The MASA fire dancers make me want to make Aliyah

Monday we cut our study day short and went on a trip after Ulpan. We first went to Abu Ghosh, an Arab village not far from Jerusalem. We spoke with residents about Arab-Israel coexistence and a peaceful solution for Israel and Palestine. It was very interesting to hear an Arab Israeli’s take on the two state solution. It seems that for many people, it’s not about the government and who controls the land, it’s about being able to live on the land your family has been living on for generations. We also met with a Benedictine monk. There is a monastery in Abu Ghosh with 12 monks and nuns living there. Abu Ghosh is a great example of interreligious cooperation and respect. There is also an orthodox Jewish community right near Abu Ghosh. There are a lot of programs that foster peace and understanding between the two communities. The monk also told us about the Pope’s visit to Israel in 2000 and how important it was to the Catholic Church’s relationship with Jews and Israel.

After the talk we got a tour of the monastery’s 900 year old church. It was beautiful! There were frescoes on the walls from Byzantine times.

We also met with women from the community who formed a women’s empowerment group. Together, the women of Abu Ghosh have created a space where they can pursue health education, exercise, and hopefully English classes in the future. This community center has given women an opportunity to spend time together with other women in the village, in a space set aside specifically for women. This is a pretty big deal in a society where many public spaces only welcome men, such as coffee shops and hookah bars.

After Abu Ghosh we went to Jerusalem. Our program is partially sponsored and supported by MASA, an organization that funds and supports programs for Diaspora Jews to come to Israel. Every year they have an opening event. There were some speeches given about being in Israel, and how we are the future of the Jewish people, and lots of Zionist/you should make Aliyah messages. After the oh so uplifting speeches, there were dance performances. In one of them there were fire dancer/fire breather guys, and in another there were people dancing suspended from ropes from the ceiling. It was intense. Afterwards the Idan Richel Project performed…which was the highlight of the whole day. That was the big thing we were all looking forward to. Idan Richel is a really cool Israeli musician. It was a night filled with crazy theatrics and great music!

Tuesday we ditched Ulpan altogether and visited a Druz village. The Druz are a religious group found mostly in the Middle East. They are a very small minority in Israel, and remain that way because they prohibit proselytizing and conversion. They believe in reincarnation, don’t have holy sites like Christians, Muslims and Jews, and are loyal to the country they live in above all else. The views from the village, on a mountain, were breathtaking. After the tour we had a traditional Druz meal. I thought it was going to be in a restaurant, but instead someone opened their home to us and cooked us a traditional meal. The food was amazing!!

The rest of the week was filled with more volunteering and a great pot luck Shabbat dinner.

Lots of boats at the beach today.....great beach day!

ARDC

I had my first full day of work at the ARDC yesterday. The ARDC is the African Refugee Development Center. It is an organization that works to help refugees and asylum seekers get settled in Israel. They provide English classes, help refugees find the resources they need, provide humanitarian assistance where possible, and assist with visas and status in Israel. This last function is what I am going to be working on. The team is called the Asylum Application Assistance team (AAA). People coming to Israel seeking asylum must register for asylum status. They also must obtain some kind of visa, which could be a temporary work visa, or a temporary residence visa, which are just two examples. The laws in Israel regarding asylum seekers are very complicated, confusing, and sparse. Refugees coming from Sudan and Eritrea get group protection because of where they are from. This means they won’t get deported because of the situation in those countries. However, they have to prove they are from Sudan or Eritrea. This is where I come in. I am working for the Identity Team, a part of the AAA team. I will be interviewing refugees and doing research to prove they are who they say they are and do in fact, come from Sudan or Eritrea. Many people fleeing Sudan or Eritrea, or other African countries, do not have identity papers with them.

I have been studying the conflicts that these people are fleeing for the past four years. So now I’m really excited to actually meet people from the places I have been studying and help them in a more direct way. I know a lot about the conflicts going on in many African countries that create refugees, but not a lot about what happens to these people when they leave their countries. This is going to be an amazing opportunity to learn more and do some important work. 

http://www.ardc-israel.org/en/#take_action

http://www.britolam.org/Index.asp?CategoryID=357

http://www.tikunolamisrael.org/

Trip to Mount Carmel

Friday morning we left for our first overnight trip (later than planned of course because the entire country runs on Jew time). Every month we are going to be taking a weekend trip as a group somewhere in Israel. We headed north to the Carmel mountains, not far from Haifa. We started with a visit to a winery. The wine wasn’t that great and the liquor tasted like robetussen. It’s a kosher winery. This means that only people who keep kosher and who keep Shabbat can touch the wine from start to finish. So to ensure that the wine was safe, there were two guys who I think were rabbis who followed us around for the whole tour to make sure we followed the rules. Kinda strange.

After that we went to an Arab village and spoke to a woman who is doing amazing things for women’s rights in her village and coexistence between Muslims and Jews. She was the first woman in her village to ever run for a political position, and has fostered many programs to encourage good relations between the women in her village and the women in a Jewish village nearby. She was very inspiring to listen to.

We spent the night at a really interesting campsite. This guy decided he wanted to live his life completely environmentally sustainable. He built his house out of straw and mud and collects dew for his showers. They recycle all the toilet water to make it clean and use it for the plants. This guy also apparently reformed garbage in Israel. He has been encouraging people to separate their garbage in order to reduce the trash that goes to the dumps. Everything else gets recycled or composted. It’s becoming the thing to do here. We slept under this 400 year old tree whose branches reach all the way to the ground all around, it kind of looked like an umbrella. Underneath were mattresses, pillows, mats, and tables. We cooked outside and ate under the umbrella tree. We also slept under the umbrella tree. I woke up with tons of bug bites.

