Days Off

Saturday July 6th- Shabbat

In Israel everything shuts down during Shabbat. Hardly any stores are open and there is very very little to do. On one hand it is really nice because everything is very calm and relaxed. But on the other hand you actually can't go anywhere or do anything other than sit in a park. Thus, that is what we did. Since everyone slept in no one really started to do anything until about 1. But, we decided to go for a shabbat walk around the neighborhood. We ended up finding a park and the 8 of us girls that went sat there for a while and just talked. It was really nice to get to know everyone a little bit better. We actually started talking about books and decided to start a book swap in our classroom so that we could read more than what we brought with us. We got back to the apartments with enough time to relax before our session at 4.

During our session we talked about the spies that were sent to check out the land before the Israelities took over and moved in (or at least that was the plan before the spies kind of screwed it all up by being cowards and got the Jewish people sentenced to wander for 40 more years). The main topic of discussion during the program was differentiating between the meaning of "a land of milk and honey" and "a land that devours its inhabitants" in terms of their relevance to Israel today. Obviously our initial reactions saw the first as a positive and the later as a negative but the more I thought about it the later can also be seen as a positive because as I have observed over the last week thru our meetings with various community leaders who all made aliyah, they moved here because they felt embraced by Israel, which can kind of be seen as being devoured. I have said this before but whats great about this program is that we are very open and unafraid to say things that might be offensive. For instance for the second ideal, remembering our discussion from Thursday about Orthodox Jews not needing to serve in the IDF, I mentioned that the Orthodoxy's control over the not only the culture but also politics means that even secular people are subjected to things like nothing being open on Shabbat. Jordana also mentioned something very interesting about the first ideal. She was discussing the north vs. south in Israel and said that the South was "raw, rough, and unprocessed"as compared to the North. Over the last week I can definitely say I have seen this to be true. Places north of the Negev, like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are always so crowded and filled with tourists. In the Negev though there is so much undeveloped space,  few people, and freshly grown fruits and veggies. This relates to milk and honey because not only does it seem sweet but there is so much potential.

After our session Hannah and I sat down to read and Sophie suggested we go back to the park and read there so the 3 of us plus Dana walked back to the park and spent the next hour and a half reading in the park. We got back around 7 and had 50 minutes before group check-in and havdalah. Hannah and I were so excited because we finally got to cook dinner in our apartments. Hannah and Sophie came over and sophie brought her own food but Hannah and I made sauteed veggies with pasta. Since I love making veggies and Hannah had the pasta we divided up the work. When I was down cooking my half everyone just looked at me and told me how good it smelled and looked and that they would be asking me to cook from now on. Then it was time for our group check-in. We very quickly just went around the circle saying what we would be taking from the last week and what we hoped would happen in the next. It was interesting to see what the highlight was for everyone.

Seeing as it was a Saturday night and we are a bunch of Jewish kids we then proceeded to walk to a park (a different one that earlier) for havdalah. When we got there we realized we had no supplies so Shosh ran out to get some as we stood there sung and shared havdalah memories. We had to use to candles that barely lit as a makeshift twisted candle but we successfully completed the service and the proceeded to make what I believe is called a cinnamon roll hug (aka everyone wraps around each other to form a huge hug). When we got back to the apartments we went and sat in the back parking lot where we spent maybe an hour just sitting there having an impromptu song session filled with Musicals, 80s classics, and oddly enough some choral pieces from senior year. It was a lot of fun though. At first I was kind of shy because I haven't really sung since graduation but once we got into it and I saw a couple other people just go for it I did as well. I was really happy with myself and got some compliments on my voice which was nice.

At 10 all the girls working at the women's shelter (Ariel, Hannah, Jordana, Sarah, Miriam, and I) had to meet with Shosh to discuss our placements. We had to divide up into different groups as to what project we wanted to work on for the first half of the day and what age group we would want to work with in the afternoon. You would think that both decisions would be very challenging but conveniently for every decision there were 2 people who wanted to do each thing. I will be mentoring a teenage girl in the morning and then programming for the older kids in the afternoon. We also learned that our orientation would be about 8 hours long (we are assuming because a lot of the information about the shelter is kept very private) so we will see how that goes. But we don't start until Monday so we have Sunday to relax, a rarity in this country since the working week starts on Sunday. After the meeting nothing to exciting happened, I just wanted some shows on youtube and passed out.

