On Thursday, we went to Sderot, Yad Mordechai, and Nitzan.
The latter two halves of this siyur were profoundly boring, unnecessary, and, frankly, frustrating. But I'll get to those in a second.
I have always wanted to visit Sderot. For those of you who don't know, Sderot is the city in Israel that suffers most heavily from rocket and mortar fire from the Gaza strip. The Operation that Israel undertook a little over a year ago in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, was (arguably) supposed to decrease rocket fire against Sderot. In the past nine years, Sderot has had literally thousands of rockets and mortars fired at it. While the majority of them, due to their technological simplicity, have not killed people, plenty of them do both damage to the city and injury to civilians. To date, 13 people have been killed by Kassam rocket attacks.
In Sderot, there is an alarm warning system for these attacks known as "צבע אדום", "red color." When a tzeva adom siren goes off, citizens have 15 seconds (on average) to try to find shelter before the incoming rocket or mortar lands. Thus most buildings have attached or nearby bomb shelters--not built to withstand a direct hit, but to repel the shrapnel from the explosion. While it's true that the situation could be worse if Hamas (representing the majority of the rocket fire) had better technology, it's still awful--think about the psychological effects this has on the population. The municipality itself estimates that 10-15% of the population has left since the attacks began in 2001. In addition, many kids in the town still wet their beds and sleep with their parents until ages considered older than usual (sometimes even until 18). Although Sderot is in a period of relative peace right now (questionably due to last year's operation), our tour guide told us that the last rocket that fell on the city was this past Sunday. Our first stop on Thursday was right outside of the police station, where the city keeps an infinitesimally small sample of some of the rockets:
After this, we went to a playground. In Sderot, everything has to be designed with the idea that somewhere nearby has to serve as a shelter in case of a tzeva adom. Thus this playground had a caterpillar play structure built to double as a shelter:
I don't really know how much there is to say about this. Its existence kind of speaks for itself.
The last thing we did before lunch was walk to the top of a low hill on the West side of town to see just how close Sderot is to Gaza (less than a mile):
That's Gaza. Admittedly, my camera has pretty good zoom, but it's damn close. :P
Of course, there's an obvious question to be asked here: if these people are suffering from the attacks so much, why not just move? I have always thought that if Israelis moved away from every area that Hamas could hit with rockets, it would not only be a sign of tremendous weakness but also eventually force us to move out of Israel (current estimates say that Hamas has rockets which can hit Tel Aviv, after all). In addition, families have been living in this town for generations--it's not so easy to just up and leave. Scott and I asked our tour guide what he thought, though, and he brought up an interesting point I didn't know about. For families that do want to leave, it's almost impossible: the housing market here is terrible (sometimes down as much as 50% of the national average), making it almost impossible to sell real estate here and move somewhere else with the money. The tour we got was, of course, pretty biased, as it only talked about the situation of those in Sderot, thus it's also important to remember what happens to the people in Gaza, too. It was cool to be so close to it...maybe someday I will be able to visit (not in military uniform).
The most messed up thing about the siyur in Sderot, though, was that the whole time I (and I was not the only one) was thinking to myself that, were a rocket to fall and a tzeva adom go off while we were there, it would easily be the best and most exciting siyur we'd ever been on. I guess this is easy to say when you don't live there--and it would be terrible if that theoretical rocket hurt anyone, but it's within our nature to be curious of the experience. I say "our nature," because everyone else who I asked about this basically responded with "yeah, I was thinking that, too."
Now, on to less serious and less interesting things:
At Yad Mordechai, a honey kibbutz nearby, we did nothing with honey. Disappointing. We heard about the story of the kibbutz's namesake, which was so lackluster and bland that I have forgotten it literally two days later. We then went to an equally uninteresting museum before leaving the kibbutz. It's not that I don't appreciate history, just that this was not worthwhile.
After that, in Nitsan, our dead-from-boredom horse was beaten a bit more by an old woman with some videos of people who lived in Gush Katif (an area in Gaza) before the 2005 disengagement. This part of the siyur was literally her talking to us for 10 minutes and then watching 20 minutes of video of people reminiscing about their lives in Gush Katif and crying, wishing to someday return to their old homes within the Gaza strip. While I feel bad for the people that were forcibly removed, I don't think we should be there, and that ultimately the disengagement was a good idea. This is a complex and long argument to be had, however.
When we finally got home on Thursday, it was about 7, and we ended up pretty much relaxing in the apartment that night. Later on, we hung out at Lizzy's for a while with various people (one of which was Andrew, back from Marva for the weekend, whose company I greatly enjoyed) before heading back home to sleep.
Friday morning, I awoke and went to the bus stop to go to Be'er Sheva to get to my grandparent's house in Netanya. I had initially planned to take a bus to Be'er Sheva and then a train the rest of the way, but this is not what happened at all. While waiting on the bus (which I had awoken late for), three more random people showed up at the bus stop, and we sat for about 10 minutes all together before one of them hailed a taxi and informed us that we could all go to Be'er Sheva in it for 12 shekels. I figured since the bus costs 10 shekels and wasn't coming for another half an hour, why not? Thus I took a quiet taxi with 3 strangers to Be'er Sheva for a mere two shekels more.
Upon arriving in Be'er Sheva, I found that the train station was mysteriously closed, so I ended up taking a bus to one of the Tel Aviv train stations. From there, I took a short train ride to Netanya. That night, I had Shabbat dinner with my grandparents and Uncle Yuval's family, which was good as usual. Then today I woke up late, did some laundry, and it started to rain a bit. I'm going to return to Arad pretty soon, it's been nice to have a relaxing weekend with full meals. :) שבת שלום to everyone, I hope all is well and we talk soon!
