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!