Sunday July 7th- Today

As I mentioned above, unlike everyone else, the Women's Shelter didn't have to work today. So, I decided to sleep as late as I could, which was until about 11. When I woke up I found Jessica back in the apartment because her volunteering had been canceled last minute. It was nice because we got to talk and I wasn't just sitting in the apartment alone.

Our group had our meeting last night instead of today as originally planned so that we could go on a day trip if we wanted to. Hannah and I had our individual check-ins with Shosh at 12:30 and 1 so we thought that after those we would walk downtown to check out the mall and water statue since as part of our volunteering we will have to take some of the girls out to do fun things. Jessica wanted to come with us but suggested we wait for Ariella and Sarah to get back and then we would all go together. They took a while to get back and Hannah and I were getting antsy because we hadn't left all day and were ready to be productive. However, just as we had had enough we saw that another one of the volunteering groups was walking down the street. They finished early and since our group session tonight was cancelled they had the idea that we would take a bus and go to the beach. At first I was a little hesitant because beaches really aren't my thing but I know from EIE (where I would often skip day trips to do homework) that not going would mean potentially missing a really memorable time. Thus, I decided to join them instead of sticking to my original plan.

The view from the Canaanite Village

First seeing the water

And so a group of 10 of us (Sophie, Shirley, Jess, Andrew, Doni, Hannah, Sarah, Julia, Ariella, and I) journeyed to the central bus station to catch a bus to Ashqelon. The bus took longer than expected because of traffic but we got there at around 5. Julia knew there was a national park where we could enter the beach and we proceeded to walk there. At first we were all a little worried because no had ever been there and we really had no idea where we were going but eventually we did find the park. When we got there we learned that it was the site of an ancient Canaanite village, which was really neat. Next thing you know we are hiking down some sand and eventually we reached the water. The boys and Sophie ran right into the water and Jessica almost started crying because she thought it was so amazing. Unfortunately, the glee felt by everyone in the group was then swept away when we realized there were signs that read no swimming. But, we saw civilization further down the beach so we decided to head there. At our next stop again the boys and Sophie wanted to run into the water but we still saw signs. We also saw a walled in area which we then learned was a religious womens only part of the beach and since we had 2 boys with us it wasn't really a viable option. Luckily though we found an entrance so the public beach next store. Right away Sophie and the boys ran into the water only to very quickly be told that they couldn't swim there by a lifeguard. So the surfers won the battle and we continued past a water sailing section and then finally made it to the swimming area of the beach! Everyone was so excited to finally have made it. Hannah and I however were very happy with the view but also very hungry. So while everyone ran into the water we headed to the restaurant to get some dinner because after all it was now 6:45. As we were eating our well-deserved chicken-schnitzel chicken fingers we noticed that everyone from our group was getting out of the water and heading towards us. Apparently, we had lucked out because 3 of our group members had been stung by jellyfish and when everyone saw a really big one they decided it was better to get out of the water and come join us.

The best part of the day had to be watching the sunset from the restaurant (which clearly they wanted to feel American because it was named South Beach and all the music being played was American and/or could be found in a zumba class).  The temperature out was perfect, the sunset was gorgeous, and despite the struggles we were all so happy we had made the trip to the beach. We were all so happy that no one minded the uphill walk back to the bus because we were all just so relaxed and content. From then on things were very clam. We got on an 8:45 bus in which I spent most of the ride reading and then once returning to Beersheba had to wait about a half hour for a bus back to the apartments. Julia had promised we would be back by 11 since we have work tomorrow (which for me starts at 8) and we got back at exactly 11, checked in with Shosh, and now I am writing this and going to bed excited for my orientation at the women's shelter tomorrow and very happy with my decision to go with everyone on an adventure today.

 

 

 

Sunset at the Beach

P.S. there should be more posts now that we are settled in on our Yahel group blog (link on the side) so feel free to check that out as well!