Monday morning, we went to an orientation about our upcoming and last trimester in Jerusalem, wherein we signed up for roommates and volunteering placements. I'm very excited about Jerusalem--all of the volunteering looks excellent, and I look forward to living in a bigger area once again. Lately, Arad has just seemed very lackluster and boring. Perhaps it's because I've yet to drink in January, but I'd like to think that's not the reason (if it is, then it's highly disappointing). Upon returning from the orientation, I and my roommates spent some time in the apartment cleaning up because of the THREE mifgashei dira we were supposed to have this week due to Roni's displeasure with our apartment's cleanliness last time. We then went to Ulpan and class. In Ulpan we read a series of comical and sardonic dialogues by Etgar Karet which were pretty funny. Then in my immigration class we talked about the definition of a refugee, which was somewhat interesting at first but quickly became bland. After class, my apartment and I went shopping at Mega Bul--going to get groceries there makes me astounded that we ever shopped at Shufersal here. It's much cheaper, has cheap delivery, and has a driver that picks you up and takes you to the store. It's fantastic. That night I just relaxed in the apartment and did some chores.
On Tuesday, I woke up and went to volunteering a bit late. It was absolutely freezing outside, and I didn't feel so hot. At about 3 in the afternoon, I just passed out in the gan, so David, the guy who I work with, suggested that I head home. I did and ended up taking a three-hour nap, missing the English classes I was supposed to help teach to the Sudanese. I helped Nathan and Jake clean the apartment for a bit before Eli came over for mifgash dira, which we finally passed in terms of cleanliness. After this, I basically spent the night with Cera and Karin working on our essays for immigration class. We stayed up pretty late working on them because everyone in their apartment was in a slap-happy mood, or, to translate the Hebrew saying, a "spoon situation."
Today I awoke and went to the gan for a half-day before leaving. I got home and prepared various things for class and Ulpan--in Ulpan we watched "Waltz with Bashir," which I have wanted to see for a while but did not quite understand. Mandatory class ended up being canceled, so I came home and cooked a rice and chicken dinner for the apartment. :D
After dinner, I ran a Garin Tzedek peulah at the office that was "Year Course Jeopardy." It was pretty short, but also fairly fun (I think). And now I am going to bed. Tomorrow we are going on a tour to Sderot, the city in Israel infamous for receiving so much rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. It should be fairly interesting.
Another intriguing thing before I go to sleep: the other day, it was Cecilia's birthday, so she hit the kids in the gan with a barbie doll until they all sat down in a circle. They then proceeded to sing her "happy birthday" first in Arabic, then Hebrew, then English. I think she is starting to realize that I am not comfortable with the hitting of the children, as she said to me after she did this "This is how Sudanese must be calmed down." I wish there was some way I could talk to her about it without coming off as offensive and abrasive.
In any case, tomorrow should be interesting. I also think I'm going to go visit family this weekend for the first time in a while, so that should be fun. I hope all is well with you in whatever corner of the world you currently reside in!
On Tuesday, I spent all day in Jerusalem at an aliyah seminar. Many different speakers came, and I learned some things that I hadn't known before--about the amount of money the government throws at you when you move to Israel along with many other incentives. It kind of turned me off to aliyah, however. To some degree, it's a catch-22. I would love free money and easier military service, but I don't want to be treated like a useless citizen who needs Israel's help with everything. Easily the most important part of the day was talking to other people at the seminar (like Alon and Noah) who are in similar situations to myself with regards to their citizenship and cultural upbringing. Honestly, the seminar was somewhat a waste of my time. One or two speakers would have been helpful, but so many different people came in with the same thing to say that it got to be irritating. In any case, it was at least another chance for me to think about making aliyah and get answers to some questions I had. I'm still not entirely settled on either side of the issue, though.
Tuesday night, Garin Tzedek had a meditation/yoga/"boundary breakers" activity at the Jewish agency on the other side of town. All told, it was really excellent. We all got to know each other better than we had before and spent a relaxing evening together. After that, I headed home and went to bed.
Wednesday, I woke up and went to work at Cecilia's--nothing new or particularly funny from that morning, although Cecilia did tell me about a new gan that ended up being near Cera's apartment, so she works there now. That gan now has both Vivian and Raffein--I had been wondering what happened to them! Apparently, the ganim are split up by the Sudanese tribes, and Cecilia's is Dinka while the new one is Nuba.
A little while after volunteering, I went to Ulpan and immigration class. Eti was in a tremendously bad mood in Ulpan, but then in immigration we watched a pretty cool movie about a Syrian man who is an illegal immigrant and drummer in America. After this, I went home and we had a mifgash dira with Eli that went disastrously. Roni showed up and decided that our apartment was so dirty that we are going to have three mifgashei dira this week to ensure that we've improved. That night, Jordan, Simon and I watched "Adaptation," but I fell asleep in the middle and climbed up to my bed after (apparently) saying "I'm going upstairs."
Thursday, I woke up relatively early for the siyur to Ketura. We were toured around the Kibbutz a bit by David Facter (who has lost a preposterous amount of weight, but still maintains the same humor while talking about artificially inseminating the cows) before going to the Kasui sand dunes. Those sand dunes are possibly one of the most amazing places I've ever been to. When I was there on Machon, we ran down them and watched the sun set and stars rise as it got dark, and I felt more alive while simultaneously insignificant and small than I had ever felt in my entire life. This time was not as special, both because it was in the middle of the day and because the sand was still a bit wet from the rain earlier in the week. Regardless, it was fun to run down the dunes.
We then got dropped off in Eilat--I went to the field school there to find out information about hiking up a beautiful mountain trail called Har Tzfachot for Friday morning. This hike ended up being amazing, I'll try to put up pictures of it later. The weekend was basically spent celebrating Ben Klein's birthday, which was lots of fun. Even though everyone else got very drunk and I am still in no-drink January, it was a good time. I honestly don't like Eilat that much though. At its most basic, the city is just a touristy area. We visited for the weekend, and yeah, we went on a pretty awesome hike, but the centerpiece of the experience was drinking--something we could have done in Arad or almost anywhere else in Israel. The biggest downside to Eilat was having to pay the hostel we were staying at 3 shekels in order to use a towel for the weekend--if I'm going to pay three shekels for a towel, I expect that it will either be an excellent towel or that I will get to keep it. Neither of these conditions were met.
