Thursday May 27, 2010 915AM Israel time
On the flight to Newark. The orange band of sunlight is hovering at the horizon. Midnight flights are the best. I fell asleep as soon as we cleared Israeli airspace and slept a good 7 hours.
It's amazing how fast a month can go by. When we planned this trip we were concerned that it might be too long. What a miscalculation. There were people we never even called because we knew we wouldn't have time to see them. And I didn't have nearly enough time with those we saw. We brought books we didn't read because we didn't have enough free time. But we were able to do almost everything on our to-do list: the Bible Lands Museum, the Hurva Synagogue, the Western Wall tunnels, a day trip to Tel Aviv, goose liver and steak at our favorite restaurant Samy's, hoummous and falafel at my friend Maatouk's, massages and girl time at the Ramat Rachel spa, Machane Yehuda, Ben Yehuda and Mamila. As can happen only in Israel, we ran into friends we hadn't seen in a very long time, and spent time with current friends who spend several months each year in Jerusalem. We stayed up all night and walked over half of Jerusalem on Shavuout, concluding with the Kotel at dawn.
Since the impetus for this trip was to volunteer for the army, a few thoughts:
The experience was absolutely wonderful. It felt like a combination of summer camp and MASH. There was a real sense of doing something useful, even important. We were at a medical supply base packing field kits for use in combat and for disaster relief. Israel is at the forefront in sending medical teams to places that have been hit by natural disasters. They set up the first field hospital in Haiti after the earthquake.
Our group of 38 included people from all over the world, and not everyone is Jewish. In fact, the majority of people who volunteer from Europe are Christian. We had 2 sisters from Finland, a father and son from Spain, a young man from Italy, a woman from Canada, one from England and one from Australia. The rest of us were from all over the US. The Italian was the youngest at age 20, the oldest was the lady from Australia, who was over 80. As first-timers, we were in the minority.
For the most part we didn't have much interaction with the soldiers on the base because we were assigned to a separate area. Those we did interact with were in training courses to be medics and were nearly finished with their 3 years of service, and dental assistants who had just completed basic training. As part of their training they had the option of joining us for a day. It gave them a chance to see how medical supplies are organized. It also gave them a chance to meet us. For many of the soldiers the idea that someone would get on a plane in order to spend 2 weeks or more in less than comfortable living conditions doing grunt work was a very odd concept. They saw we were serious about our work and we earned their respect. As anyone who reads this knows, getting an 18-20 year old to respect you is an accomplishment.
The army of Israel is a citizens' army. In many ways it serves as a melting pot for recent arrivals and 15th generation Israelis, religious, secular, Europeans, Russians, North Africans, Middle Eastern, North and South Americans, Africans, rich, poor, urban and rural. Our base also had soldiers who were physically and developmentally disabled. Although they are not obligated to serve, if they choose to enlist they are assigned to supply bases like ours. They are assigned tasks that they are suited for, and from what we saw they are treated very nicely by their fellow soldiers.
It was a learning experience, a rewarding experience, and something we will do again.
Sunday 5/15/10
On the way to the Dead Sea … laptops are wonderful.
To pick up where I left off last time… Thursday 5/06/10
The Army provided a bus for us to the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv. From there we were on our own.
Intra-city bus service is frequent and comfortable and relatively cheap. There is a bus to Jerusalem every
¼ hr, and the fare is 19 shekels (about $5 depending on the exchange rate) and takes an hour. We got to
Jerusalem at 5, caught a taxi to the Mount Zion Hotel where we left our 2 large suitcases, and continued
to the Dan Boutique for a 3 night stay.
The hotel has kept up pretty well since we were last here for Nissim's wedding almost 2 years ago. That's
an accomplishment considering the number of groups they have and the relatively low price. The first
thing we did was take a shower, then a walk to Emek Refaim (restaurant row) for something to eat. We
wound up at Masaryk Café.
On Friday we met my cousins Barb and Sue , who were on a Med cruise with 2 days docked at Ashdod.
The arrangements were somewhat convoluted (aren't they usually?) but eventually everything got
straightened out and we were able to go through the Jewish Quarter to the Kotel, stopped for a
felafel and finally the Tayelet, which is a promenade overlooking the Old City, Mt of Olives, Mt Scopus,
Silwan and surrounding areas. You can even see the date groves along the Dead Sea shore from there.
Dinner was at Batsheva's of course.
We went to the conservative shul for shabbat services. It was pretty sad. Very few people, all of whom
were old and mostly women. Because they had no sponsor there was no kiddush, which shows how tight
their budget is.
We went back to the hotel and relaxed on the sun deck for a while. Then I went back to Batsheva's; Sid
stayed at the hotel. Eli had made hamin macaroni (a version of the traditional dish made with pasta and chicken).