Saturday we went to Mount Carmel. At the turn of the century Baron Rothschild helped start the first Jewish settlements in Israel and did a lot of other great things. After he died his family built a beautiful garden to commemorate everything he did for Israel. It was very beautiful. Then we hiked down the mountain and ended at the beach. It was a great hike, made even better by my hat that the guide lent me. The views were amazing, and we got to see an ancient ruin that dates back to Roman times, I am always a fan of ancient ruins. We also picked carob from a tree. We ended the day at the beach where tiny little fishes bit my toes.

Our first trip was a fantastic one! 

Adventures at Radical Tattoo (no tattoos just piercings)

                                                   

 So my last blog chronicled many things. Most notably the adventure to get my nose pierced. Here are the pictures....There will be more pictures soon of Tel Aviv and my apartment etc

                                                                    Morgan

                                                                     Hannah

                                                                         Emma

                                                                           Dante

                                                                    Amy

                                                               Me with nose ring

I enjoyed a dance performance with an Art Garfunkel stunt double

First of all today celebrates two important things: one of my very bestest friends was born on this day (Rachel Marcus), and thirty years ago on this day my parents got married (as product of that union, I greatly appreciate it). So happy birthday to Rachel, and happy anniversary to mom and dad.
First of all, I can officially say my mailbox/address here in Tel Aviv works. A few weeks ago I got a postcard and a letter from some friends and yesterday I got a slip saying the post office is holding a package for me. It is a mysterious package because I have no idea what it is, but it shows that my address and mailbox work. We were unsure briefly.
Today started with me practically sprinting to the bust station to go to Jaffa for Ulpan. I know that mom and I are always running late, but I currently live in a place where the entire country is running a little late. It’s an entire country on Jew time!
I learned some Hebrew followed by funky hummus from a place (whose name I forget) which is supposedly the best in Israel. It was pretty great!
Five of us then decided we should go to the mall to get piercings. So that’s what we did. My friend Hannah got a funky earring (not sure what the proper term is), Emma got her eyebrow pierced, Morgan got another earring, Dante got his cartilage pierced, and I got a nose ring.
I know what you’re thinking….CRAZY! But……
1) This is probably the most “rebellious” thing I’ve ever done, but in the grand scheme of things and compared to many other people my age, that’s not too bad.
2) It’s not permanent (unlike a tattoo). I can take it out and it will close up and no one will ever notice. So don’t freak out (I’m mostly talking to my parents). At least I’m not coming home with a tattoo…..
It’s the “cool thing to do” when you come to Israel for a year of service.
It was definitely an entertaining experience. Giggly nerves X5 leads to lots of laughter. Dante held my hand and I was very brave; we all were. The guy who did the piercing laughed at me because I didn’t want to open my eyes even though all he did at first was draw a dot. I have decided that if you don’t look at the needle piercing a hole in your nose, or drawing blood, it isn’t as scary. The place was safe and clean and in a good neighborhood (the big mall in the center of the city).
Afterwards we laughed a bit more, took pictures, and I finally found red raisins. For some reason I have not seen any and I like red better than green when it comes to grapes and raisins. At home my breakfast consists of a bowl of multigrain cheerios, red raisins, coffee, and a piece of fruit. Until today I had managed to find all of those things except the raisins. Now my happy breakfast is complete. Tomorrow will probably be the best morning since I’ve been here.
After my amazing discovery I went to a dance performance with Hannah. It was modern dance and very interesting (maybe even a bit hard to understand). It was great though. The dancers were incredibly talented. Also, if Art Garfunkel has a stunt double, he was sitting next to me. This guy was an exact replica. I wish I could have taken a picture but I thought that would have been rude.
All in all a good day. Guaranteed to be followed by many more. For instance, this weekend we are going on an overnight, camping trip to the north. Yay!!

Volunteer Placements

Orientation month has officially come to a close. Time flies when you’re getting lost in Tel Aviv, and lost in translation. My Hebrew has definitely improved since I got here, but I’m still pretty lost. By June when it’s time to leave I’m sure I’ll be fluent hehe.
After a month of visiting different volunteer sites I chose where I want to work this year. I will be splitting my time between the African Refugee Development Center (ARDC), Brit Olam, and Irony Hey (a high school).
So far I’ve been to Irony Hey and Brit Olam so I’ll tell you a bit about those.
Tel Aviv is divided into North and South. North Tel Aviv is wealthier than the south. The two don’t tend to mingle so the municipality of Tel Aviv decided to integrate the schools partially to give kids from South Tel Aviv more opportunity. So the school I will be working in, Irony Hey, is in the North but there are mostly kids from the south there. I’m going to be tutoring English.
Brit Olam is an organization that helps pregnant refugee women living in Tel Aviv. Most of the refugees living in Israel are from Eritrea and Sudan. In their home countries women have a support system when they have a baby. Many women come to Israel alone so they lose that support system and have to navigate the complicated Israeli bureaucracy and health care systems alone. Brit Olam helps women find doctors and other services they need while they are pregnant and once they give birth. I am going to be helping with the everyday things that the organization takes care of. I will be helping women fill out forms, accompany them to appointments, help at classes, and maybe even go to a delivery.
There will be more to come when I actually start working next week, not just meet the people I will be working with.
I also walked around the Old City in Yafo this evening. It is so beautiful. It definitely kept its ancient feel. It was kind of strange to see old stone walls with palm trees growing next to them. I usually associate old stone walls with old cities in France or England….and there are no palm trees there.
I got my camera finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So there will be pictures very very soon!