On the last day we were in Eilat (Saturday), Cera, Lizzy and I met some really interesting people at the beach before we caught our bus. One of the people worked for Hot (a big cable company in Israel) and liked mizrahi (eastern) music, advising me to stay away from Eyal Golan. This other guy had never left Israel in his life, spoke absolutely no English, and was born and raised in the desert town of Be'er Sheva. I feel like Eilat was his first time ever being outside of his neighborhood area--he seemed like a friendly country boy, if you know what I mean (he also had a provincial way of speaking).
Then, this morning I went to volunteering, which was the same thing as always. Lots of kids came today, so there was plenty of work and I didn't leave until 4. I then went to optional class, which was, as always, a joke. After this, I helped teach adults English at חן 15 before heading home. I went for a run with Nathan, who now finally has running shoes, before spending a quiet night here. I'm running kilometers in just under 5 minutes, which makes my goal of finishing a 10k in 50 minutes for the Be'er Sheva race seem quite reasonable. I'm excited.
Anywho, hopefully I'll put up some pictures soon and update more frequently--I know many funny things happened in the past week or so that I and you have now lost out on! I hope all is well with you, and feel free to give me a call or send me a message sometime. I'd love to hear from you--take it easy!
Friday night, I went to שירה חדשה, the conservative synagogue in town for Kabbalat Shabbat services. It was okay, I guess--much better than most shuls I have been to in Israel. I think, in some ways, the synagogue you grow up in spoils you for other ones. I have tunes that I am used to now and always want to hear. Not to say that I don't enjoy new melodies, and with a lot of prayers, I even have a couple different tunes that I like, but the order of things and the flow of all the singing together will always be cemented in my head a specific way. I'll probably go back next week with Nathan to see how he likes it, and then maybe start going every Friday. We'll see.
After this, I had dinner at Cera's apartment with a fun group of people, getting to see both Andrew and Ben Jirik (who we thought was going to go to Tel Aviv, so this came as a pleasant surprise). Also, MY FAVORITE SCOUT TOMER CAME INTO TOWN! That was pretty great. After dinner, we headed over to Andrew's apartment for a bit before leaving for Muza--Friday was the designated night of celebrating Max Levitt's birthday. On the way over to Muza, Tomer, Nathan and I participated in "Sayeret Ittai," a not-so-elite unit that jumps over things unnecessarily and finds ways to dive and roll whenever possible. It reminded me of how ridiculous Tomer and I would sometimes be in the apartment in Bat Yam at night, which was nice. Muza itself was nothing too special, but it was fantastic to see all the Marva people (especially Roie).
Saturday my entire apartment woke up pretty late in the day, and then Scott, Nathan, Jake and I went for a hike with Sam, Shirit, Cera, and others that ended early when Shirit had to go home. It was fun regardless. We then went back to our apartments and relaxed for a while--later that night, Cera and I hung out and listened to a podcast, and then I went home.
Sunday morning, I awoke and went to volunteering. I got to feed one of the kids who has taken a particular liking to me recently, Mimi (I'll put a picture of her up soon), and noticed that, unlike the Darfurians in Tel Aviv who openly share utensils, cups, etc, the Sudanese here take care to feed each child with a different spoon, even if they're all eating from the same plate. Cecilia also showed me some of her English work--she had written down the names of all the children in the gan in English. I put up the English alphabet on the wall that Laura had made, as well, before Cera, David and I went out to lunch. At lunch, we had a very interesting conversation about murder, free will, morality, good and evil, and almost every other deep and thought-provoking thing you can think of. It was pretty great. We got back after lunch and stayed a little longer before leaving. As Cera and I left, we were heading towards Jerusalem Street and a police officer started yelling at us that the street (which is not a real street, it's more of a sidewalk than anything else) was closed and to turn back. It was pretty surreal, I have no clue what was going on.
Sunday evening, I went to optional class, which more and more seems to be a tremendous waste of everyone's time. The teacher has a frustrating teaching method wherein she attempts to get a specific answer just by asking the same, abstract question over and over again. I don't think I have been taught this poorly in many years. Additionally, this past Sunday was one of the first times in that class when we almost had a good conversation about the ideals of human rights with regards to different cultures around the world, but then the teacher cut it short to get back into the provincial framework of the lesson she had already planned out. Oh well.
After classes, I went to 15 חן again to teach adult lessons. This was fine, as usual, but the most exciting part was that on the way there it began to rain. :)
Sam and I left the building for a minute to walk two kids from the earlier class home in what had quickly turned into a downpour. On our way back, we stopped for a second to look at the gushing torrents crashing down on the city, and as we were watching rain slide down a lamppost, a flash of lightning knocked out all of Arad.
For a split second, everything was lit up with an agony, and then, total darkness.
We rushed back into the building and were about to tell the adults that we couldn't really conduct class anymore, but then the power came back. The entire ordeal was invigorating--it's the first time it's rained since I've been in Arad, and I REALLY enjoy rain.
Upon returning to the apartment, Scott and I went for a run, and I saw streaks of lightning jazzing out over the desert. Thus he and I were determined to go out again once we got home and watch the lightning, but by the time we got to the place I thought it would be cool to observe from, the show had stopped and the rain was just cold (additionally, it was not a covered area as I had previously thought). I played in the mud at this playground for a bit before we went to Monique's apartment. We left in short order and went back home to sleep.
This morning, we went to the אדמא (earth) museum in the artist's quarter. It was pretty cool--the artwork there was intriguing, and we got to make our own clay by crushing rocks and then turned the clay into our own works (I made a hand and felt like I was in 5th grade again). After this, Nathan and I grabbed some shwarma in a laffa before heading back to the apartment to do homework. Then we had Ulpan and class, which was pretty much the same thing as always, although for some reason I could not pay any attention in Ulpan--I think it was just too cold outside.
