Anachnu Metnadvot

I have been in Israel for a month next week. The time has really flew, and I'm sure before I know it, it will be January. We have finally started volunteering, which makes the weeks pass by even faster.

My roommate Naomi and I kicked off the week at the Senior Center, a place for Alzheimer's patients. I am grateful that two of us went together, because at first, the experience was a little overwhelming. No body, not even the people who managed the center, spoke English, and my Hebrew is beyond limited. Together though, Naomi and I managed to piece together a few sentences, and made conversation by simply repeating the words that we understood. Though I was nervous at first, I soon realized that there was no reason to be shy, that I was above all, just another person to talk to, and that was enough. People made conversation with me, despite my inept skills at the Hebrew language.

In the lettuce fields at the local Moshav.

Vegetable picking was our next endeavor. What an experience! We were dropped off at a local Moshav, where for as far as the eye could see there was lettuce fields. All four of us girls were participating, and it was a simple yet daunting task. We waited until several Thai workers hacked the heads of lettuce from the soil and dropped them into bags around their waists and then to the ground. When there was a sufficient amount of heads of lettuce on the ground, we counted out the correct number, and filled bins, and bins, and bins. It was a never ending, back braking process. We were only in the fields for about an hour and a half, but it was enough for the first try. The Thai workers that we accompanied are in those fields from 5AM until sundown.

This past Thursday, September second, was my 22nd birthday! During the day, I volunteered at the Arab Kadima in Ramla. I absolutely loved it! Basically, a Kadima is a place for children to go after school to play games and hang out and do homework. The Arab Kadima, this week and for the rest of Ramadan is a bit more active than the Jewish Kadima because the children are fasting, and there is only a half day of school. It was a great experience... the kids are wonderful. I played Taki, the Israeli version of the card game Uno, and learned about the kids and what their interests were. At the end of the day, the children separated into groups and did homework. We helped them with their English homework. These kids are amazing, they are already tri-lingual (Hebrew, Arabic, English) at such a young age, it's incredible. It makes me sad to know that the rest of the world has such an upper hand on America when it comes to things such as language. I know that I struggled learning Spanish because I started when I was in sixth grade. In a perfect world, I would have started learning a romance language in first grade, but that isn't a reality in America. 

Rachel, Naomi, Adrea, Matana and me.

My birthday was fantastic. Though I would have loved to have stayed 21 forever (it's such a perfect age!) I guess I had to age eventually, and I suppose 22 isn't so bad. A group of about 11 of us went out to the Tel A'viv Port, to a club called Ching Ching. I had a blast. Night life in Israel doesn't start until about midnight, and somehow I managed to stay awake until 5AM. It was incredible, I danced on a bar. I have always loved to dance, and I try to go out in America as much as I can, but I now know that like a lot of other things, the night life in America will never compare to the night life in Israel. The rhythm of life is just different here.

We ended the week, of course, with Shabbat. I am again, blown away with the kindness of people. I understand that it is a Mitzah, a good deed, for someone to open their home to strangers on Shabbat, but it continuously shocks me. This Friday night Rachel and I accompanied a new friend to her synagogue and then had Shabbat dinner at her home with her family. It was the best meal I have eaten since arriving in Israel. The conversation was almost one hundred percent in Hebrew, as she is the only one in her family who speaks English, but that made the night that much better. When I could follow, the conversation was wonderful and I have never felt more welcome. We traded stories back and forth and it was a truly great feeling to learn about someone else, someone from a completely different culture with a completely different background.

The service in the synagogue was again, hard to follow, especially because some of the tunes that I have begun to get used to were changed because of the upcoming holiday (Rosh Hashana). I will openly admit that I spent the majority of the service reading from the Siddur at my own pace. I am amazed at how much I can read, and even at the small amount that I can understand. I came with nothing, I cannot believe how much I will be leaving with.