"One who saves a single life... is like one who saves a single world"
Stated by our speaker from Rabbis for Human Rights tonight. if you understand this and the idea behind it, i think you'll understand why i find it so right, in so many different ways. He also noted, if you continue to teach hate and inequality, you will never receive the change that should be strove for. More or less this is what he said and i found it to be really empowering. Yes, he was not an engaging speaker but he was passionate about what he was talking about and he made me feel like i needed to be dong more to help create a more equal society. Where does peace come in if not everyone is treated equally?? There is no peace if one party receives unqual conession compared to the next. For peace, i beleive there must be a way to meet the other in the middle but first one must find a way to undo the hate and strife that has already been done. or maybe make up for it?
and another point....To not recreate history, To learn from history, one must understand how that history came about. To conclude that... i need to learn more history.
I just returned from two weeks of traveling in and out of be'er sheva. With three nights in be'er sheva and the rest in other cities around israel. I stayed in 2 hostels, one backpacker tent in the desert (with no electricity), 3 nights on a tile floor. I feel like a drifter sometimes. Many israelis we have met find our constant traveling to be obsurd. Because yes a 2 hour train ride to the north is obsurdly far. Except yes... in a country that fits maybe 5 times in michigan, i guess i can see their point of view.
Theres a confession that i want to make. I think that i have fallen in love. No, not with a person but with Israel. If you are reading this, its ok to laugh at me. Except i think i might be serious about this. While on the bus to mitzpae ramon, i sat and looked out the window and i saw this site that i've never seen in my lifetime. Who could ever have thought the desert was a beautiful place, but it is. It was amazing and i couldn't help but think how lucky i am to be having this experience. how lucky i am to be seeing the things i'm seeing and will soon see. theres a lot to take from a new place, new people and a new culture and i've found this connection with this place that i've never felt anywhere else. Maybe i'm a little disillusioned because this isn't a normal lifestyle, but i feel very strongly about this...
With that, in these past two weeks i went from the north of israel and back down to the south with a lot of my new friends from OTZMA. We started in Jerusalem with the entire group for a seminar. One of my favorite ones to date because in one day we saw places from all the big religions in israel. you forget sometimes when your surrounded by all jews that your not the only ones. We live amongest so many more cultures and there are muslims and christans that live here too. In general i think its realy important to understand their pespectives too and not forget about them.
From there I went with becca, jamie, jess, kira, elisa and hillary to haifa for two nights. a lot of it was a bust, to say the least. Why? We got to the bahi gardens too late and didn't get to see them. the movie we came to see at the film festival lied to us and did not have english subtitles. that was fun, Polish movie with hebrew subtitles. At the same time, haifa is a really nice place and i can't wait to go back and see more of it.
The next 3 days and 3 nights after that about 20 otzmanikim took part in this student intiative in the north with 100's of israeli students. It was a really great opportunity to really volunteer and feel like i'm making a difference. I'm not going to lie , i haven't gotten a lot opportunity to volunteer yet here and its been a disappointed. I mean i came here to volunteer, and i've been getting impatient. the student intitiave was near the kinnert and we stayed on kibbutz levi. Where i had the fabulous opportunity to sleep on a tile floor for 3 nights. My body felt great after that. Two of the 3 days i volunteered around the kinnert, cleaning up trash and making trails and one day i worked in the forrest near the golan. In a matter of 3 days i really felt an improvement in my hebrew and i made some new israeli friends.
During sukkot break I also traveled to mitzpae ramon with kira, julia, dana and elisa. We stayed at a backpacker tent 15 minutes out of town in the desert. Orginall we were supposed to be visiting our friend warner there but he decided to end his stay earlier then we thought. The hostel , called silient arrow is without electricity and at about 5:30 or 6pm we found ourselves in the dark. I haven't had to be so creative with things to do in a really long time and it was really refreshing. Considering we were left in the dark with candle light we went to sleep early and woke up with the sun. dana, julia and I decided to do the 3 hour hike into the crater. Funny story is that 3 hours means a hour and a half. I really like the way people tell time here. never exactly on the dot, either too much or too little. The crater or in other words the "Maktesh." is something i'd do again, its the only one of its kind and enormous. We got lucky and were the only ones hiking on the green trail. The only thing that we we could hear was ourselves treking through the sand, me trying to rhyme and at one point the buzzing from the electricty line. it was GREAT!
On a side note i met a girl from huntington woods michigan at the bus stop in mitzpae ramon ....she graduated last year from berkley high school and knew my friends siblings. You know its not that big of a world when you can be half way across the world in the middle east, at a huge crater, and somehow run into someone from a square mile city.