After class, I had one of the most dangerous bike rides home ever--it was raining, a lot of the streets were flooded, and my bike was hydroplaning every which way. The wind was so strong that it was blowing me up hills I was trying to go down! Upon returning home, Nathan, Ephy, Simon and I went grocery shopping, and then returned to the apartment. I spent the rest of the night cleaning and finishing up some loose ends for various chores. I hope you are having an excellent week so far, and that it is not too rainy where you are (unless you enjoy rain as much as I do, in which case, I hope it is equally as rainy, if not rainier)!
Thursday morning, I awoke at 4:30 and got on a bus to Masada. This was the beginning of, as Simon called it later in the day, the “quintessential Year Course siyur.” It was easily the best siyur I’ve ever been on. Upon arriving at Masada, we quickly ascended the Roman ramp. In case you have never been to Masada or don’t know what it is, it’s basically a fortress on a giant plateau where a group of Jews held out against the Romans. As the Jews saw that the Romans were going to make it up to Masada and defeat them, they decided to kill themselves rather than be enslaved by the Romans. In recent years, Masada has been a small point of controversy in Israeli society—it used to be that part of one’s initiation into the army was taking the snake path up Masada, but not anymore. I suppose it’s a matter of what moral and ethical issues the history of the place raises, especially in modern times when Israel itself seems like a Masada against surrounding enemy neighbors. I don’t know that I personally agree with what happened there so many years ago, but I can certainly understand it from an ideological perspective.
In any case, after ascending the cliff, we watched the sun rise. I saw this from the same vantage point when I was in Israel summer of 2008 for Machon, but it was amazing regardless. There is something mystic about watching the sun rise over a long, outstretched landscape, especially from a giant cliff. As the sun came up, we all got some excellent pictures, and what little is left of the Dead Sea shimmered in light.
After this, the Year Coursers who volunteer at Masada (Jake, Jordan, Nathan, and some more) put on a short play for us about the history of the place that was, of course, hysterical. They then lead the rest of the siyur. Aside from the sunrise, the coolest parts of this were the giant water cistern:
And a walkway out to a part of the cliff where you can yell something and hear it echo back at you three times. Overall, the siyur was just an excellent time, partially because of the beauty of Masada but in large part due to its being lead by Year Coursers. At the end, we rode down in the cable car, which I have never done before—not too surprising, considering that this was only my second time there.
Upon arriving home, we of course all napped, and then Scott and I woke up to go to Jerusalem. We got a free ride because kids on Olami, a specialty track, were going up there with the program anyway. We spent the night at a dance bar on Ben Yehuda street called Herzl, which was pretty fun. This morning we awoke and caught the Olami bus back to Arad—I’m excited for the rest of this weekend. The Marva kids are back, and I have missed their presence a good deal. It should be good to see what they’ve been up to and get some time to hang out with them. Tonight I also plan on going to a conservative synagogue in Arad, which will only be my second time going to synagogue since I’ve been in Israel. I hope you have an excellent weekend and a שבת שלום!
On Tuesday, I went to the gan as usual. There was nothing particularly special that happened, except that one girl kept imitating every Hebrew thing I said, so I said the Hebrew words for "poop in my teeth." She then proceeded to walk around for about 5 minutes saying this, and I felt a little bit bad afterwards but mostly amused. Something I've decided about the gan is that, although the women who run it hit the kids to discipline them, I am going to keep the kids from hitting each other (and me, for that matter). This is hard, though, because I don't think most of them understand what I'm saying--they speak very little, and those that do speak, speak Arabic (which I am learning a bit of from them, like shukran, which means thank you) and their tribal language. Laura and I went to a brief lunch at "טעם של פעם", (the taste of a time) for some falafel before heading back to the gan. When I got back to the apartment that afternoon, Scott and I went for a 5k. It was pretty good--he and I have not been running together in a while, since he has the gym now, and I also shattered my previous 5k time. We're doing a 10k race in Be'er Sheva in February that I think Scott can win, I'm going to shoot for something along the lines of 45 minutes (the fastest I've ever done it was an hour during the Nike night run).
Later that night, I went returned to 15 חן to teach English classes to kids--this was a nightmare, as the kid I was working with told me I was ugly and frustrating before we began. In the end, she went to work with Marissa instead of me, and told me to get away from her. Oh well. Three adults showed up for the adult class, and I taught them some things about the past tense, use of the verb "to be" in the present tense, and the sounds of different English letters. It was a bit hard, though, as two of them were on a fairly low level and the other one was significantly higher than the two.
Anywho, an hour or so after I ended this class I hosted "The Dating Game" at Ulpan, and it was a good deal of fun (I think, at least). If you've ever seen a dating game show on MTV, it's pretty much like that. Sam Rush showed up, which was a great surprise! After this, Scott and I headed over to Chanya's to play some Euchre, and then went home to bed.
Today, Scott came with me for the first to volunteering. Sam also joined us, and hanging out with the kids in the gan was good fun--we went to lunch at Petrozelia afterwards, where Ephy made our food and then ate with us before we went home. Ulpan was good, we just worked out of the book, and my immigration class was canceled today so I went home early and went for a run. Then I went to Ulpan to hear Rafi speak, which wasn't particularly interesting (it was also a speech I've heard before). Then I hung out for a bit with Karin, Sam, Raina, and Cera, and returned to the apartment. Simon, Nathan and I went on a short walk, and now I should go to bed, because we are hiking Masada early tomorrow morning. I hope you are having a good week, and have an excellent weekend!
Saturday night, after everyone got back, Scott, Nathan and I went over to Guy, Ben, and Ori's apartment to hang out. This was pretty good, as we haven't seen them in a while.
