”, and un-clarified a couple people thought he meant that you get to sleep an extra hour where he meant you have to add one more hour ahead. It caused for quite some confusion: the bells for mass rang two hours late and as I walked down to my workplace one of the sisters asked, “why are going to work so early?” (thinking it was 6:40am).

Church of All Nations (at Gethsemane)

We had Monday off because Fr. Basilius wanted to take us volunteers out on an excursion somewhere in the Golan Heights and Galilee. We agreed on visiting Katzrin, Gamla, and Hippos. I previously knew nothing about any of them. Katzrin turned out to be a small town to our north very important for industry and manufacturing (I forgot what, yeah really important huh Mike?). While there we watched a precursory movie about Gamla.


It was spouting of pro-Israeli sentiment. It makes me think about how my emotions seem to be on a rollercoaster here because of the all the disheartening events and successes from all variety of inhabitants.



Gamla is a “never say die” story about Jewish people not surrendering to the Romans but ultimately being defeated. The old city used to sit atop a hill, providing defensive advantage, now offering spectacular views around the Golan and Galilee.


We hiked out onto Gamla where it was extremely windy.


It was easy to see how the people fought to hold onto this settlement. A river valley runs along the base, now dried-up, most of the surrounding area still stays green despite the ongoing drought conditions. We sat atop the mountain and let the wind bluster for some time, everyone wearing smiles.

After Gamla we drove south to Hippos.

It is a site of an ancient city that has been used throughout the years, most recently as a barracks for soldiers. From the top of Hippos we were able to see out onto the Sea of Galilee. It was spectacular to see the sun hit the water just right, with almost a divine allure.


The walk up to the site was fenced off from both sides because of mine fields. We joked around about scenarios or funny stories with us walking out into the fields but you still feel a raise in heart rate when you read the warning signs.



As we were walking back from Hippos to the car we came across another tour group, it surprised me because of the out-of-the-way position of Hippos, but we continued to walk. We came over the hill and the Father asked, “Where is the car?” I looked to where I thought we had parked and did not see it. A little nervous and yet finding it funny I asked, “yeah, where is the car?” The Father knew all along it was behind the tour bus but I thought I would still be able to see a little of the car, so I figured it was stolen. Needless to say some laughs were at my expense, nothing unusual.



The great Abbot Primate came for a visit the other day. He is the supreme Benedictine in the world (hence the name) answering only to the pontiff himself. I did not get to talk to him past introductions because we had an Ora and Labora day with a group of seminarians, but I shook his hand. I just wanted to share that with all the monks back at St. John’s especially you Br. Paul, I told him to keep an eye on you. He said you’re on his radar.



Today the veterinarian will come to take away a stray dog that lingers around. Its funny because I have asked the vet to do this a couple times and he called me up a couple days ago and said he will do it today “because he has to give his tranquilizer gun back to the police.” Maybe you have to meet the vet to get a laugh out of it, but if you’ve read the past veterinarian experiences you might understand how comical that is coming from him. He’s also going to check on George. A week ago we took away George’s right to have any more kids. We fit him with a makeshift collar/barrier (a plastic flower pot) to keep him from licking himself and the other day as I was playing with George he whacked me across the nose with it. I have a cut across my nose that looks like I got punched; its karma for not telling George beforehand what he was getting into.