B'tayavon

I know this may be shocking to everyone that there are two blog posts within the same week, but I understand that they are in high demand (I thank my grandparents for being my number one fans).
This past Tuesday, instead of the usual hour and a half of ulpan, the day was filled with discussions on the nature of our volunteering sites and the clash between Israeli and American culture. I think it was unanimously decided that the Israeli education system needs to borrow some punishment tactics used in American schools. Apparently the lack of any real disciplinary system has led students to believe that school is a free for all and it's okay to act ballagan (crazy).

After what felt like days of talking, when in reality it was only 5 hours, we boarded a bus to Jerusalem. I know what you are thinking, 5 hours without food? Don't worry, we had a lunch break that I took full advantage of. Since we were in Yaffo, we decided to roam the streets for the cheapest falafel. To my surprise, I decided to put falafel on the back burner and try a סבח (Sabich) sandwich. סבח is an Israeli dish that consists of fried eggplant, hard boiled eggs, and the myriad of Israeli salads stuffed into a pita and topped with french fries. So, for ten shekels, I couldn't resist (10 shekels is less than $3). With this delicious meal you are also given a plastic bowl that you can fill up at the salad bar. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be free refills, but the bowl was way to small to fit everything in one round. It is hard to say no to a bowl full of pickles.

So with a full stomach, I got on the bus, had enough energy to turn on my ipod and then passed out (waking up at the gas station for the sole purpose of getting ice cream- I had been craving it all day, so it was really inevitable). We arrived in Jerusalem at the office of our dear friend Rabbi Ron Kronish at the ICCI (the Center for Interreligious Encounter with Israel). We had first met Ron on our trip to Abu Gosh, where he facilitated our tour of the village and the meetings had with the residents. At the ICCI, Ron heads coexistence programs that bring together both Arabs and Jews to address the conflict and move from dialogue to action. Ron organized a group of current participants and alumni, from a range of ICCI programs, to share their experiences of voluntarily partaking in such programs. The panel consisted of both men and women from a range of ages and professions, who were very receptive to our questions and they had no reservations when speaking about the differences encountered throughout their programs.

After the panel, we engaged in informal conversation over a delicious dinner of REAL bagels and Israeli salad. (Disclaimer: despite the shock to finally see real bagels, the promise of there being lox was not upheld and we were all a little upset). I was speaking with this girl who currently goes to an extremely religious all girls high school in Jerusalem, who considers herself to be the most liberal in the school. Unlike her fellow classmates, she is out of six who is enrolling in the army and taking a gap year to volunteer with at risk youth. We also had a lot to talk about because her parents are from the States and she often goes back to visit family in Brookline. No matter where I go, Massachusetts will never escape me.

Speaking of the States, I need to explain the combination Thanksgiving/Shabbat that we had this past Friday (Friday was easier because we all volunteer on Thursday and there was no way we would all be able to cook). We held Thanksgiving dinner on the terrace of my apartment and everyone brought dishes that their families make at home. Of course, I made sweet potatoes with marshmallows. It was amazing to have everyone over and the spread of food was unbelievable. Surprisingly enough, there can be a Thanksgiving with no turkey . The nice part of having the dinner at our house was that it really promoted us to clean the apartment so people didn't have to see the pigsty that our apartment can become. Anna and I took charge cleaning the terrace in what I have to say to be the most unconventional way. Apparently mops are few and far between in Israel, so using a squeegie, a cloth and a lot of water we managed to do a pretty great job cleaning. I believe Anna refers to this as the Russian way of cleaning.  (Nothing beats cleaning, drinking a beer, and being out in the sun). We were worried that there wasn't going to be enough food, but rest assured, everyone was in a food coma by the end of the night.

I realize that most of what I talk about involves food, but I have one more story. My friend Marissa, who also teaches at the ARDC with me, arranged a night with her students and some of us in the program to meet up and speak English. One of her students, Ezzo, just opened up a restaurant in Tel Aviv, close to where we all live, so we all met there to enjoy delicious Sudanese food. Ezzo was so nice to all of us and insisted on serving us a myriad of drinks and food. There were a lot meat dishes that I was too afraid to try, but I ate some delicious rice and beans that when combined with a pita was pretty unbeatable. I have to say that the best part of the meal was dessert. Ezzo brought out a tray consisting of a bowl of barley, halva, chopped bananas, and rose petal syrup. The trick was to get the perfect ratio of the mentioned ingredients to make the most delicious dessert ever. Halva is a sweet dessert made from sesame seeds and sugar and is extremely tasty. For the second night in a week, we had all reached food coma status once again. We all knew that the trickiest part of the evening would be paying Ezzo for the food and his amazing hospitality. Despite our insisting and pleading, Ezzo refused to take the money. I even went as far as to run back to the restaurant to put the money on the counter to find myself being locked in by Ezzo outside, refusing to let me out unless I took the money. Finally we retreated with the money back in our pockets, understanding that Ezzo was beginning to take offense that we wanted to pay him. To make up for this, we all plan on going back to eat at the restaurant and leaving a lot more than the bill. Ezzo has been in Israel for the past two years and the past year has worked two jobs in order to save enough money to open his restaurant. Having just opened up the restaurant a week ago, I think he was very excited to be able to entertain all of us.