Sunday morning, I of course went to Cecilia's for volunteering. This was the same thing as always, although there were few kids so David and I left early. Here is a quick tour of some of the kids I'm most familiar with:
Raffein is 3 years old. He is very cute and very rowdy, but also a bandit. Whenever one of the other kids is being fed, even if Raffein has already eaten, is eating, or is about to eat, he will come up to them and shove his hand in their food, stuffing fistfuls of it into his mouth. When I tell him to stop, he does not listen, and when I pick him up and hold him away from the food, as soon as I let go he'll go right back. In this regard, he is like a monkey who will not learn his lesson. He also cries with a ferocity whenever anything happens, but only for a second or two. He's a good kid, he's just a troublemaker.
This is Roman. Or, at least I think he is--Cecilia is not sure, and sometimes just calls him "the one in the green." The only game he likes to play with me is running away screaming in a high-pitched laugh as I chase after his nose with my finger. He is a pretty quiet kid aside from this activity, though.
This is Vivian. She is, I think, about 5, and is very moody. One day, I may come in and she will be hyper-excited to see me, jumping on me and demanding that I pick her up, trying to bite me and jumping on my lap every 5 seconds. Another day, I may come in and Vivian will demand to go to the playground nearby (which she is no longer allowed to do), and I will inform her that she cannot and she will then proceed to spend the rest of the day crying. In addition to hitting my cheeks, she also enjoys getting raspberries and being thrown into the air. Also, whenever she wants something, her Hebrew is very rudimentary and she simply asks by saying "Me...this." She wanted water a few weeks ago, so she said "אני מויס" (the second word, "mois," is water in Arabic!)
Anywho, I'll try to introduce more kids later. Sunday after I left the gan, I went to lunch at Petrozelia, a local falafel and shwarma place, with Scott, Nathan, and Jake. Jake has snuck home from Marva after jumping the fence of his base and being fed up with it all. We are still uncertain what exactly will happen to him, but with each passing day the likelihood of it being some legitimate punishment seems to decrease. After lunch, we went back home and I got various different chores done before going to optional class that night. I went to beer pong that night about an hour in with information painted on my chest about the Garin Tzedek meeting on Monday to try to get people to come, and I went in just a bathrobe. It was fun
Today, I did not wake up in time to go to the educational peulah about desert plants--I felt that the hike last week about the subject was much more interesting than several hours in a classroom with the same man could possibly be. In any case, I woke up pretty late and did some work before going to class. Class was pretty good, and I read a very interesting article about immigration for my "Absorbing Immigration" class. Ulpan was also excellent. Almost immediately following class, Nathan and I went to do a sports club thing with the Sudanese youth. We played soccer with them for a good hour on a field in town, and they all seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. After that, I returned home before going to play Balderdash (GREAT game) at Chanya's apartment for a bit, and now I'm about to go to bed. I hope you've had a good day, I know I certainly have!
Tuesday morning, I awoke and went to Cecilia's gan. This was business as usual, although I've started to expand my repertoire with the children--I now laser in on their noses with my finger and chase them around, in addition to other games (such as hoopa hoopa rider, a game my grandpa played with me where you shake someone up and down in your lap, sing some weird song to them in yiddish, and then end with dropping them lightly).
That night, at about 5:45, a group of people met at the mall to go back to 15 חן (the building Cecilia's gan has moved to now, because for some reason she has moved out of her own place) and teach Sudanese children English. The kids were quite rowdy and it was hard to herd them all into the building in the first place, much less teach them. This time, all we did was administer a placement test, so that next time we can break them up into groups based on their knowledge and teach them relevant things. Many of the kids knew almost no English, so it seems we have a lot of work to do--I'm excited, to say the least. After the kids' class, we were supposed to have an adult class, but only two Sudanese showed up, and they were there for a Hebrew class with a different person. We need to talk to Peter (the community's education minister) about this, although I mentioned it to Joseph (the head of the community) when I met with him on Thursday.
Anywho, after that, Garin Tzedek hosted "Fear Pong" at the Ulpan. This was a pretty fun activity--if you've never played, it's basically like beer pong, except there are 4 teams and 4 tables, and instead of beer you use water. On the bottom of each cup is a dare, and when someone on the team opposite of you makes a shot, they choose a person on your team to do the dare before they see it. The event was a great amount of fun: lots of people showed up and did some ridiculous dares, and Scott got his ass kicked (everyone made sure when we were making teams not to put any good people on Scott's team, because they thought he would be excellent).
Wednesday morning, I woke up and went to Cecilia's gan once again. I'll put up some pictures of the kids soon--they are all very cute, but can become vicious and pugnacious when something doesn't go their way.
I think working in a gan has given me a lot more patience. My favorite thing about it is when I am trying to calm a kid down and they end up falling asleep in my arms. Knowing that I've somehow conquered their wailing and crying makes me feel accomplished and ecstatic. At the end of one of these sessions, I always think to myself, "damn right you're asleep." There is nothing quite like that feeling. :)
Wednesday afternoon, I went to Ulpan once again. Eti is a great teacher--much better than Hana in Bat Yam. This time, we went over the names of some animals and the names of the noises they make, and then made skits with a moral. Eti assigned us the animals we were going to be, and I was a hippopotamus. Nathan and Karin were in my group--Nathan was a monkey and Karin was a deer. What we ended up doing was having Nathan and Karin come up to me relaxing in a pond to ask for water. I denied them quite harshly, and then, less than a minute later, went up to them to ask for food. They, of course, denied me--and the story could have ended here, with the moral that you have to share. Instead, I proceeded to eat Karin. Then, Nathan snuck off and poisoned my water. We initially had me die from getting back in the water, but the final version had me coming back to the pond, sniffing it for poison, realizing that Nathan was trying to kill me, and then devouring him. Thus the moral of our story ended up being "assholes finish first." After Ulpan, I went to my mandatory class about immigration. It's a good class, although I get this sense from the teacher that she hates all of us. We watched an Israeli movie about immigrants moving into the Negev called "סוף העולם שמאלה", "At the end of the world, Left." It's a pretty out-there movie, and some parts of it are somewhat softcore porn, but I've seen it in my Ulpan class in Bat Yam before this, so I wasn't too surprised. Many parts of it were in French, though, so this time, when we watched it with subtitles, I understood a lot of subplots I hadn't when we watched it in our Ulpan class.
