Shalom l'culam! Ma nishma? Haya harbe ha-zman she ani katavti l'chem! Translation - if correct - hello to everyone! How are you? It's been a long time since I have written. I am awesome, I know. That wasn't included in the ivrit text. Anywhoooooooo.......I will start off by speaking about the Judean Desert trip!
The trip was pretty much a month ago! It was amazing. We got the rental cars in the morning and set off to our first destination - rapelling. Did I spell that right? I got feedback from several members of my family. English is my second language - I will use this excuse forever, as most of you know! I have never done this before. I had an opportunity to do so about 5 years ago on Mt. Lemmon but I remember I chickened out and just went around the mountain. Pretty standard because I hate heights with a passion. We got to the place and I started getting nervous when I saw the wall of rock in front of me. I knew I had to do it because I didn't know when the opportunity would be here again. We took turns wearing helmets and harnesses, as soon as I put the harness on I realized that I would be going down on a rope on a side of a cliff. My roomate and I decided that we would do this at the same time. I got over to wear the guy would loop me in and offer some encouraging words. He tied a fugure 8 to my harness and clipped on the caribeaner (sp?) and told me to take a step backwards and just "trust" the rope. Yeah effin right! Are you serious?? I started panicking. I finally took a deep breath and slowly stepped backwards and started feeding the rope through the figure eight and started coming down. I almost needed a pair of clean shorts after this excercise but it was amazing!
After the whole group was done, we took off to Ein Gedi, to the Dead Sea. We were supposed to visit some kind of Spa but ran out of time and just went to the regular Dead Sea beach. It was really fun actually! I'm not going to lie but during Taglit, the Dead Sea was my least favorite part of the trip. Maybe because a cut that a millimeter wide turned into a gash after the salt. Now it's a scar but it will always be a reminder for me. So anyway, we all got in the water. It was so fun to float on our backs and stomachs without even making an effort. I noticed that suddely people started latching on to each other and soon we had a giant floating circle of Tikkun Olamers. Someone told me later that the lifeguard growled "Good job" to us. Hahaha!
We spent about an hour and a half at the sea and then it was time for our next destination. We were headed to the Bedoin tent that we were going to sleep in. It was in a Kibbutz about 10 miles away from the sea. We got to the sit and unpacked our stuff and proceeded to make a campfire and chop up the stuff for the meals. Our first snack was home made pita and labane and zatar. Yum! Then we made Poike which could be veggie and meat, basically you cook veggies and rice and sometimes chicken together for a long time in kettles. It was amazing! For dessert we made banana boats - cut up banana, put chocolate, marshmellows and graham crackers in the slits, wrapped in foil and let it cook on the campfire. Wow. After dinner we sang songs for Shabbat. Our friend Leah was a song leader for a temple so she has a great voice and can play the guitar really well so that always ads to the experience. It was actually really fun because right next to us was a Jews for Jesus group. They came over to us and gave us flags and so we started dancing with them. They later asked us if we can sing some Christian songs.......yeah......good question! Oh Israel!
The next morning we all woke up to watch the sunrise. The sun was rising from Jordan, which we could see, it was amazing. I will try to post some pics. We were also cutting up food for lunch and breakfast. We had an intense day hike coming up so we all made sandwiches, trail mix and three liters of water each. The Yehudia is no joke! The hike was amazing. The pictures will show more. Hiking in Israel is different that anywhere else. I don't know why and I don't really want to try to explain. For those of you who haven't been you just have to see for yourself! :) It was an amazing weekend. Our next monthly trip is actually next week and we are going up North to the Galilees. So excited!
That next Tuesday we had an all day seminar. Different speakers came in and talked to us about the Arab Israeli issues, we also went to Jerusalem that day to speak to a panel of people our age that participate in intense dialogues between the Arabs and Jews. They are called Face to Face Faith to Faith - talking about tough issues like the coexistence and constant tension between the two groups of people, the lack of support from their families and friends for doing so and other issues that come with the territory They were all really cool and inspiring. It just goes to show that it all has to start at the roots. People must want change from deep down, and if people can start talking about problems and not just avoiding them and pretending that they are unfixable, things could get better. It's not impossible. Just very difficult.
