I was informed a few weeks ago that I and another girl from the Yafo track will be schmoozing a Swiss man that has been donating money annually to Bina (The neighborhood community project which Tikkun Olam is part of). Last Tuesday, I was picked up by one of the Madrichim and taken to the Ramat Efal Bina office to meet this guy. The meeting went really well. I was told that I was making everyone look bad because I actually looked nice and wore a dress, while everyone else still adhered to the Israeli casualness. I cannot assimilate to that because I know that a lot of occasions I would feel uncomfortable if I were completely casual. The man brought his son just for the hell of it, no big deal, and his friend. Oh the lives of the wealthy..... So anyway, this man basically wanted to know where his money was going and what it was being used for. He took turns asking both Amy and I, why we chose this program and not another, why we chose Israel, how we feel now about Ulpan, our Jewish identity classes and the program overall. Everyone was please after we were done. Of course at the end of the meeting I couldn't help myself and nudged the guy on the shoulder and asked, "So these Alps, are they really that great? I am trying to see if I want to go snowboarding there after this program." Right away, the guy called his son over, who couldn't have been more that 13 or 14 and we had a nice discussion about snowboarding and the Alps. Just a typical Tuesday morning.
After I got dropped back off at the house, the director of Tikkun Olam called me to tell me to tell everyone that the news were wanted to do a bit on our program and that a newscamera would be in Ulpan that day. What a trainwreck! It was hilarious. They gave our teacher a microphone and so she decided to set us up with easy questions and ask us why we/people come to Israel. Whenever someone would speak, the camera man would literally get in their face. My ridiculous roomate could not stop laughing. I tried my best to keep a straight face and not look at the camera when I stupidly uttered something. The reporters also interviewed a couple of people from the Yafo track and got a couple of testimonials from them.
The next day, I went to my new volunteer assignment, Brit Olam. That day we were doing intakes. Which meant that we would come into the refugee clinic which is located in the Central Bus Station and help refugee women fill out forms which requested either pregnancy care and follow up or the need for an abortion. What a great experience. The two of us sat in a small examination room while we asked whoever was next in line to be seen by us to give us their visa, their need for the intake, name, age, how far along they were if that applied and instructions of next steps. These women all have translators. Most of them are from Eritrea where they speak Tigrinya (no I will not be learning that next because my Hebrew still sucks) so they usually bring a tranlator who either speaks Hebrew or English. In the first case the woman did not have a translator so there happened to be a man in the waiting room that lives near her and knows her. We kept telling him/nagging him to always translate to her because he seemed to be answering the questions without even asking her. It was sort of funny. After we were done, that night the small news special was supposed to air. A bunch of us gathered in the TLV house to watch it. It was cool! We were sort of famous! Here is the link, not sure if it will work:
http://www.mako.co.il/news-channel2/Channel-2-Newscast/Article-baece9a88facb21004.htm
Mah od, mah od. What else, what else.....I tutored three kids last week! For three hours. I made 200 shekdogs (shekels hahaha) This is enough for a week of food and possibly entertaining. Yes, that's right, I quit a good paying job to go work for free and sometimes if I am lucky make about $50 a week. But guess what, I am actually happy for the first time since graduating college, something to write home about. I have also been going on dates, more dates that I have been in the states. It's easier here. The Israelis are more forward here and they love blond girls. This makes life entertaining and my Hebrew better. Everyone wins!
There is a girl here in TK that plays volleyball which makes me really happy and excited. We finally got together on Friday and went to a sports store to get a volleyball. The volleyball was overpumped but we figured it would be ok. We went to a small store and bought some food for the beach and headed to the beach. It was a perfect day. We ate and peppered. Peppering is bumping, setting and spiking. An amazing past time for volleyballers. We were resting and eating when some random guy just walked up to us and sat down and started saying "nahon, nahon" which means true or correct in Hebrew. He was Italian and ended up spending an hour with just bullshitting. This is why I love Israel, because of this randomness. He invited out to get some burgers with him but we declined the offer. Vanessa was making dinner at her house that night and invited me to come. I told her I was going to hang out on the beach for a few more hours and then go to the drum circle that happens on every Shabbat.