Now i'm back in be'er sheva for the next maybe 6 or 7 weeks. Life is good. Ulpan still great and I am starting up volunteering again. I have new israeli friends and as long as you don't make me nervous i'll probably have a conversation with you in hebrew.
"All of life is two balanced scales, and you never know what kind of minimal act you may take to tip the scale one way or another..."
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Otzma receives internet
After three weeks of living in be'er sheva, I have finally received internet. Offically my life is complete. In some sense.
What is one thing i've learned about israel that differs from the United States? Everything is taken care of "after the hagim (holidays)" Basically the holidays all come around the same exact time and because of this I have not really begun my volunteering here. After Sukkot I will be volunteering with this organization called PUSH and helping a student at a local high school learn english. This will be once a week. Another two days, sunday and wednesday I will be volunteering at the after school club at the merckaz klitah where I live. I've gone there a couple of times and it is definatly going to be a challenge.
You might be wondering what exactly could be so hard about working with kids. Well when none of them speak english and you speak broken hebrew...it creates a challenge. Yesterday I volunteered there and I found myself having to be very creative with my communication. Its the challenge of the job that really attracts me to. I find myself having to put together sentences very carefully and put together onces that I don't find myself using outside of this place. The biggest challenge I had was trying to help one of the girls with math. If i were to explain to her in english what to do it would be easy but here I had to use hebrew. I didn't even know how to tell her to add or subtract and I had to have one of the 7 or 8 year girls give me the words to explain to her what to do. It is a really good learning experience for me but also a great way to help the people who have moved in here. I feel good about this volunteer placement for a couple of reasons. Someone pointed out to me how its great that people want to volunteer outside of here but if they took a look at where we live... theres a lot that can be done. Everyone here has moved from other countries to start a new life and in there period of transition they move into these absorption centers. To learn hebrew so they can survive here and to learn how and begin to start their lifes here. When you really think about, you have to really give them credit for making such a large change in their lives and their families.
My new home...
For me... this has been one of the biggest challenges i've ever had. I dont know if i realized how hard it would actually be to adjust to living in a new country with a whole group of people I've never met before. At the same time, I think i'm doing alright for myself. Everyone that i'm living in be'er sheva with is great. I think this group has been getting a long very well and it really helps with adjusting to living here.
What can I say about be'er sheva. Theres not a lot to do here. Its not the prettiest part of the desert but it is the 5th largest city in israel as i was told yesterday. On the weekends its really nice to leave and I think it makes me appreciate living here more. This past weekend I stayed in be'er sheva but me and about 7 other girls took a day trip to Ashkelon, a beach town near the Gaza Strip. to get there we had to pass through a city where in the past rockets have hit. apparently one hit 3 weeks ago. Technicaly we aren't supposed to be going through there but its the path the bus takes to get where we were going. It was definatly an odd through to realize how close i was to the Gaza Strip. I spent a lot of this summer reading about what was going on and in the past I spent time staying up to date. the thing is, i was so close to a dangerious or i guess controversial area but at the same time felt disconnected.
Ashkelon was a beautiful area , with a really realy nice beach and also it was relaxing. On Shabbos that weekend, I went with Jared, Mike, Emily, Kira, Elisa and Ashly for a walk to this hill that over looks be'er sheva. On top of this hill was a memorial for the War of Independence. It was one of the most interesting structures i've seen. yesterday i was told that it was created by this artist that has done simular things in other countries. We went later in the day so we could see the sun set and for once I actually through that Be'er sheva looked really awesome.
The view of Be'er Sheva at sunset.
As most people know this past week was also the Jewish New Year. In israel you just can not hide from the jewish holidays. Its like in the States , how you can't hide from Christmas. The Mercaz Klitah did a small ceremony for all the people that lived here right before rosh hashanah. It was actually pretty nice and people sang songs for the holidays. I spent the holiday in jeruslam with David and his family.
Tommarow I go back to Jeruslaem, where the entire OTZMA group (north and south) are meeting for seminars all day. The next day is Yom Kippor. Apparently in Israel everyone wears white? I have never heard about this before I'm interested to see it. I'm going to try and go to the kotel after i attend services.
Sukkot comes next and that starts This monday. I'm realy realy excited about it. We have חופש (vacation) until the 22nd of october. I'll write more about it later but I'm going to be traveling all around the north for the first part.
Since I finally have internet, if there is actually people reading this heres some photos!