We had a very early call on Sunday-- 5AM wakeup – because we had to meet back at the Tel Aviv
Bus station at 815. Everyone was pretty much on time. Unfortunately the bus for our tiyul (day trip)
was nearly an hour late.
The army arranges a tour for the volunteers. Ours was to Zichron Yakov, the first town established in
Israel by Romanian immigrants in the 1880's. It's where the first vineyard was planted, with assistance
from Edmund de Rothschild, and named in memory of his father. The town is utterly charming, but it's
become a bit yupified since we last visited about 12 years ago with Bill and Jane. From there to Daliat-el
Carmel, a Druze town in the lower Galilee. Not a whole lot to see, but I did buy a glass pitcher which is
locally made and is pretty much unbreakable. The shop owner insisted on demonstrating by banging
plates and glasses on a table and dropping them on the floor. From there to Alona National Park where
we walked through an underground water system built by the Romans over 2000 years ago. The water
was thigh-high in some places, and very cold. It was part of a system of tunnels and aquaducts that
carried water to Caesarea which is about 50 km away. The Romans knew what they were doing and
they built to last.
Then back to the base. We were in a hurry because we had to be there by 6 in order to get dinner, which is
usually served at 545. They made special arrangements with the mess hall to stay open late for us. We
got to the main gate of the base but couldn't get in because the driver didn't have the right entry permit
and the guard wouldn't let us in. Even tho our escorts tried to plead with the guard he was adamant.
So we drove around to another gate, where the guard knew the escorts and he let us in. The delay
meant that the people in the mess hall were none too pleased with us and we had to eat in a hurry.
Monday we returned to our regularly scheduled program.
Friday 4/30/10 we're (almost) in the army now.
We arrived safely Wednesday morning. We had great seats in the upper deck of a 747. We did have couple of frustrating moments. Our flight from Chicago to Newark was cancelled at the last moment, but our luggage was already on board. We ran from American in Terminal 3, to United in Terminal 1, to get the next flight to Newark. When we asked about the transfer of our luggage they didn't know anything about it. So we were on our way to spend a month in Israel without our bags. As we got settled in our seats Sid discovered he didn't know where the camera was. Just as the door was about to close the agent from the counter ran in with our camera, where Sid had left it. She suggested that Sid staple thecamera to his body. He agreed.
When we got to the El Al counter at Newark, at first they weren't able to tell us if the bags made it. Then the head of baggage assured us that they never left Chicago, but would arrive the following day. We were resigned to having our bags travel all over Israel trying to catch up with us. Then a few minutes before we took off a flight attendant paged Sid with the great news that indeed our bags were on the plane with us. What a relief.
We had no trouble picking up our car and we drove north 2 hours to Kibbutz Nof Ginossar on the Galilee shore. The kibbutz has a hotel and guest house; we are in the guest house section, where the kibbutz members lived, in the days when kibbutzim were thriving socialist microcosms. The kids all stayed in the children's house, and the parents had a good size room with a tiny kitchen and bath. It was fine for our purposes … clean and comfortable, and the breakfast is amazing.
We went into Tiberias for dinner. Someone here at the hotel recommended Decks. We decided to look at the menu; if we didn't like it we would continue to Ein Gev on the other side of the Kinneret for St Peter's fish. The menu sounded good so we stayed, and had one of the best meals of our lives. Everything is cooked on a wood fire and brought to the table on a mangal, which is a variation of a hibachi . Sid had St Peter's fish (after all we were in Tiberias) and I ordered duck breast. The food was sensational. And the portions gigantic. Neither one of us could eat dessert.
Today we went north to Gamla, known as the Massada of the Galilee. It was the scene of the final battle of the Romans against the Bar-Kochba rebels in the Galilee in 66CE. It's also a national park with the tallest waterfall in Israel (150 ft). We hiked to the waterfall, which took close to an hour and a half. Then we headed towards the main site, Gamla itself. The name Gamla comes from the word for camel, because the hill on which the town is located has the profile of a camel. It's a good defensive position, because the surrounding ravines offer natural protection, and the city itself was fortified. Getting to the site wasn't easy. Sid dropped out mid-way, but I was stubborn. Every time I come to Israel I intend to go to Gamla, and having finally made it I wasn't going to let a tough climb get in my way. It was well worth it. Not nearly as big as Massada, and built for the purpose of a last stand against the Romans, the site is historic and archaeological hallowed ground. I didn't explore the entire site, just the more easily accessible area which included the synagogue, mikva, residences, oli press and one of the guard towers. The hardest part was getting back to the parking lot. As the crow flies it was much shorter than the route I took to get there. But crows don't have to climb a steep, narrow and rocky path. The mantra that kept me going was I climb 14 flights of stairs a day to get into shape to walk the path of our ancestors. Besides, there was no easy way to get back.