After Vanessa left I went to the boardwalk, put my iPod in and just started walking. I wanted to go to the area where they play volleyball. Very attractive men playing beach volleyball. It was the happiest place on earth, it's NOT disneyland, it's TLV. Hahaha. But anyway, there is really nothing better than walking anywhere with music and walking to its beat, people watching and just hanging out. After that, I started walking toward Yafo to the drum circle. They were all gearing up. I had so much stuff with me that I couldn't dance but the beat was so great! I met other volunteers there. German and Italian guy, working in a rehabilitation center. Cool dudes. After that I walked to Yafo to Vanessa's. She made an amazing meal and we went out after. I ended up running into Ben, which is super random because he lives north of TLV, it's called a mikre - coincedence, however you spell that word!
The next day, we woke up and made banana pancakes and went to the beach. We went to Yafo beach which has a completely different feel that TLV beach. It's very secluded, the water is colder and there are less people. You really do it just to get away. It was amazing. It was just the three of us, Vanessa and Dante and I. Sometimes, ok, a lot of the times, it's good to get away from the group. I enjoy it a lot. Don't get me wrong, I love everyone in the group but you don't get a chance to grow when you're with everyone all the time. It's a proven fact. That night I was all about going back into town and just getting lost but I had no energy from the weekend so I just stayed in and chilled and caught with my house mates. It was good and relaxing.
The next day was Yom Rishon, Sunday, work day. For 26 years I have been told that Saturdays and Sundays are the weekend, so I don't know if I will ever get used to "other idea" of the weekend, such as the one in Israel. Anyway, the kids at Nofim are settling down a little bit. Thank god. We have to cut them some slack though, the poorly organized education system in Israel, and a lot of other things that are poorly organized, they're the ones stuck in the middle so it is good that they are calming down, even if it's a little bit. After Nofim, literallu back to back, I had Brit Olam. We were doing house visits that day. This means that we go and visit new mothers and make sure that the surroundings are good for the baby and the mother. The first family we went to literally live in secluded rooftop area of a building that was sort of made into a room. I really have no idea what it is, but the space is literally the size of my room in PHX. The baby was only 2 weeks old and so tiny. They named her Bethlehem. We sat with them and asked how she was feeling and how everything was going. After the first visit we went on a much needed coffee break. Got to know our trainer, Rinat a little more. She is amazing. She is my idea of a well rounded person. Lived in London, travelled the world, had a job in TV for like 15 years and one day realized she hated and started volunteering. Amazing, but also easy for someone to say who can afford to have the husband bring home the bacon AND raise 5 kids! We went to our next house and the baby was also 2 weeks old. Anglel was her name. Her family was so cute, they brought our drinks and fruit for us. It's cool in the situations like this because they only speak Hebrew and Tigninia and in this case there was no English and it felt good understand mostly everything! There was a four year old girl there, she was the new baby's cousin. At one point she gave me a huge kiss on the cheek. She was soooooooo CUTE!!! What a rewarding day.
Ooooooooook so I have been looking forward to Monday as long as I have known that we were going to go to Idan Raichel in Jerusalem! Mondays are our study days usually so we used to have a travel day. We started our trip by going to an Arab village called Abu Ghosh. It is a village where Arabs, Jews and Christians peacefully coexist. Yes, this does happen. Apparently, Abu Ghosh is also known for being in the Guiness Book of World Records for the worlds largest plate of hummus. Dream come true! Anyway, we all piled into a room and Arab man talked to us a little bit what it is like being an Arab in Israel - he got questions such as "How would you divide Israel if you could?" and "Do you get mad that you are fluent in Hebrew but most Israelis don't speak Arabic?" Interesting topics. After that we went to a monestary, made up mostly of French people. Here are some pics.
