Teenagers threw rocks at us

Volunteering at the Arab Kadima today went well. Afterwards, Stephanie and I were walking back.  We went through the cemetery, just like every other day, but since we were going to the post office, took a parallel path that is about 50 feet farther north, still within the cemetery grounds.  A group of arab teenagers were sitting near a house like structure on the grounds, and as we walked by a few came up to us, so I said in Hebrew that we were going to the Post Office, and motioned towards the direction, asking whether there was an exit in that direction, or if we needed to go around.

They started yelling and one of them pushed me, which caught me off guard.  We backed away, and then turned to walk away from them.  At that point a few rocks started landing around us.  As I looked back, they threw a sharp metal grate in our direction.  Luckily, neither of us were hit by anything, but stuff landed very close, and they were throwing reasonably hard.

I came under the assumption that Ramla is one of the places in Israel where people live together from all walks of life.  This outbreak of violence was shocking to witness, and disconcerting.  I haven't questioned my safety at night, but perhaps I have been living under a false pretense and I should be concerned with happenings.

In other news, with the apartment freeing up, Izy and I are ready to move in shortly.  The girls are heading to Egypt now that their program is done, and will be gone this weekend.  I will be in Arad during that time at a Shabbaton focused on the periphery.  It's going to be very awesome, and failing that, at least very hot.

I am looking forward to getting away for a night.

Sar El

The Reason I haven't posted is that for the last week we have been Volunteering through a program called Sar El in the Army. Sunday morning, we arrived at the military base (a secure, undisclosed location) where we donned our uniforms, as you can see in the photo above. We were also given sleeping bags, and sent to unpack. Shortly after, we started what we later learned is called a distance program - where the supervisors maintain a distance and give us a combination of volunteering and the army experience. That means that the first night we were told to be in bed at 10:30PM so that we could be awoken to run around and do push ups an hour later (and go through a sort of induction into the Sar El program). I really enjoyed it - I only could have hoped for two small changes. I would have liked some clarity regarding if we were on a "boot camp" type program and I wanted to know how our volunteering worked in the greater scope of things. What was all that work for. Though at times, one could have argued that we weren't working hard, but rather, hardly working.

And so, under the supervision and guidance of our Mefakdot (someone please correct that) Tal and Einat, we worked, worked out for being late among other things, and ate army food - lunch was my particular favorite meal. Above is a photo of Izy eating (photo taken using Color Accent on S90). At night we played backgammon, were gnawed on by bed bugs, and talked amongst ourselves about whether we should worry about being woken up again in the near future.

Mostly, I worked with Moshe - or as he referred to himself, "I Crazy Man". This is the tank that we outfitted to be put into the "igloo" a cold storage room which keeps the tanks ready for anything. We finally got to see this massive refrigerator the last day. Let's hope I don't get into trouble for sharing these state secrets.

So, our base was in the Negev. You can see the cracked parched earth in the photo above.

Whenever we were meeting with our supervisors we had to form a ח which took us a few days to come up with a system, we went in our number order, that allowed us to fall in quickly.  

It was a fantastic experience in the end.  Obviously there were times when we complained, apparently when we were woken up the first time I looked very annoyed, and so I became the indicator for our mefekdot after that as to how things were going.  I was actually mostly annoyed at the soldiers, which I had already asked to turn down their music.  An experience we should all go through at some point in our lives, if only to appreciate everything else.

Volunteering at the army base

Taking a break before dinner, Josh and Izy play some cards.
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Discussing the state of Israel

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Har Harzel V' Menachem Begin Center

We began our morning at the Har Herzl museum.  I have been to the cemetery a few times now, but the musuem was new.  It was an interesting presentation method, telling the story of who Herzl was by showing a hypothetical series of conversations between an actor and a producer and a woman who studied Herzl's work.  I really enjoyed it (I think they used some of the same voice overs from the Turkish Bathhouse in Acre, a truly amazing film and story).

