Israelis, Jerusalem & Volunteering

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The boys in my classes are much calmer with me now they they are getting used to me being in the classrooms. I have been able to get to know some a bit better which is nice. This afternoon we had a seminar on the Middle East, the speaker made the problem seem much broader than people usually perceive it, I enjoyed learning the new perspective. He explained that it is not Israel vs the Palestinians, its a much bigger problem tying in all of the Muslim countries and the struggle of democracy. If you want to know more we can talk about it another time.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

This morning I had some extra time because all of my 10th grade classes were on a field trip so I went for a run before school. I worked with the 11th grade. I helped 3 boys on a work sheet and we finished up early just to talk. They were all very well behaved and we had a good time talking to each other.

After class I walked to the shuk with Molly. It was a beautiful chilly spring day. We went to one vendor and Molly started to buy all of her vegetables. When she tried to pay he took one of her bags and started filling it with tomatoes. She looked at me a bit confused and frustrated but I said just wait and see what happens. Before we knew it he handed back all of her bags to her with the large amount of tomatoes, smiled and said in Hebrew, it’s a present! We could not believe it and thanked him a bunch. We walked around a bit more and then Molly went home.

I decided it was a nice day so I brought my book and went to this restaurant on the water right next to the shuk called Calma. I sat outside on their patio, ordered mushroom chummus and hot water with mint and enjoyed my book for a while. I am reading Walking the Bible which was recommended to me by many and its quite an experience reading it while in Israel. I was about to leave but some people I know showed up at the restaurant so I stayed and hung out with them for a while. Its always a pleasure to meet new Israelis and hear their stories.

After wards I strolled around a bit to better familiarize myself with the area in the north part of Ashdod. I walked over to Efshar Acheret to watch the kids play soccer. They are pretty good, tough kids. After words we played ping pong, Jenga and Steve even began to teach one of the kids how to play havah negilla on his guitar. I headed home for dinner and made plans to head over to my host families neighbors house. Itay, their son is studying for the equivalent of the SATs and so I said I would help him with the English sections. The test does not seem very easy. There is a Hebrew, English and math section and they expect them to have a pretty large vocabulary and the reading comprehension are not easy. He said the main problem is the time restraint.

It was really interesting talking with him getting to hear about his life. He is out of the army and now employed by them for a full time job. He is applying to a program where they pay for your school if you come back and work for them after you get your degree. He told me of his first hand experience in Gaza and his interesting perspectives on Israel culture.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

This morning I worked with a new 11th grade girls class. They were all very excited to have us in the class because they had heard about us from their friends. In the middle of class there was drill for the entire city in case they city were to be attacked. We all went into a classroom and waited until the siren stopped. In the states we practice many drills but it different here because it was just a year and a half ago where this area was under attack and they did have to take shelter.

After class I headed to Jerusalem with Anna and Allison for a leadership seminar called Building Future Leaders. It is a 3-weekend program that we will be a part of over the next 2 months. It was really nice to be a part of a program and meet with people who are interested and engaged in the subject. There are participants in the program from America, Europe and South America. Very interesting to be a part in discussions regarding issues our home Jewish communities face when we all come from such unique backgrounds.

Friday, March 5, 2010

This morning the group headed to Mount Hertzl to visit the Hertzl Museum and Mount Hertzl Cemetery. Every time I have gone it is a totally different experience. It is a very powerful place, similar to Arlington Cemetery but it is always much more personable. The guide took us to graves of people that he knew who lost their lives in battle. People always have a story but its incredible that when you go to this cemetery others actually still remember those buried there. The guide said in the bible one of the worst things that can happen to someone is for their name to be erased, by telling the stories of the soldiers, we make sure their names are never erased. Mount Hertzl is where Theodor Hertzl, the father of Zionism, is buried. He is on the top of the mountain. On one side of his grave the hill over looks the Israel holocaust memorial and on the other side it over looks the graves of the soldiers. It really an interesting perspective while standing there. When Hertzl was buried people brought dirt from all over the country. It was his dream and dedication that made Israel possible and he said when Israel did finally become a state he wanted to be buried there so they dug up his remains and brought him in the first few years of the State of Israel.

After we went to the Menachem Begin museum to gain a different perspective on another leader of Israel. His story is much different than Hertzls and it was interesting to compare the two. We headed back to the hotel and had some time to get ready for Shabbat. I decided to go to the services the hostel was holding for a Bar-Mitzvah. A lot of times people chose to have Bar-Mitzvahs at these venues and people just stay the weekend to celebrate. It was interesting to see the service. We had a dinner in the main dining hall, it was quite the experience with different groups singing before and after the meal all over the room, a very nice community feel. After we had another lecture and activity.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

We slept in for Shabbat this morning, listened to a really good lecture on Zionism and ate a delicious Shabbat lunch. If you want to know more about the lecture let me know, I really learned a new perspective on the topic. Very interesting. Its nice to have so much yummy food available to us. In the afternoon we had more group activities. The point of the program is for each participant to come up with a program they would like to implement in their home community related to Judaism or Israel. So now that we acquainted ourselves with each other and different kinds of leaders we began to talk about our potential programs. People had some really creative ideas; I am interested to see where they go throughout this program.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Today was a long day at school. I worked with several classes and I continue to learn to go with the flow of the changing schedule and such. Now that I am starting to repeat with the students that I am working with I came up with the idea to go over song lyrics of their favorite English songs with them so I asked several kids for song ideas. We will see where they goes. This afternoon I had Ulpan and then made an interesting tomato vegetable stew\sauce with all of the free tomatoes from the shuk this past week. It was pretty good, I think I will try to learn to make my own sauce now that I know how easy and delicious it can be.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Today I went to school to help one student start his final project. They have to pick a topic, research it, and get questions about it. He chose to write about Hollywood, it was interesting to see his perspectives on it and why he chose to write about that city. He decided he wanted to “interview” Paris Hilton and he came up with some pretty unique questions. I hope to see where he goes with this project down the road. This afternoon a few of us went to visit another volunteer sight that we can go to during the day if we ever have a free day. It is basically an alternative school for students who were kicked out of their originals schools. They learn shop, beauty, physical education and several other things. Seems like an interesting place and I am going to try and fit in my schedule, hopfully Monday mornings.

This afternoon I volunteered at Efshar Acheret, the kids love ping pong so I guess I am going to have to give in and give it a try. I met some Israeli volunteers that help out there as well. I really nice older woman comes in because she wants to spend her time in places she normally would not go. She has 4 kids ranging from 19 to 5 at home but still gives her time to help out other children.

Tomorrow I am headed up North with the 11th graders for a trip. Should be quite the adventure…..