Gan Ha'Atzmaut - Independence Park

My favorite thing that we did this week during Sukkot in Israel was playing in Gan Ha'Atzmaut, Independence Park. We got to play with kids of all ages from families from all over the world. 

Sometimes some of the younger kids couldn't understand English, so some of us would translate into Hebrew, German, or Chinese, for them. We had a fun and exciting time together. Even though we only played together for one week, it feels as if we knew everyone for an year already!

Below, we are playing a game called "Squirrel and Tree". The little ones absolutely LOVE this game, and it is pretty fun even for us who are older.

Since we are all from all over the world, we all know different games to play. It was fun discussing, teaching, learning, and playing new games.

Sometimes, we modified some games so that the younger ones could understand. For example, "North, Central, South America" became "Red, Yellow, Green".

The little ones were so adorable! They would just come up to you, say hello, and hug you as if you were their siblings!

We also played arm wrestling. It was really fun and challenging.

Sometimes, the arm wrestling results were puzzling. For example, on the left hand, I beat Yohannes/John (the one in the red, black, and white striped shirt), Yohannes beats my sister Anabel (the girl in the blue dress), and Anabel beats me.

We also played a game called "Colors". Basically, if the person in the middle calls a color that you are wearing, you try to run to the other side without being caught. It's simple, but it's really fun to play.

We played until it was dark at the playground at the park. Below, I and Theodore are trying to make the other person jump on the see-saw.

My favorite was the "dragon", which is a giant swing. You can go really high on it.

We also got to play in the park with the Liu family and their friends. Below are some pictures from Mrs. Liu.

In the first picture below, we are playing on the dragon.

Here, we are playing colors with our friends.

I don't remember what we were doing in this photo. We were either chatting or discussing games to play.

A lot of our friends camped at the park during Sukkot.

On the last day of Sukkot, we had a big fellowship dinner at the park.

Most of the families are returning home right after Sukkot, but we will continue meeting up with the rest of the families that are still in Jerusalem.

Even though we have only known most of the friends we made at the park for a week, we feel as if we had known each other for over an year!

All of us are looking forward to "Next year in Jerusalem!" if the Lord wills.

Looking Back- the 8 days of Sukkot in Israel

The Israel Museum

Food in Israel