September 1st

Today we had a group volunteer day. So at 8am we all loaded up onto the bus with our packed lunches and headed out. We were going to a student village near באר שבע(Be'er Sheva) called Ayalim. This is one village in a series that had been started a few years back in order to relocate young and idealistic people into the Negev and Galilee. These two areas combined cover 80% of the country, but only have 8% of the population located within them. Israel has a feeling of use it or lose it when it comes to this problem, but does not seem to be able to get people to move into these areas very easily, despite trying to move factories and industry into the area.
As I said, this is a student village and all the inhabitant are students. These students live in the volunteer village (and in fact build them!) while being full time students on scholarships at the University located near their village. We spent some time watching a recruitment video on the program and having questions answered by one of the higher ups in the organization before (figuratively) rolling up our sleeves and getting to work.

We were split up into about 5 groups, the first was working on pruning flowering plants etc. on a walkway between some of the houses. The second group (the one I was in) was pulling out the plants that had grown out into to the paths around the building in the background of the above picture. The third group was working on laying out a gravel terrace area, while group 4 was transporting all the gravel from the gravel pit. Group 5 was our two lovely water girls who made sure we all stayed hydrated throughout the day.

I started out working with David, Shauna, Max and Tracy on pulling out plants and sweeping down the sidewalks when I came to a Rosemary bush that had grown out over half of the path. Unfortunately Rosemary grows from one central trunk, so you cannot just pull out the offending parts, you need to take a saw to the plant to prune it. For the next 2.5 hours I worked on this bush with an old hand saw, and eventually the path was clear.

The upper part of this path was blocked by a Rosymary bush. The black hose is an irrigation hose, it will be placed better in the future to allow plants to grow despite the desert conditions.

The upper gravel terrace - this area was just sand before the group laid out tarp, irrigation hoses and gravel.

On my way back from dumping some of the clippings from my Rosemary bush (it took 4 wheelbarrow loads to get it all moved!) I noticed a part of the entrance sign we could not see from the bus.

I thought it was a beautiful sign and a perfect sentiment for the type of work that is being done with this village.

At the end of the day we were all hot, sweaty and tired. But knew we had made a difference. As a group that came to Israel specifically to volunteer, we were all itching to get our hands dirty and do some actual work. Today was perfect.

August 31st

Today was a fairly slow day. We started out at 9am with a few presentations on different volunteer opportunities in Ashkelon. I really liked the sound of the after school daycare at the conservative temple. We also went to a boys and girls club style after school gym, and a organization that helps mentally disabled adults. At this point ITC had a mini meeting while the rest of the group went on to hear a few more opportunities. We found out that we already had our volunteer opportunity set up for us -we will be going to an after school program 2 times a week to tutor 5th grade girls and 9th grade boys on their English work. The way it is set up is that we will spend half the time with each group doing homework and the other half playing learning games. While I am really excited for this program with Emunah, I wish we had not heard about all the other wonderful opportunities when they are not actually options for us.
After the ITC meeting we met up with the bigger group again and were all dropped off for lunch at an outdoor bazaar style area with shops lining the street. And we broke off into small groups to grab a bite and look around before heading back to the bus. When we got to the bus we were joined by a local teen that pointed out some of the "main attractions" of Ashkelon on a 1/2 hour long ride around the town.

Pier at the marina .5 miles from the מרכז קליטה

Later that evening after dinner and such a large portion of our group gathered at the front gate of the מרכז קליטה for a walking tour to Afridar Center - the local shopping/dinning area. We all wondered around once we got there and finally all settled at a very long table at the local pub.

Photo op!

We all hung out for a while and talked - it seems that we are really getting to know each other now and it just feels natural to all be sitting around talking in this place across the world from home.