I might have mentioned this already, but at the Physicians for Human Rights Clinic, I was assigned to help out with making a tracking tool for HIV patients - if there is something that I took away from Amex is how to make tracking tools and how to look at processes more efficiently - Thanks Bob! Basically compliling information on about 220 HIV patients that the clinic knows about - putting their names, numbers, their HIV stats on one speadsheets - idea of tool is to keep moving every patient up the list for the Vaad - which is the medicine that can supply a patient up to six months. It's better than nothing and is really expensive. I am quickly realizing that I do love to analyze and track but only when it makes an actual difference, is that so much to ask for??
That Thursday was the American TG, but we decided that because a lot of us volunteer until late that we would carry it over to that Friday so that we can start at about 4:30PM, just like we do in the US. We did a deep cleaning of the house. Lisa and I were responsible for the terrace. Since the state of Israel does not believe in mops, and only believe in squeegies, Lisa made herself into a human squeegie. I would filll up a bucket of water, throw the water on the terrace, start mopping the water and Lisa would wipe it down. We decided that the only thing that would make this beautiful day better would be to drink beer on the terrace while cleaning. I love my roomates! The day before that Lisa and I made sweet mashed potatoes, that Friday we put the finishing touches to the potatoes, we added marshmellows to them and put them in the oven. We also made a salad with arugula, pomagranite, parsimon and pear and put lemon juice and oil in there. The downtairs kitchen of our house was bustling! It was so great to see everyone hard at work, cooking to contribute their share to the dinner. Somehow nine people all managed to make this work! People from Yafo and the other house starting pouring into our house. Eveyone brought soooo much food and wine, pictures were sent on Picassa and some will be here. We ate for a long time and then everyone came into mine and Lisa's room, because we have the best room in the house and we were all just hanging out and giving each other backrubs and just shooting the shit, it was so amazing and even though we were all so far away from home, we felt home with everyone around us. I think for how unconventional it was, this was one of my favorite TG's!
Saturdays are sacred volleyball days for Vanessa and I. We all went to the beach, Lisa had to borrow our other roomie's bike because hers was stolen, we went to where all the nets were so that I could meet Vanessa, Lisa went to lay out with Sara and Marissa and Vanessa and I started attracting people to play, didn't take all but 5 minutes for 3 sets of people to ask us to play with them. It did feel pretty obvious that we def overdid it on eating stuffing and 5 sets of amazing desserts, and not to mention the leftovers in the fridge! Oy vavoy! Anyway, the people that we played with started sucking so we went down to the water and after that played with guys that were amazing at vball that were both about 6'4, and I got really intimidated so I started playing REALLY bad!! God figure.
That Sunday we did house visits for Brit Olam. It was a nice coincendence that the whole something was wrong with our phones and none of our phones got any reception. I had to use Skype to schedule the house visits, what have we resorted to? Finding both houses was sort of a trainwreck when we got lost and the cell phones were down so we had to borrow random people's phones. Makes you stronger right? The house visits themselves were ridiculous. With most of the people there are language barriers on both sides. We don't speak much Hebrew, and then don't speak Hebrew or English, mostly Tigrinia, so you don't even know if you're getting through to them with the information. It's always fun to explain breastfeeding when you have to show on yourself. Oh the life we live. But we make it happen, so that's good.
December 1st was the first night of Hannukah so I decided to email everyone a couple of days before to throw something together at our house, which has become the center for all celebration, which we really don't mind because it gives us a reason to clean and we don't have to go anywhere. It all came together so smoothly! We had a Menorah, dreidle and candle committee, latke committee and sweets committee, sorry that I am misspelling everything right now, spell check does not really work here for some reason! Celebrated Hannukah - homemade latkes, sufganiot and wine, can't get better than that! It was amazing. We were all cooking together in the kitchen, like a big, happy family. We had three large bowls of shredded potatoes, 3 boxes of sufganiot and wine. It was a great night to say the least. Leah once again got her guitar out and we sang songs and hung out. We have all turned into a bunch of hippies, or so it would look like on the outside! I love our big family!