Some of the students in my class. 

Tonight is my last English class of the semester, and unfortunately the Dec/Jan semester is being cancelled because ARDC is moving locations and will not have enough space for the entire semester. Trying to convey this message to my students was not easy and once they understood they did not take it well. They informed me that they didn't want any other teacher but me and they are willing to take time to do one on one tutoring. Here is a picture of some of my students, but for some reason they aren't smiling. The little girl in the front, Laura, just turned two and is so adorable. I can proudly say that she can sing "Hello Goodbye" by the Beatles. Her mother, Khardizya, thinks it is really funny when Laura holds my hand and wants to stay with me. She keeps joking that she is going to give Laura to me so I can be her mom. I think I have made it clear that there will be no babies for me. Last week, my students shared their stories on how they reached Israel from Sudan and it took a lot for me to hold back the tears. I can't believe that some of the them are so close to my age and all that they have gone through. I plan on staying in contact with all of them after class ends.

In other news, I'm sure everyone has heard that my bike was stolen. I can't cry over it because it was probably my fault considering that I found the lock completely in tact. But good news is that I am getting a free bike from a friend. I ran into this girl whose sister I went to preschool with at B.I.- again, another MA connection, but I can't complain because I am getting a free bike out of it. I realize it is almost the end of November, but I spent the day at the beach yesterday. I'm still waiting to hear that my family has booked tickets to come and visit....

סופ''ש (weekend)

no fear. 

Anna and I being
our ridiculous selves 

Sorry for the delay in posts, blogging isn't exactly the easiest thing to do...mainly because I usually find myself catching up on tv shows from the states (has anyone been watching Dexter!?). This past weekend the group and I headed off to the Judean desert, to what I think has been our best trip yet (I may be a little biased since I did take some of the lead on planning this one). Packed into five cars, the best being the silver Hyundai that had this MA driver behind the wheel, we drove about 35 minutes out of the city to conquer our first adventure of the trip- rappelling. Armed with a harness, helmet, and pretty bad ass yellow bandana, I was ready to fearlessly walk backwards down the cliff. I can thank sky diving for making a dent in my fear of heights, allowing me to easily trust the harness and nice Israeli man facilitating my way down the cliff.  Don't worry, I had complete control of my speed going down, and I even had the courage to look over my shoulder to take this picture. It was a really great experience and the half naked Israeli's climbing next to us only added to the excitement. 


After rappelling, we got back on the road, passing through Jerusalem heading south west into the heart of the Judean desert and out to the Dead Sea (ים המלח= Sea of Salt). Typical of Israelis, our madrichim had told us it would take about 45 min- an hour to reach the Dead Sea spa...well, close to 2 hours later I finally was able to switch on my left blinker and part with the endless road lining the Dead Sea. We didn't realize how much time had gone by thanks to the amazing English radio station that we were picking up from Amman, Jordan. Speaking of Jordan, as we drove next to the Dead Sea, the mountains of Jordan were so clear and beautiful on the other side of the water. So, as we arrived at the Spa that we were going to have to pay for to get treated to all of the amenities of the Dead Sea, the staff wouldn't let us in due to the fact that we were late and they were closing relatively soon. Don't worry, that did not stop us. We were all jumping in the Dead Sea regardless of the added spa treatment. We drove the 5 minutes up the road to Ein Gedi (a free beach, with non-free bathrooms), located on the southern part of the sea, quickly changed into our bathing suits and headed into the sea. Most of the other people in my group have been to Israel before and had the pleasure of going into the Dead Sea, but for myself, it was an unreal experience. I guess everyone forget to mention that your body floats in the Dead Sea due to the extremely high salt content of the water. Surprise! Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly get used to this floating factor and the fairly easy movement needed to switch from from front to back, so I accidentally tasted the water. Worst decision ever. Let me just say, holy salt! It took about 5 minutes and some pretty interesting faces to recover. But, the floating factor did have its upside. Before I knew it, we all had our hands on each other's shoulders and had made a floating congo line, becoming the hot spectacle in the Dead Sea- even getting a compliment over the loudspeaker from the lifeguard (at first we thought he was yelling at us because of the harsh nature of the Hebrew language, but we rest assured when we figured out he was saying "good work"). The true test in this spectacle was when we all decided to  flip from our stomachs to our backs- I'm telling you, it is not as easy as it sounds. I will just say, we made some great entertainment for those standing on the beach.

dancing with flags. 