My reward was going to the Naot outlet and getting 2 pairs of sandals.
Dinner tonight was at the Pagoda in Tiberias. Good, in fact very good. But it couldn't come close to last night's.
Tomorrow we are on to Jerusalem.
We report for duty on Sunday. It might be difficult to write while we are serving, but somehow we will catch up.
We hope all of you are well. We are delighted to be here.
Love from Israel,
Peg and Sid
Thursday 5/06/10
On the 4PM bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We finished our first week in the army. It was an amazing experience.
We met at the airport on Sunday at 330PM. Pam, the local administrator for Sar-El, the organization that works with the Israeli army to place volunteers on bases, was waiting for us and another 8 people who were flying in that day. I would never attempt to go directly to an army base after an 11 hour flight, and those who did regretted it. By the time we left it was about 5PM, and we got to the base around 530PM. Our very good friends and Sar-el veterans, Sid and Batya Retsky, were already on the base. We were taken to our barracks to drop our bags, then to a sumptuous dinner. Tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, hoummous and bread. That pretty much summed up dinner and breakfast every day, although at breakfast we had eggs.
After dinner the 18 of us who had arrived and our sergeant sat outside in the courtyard and introduced ourselves and said a few words about why we came to volunteer.
We were 5 per room in the barracks. And they were honest to goodness barracks. Army cots with 2 inch mattress pads on springs that needed a shot of WD40. They did provide sheets, blankets and towels but we preferred to use our own. The bathrooms were in a separate building. We were lucky that Batya and Sid got there early because they took the rooms closest to the bathrooms. And yes, we were segregated and NO fraternizing. We weren't even supposed to enter the rooms of the opposite sex, but we didn't totally adhere to that rule.
The daily schedule was:
715AM Breakfast
745AM Flag raising
8-1130AM Work
1145AM-130PM Lunch/break
130-4PM Work
545PM Dinner
7PM Evening program
I have to say, lunch was decent: A selection of salads and a choice of 3 main courses. The quality was reasonably good and there was plenty of food, unlike breakfast and dinner which were pretty spartan. I realized it was because the real soldiers ate lunch at the same time we did.
Otherwise the catering was slipshod. They have a big inventory control problem. They kept running out of napkins. One day there were no cups for the coffee. Another day no milk, even tho they served cereal. The servers were inconsistent. The lunch lady wouldn't let us have more than one of the main courses, but the man who served on alternate days let us have 2 or all 3 if we wanted. Other than vanilla and chocolate pudding there was never a dessert. And the only fresh fruit were apples and oranges at lunch. For a country that grows sensational produce, I was disappointed we didn't have more fruit.
On Monday we got our work assignments. I hoped to be assigned to the same detail as Batya but that didn't work out. So Sylvia (a lecturer at Leicester University and 12-time volunteer) and I were assigned to Uri. Our job was assembling field and emergency medical kits. The work was assembly line, routine and boring. But we understood the importance. A doctor or medic in the field will rely on the contents of these kits so there can be no mistakes.
Uri is a little hard to read. Very taciturn, which is atypical for an Israeli. Sylvia and I found him to be rather unfriendly, as if he was stuck with us and wanted no
interaction other than to give us our work assignments. He didn't even try to learn our names. He kept saying "you and you come here".. His English was very
poor. Even tho I kept speaking Hebrew, he kept answering in broken English. By the afternoon I realized that his problem was he was hard of hearing. When I
spoke a bit louder he was pleasantly surprised that I spoke Hebrew, which made his life much easier. But he remained aloof.
The name thing bothered me. I found sticky labels and made name tags. He kept calling us you and you. But the ice did begin to melt by the end of the day
yesterday. He told us our work was very good and thanked us for doing a nice job. Today he began calling us by name. When we finished work I wished him and
his family a Shabbat shalom and good weekend; he actually smiled and returned the greeting.
Sid was assigned to Hagai, and was doing similar work (sorting supplies), but it was much more physical and demanding. He had to lift heavy cartons and a lot of the time he worked outside. It was hot and grueling. But he's been working out every day to get himself in shape so it was a piece of cake for him.
Before we could leave the base today we had inspection. It was serious and we had been warned that the commander was a hardass. She failed a group a couple
weeks ago because of dust on a windowsill. Our sergeant tried to remind her that we're volunteers and not used to regular army inspections, but it
fell on deaf ears. So we scrubbed and polished the barracks, bathrooms, laundry room and lounge. She did reprimand one of the rooms because of dust, but
didn't hold us up from leaving.
