The Negev

Last weekend I went on a tiyul(trip) to the Negev Desert. I went alongside my fellow program participants. We went hiking in some of the most beautiful and awe-inspiring terrain the world has to offer. The hiking and camping was amazing. Even though the desert is a vast wasteland seeming to offer refuge for only a few species if any, it might be some of the most meaningful terrain to trek. You really understand that you are just a tiny speck of dust in a very complex and crazy world. Even to understand that the tiny speck that you represent is even smaller if compared to the amount of space we take up in Outer Space. The trip also made me think biblically. To know that it was in a very similar landscape that the Israelites made their way to Eretz Yisrael that I was hiking in struck me. That feeling has permeated my outlook of living here in Israel. I know that I am not the most religious person out there, but the level of spirituality that I have has risen since the trip. I am grateful to be doing what I am doing here. I know that I have made the right decision to be here for 10 months. 

We also made a visit to the resting place of David Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion was one of the most influential statesmen in history. The first prime minister of the state of Israel decided to be buried at Sde Boker in the middle of the Negev Desert. He had joined the kibbutz there later in his life. For me it was a special place because I have read extensively on Ben-Gurion even reading his memoir. He is a larger than life figure in Israeli culture and society. It was a very meaningful visit for me. 

This trip on the whole was amazing for me. A lot of things I have been thinking about have to been becoming clearer. The reason why I am here and the reason why people die to protect their right to live here have become clearer. I am having the time of life and I will keep everyone updated more often with more posts to come. Laila Tov l'kulam! (Good Night to Everyone)!

First Days of Volunteering

This past Sunday was my first day of volunteering as a participant in Tikkun Olam in Tel Aviv. I am volunteering at a soup kitchen called Lasova. There I serve the people that come in for a meal. I then clean up after the people. I will be volunteering there every Sunday and Wednesday for 4 hours each day. At first it seemed like something that I did not find interesting until we ran into one of the volunteers at the shouk after our preliminary visit. He told us to think about it and that just stuck with me. You see a lot of the problems that society worldwide faces. Homeless people, drug addicts, and whoever does not have the means to buy food for themselves. It was a crazy experience because I was joined by this group of evangelical Christians from Alabama. They asked my friend Jeremy and I if we were here in Israel on a ministry visit and I had no idea what that meant. They had very thick southern accents and did not have any understanding of Hebrew. It was pretty funny because the Israeli volunteers that knew English had no idea what these people were saying.

Today I volunteered at an afterschool program called Kadima Oz Florentine. It is a afterschool program for children of African asylum seekers, and migrant workers. Hearing a young African girl and a Filipino boy converse in Hebrew was very amazing to witness. Only in this country and under the circumstances that these children are under would they be speaking in Hebrew. I basically played with the children, made sure they were supervised, and made sure that they did their homework. I helped a young Filipino boy named Gerald with his English homework. I know I will be having a great time every Tuesday afternoon. להתראות

Walking through Neve Sha'anan

A few days ago, the program made its way through the Neve Sha'anan neighborhood of Tel Aviv. It is the neighborhood where the program's center, BINA, is located. It is also the neighborhood where the Old Central Bus Station is located. I learned that there is a special narrative that the city likes to say, yet in reality that narrative only tells half the story. Neve Sha'anan does not have the same history as other sections of the city such as Neve Tsedek. It started as a failure with a failed attempt by Jews trying to supply produce to the growing city of Tel Aviv. Then it was a place for Mizrachi Jews who came to live in Israel. It is today still a blue collar neighborhood, but has a lot of very interesting characteristics. Across Levinsky St, is the "New" Central Bus Station which brings in a lot of people to the neighborhood. Many of the people who pass through are African Refugees and foreign migrant workers, mostly from Thailand, and the Philippines. Many of the African Refugees are from Eritrea which used to be part of Ethiopia or Sudan. Many of these Eritrean refugees make their way to Israel through Egypt which complicates their situation. Many of them leave their country due to a dictatorship which forces most of the young men into soldiers. For them to receive refugee status is very difficult because if Israel was the first country they traveled to they would be able to receive it, but many travel through Egypt. They stay in Egypt to earn more money to be able to be smuggled into the country. Once they are in the country they are given a three month visitation permit and need to get it renewed every three months. The first stop besides a transit camp set up by the IDF,is Tel Aviv. Many of the refugees will spend their days and nights in the park. Some of them even sleep in the park.