We got let out of class early, so I headed home and went for a quick run before our activity with our madrichim that night, which ended up being watching the movie "Into the Wild." It was a pretty good one, and it was the first time I'd gotten to see some people in a while, which was nice. The movie was a little frustrating at the end (Nathan was VERY aggravated), but I enjoyed it nonetheless. After this, I went and hung out at Cera's apartment for a little bit, then headed home.
Thursday was possibly one of the worst siyurim (tours) I've ever been on. We went to Be'er Sheva, a big city nearby, to meet the Bedouins there. Bedouins, as I think I've said before, are an Arab people who used to be nomadic but are more or less sedentary now. We started at a Bedouin shuk, which was by far the best part of the day. Nathan, Scott and I bought a frying pan for the apartment for cheap (20 shekels, about 5 dollars). As we were trying to get it, I used my secret haggling technique, which consists of bargaining upwards (i.e. a vendor tells you that a frying pan costs 30 shekels, so you say "200"). This may sound foolish, but it's worked for me before in Battery Park in America. Once, a man was trying to sell me clearly fake (or stolen or both) sunglasses for 10 dollars, and I said a hundred, and he was just like "aright then, a dollar" and I bought them. Unfortunately, it would appear that the mentality of shuk owners here is much different, because when I offered 200, the guy just said "fine, I'll gladly take 200." We promptly walked away. After the shuk, we went to the tent of a Bedouin woman (a taboo in their culture) who is unmarried (a taboo in their culture), and owns her own business (a taboo in their culture) selling organic cosmetics (a taboo in their culture). We got served tea and listened to her sister talk about her life for an hour or so. It was interesting. Then we went to a memorial for soldiers who died acquiring the Negev, which was cool and had lots of strange architecture. After this, our tour guide, Amir, left us. Amir was extraordinarily hairy--he had hair groping up his back that came out of his shirt and seemed like it was trying to wrestle his head hair down. He reminded me of Magilla the Gorilla. After he left, we went to downtown Be'er Sheva (a big city nearby) for lunch. Then the siyur ended. Although some parts of it were interesting, the siyur on the whole was just boring and drawn-out. I guess I expected more exciting siyurim in the Negev, since there are so many cool hiking opportunities in the area.
Thursday afternoon, Scott, Nathan and I were the only ones in the apartment. After I went for a run (I am doing kilometers in less than 5 minutes now, a new high for me), we cleaned up a bit and had pasta with delicious sauce (specially prepared by Nathan). That night, we watched the movie "Alpha Dog" with Anna, Miki, and Cari. I would tell you how I felt about it, but I fell asleep in the middle--it was good up until then though. For some reason, I was just wiped that day. Friday, Scott and I woke up late, as Nathan left for Jerusalem in the morning. We went on a hike with Cari, Miki, and Jordan in the Northwest part of Arad, following the blue trail and then the red one. It was a good hike, and about a third of the way in we found a hole in the desert that we want to explore sometime later on (we went there again today, but had to head back before we arrived because it was getting dark). Judging by timing how long it took a rock to hit the bottom of the hole, which we could not see, it's about 12 meters deep or so. It should be exciting to explore once we take the necessary precautions (such as bringing climbing rope, among other things). After the hike, we had a joint Shabbat dinner and then watched the second Harry Potter before Scott and I returned home to sleep.
Today was kind of just a relaxing day to stay home and get some things done--cleaning, writing, putting pictures up, etc. Like I said, we tried to go back to the hole, but it was getting darker and we were descending deeper into the wadi, so we decided to head back. I have heard coyotes and other animals screeching in the depths of the desert at night sometimes, so I thought it wise to give it up.
And now Scott and I are back in the apartment, awaiting the arrival of almost everyone back to Arad--most people left town this weekend. I hope you have had a שבוע טוב, a good week, and an excellent Shabbat! I am sure I would love to talk to you sometime, please, send me an e-mail or call me on skype or something!
Thursday morning we went on our first Siyur in Arad. It was to Nahal Peretz, a canyon hike a short distance out of the city. It was fairly intense—the first section was mostly uphill through a dried-up riverbed, and the second section went down a canyon-like area with tall ladders and portions where we had to climb ropes down the cliff face. It was pretty great. After this, we went to the Dead Sea for a little while, which, frankly, is nothing special to me anymore. I’ve been there so many times that I expect the unusual buoyancy before I get in. Regardless, it was fun—Jake, Scott, I and others made a long “toboggan” line in the water where we were resting on each other’s legs. Then we went home.
That night was nothing particularly special. We went to Muza (the only good bar in Arad) and hung out for a little while. The only really cool part about it was getting to see Ido, my co-counselor from second session at Midwest this past summer. He lives close by in a town called Lehavim, and invited me to come over any time. I think maybe I’ll take the apartment there one weekend later on in the trimester.
Friday I woke up late and went to a meeting between business track and Joseph, the leader of the Sudanese community in Arad. I went to go find firewood after this for the bonfire we were planning on having Saturday night. The supermarket here (שופרסל, “supersal”) was selling palettes of wood for 50 shekels, which I thought was preposterous. I went around looking a little more and then found a palette behind the store, which I promptly took. I then went for a run and passed a construction site, where I found and took another palette. That night, we had a “Shabbat B’Yachad” at the Ulpan, where every apartment cooked dinner for themselves and then brought it to Ulpan. It could have been a fun potluck if the madrichim had put any thought into it and had each apartment prepare a lot of a specific dish. Instead, we just ended up having our own dinners with everyone—which, granted, was still fun.