Dried off and caked in salt, we once again piled into the cars and headed to the place we were staying for the night, which thankfully was only 30 minutes away. As we pulled up to the rather large Bedouin tent, we couldn't help but notice that there was a group staying there as well (I will get back to this later, but basically the tent had a mesh barrier in the middle so two groups could stay there). After unloading the cars, my fellow leaders and I took charge to get dinner ready. With the help of one of our madrichim, we created a delicious dish of poike- which is basically a ballagan (chaos) of vegetables, chicken, and spices thrown into cast iron pots which are then placed into the fire to cook. In the meantime, we made dough to make fresh pitas on the fire, which we then all lathered with labneh and zatar to make a delicious appetizer. With our stomachs somewhat held over, we had a non-traditional Shabbat service thanks to Leah's guitar accompaniment. Now this is where our neighbors come into play. So we had found out at some point that our Israeli and South African neighbors were Jews for Jesus. As we sang our Shabbat songs, I couldn't help notice the Jews for Jesus coming over to our side to watch us and then a man, who I'm guessing is their leader, brought over some hand made flags for us to wave around. He was even so kind as to demonstrate the proper way to dance with the flags and explained to us the reason for the specific fabric- aka so the flag would always be moving. Now, I'm not entirely sure if these flags had a specific Jews for Jesus meaning, but they definitely added an amazing element to our service. 
Finally, the poike was done and we all filled up our silver camping bowls with delicious rice smothered in the fire cooked poike. Delish. Now onto dessert. We were all so full, but our dessert depended on the fire, so we had to make moves and ignore are bulging stomachs to indulge in delicious banana boats. For those of you unaware of what a banana boat is- it consists of a banana, graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate all wrapped into a piece of tin foil and placed in the fire to cook. No denying how appetizing that sounds. After I packed the banana boat into my already full stomach, it didn't take long for me to roll out my sleeping bag and try to catch some shut eye, but unfortunately for me a few people in my group snore a little too loudly for my liking, not to mention our neighbors who should definitely buy some nasal strips asap. 


As a leader of the trip, I got to do the 545 am wake up call to those in charge of breakfast and lunch and the 6 am wake up call to all of the late sleepers. Carrying the bags of vegetables to wash in the kitchen, I found my feet stopping as I was memorized by the amazing sunrise in front of me. I have pictures, but I feel like they do little to capture the majestic nature. What can I say, I am a sucker for sunrises. Maybe it was the sun reflecting on the Dead Sea, but I have never seen such bright orange and reds and 6 in the morning...mainly because I am never awake then, but still. We all sat around eating our cornflakes staring out at the beautiful sky while mentally preparing ourselves for the long hike that awaited. By 730, we were all packed and ready heading our to meet our fabulous hiking guide, Rayut (not sure of the spelling in English but I think that makes sense). She led us on our previous trip on Mt. Carmel and she is extremely knowledgeable about the land. Each armed with 2+ liters of water, we set off under the sun and into the expansive Judean desert. In order to make this hike a little more exciting, we decided to introduce a game of assassin into the mix. So basically, there was a carabiner floating around, and if in your possession, you had to try to get rid of it as stealth as possible. Throughout the hike, we would stop and ask who had the carabiner, and if you had it you had to face the circle and complete an embarrassing task.  Starting off with the carabiner, I couldn't help but try to get Anna stuck with it, so being the fast thinking I am, I told her that her bandana needed to be retied and I sneakily attached the carabiner to the back of her bandana, winning 10 (imaginary) points for creativity. Thus I started the game of assassin and our hike officially began. Watching someone doing the funky chicken at 9 am is pretty entertaining. 


We hiked for almost 6 hours through the desert, making sure to stop to hydrate and snack on the delicious trail mix that we made. Rayut led a discussion on the future of the Dead Sea and the current proposals on the table in response to its threatened state. We ended the hike at an amazing spring that no joke, appeared out of the woodwork as we descended down the mountain. After staring at desert all day, it was a little shocking to sea green foliage and a spring- I really thought Rayut had been lying to us all day just to motivate us to finish the hike. It really was an amazing hike, but having woken up at the crack ass of dawn from getting very little sleep, I was ready to man my position in the front seat and pass out- I strategically drove the first day, so I would be able to sleep on the way. Call it sneaky, but I just call it smart planning. 


I tried to add more pictures to the blog, but it was taking too long and I only had little patience. But all of my pictures are on picasa, so now that I finally updated my blog, the pictures should make more sense. I have more to say, but since this blog is getting a little lengthy I will spare you for the time being. 


Oh, but first, some exciting news. I have signed up for my first half marathon. On March 25, I will be running through the streets of Jerusalem in the first Jerusalem marathon. Might I just add that Jerusalem is a lot like Worcester in the fact that it has so many dam hills. Training begins now.