The desert I hiked through for 4 hours during orientaiton
Visiting my nieces the 2nd weekend in Israel
The Otzma Carnival....Jared and Dave (also two of my roommates)
The random couch we found in the middle of no where in Be'er sheva... Thats becca my roommate who shares my room with me!
What is one thing i've learned about israel that differs from the United States? Everything is taken care of "after the hagim (holidays)" Basically the holidays all come around the same exact time and because of this I have not really begun my volunteering here. After Sukkot I will be volunteering with this organization called PUSH and helping a student at a local high school learn english. This will be once a week. Another two days, sunday and wednesday I will be volunteering at the after school club at the merckaz klitah where I live. I've gone there a couple of times and it is definatly going to be a challenge.
You might be wondering what exactly could be so hard about working with kids. Well when none of them speak english and you speak broken hebrew...it creates a challenge. Yesterday I volunteered there and I found myself having to be very creative with my communication. Its the challenge of the job that really attracts me to. I find myself having to put together sentences very carefully and put together onces that I don't find myself using outside of this place. The biggest challenge I had was trying to help one of the girls with math. If i were to explain to her in english what to do it would be easy but here I had to use hebrew. I didn't even know how to tell her to add or subtract and I had to have one of the 7 or 8 year girls give me the words to explain to her what to do. It is a really good learning experience for me but also a great way to help the people who have moved in here. I feel good about this volunteer placement for a couple of reasons. Someone pointed out to me how its great that people want to volunteer outside of here but if they took a look at where we live... theres a lot that can be done. Everyone here has moved from other countries to start a new life and in there period of transition they move into these absorption centers. To learn hebrew so they can survive here and to learn how and begin to start their lifes here. When you really think about, you have to really give them credit for making such a large change in their lives and their families.
My new home...
For me... this has been one of the biggest challenges i've ever had. I dont know if i realized how hard it would actually be to adjust to living in a new country with a whole group of people I've never met before. At the same time, I think i'm doing alright for myself. Everyone that i'm living in be'er sheva with is great. I think this group has been getting a long very well and it really helps with adjusting to living here.
What can I say about be'er sheva. Theres not a lot to do here. Its not the prettiest part of the desert but it is the 5th largest city in israel as i was told yesterday. On the weekends its really nice to leave and I think it makes me appreciate living here more. This past weekend I stayed in be'er sheva but me and about 7 other girls took a day trip to Ashkelon, a beach town near the Gaza Strip. to get there we had to pass through a city where in the past rockets have hit. apparently one hit 3 weeks ago. Technicaly we aren't supposed to be going through there but its the path the bus takes to get where we were going. It was definatly an odd through to realize how close i was to the Gaza Strip. I spent a lot of this summer reading about what was going on and in the past I spent time staying up to date. the thing is, i was so close to a dangerious or i guess controversial area but at the same time felt disconnected.
Ashkelon was a beautiful area , with a really realy nice beach and also it was relaxing. On Shabbos that weekend, I went with Jared, Mike, Emily, Kira, Elisa and Ashly for a walk to this hill that over looks be'er sheva. On top of this hill was a memorial for the War of Independence. It was one of the most interesting structures i've seen. yesterday i was told that it was created by this artist that has done simular things in other countries. We went later in the day so we could see the sun set and for once I actually through that Be'er sheva looked really awesome.
The view of Be'er Sheva at sunset.
As most people know this past week was also the Jewish New Year. In israel you just can not hide from the jewish holidays. Its like in the States , how you can't hide from Christmas. The Mercaz Klitah did a small ceremony for all the people that lived here right before rosh hashanah. It was actually pretty nice and people sang songs for the holidays. I spent the holiday in jeruslam with David and his family.
Tommarow I go back to Jeruslaem, where the entire OTZMA group (north and south) are meeting for seminars all day. The next day is Yom Kippor. Apparently in Israel everyone wears white? I have never heard about this before I'm interested to see it. I'm going to try and go to the kotel after i attend services.
Sukkot comes next and that starts This monday. I'm realy realy excited about it. We have חופש (vacation) until the 22nd of october. I'll write more about it later but I'm going to be traveling all around the north for the first part.
Since I finally have internet, if there is actually people reading this heres some photos!
The desert I hiked through for 4 hours during orientaiton
Visiting my nieces the 2nd weekend in Israel
The Otzma Carnival....Jared and Dave (also two of my roommates)
The random couch we found in the middle of no where in Be'er sheva... Thats becca my roommate who shares my room with me!
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