Children of Darajat

Darajat or Drejat is a small village of 800 people nestled in the Arad Valley in the Negev. They are falakhim - or Arab farmers - who established the city in the mid 19th century. They do not consider themselves Bedouin now anymore but come from that lifestyle lineage. I spent a week in Darajat with ten other people learning a little Arabic and living in a host home. Over the next few days I'll be posting photographs from the village and will give more commentary. The two above photos show the little ones of the village watching the young teens perform traditional Bedouin dances.

My friend and I asked to see the mosque one afternoon. The children were more than happy to show us around and up to the top. More photos will come but in the photo above a boy sits inside of a widow opening inside of the mosque.

Children exercising after a lunch break.

Some of the people from our class entertaining the neighborhood kids