That Friday I did round 2 of Hannukah. I went to Hod HaSharon, where my dad's cousin lives, so a lot of us got together there - it was really great! The food was amazing! I was quite proud of myself because I actually understood a lot of things that they were talking about - considering 80% of the convo is in Hebrew. It can be very frustrating, but then again, my sister and I always speak English, even in front of my grandma, so I can't blame people who have lived in this country for 20-40 years for speaking Hebrew with each other!
Played volleyball on the beach yesterday and today - yesterday I was hungover so playing was awful but today we met up with the guys we played with before so it was amazing. I am starting to hit now, so I am less afraid to hit the ball so I am not just the "setter". You can't do that in two on two. Also, got on a paddle board and the guy paddled in the middle of the water, it was scary but sort of calming. He said he was going to give me surf lessons but then I never saw him - met a 6'7" Russian volleyball player named Igor, hilarious.
After vball, we went to our favorite burger place with them, Moses Burger, so I was speaking Russian with Igor. He is from Ukraine and got recruited for the Israeli volleyball team.
Went to Jerusalem after study day last week. Vanessa knows some friends of a friend who do couch surfing, so they offered us their couch to crash on while in Jeru. We left after study day on Monday. We were both so excited! Jeru has a completely different feel than TLV. It's paved with cobblestone and is just prettier and feels holy. I am not the one to be religirious so that must mean something. We picked this amazing restaurant that we ate at. It felt very European. I kept forgetting where I was the entire time. It was cold outside so we got soup and these amazing meatballs in plum sauce with mashed potatoes. Yum! We were supposed to hear back from V's friends and didn't yet so we decided to go for a walk in the Old City. We went to the Kotel - the Wailing Wall. It seemed to me that the women's area got even smaller since the last time I was there. This is not surprising. Walked near Via de la Rossa, the path of Christ and then Tom (V's friend) called us and we hailed a cab to meet them. The cab driver was Arab and VERY attractive. We were speaking Hebrew to him and what Arabic V knows. He also spoke Russian because his girlfriend is from Moscow and also spoke English very well. He finally dropped us off but we still didn't know where we were. V got on the phone with Tom and gave her phone to a random friendly looking Israeli so that he could explain to us where to go. We finally found Tom and followed him to where they were having dinner. They were about to light the Hannukiah and were eating latkes and couscous, to which I didn't say no even though we just ate! We lit the Hannukiah and sang songs. It was so cozy and amazing! The hosts of the house were born in Israel but lived in England for about 10 years so they spoke with Brittish accents but Hebrew was their first language, very conflicting, but their Hebrew was amazing. It was actually a lot easier to understand them because their pronounciation was not as harsh as the Israelis'. They asked us what we were doing the next day and we mentioned something about going to Bethlehem, something that V and I discussed on the sheirut to Jeru. The hostess Shani and her brother Ben both said that it is something that they have always wanted to do but we were nervous about doing it because Israelis can't go to the West Bank. We agreed that we would take a chance and play it by ear. We had back up plans. We were sooooo excited!!!!!