August 30th

Today we started out with a light breakfast (cakes... seriously, am I the only person who does not think chocolate should be included in breakfast?) and then went on a short tour of the מרכז קליטה (absorption center). Which consisted mostly of: this is a building, this is another building, and the computer room is over there... ok it was a lot more informative than that, but it was 7:15am and I don't have my bearings in the center yet.
After the whirlwind tour of the we מרכז קליטה got separated into our three groups of the day. We had 3 things to do, pack up boxes of food for the less fortunate for Rosh Hashana, go grocery shopping, and finish unpacking our rooms. I was put in charge of group 1 as the contact person - making sure we were all on the bus etc - totally unnecessary since our מדריך (kinda of like a guide/educator - it does not exactly translate) was with us for the majority of the time.
Anyhow, we got to the first place to pack up the boxes and found out they had already been packed and we would be going out to deliver them instead. I helped load up cars for the first hour or so, and worked on my numbers a little bit - I can confidently count up to 4 now! Finally I was placed in a car with 3 men... only one of whom spoke any English, and it was not very much. When we got to the first building the youngest man looked at me and started saying Lo, lo (no, no) when I tried to pick up a box. I finally convinced him that I could carry the box and he pointed to the building, said "arbah" (four) and handed me the small box of veggies. This apparently meant that we were going to the 4th floor. At the next apartment we repeated the same process again, only this time he said "shesh" (six) and we were on our way. When we got to the final building he pointed to the building and said something I did not understand (I was later told he probably said "shomonai" since I counted 8 floors) and then just started pointing to the roof which I took to mean the top floor - I was right. Now these things only matter since all of the buildings were walk-ups with little to no lighting in the stairways. Interesting to say the least.
Next we were off to the shopping center to do our grocery shopping. Along the way we saw some evidence of Israeli driving.

Remnants of an accident

Luckily all of my roommates were in my group, so 3 of the 4 of us were able to do some basic apartment shopping together - paper towels, toilet paper etc. Due to some odd mishaps and apparently being too efficient at the volunteering opportunity, the timing got a little messed up and group 1 ended up spending both our room setup and shopping time at the shopping center. 

Milk in a bag!

When we did finally get back to our apartment it was almost time to start cooking for the potluck dinner. We were making a pasta dish, but of course this is when we found out that our gas range is a little interesting to work with. Unless you hold the gas knob in the flame will go out, so finally we filled a pitcher with water and put in front of the knob to hold it in. 
Our pasta was loved by the group when we finally got downstairs, and we all enjoyed a nice meal together before retiring to our apartments for the evening.

August 29th

Today we got up and packed nice and early again to leave Har'el. (Anybody seeing a theme?) Afterwards we all met for a lecture on Israeli Politics entitled Middle East Overview with Neil Lazarus. Neil is an amazing person to have lectures with because you don't feel like you are in a lecture, but you still pick up some really interesting information along the way. The lecture did not last very long, but we did learn a few things, such as how to learn Hebrew in a country where they hear your accent and immediately switch to English, and all English speakers are automatically American. He also handed out really neat business cards that double as a "5-shekel" piece for the grocery carts. (Think Aldi style grocery carts in the States.)
After the lecture we got our rooming assignments for Ashkelon. Turns out my roommate will be Becca, whom I have shared hostel rooms with for this whole past week. Awesome! Since we already knew our assignments for where we would be living once we move onto Part 2 of the year (my federation town Arad!) we all made our way onto the bus without further ado. We stopped for lunch in a "forest", which is really a hand planted area that is now a park, to have a picnic with our Federation representatives from the towns will be in. Jason and I got to know our rep who told us a little more about Arad - a town of roughly 27,000 people, located on the edge of the Negev and home to a fairly large Russian population. She also let us know that we will be living in a 2-bedroom house, and that they have bikes for us. Yay!

View from the overlook in Arad

Finally we all said goodbye and once again got onto our bus - really a home away from home at this point! As usual I fell asleep, so it felt like no time at all before we were in Ashkelon, my home for the next 2 months. We moved our bags into our apartments and started to unpack before the welcome celebration down in the plaza area. We did not have any idea what to expect at the party, but what we did see was wonderful!

Kids! There is a very large Ethiopian group currently living here, and approximately 100 of them are children. There was a dance by 5 of the girls - all around the ages of 8-10, and then a lot of playing with balloons and stickers. All of our guys ended up with little boys riding on their shoulders throughout the afternoon as well. All in all a pretty awesome welcome to Ashkelon.

