Bedouin handbags and Yerucham

On Thursday, we had education day in the south, to examine the real periphery. We're talking south of Beersheva. First we went to a "recognized" Bedouin village, where this Bedouin woman talked about how the women there had started their own sewing business. This seemed like a large sales pitch as we went to the little store afterwards, and sure enough, bought tons of stuff. Then, we went to an "unrecognized" Bedouin village (as opposed to Bedouin tents and villages specifically designed for tourists). This was pretty dismal, and there was no food for us because it is Ramadan (just because they are fasting, we should suffer?). After that, we went to Yerucham, a small development town, about 10,000 people, in the south, mostly religious, Sephardim and Russians. It was also pretty dismal, though it had these strange pillars in the middle, and between them was a slide, which we slid down. Apparently these pillars are called the Identification/Identity Towers. I don't really know why. We spoke to some American woman, from Boston actually, who said she liked living there. Not sure why.