Saturday morning, a big group of people went on an amazing hike to the observation point just outside of Arad. It was absolutely phenomenal, and made me remember why I love the negev so much. When we got back, I went with Scott and Nathan to grab some more firewood from the construction site, and an incredibly helpful guy let us in and gave us another palette and a bag full of small log-type wood. It was excellent, although it took a long time to drag all of the wood to the bonfire site.
I then went over to Lizzy and Maya’s apartment with Scott, Jake, and Nathan to have dinner and play some Monopoly. It was a good deal of fun, as Monopoly always is. I left a bit early to go prepare everything for the bonfire, which, after a bit of a rough start, turned out great. It was a little ways off from a road but with desert on almost every side, and was absolutely amazing.
On Sunday, I awoke and went to volunteer at Cecilia’s, but then had to leave early because I needed to pack. I left Arad at about 1 in the afternoon bound for America for my sister’s Bat Mitzvah. My week and a half or so in America was nothing too special—it was fun to see friends again and talk to my family some about the idea of aliyah, but I truly missed Israel. Talking to my parents and being back in general has made me less enthusiastic about aliyah, but it’s something I’m still considering. Everything seemed so strange and foreign to me—the trees were all dying and barren, there was snow on the ground, and it was preposterously cold. Merav’s Bat Mitzvah went pretty well, and I got to catch up on some television shows I haven’t had time to watch in Israel. It was great to see friends again, and talking to some people I haven't spoken to in a while was easily the best part of the week. I arrived back Wednesday night, after many flight delays and cancelations due to snow in Philadelphia. After taking some buses home, I went over to Cera’s apartment with some presents and to enjoy some delicious birthday cake and presents. I then returned to my apartment to find Scott, Nathan, and Scott’s brother (Ari) awaiting my arrival. We went to Maya’s 19th birthday party that night and everyone had a great time.
Thursday morning, we woke up late and ran to get to the bus for the Black Hebrews siyur. This ended up being a pretty great siyur—we went with a small group to Dimona and went to the Black Hebrew village there called “The Village of Peace.” Black Hebrews are African-Americans, primarily from the Chicago area, who believe that they are the descendants of the Hebrews who left Egypt. They consider Israel a part of Africa because in the Torah Jews walked from Egypt to here (by the same merit, Spain is part of Asia). They do not consider themselves “religious” but rather culturally Jewish. Black Hebrews are vegans and live in their own villages that operate similarly to kibbutzim. The entire idea seems somewhat contradictory to me, but also intriguing, and, when it comes down to it, I’m glad that the Black Hebrews are in Israel. They add in another element to the vast complexity of the nation’s demographics. After touring us around the village, Avichaiel, our guide, took us to an industrial area nearby and fed us a delicious vegan lunch with faux meat. Their lifestyle is very holistic: on top of being vegans, they have a highly regimented workout routine that all members of the community are obliged to follow. After lunch, the siyur ended, and I headed back to the apartment with Scott and Nathan, where we met up with Ari and then headed to Jerusalem that night.
I was in Jerusalem until Sunday morning—that night, I met up with lots of people, both mishlachat and American tzevet from camp (including Elisse Kavensky) and had a nice dinner near Ben Yehuda street. It was great seeing everyone again, and going to Ben Yehuda for the first time was everything I expected: crowdedness, confusion, overpriced everything, and lots of English.
Friday morning, we woke up a bit late and met up with Adam at Machane Yehuda, where I got an Eyal Golan CD. We then headed back to the apartment and made some bean sprouts for a joint dinner with Shosh. The rest of the night was pretty crazy, as Maddie’s mom (NJ), her brother Sam, and Dan all came into town.
Then, Saturday morning, we woke up late and decided to walk to the old city, where we once again saw the Kavensky family at the kotel. We weren't initially planning on going there, but I thought it would be cool to see it when there weren't that many people around (most other times I've gone, there has been a plethora of people). We looked through the shuk some, as well, and I got a pretty great Red Hot Chili Peppers t-shirt. We went to dinner at a sandwich place nearby called New Deli and then headed back home. When the buses started running again, we went to Ben Yehudah street for a while with a huge group of people, but then came back home. All in all, Jerusalem was a good deal of fun.
Sunday morning, Scott, Nathan, Ari, Adam and I headed down to Eilat. We got up pretty early to get to the central bus station so that we wouldn't miss the bus, but when we got there they told us there were no more seats. I didn't realize that Eilat was such a popular destination from Jerusalem--they had 3 separate buses going there, and none of them had any seats left, even though we were there 10 minutes early or so. We ended up getting on one bus and having to just sit on the floor, which wasn't so bad. Actually, it was pretty hysterical. At first, Adam, Scott and I sat on the floor in the back of the bus toboggan-style, leaning on each other, but this quickly heated up and left almost no room for our legs. Then I suggested that we space ourselves out on the floor of the bus, which was infinitely more comfortable. I fell asleep on the floor and only woke up a couple minutes before we got to Eilat, when a soldier boarding the bus accidentally kicked my feet as he was trying to pass by. As he awoke me, however, I thought that he had intentionally kicked me and grunted "תקום, גנגי!" ("Get up, redhead!"). I also imagined that he shot my foot when he said this, but that the bullet just bounced off of one of my toes and nobody noticed. I think I was still dreaming a bit. That night, we went to the Eilat boardwalk and bought some preposterous hats, as well as generally just had a good time. We went to a bar and saw some other section 2 people in Eilat, which was also cool. Scott was obsessed with the idea of trying to sneak into a hotel and swim in their pool, so we tried this in a couple of places. We only ended up getting into one, and by that time we were so wearied by the entire ordeal that we only sat by the pool and felt accomplished. When we got back to the hostel that night, we met some girls who were staying in the room next to us. We all talked pretty late into the night and found out that they had gone on the Habonim D'ror version of Year Course, Workshop, several years ago. The next morning, we woke up early to get breakfast at the hostel, then went back to bed for a while. We then went to get lunch and went swimming in the Red Sea. That night was nothing too special, although when we got back to the hostel, a man at the front desk noticed that we were 5 instead of 4 people, so Adam went to go sleep on the beach. He ended up coming home in the morning with a strange, large rash on his arms that ended up being flea bites from a stray dog he petted.