August 28th

Today was our first Shabbat in Israel. In observance of that fact we were able to sleep in and make our own morning schedule. Our first group activity was an 11am torah study. We broke off into pairs and dissected the text that we were given, finding meaning in the words and reasons for the repetitiveness of certain phrases.
After we finished up our torah study we were once again on our own to observe Shabbat as we saw fit. For most of the group this meant swimming in the Kibbutz pool - the rest of us sat in groups and talked for a few hours.
That evening we all had dinner together and then gathered outside for a Havdalah service. The Havdalah service is held when three stars are visable in the night sky, usually around 40 minutes after sunset. This is one of my favorite services. While it is a service that is often forgotten, it is a beautifully symbolic service that separates Shabbat from the rest of the week, and promises that Shabbat will come around again.
Now that Shabbat was over we all loaded back onto the bus to head into Jerusalem for some fun. The first place we visited was a birthday rally for Gilad Shalit. Today is Gilad's 24th birthday, and he has been held captive for the last 4 years by Hamas - that is 1/6th of his life! Gilad's parents have move from their home in northern Israel to a tent in Jerusalem, parked in front of the Prime Minister's house, in an attempt to pressure the government to get their son back. We were happy to be at the rally, but only stayed for about half an hour, lending our support, but unfortunately not our understanding of the speakers. (We all really wished we had started Ulpan classes!) Once we left the rally we walked around Jerusalem a little bit, found a bar to spend some time at, and eventually headed back to the bus to return to the Kibbutz for the night.

August 27th

Note:
These last two weeks have been non-stop and I have gotten a little behind real time with my posts. Since Israel in general has slowed down for the holiday I hope to catch up with the posts that I have been meaning to put up. For the orientation period I will have posts for each day since we did so much daily. I cannot guarantee that this will be in the case as things get into a rhythm in the future.


Enjoy!

This morning we woke up nice and early and packed up our bags and the bus before breakfast. In Israel when hiking there is no such thing as too early. The country has been in an almost constant heat warning and we need to be off the trails by 11am, so early mornings are just part of the itinerary. Today the hike was through Ein Gedi, a national park area that has wonderful views and a great ending to the hike. When we arrived at the park we started out with a nice yoga/stretching session to get ready to head out. Then we hit the trail.

As you can see it was a bright day on the trail and we were all reaching for water very quickly. The trail started to wind downward slightly and we were greeted with a wonderful sight, and fun hiking conditions:

A stream! As you may or may not know, Ein Gedi is an oasis in the Judean desert. Located near the Dead Sea this area has 4 springs in it that produce water year round. This area is actually used for bottling water and irrigation. For us though it was just a fun day out in nature. The trail continued through the water for a little way, and we found some interesting obstacles - such as a series of rocks that could be climbed fairly easily by the first 2 or 3 people before our wet shoes made the climb too slick. Team working definitely came into play on this hike, by the time I got to the first rock face there was more lifting than climbing going on. (picture borrowed from Whitney)

In the back of the picture you can see climbers being helped up the first part of this rise. Thank you Whitney for taking a picture that illustrates this!

But we all eventually made it up! The trail continued to rise and soon we were once again up on the hot cliff face. At times were were climbing stairways and hoping for a tree, and other times we could see the water down below us.

Finally though we did reach the end of the trail and our main goal of the day. The true oasis we had been working towards.

Of course we all went swimming in the pool at this point. But soon had to pack up and hike back out of the park.

After a morning of hiking the bus made a stop at a look out point, so that we could have a little information session on Israel with our guide, and a first hand view of the wall that is being built through worrisome areas of the country.

The white stripe through the photograph is where the wall is, flanked on both sides by dirt roads used almost exclusively by the military to patrol the wall.

We all got back onto the bus and headed out for the Kibbutz near Jerusalem we were staying at for Shabbat, Har'el. After a quick rest period and some unpacking we got changed into skirts (well, the females at least) and headed over to the community room where some of our fellow Otzmanikim ran a Friday night service for our first Shabbat in Israel. The perfect ending to a wonderful day.