Sometimes one makes a discovery – a place in the middle of Israel that you never visited before. That happened to us today. While staying with Servas members Debbie & Nat Zelnik in Haifa, Debbie traveled with us to Jisr az-Zarqa.

There we met Genevieve and her daughter Salome who gave us an animated guided tour of the village. We discovered an intriguing place, full of folk stories and of people who want to encourage tourists to visit, to hike along the Israel trail which passes through the village, to wipe hummus, to eat fish in one of their restaurants, to walk by the sea and admire the wild coastline with its white sand, and to see the fisherman's harbour.

During our tour we learned about Genevieve's many social business activities. She has been promoting tourism in the village for the past three years by collaborating with the local entrepreneurs Ahmad and Neta in the running of Juha's guesthouse which caters to hikers on the Israel trail and other visitors to the area:

www.zarqabay.com

Genevieve is an amazing woman, who activates groups of volunteers from Israel and abroad, contributing to the local community by giving English and other academic lessons to the youth, and helping the local businesses to improve their standards of service.

We warmly recommend a visit to this village.

Lesley and Meir