Thus I awoke on Tuesday and headed back to Arad with Nathan. I was there for a couple hours before heading out to Ashdod to go with Cera on our hiking trip. We intended to hike from Ashdod to Tel Aviv, but the coast was cut off by a massive industrial sector in North Ashdod. We hiked for 5 hours or so, then were forced to take a taxi to southern Rishon L'tzion. That was, to my surprise, the first time I've ever slept on the beach. Wednesday morning, we woke up as it was raining heavily. We tried to hide under a gazebo, but the roof had slats in it, so rain continued to pound down on our things and soak through everything. Finally, at 11:30 or so, the rain decided to take a quick respite (???), so we made our way to a bus stop and went to Bat Yam. We stayed at Lior's and went to Chen's birthday celebration that night. It was fantastic seeing all the scouts again and being in Bat Yam. I remember as I was leaving for America the week before, I was sitting at the central bus station waiting for a bus and looked out over a disgusting cross-section of Tel Aviv, with cranes and slowly rising apartment buildings. Despite the repulsive part of the city I was looking at, I felt a distinct sense of belonging and nostalgia for it all. That is what it was like to return to Bat Yam.
Thursday, I woke up at about 2 and went to a Garin Tzedek meeting. It was good to see everyone from other sections and heartening to discuss the subject with Andrew Fretwell. After the meeting, I left Bat Yam for Karin’s parents’ apartment by the port in Tel Aviv, where a group of us were staying for New Year’s. That night was possibly one of the craziest nights I’ve had in my life, and, while I was considering not drinking in January before that night, I decided afterwards that I am definitely not going to.
I’m 5 days in now and I think it’s going pretty well—I’m going to save a lot of money and feel pretty accomplished at the end, I think.
Friday consisted of making my way back to Arad, and, that night, getting to see my apartment-mates for the first time in a while. We did nothing special really, just hung out and talked about things, watched some movies.
Saturday, I and a small group of people went for a hike in the northwestern desert section of Arad in hopes of finding an abandoned army base I’d heard about, but didn’t end up finding it. It was a fun hike regardless. That night, Nathan cut his hair and we got Ben Jirik very drunk because he and Jake were going to Marva (two months of the army) Sunday morning. It ended up being a good deal of fun for both of them, but I can’t wait for two weekends from now when I get to see all of the Marva people again. The apartment feels a little bit emptier without ours. :(
Sunday morning, I awoke and went to volunteering at Cecilia’s gan. I guess that, while I was gone, she was diagnosed with Diabetes, because she told me she felt better and I noticed her taking her blood sugar during the day. It was good to work with the kids again, and older ones came in the middle of the day, which was exciting. Most of the kids I work with in the morning don’t speak much English or Hebrew, so it can be kind of hard to communicate with them. They are also quite young, so I don’t really know what I can play with them (if you have any suggestions please tell me! I usually just stick my hand out and let them high-five it over and over again, or puff up my face and squeeze my cheeks together so that I pop, or hit my forehead and stick my tongue out. I need another shtick.). One thing I noticed that I’m freaked out a bit about is that the women who run the gan, including Cecilia, have no qualms about using violence as a method of discipline—whenever one of the kids does something they don’t want them to, they just hit them. Not terribly hard, but regardless. I’m not exactly sure I can do anything about this, though. While it makes me feel extraordinarily uncomfortable, it’s also not my place to tell these women how to raise children.
The day before, I met a man who wanted to donate Bamba (a delicious Israeli snack) to people, so he came to the gan in the middle of the day and we distributed it to the kids. It was great, Bamba is truly fantastic—if you’ve never had it, it’s like peanut butter cheetos (although that sounds kind of disgusting, it’s excellent, trust me).
That evening I had a Garin Tzedek meeting with Cera, Laura, Emilie, and Melanie that was pretty productive. After that, I went to optional class for the first time about volunteering—it’s kind of a joke. Eli got me my bike after this, and then I came back to the apartment and did some dishes before we all went to Muza. In the past several days, Simon has found it very funny to offer me alcohol.
This morning, I went to the optional activity—“Medicinal Herbs in the Desert.” We met up with a self-described “naturopath” named Lior, who led us through the desert while showing us different plants and telling us what could be done with them. It was intriguing and useful. Afterwards, Scott, Nathan and I went to a place in the mall called “Amigos” for lunch, where we all had delectable burritos. Scott and I tried to take our laundry to a service before ulpan started, but the place was closed and we couldn’t find another one we’d heard about, so we dragged our grocery cart full of laundry to class.
Ulpan class for the first time was fun. We went out into Arad and interviewed random people about their lives in the city and what they think about Arad. Then we met in the mall food court and talked about them, and got let out of class a half an hour early. I then went to my mandatory class about immigration, which seems much more legitimate than the optional class. I don’t feel all that behind in any of my classes even though I missed a week because everything is restarting after winter break. After class, Garin Tzedek met with Roni, which is something we’ve wanted to do for a while. Then I got home, had some dinner, relaxed a bit, and Scott and I went for a 5k. I’m excited to be back on a regular schedule again—winter break was fun, but I like to live with patterns, too.
I realize it has been almost a month since I wrote anything on here, and, if you have endeavored to read this post all the way until the end, I commend and thank you heartily. Since my leaving for America and since my return, everything has been a whirlwind of activity and I’ve barely gotten a chance to think, much less write blog entries. In the coming month, though, I’m going to try to write at least every other day—I recognize how hard it is to read a post this long. Anywho, I should probably get to bed, but I hope you had an excellent New Year’s and have a great 2010! If we have not, we should definitely talk sometime soon! All the best, שלום!