Our last stop at Abu Ghosh was a Arab Women Empowerment circle. A lot of this sounded very shocking to me because I know nothing about the culture, but apparently, really religious Muslim women cannot leave the house and do sport. When I say sport, that's what the Israelis call excercise. This circle gets together every Monday, and they power walk and spend time together. At first it was very hard to handle that these women were going against their religion but soon the men in their lives realized that giving these women their day made everything go smoothly at home. To fathom this concept makes me really sad and feel fortunate that I don't live in a world where I have to step on eggshells.*I want to apologize that a long time has passed since I last blogged so hopefully this still flows together!*
We left Abu Ghosh and we straight to Jeru. We got an hour to walk around and get dinner. Jeru has such a different feel to TLV. It has rolling hills and pine trees and the weather is much cooler. I guess this would make sense - it's a completely different part of the country. I always forget this because Israel is the size of New Jersey. Yeah. Scary, I know. My friend Vanessa and I went to some cafe where we got coffee and literally a ball of chocolate. Wow, meule! (Great). Needless to say I was bouncing off the walls when it was time to go to the concert. Oh the concert-----words cannot describe the music that this project makes. I am in love. This is my favorite song right now - but this is so much better in concert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0lX9pIMpX4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbWxg4asm_A
Here are some pictures to show how beautiful the show was. I hate to say it but the one I went to in TLV was much better but a free concert, especially by an amazing group is a great deal.
The rest of the visit was really great. We visited a Druze cemetary and then went to eat some Druze food which was AMAZING! It wasn't anything completely out of the box but it was so delicious. After eating, we had some free time in the market so we went and bought some instruments for the Shabbat drum circles. We haggled and bought a marracca and some bell chime. I don't even know the name for that! We also got a bonus Hebrew lesson and the guy taught us how to say "Pay attention." He started explaining to us what that meant and could not get the point across, so he decided to use a life line and call his friend's wife and ask her what it meant. Reason 1,000,000 of why I love Israel! BALAGAN!! By the way, pay attention is "simi lev" to a girl and "sim lev" to a boy, just in case you were wondering!
In the past month I sat with the volunteer coordinator from Brit Olam and did an abortion intake. I haven't done one yet and a lot of things clicked for me during the intake. It was a good challenge because the girl does not speak Hebrew. I felt like I really connected with her and offered to her to go with her to the abortion commitee. That was an adventure within itself. Basically a lot of paperwork getting passed around from one social worker to another. An abortion costs 2000 NIS to someone with no insurance. This basically equals $540. With non profit org discount, there is a 50% discount. Huge difference. After we were done with the commitee we were both hungry so I offered to buy her lunch. I felt awful because I can't even imagine what she is going through and the only thing I wanted to tell her is that everything will be ok. She is only 22 and her mom is in Ethiopia. She only has her boyfriend. I am probably going to go with her to the actual operation if she can't find anyone to go with her.
That following weekend a few of us went to Jerusalem for a security conference. It was about the Israel security issues. We went to the Green Line which is another word for the proposed border between Palestenian Authority and the State of Israel. There is a security partition, that is also called The Wall (not the Wailing Wall) or it is called the Fence. The implementation of this wall has lowered terrorism and other crime by 90%, pretty unbelieveable. The rest of the weekend we spent in a really nice hostel which was really a hotel. We had lectures from a Palestenian/Muslim/Israeli/Arab - yes, this is true. He is a reporter who works for Jerusalem Post and he writes the truth, so he says. It proves the point that what he writes is unbiased, just the truth even though it might not be good and great to hear sometimes. We also heard from an IDF officer who showed us a video of a terrorist right before he tried detonate himself and a school bus in Gaza. We heard from a man who teaches in Haifa, and also worked for the Intelligence and fought terrorism for many years. Along with other speakers we heard about topics such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian threat. All of which made me really paranoid but also a lot of it is major propoganda. Very interesting weekend all in all and great to get out of TLV for a while and experience something different.
Since I haven't written in here for a while I know that I am probably forgetting a bunch of stuff so I am sorry. I sent the Picassa link out so that should show what we have been doing. I can't really think of anything else to write but I will be starting a new blog so that I am not cramming everything into this one. Life is good, life is great, just enjoying the Hebrew, playing volleyball on the beach, made some friends to play with and may have found a potential group to play with. Bike chain flies off on the daily but I have gotten really good at fixing it. Under 60 seconds. My roomie's bike was stolen and other people are starting to experience that too. Luckily my bike is a POS but I will still knock on wood for that.
What's to come in the next blog:
Our trip to the Judean Desert
Thanksgiving at the Guri house
More shenanigans in Israel
Until then:
!להיתראות
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