The next day, we woke and Shani and Ben grabbed us at 8:30AM. Luckily V and I had our passport copies from our previous trip in our backpacks so we were all ready to go. Bethlehem is only like 15 minutes from Jeru. Go figure. We got to the border and all we had to do was flash our passports. Nice tight security we have here. Aaaaand we were in! Yes! We were able to drive through even though the books said we wouldn't be able to. The second we crossed into the West Bank, some Palestenian guy ran up to us and started saying over and again that we were no longer in Israel and that we were in Palestine and that we needed a tour guide to get us around. He was creepy. We drove off. We wanted to see the Church of Nativity and just see the city. We left our car in front of some hotel and would pray for the best that the car would still be there upon our return because we had Israeli plates. We walked through the market and everyone was soooo welcoming. It was weird because all I wanted to do was try to speak Hebrew but this was not the right time. It was weird to see X-mas stuff because I had been removed from that culture for 3 months now. It was a clash of Muslim and Christian religions. We went into the Church of Nativity, the oldest Church in the region, or so I think that's what it said. Pictures were sent of that as well. The whole city of Bethlehem is gorgeous because it is built on rolling hills, just like Jeru. The only different is the religious and cultural aspect. Very interesting. We walked around more and went back to our car and it was still there! Baruch hashem! On the way out of B-town, we passed a couple of interesting things: Yasser Arafat St, security partition that we saw a discussed at the Issues seminar - the temporary barrier that is responsible for lowering successful terrorist attacks by 90%, and lastly, a small mural of a dove with a bulleproof vest on and with a target on him, pretty intense message if I say so. When we got to the crossing they asked for our visas to get back into Israel, and the two Israelis that we were with called them out for messing with us and then they let us in. Racial profiling at its finest when they didn't even ask for mine or V's ghetto passport copies! We got back into Jeru and went to the biggest shuk in Jeru. It's called Mehaneh Yehuda - has everything there and is so beautiful. Guess what?! I also have pics of this. There we ate an amazing meal: hummus and pita, shukshuka, soup and Israeli salad. I also found a kitten that I seriously contemplated on adopting! I still can't stop thinking about him, but something was wrong with his eyes. We finished off the day with sufganiot and rugula that melted in our mouth. Very healthy day to say the least! We walked through the maze of the Old City until we ended back up at Shani's house. By then we had to start heading back to TLV because I had to tutor. They were kind enough to drop us off near my house and I went straight to tutoring. I was high off this mini vaca!
The next day I went to Human Rights clinic and continued working on the HIV project. I was looking through physical files of HIV patients and he more I looked at the file the more upset I got because I know that a lot of these people aren't even being treated for this and a lot of them have left the country so g-d knows what kind of help they're getting wherever they are. This just shows the reality of the situation and opens my eyes to so many things that I have only seen on the news or read about in books. I feel fortunate to see this in person. Everyone at the clinic seems to be very impressed with my Excel skills. I find that hilarious, because according to my standards I am ok. Anyway, somehow word spread that I am amazing at Excel and last minute one of the girls asked me to analyze surveys of people that came through the Sinai border to show that the Ethiopian and Eritrean population gets treated a lot worse by the people at the border. This data would be used for a position paper that would be sent to the UN, but the great part was I only had an hour to do it. Start the clocks! I felt pretty important I'm not going to lie and then I saw my numbers used on the webside, here is the link:
http://www.phr.org.il/default.asp?PageID=4
We did our usual Thursday ritual of going out and when we left the club, Adam and I were on a mission to find falafel. We must have walked around the whole city and could not find anything! It was so devastating. We ended up walking home from central TLV. Nothing seals a great evening like falafel. I will implement this way of living when I get back to the States!
On Friday, there was a Human Rights March that was organized by many organization, some of which we volunteer for. Most of us went. It was amazing. It was so real and once again something that I would only read on CNN if I didn't come here. This is a real problem and it's getting more complicated by the minute. I am so torn about this whole situation and will perhaps never figure out the right thing to do, but at least I can say that I am here now and I am seeing this through my own eyes and am hearing stories and doing research. I have videos of the people screaming "We are refugees, we need protection!" It was nuts, to say the least.
After we left the march we went to the store to get snacks for Katie's birthday party that was happening in the evening. We got labane, vegetables, pita and someone was making Napoleon cake. Other people we responsible for the alcohol. We played beer pong, yes, just like in college, ate cake and snacks and had a great time. We all went out at about 1AM to Florentine, an area with a lot of bars. It was fun but I was so tired. Two nights in a row going to bed at four, I'm an old lady, I can't hang like I used to anymore!
Today all day it has been storming. I did absolutely nothing. I am still sitting in my PJs actually and it feels so good. It's an excuse to slow everything down and just relax. Unless next time chaverim sheli (my friends). It might be a while until I write more, but at least it will be a lot! Miss you and love you all!
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