Besides being home to a large refugee and migrant community, the area is filled with drug addicts and prostitution, things that some Tel Avivians would rather not talk about. The Old Central Bus Station for instance lays vacant and a lot of vice happens around there. Seeing this part of the city makes me realize that Tel Aviv is not just an Israeli city, its an international city. You will hear Hebrew, English, Russian, Tigrinya(language of Eritrea), Filipino, and Arabic all on the same street. You will also see Filipinos and Thais who come to work here speak Hebrew. Tel Aviv I am coming to learn is a cultural melting pot. Many cultures make Tel Aviv one city. It gives the city a unique feel of being African, Mediterranean, European, and Middle Eastern. Tel Aviv is a wonderful city soo far and I cannot wait to unlock more of its treasures. More to come as I start to volunteer tomorrow. !להתראות

Sukkot in Israel

This time of the year is the holiday season. In a matter of weeks there is Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah. Sukkot is a 7 day holiday with the first day being like Shabbat when work is forbidden. In Biblical times, Sukkot was one of the 3 pilgrimage holidays in which Jews would make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. The word Sukkot means booths or tabernacles. One of the mitzvot of the holiday is to build a Sukkah which is a type of structure that many families make in their yards,balconies, or roofs. The roof of the Sukkah is usually covered with palm leaves. Another part of the holiday is to say a blessing over the Four Species. The Four Species are the etrog(a type of citrus), and the Lulav which is made up of palm fronds, leaves of the myrtle, and leaves of the willow. It is a mitzvah to wave the etrog and the Lulav on everyday of the holiday.One of the mitzvot of the holiday besides building the Sukkah is to eat and sleep in the Sukkah. Many restaurants will have Sukkahs on the street so that they may cater to some of their clientele who might be religious. On the roof of our apartment, there is a Sukkah type structure so a few friends and I had a meal under it for the first night of the holiday. It was interesting in that the weather was fairly cloudy and there was a slight drizzle and there was thunder and lighting. This was the first time I have been in Israel and experienced a cloudy day and thunder and lightning. I have been on vacation for the holiday so I have been exploring Tel Aviv, going to the beach, hanging out with friends, and studying Hebrew. I have been making a lot of progress with my Hebrew which is good. I hung out with a childhood friend Becca which was fun. I also went with some of the program members to an American Bar called  Mike's Place for Taco Tuesdays which was very fun. I then went to neighboring Bat Yam for a street festival. The festival had many different acts such as short plays in the street, to dance routines, to a Klezmer Band playing in the street. I went out in Jaffa and checked out the Old City, the photography exhibit at the Jaffa Port, and the Flea Market. I found many stores selling hookahs so I know for a fact I will be back to buy one for cheap hopefully. I then went to Jerusalem for a day to visit a cousin of mine. We went out to lunch at a very good seafood restaurant called Dolphin Yam. I then went to the Old City and the Kotel(Western Wall). This trip to the Old City was not what I was looking for. The overload of tourists made the experience very strange. Seeing all of the tour buses and tourists made me feel as if I was just a part of their vacation. I knew that for the tourists it is interesting to experience the Kotel and the Old City, but for me being at the Kotel is more than just part of some vacation to Jerusalem and Israel. It is a holy place for me and the rest of the Jewish population. I guess that the special feeling I usually have when I was at the Kotel was not present. Today was a great day for me because I finally have my volunteering schedule set in stone. I am volunteering at 4 places. I am volunteering at a soup kitchen called Lasova, and three after school programs. Talking about them will have to wait for another post. I have seen that back home in Boston the weather is turning more and more like Fall, here though its beautiful and 80 degrees almost everyday. Sorry for bragging but it does not feel like October here. More to come from Tel Aviv for sure. Lehitraot!