Afterwards, we went to the Menachem Begin center, which I have never been to.  It is an incredible museum.  Before coming back, we stopped at a grocery store so that we could purchase snacks and wine for Shabbat, if we wanted.

The rest of the afternoon is ours, although, with only a few hours before Shabbat and being a great distance from anything walking, or a not very cheap cab ride, and no buses to get back, options are limited until dinner.  There are a number of small events going on this evening - Yoga, Services, and of course Kabbalat Shabbat.

BFL (Building Future Leaders) Shabbaton

Dinner last night in Rehovot followed by drinks at an irish pub across the street.  We had a bit of a problem since some of our group had purchased drinks elsewhere and were drinking in front of the pub.  The bouncer didn't want to let them in, so I went to mediate.  

They explained that is considered rude in Israel and not customary to drink in front of a pub drinks from elsewhere, and then to come in and listen to the music for free.  They also said they don't like it because they don't know how much someone has drunk.  I agreed that it may appear rude, but let them know that there were seven people already inside that were planning to put in their drink order momentarily and, we would have to find another place if we couldn't all be together.  Is losing that much business an option for them.  There was a quick word to the bouncer after I made that clear, and in they came.

Back in Ramla, I went to sleep relatively early.  I had found out some exciting news both for my summer and family - during dinner, but with nowhere to celebrate, I figured sleep would be a good alternative.

This morning I was at Ulpan on time.  No one else was.  Then two more showed up, Jeff and Annie.  A couple more showed up towards the end of the lesson.  I don't see the point of them even coming.

I stayed for part of the second Ulpan, where there was a party to celebrate the last lesson.  Endings are beginnings of new things, or so the poem went that Michal read to us, in Ivrit.  I had to leave before the actual lesson started so I could get the Sherut Monit to Tel Aviv for the BFL Shabbaton.  I arrived at the station, where I realized I had to continue to another station.  It took some haggling, but I got the cab from 50 to 30 shekelim and made it clear that I had to be dropped off first (I usually don't mind as much, but the bus was leaving).  I found Aviva, and got on the bus.

Surprise!  There was Shaina, sitting across from me.  We had meant to grab coffee this week at some point, she had joined our taglit trip with Yael Adventures that I staffed briefly since her friend was on it as a participant.  We caught up for a few minutes, and then sat for the rest of the bus.  In Jerusalem, we picked up more people.  I ended up knowing some of them as well from the Jerusalem trip and the GOlan heights.  Lots of familiar faces though no one I know well so far.

We arrived, dropped off our stuff, met our roommates (I have 4 for the weekend) and went up to the conference room.  The Judea Hostel, where we are staying is lovely, with jerusalem stone overlooking a mountain which separates us from the Old City.  I sit down, and start talking with the woman next to me.  Her name is jogging my memory, but I can't recall why.  We keep talking, and I ask about her program.  Suddenly, I have an urge to ask if she knows Louis, my friend from Swarthmore.

She does!

Louis had been trying to put us in touch as he had some ideas for staying a bit longer or coming back to Israel at some point, and she was one of the people he knew here.  It's a small world, and what a coincidence that we sat next to each other.

The seminars have been interesting, well organized and well run.  The people are also interesting, lots of strong personalities make good debate - although on many matters, people see things pretty similar.  There are a couple as well who just enjoy hearing themselves speak, not adding to the conversation, but wanting to sort of mark their presence or territory.  I decided to mostly observe today, listening and learning, only commenting when I felt like what I had to say could have a large impact or when asking for clarifications on things.  I think it is better not to dilute your speech in a large setting, when you make people sift through all the anecdotes to find the meaning, it becomes to much work and the message is lost.

I am looking forward to tomorrow.  There was originally a drive to go out this evening - but as things dragged on, we all lost interest.  Hopefully I can get internet in the morning so that I can put up this post.

Laila Tov!

Ramla street corner

Yes, there are donkeys or horses on the streets in Ramla, it is very much a place where new meets old.