My travel in Israel

I am originally from Barranquilla Colombia, a city in the northern region of Colombia. The reason why I want to start the story about my trip to Israel talking about Barranquilla is because being the biggest port of Colombia during the 19th and mid 20th century, Barranquilla received immigrants during the two World Wars from Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

The city has received great influence from many different cultures, so it is a "melting pot", in the sense that the development of the city happened after the independence of Colombia and no much influence of Spanish colonialism exists in Barranquilla. In the city there are two synagoges, a Jewish cemetery, a mosque and lots of Catholic and Christian churches.

Anyway, growing up in Barranquilla, I knew these things about Israel:

• Colombian Armed Forces uses Kfir airplanes and Galil assault weapons
• The history of the land of Israel in biblical times (I grew up as Catholic and went to the Jesuit school in Barranquilla)
• Because of lots of immigration from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine in the 20th century, I had heard stories about the region
• Israel technology was used in my region to create irrigation fields for crops. Great project!

I want to thank the Jewish National Fund and Media Watch International for the opportunity to visit Israel and learn about the country, the culture and its people.