Middle East 08

I have a mandatory program in 10 minutes… so just the facts. This is what i’ve been doing:
went to the city of david for a tour, supreme court and outside of knesset. spent the night at the kotel before touring the underground tunnels at midnight. they recently found a spot closer to the holiest place on earth for the jews, so, now that the excavation of the spot is complete, we were able to actually go and touch the holiest of the holy spots. Very holy. We then went to Yeshiva Pardes in Jerusalem. I attended a class on original sin and participated in a beit midrash for discussion that was very intense. I then took a bus to tel aviv to check out my future accommodations. more to come on those..

Next, i went to meet with the organization where I will be volunteering. I met with one of my future bosses, Michal, and talked about what i’ll be doing. so far, i’m involved in 3 projects: I’ll have my own class on Sunday mornings of Nepalese refugees. I will be teaching very, very basic business ethics and interviewing skills. I’m also working with Ha’aretz and the Jerusalem Post to get the word out about Mesila, the organization. Lastly, i’ll be leading a women’s group of a different group of refugees and helping them adjust to life here in Israel. I’m teaching the class on sunday mornings at the Phillipine Embassy, and the rest will be in Tel Aviv at Mesila’s headquarters. They’re in a crappy part of Tel Aviv, but right by the central bus station, so, sababa! After the meeting I took a sherut (small shared taxi) back to Jerusalem and went to the Idan Reichel concert. It was amazing.

The next day, I finally left Jerusalem for the Negev. We went to a huge crater (machtesh) in the negev for a packed lunch. Next went to a family’s winery in the middle of the desert, then to the new hostel for shabbat preparation. We lit candles in a seperate room from dinner, sang songs, then went to eat. After dinner, the program participants all had a sing along, with half of the songs in hebrew, some in french, and some in english. it was awesome.

Saturday, we woke up for an amazing hike and to visit Ben Gurion’s grave. i split my jeans. had havdalah and candle lighting, more songs, and then went to an awesome dinner at a bedoin tent and had a drum circle that turned into a rave/dance party. The next day, Sunday, we had a really tough hike in Ein Ovdat that loooked just like the grand canyon but with some water falls. they stopped us to let us know what is going on in Sderot and Ashkelon, and i can assure everyone that I am still safe… the rockets that are now being launched out of Gaza are Qassam rockets, and so far, cannot reach further north of there. It is about 40 minutes south of Tel Aviv. After the hike, went to a legit bedoin village to a family’s hut for more tea and coffee. it was amazing. we visited an ashalim student village before coming to our new kibbutz where I am attending ul pan.

Yesterday I started ulpan (intensive Hebrew studies). It is ridiculously intense. not a word of english is spoken-and it is very overwhelming. i have class for 5 hours a day for the next 3 1/2 weeks, plus a lot of homework, but it will be great. we had a free afternoon yesterday, so I hopped on a bus for Tel Aviv to take care of some phone issues and meet an Israeli friend for dinner. Had a great dinner, came back to the hostel, played some basketball, and went to sleep to do it all over again this morning for school!

A quick note, the kibbutz i’m on , Kibbutz Harel is just like being at camp. We all have cabins, I’m staying with 3 other girls in a room the size of my closet at home, but its great. We eat all together in the mess hall, and we’re in a beautiful, woodsy area, and the weather has been great.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 8th, 2008 at 7:38 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.