The General Assembly

A couple of weeks ago, all of OTZMA packed up and left Natzrat Ilit to go spend the week in Jerusalem for the General Assembly. It was a week-long conference in Jerusalem for the Jewish federations from North America. It was also the week my mom came to visit!
The GA was definitely very interesting. There were a lot of speakers- pretty much every major player in Israeli politics gave a speech. The best part of the GA by far was on Tuesday, when everyone got on buses and went to visit different parts of the country. My mom and I both were on a bus that went to Sderot. We visited an elementary school, a senior citizen's home and a success center to see how different people's lives had been affected by rockets that are constantly coming from Gaza into Sderot. The elementary school was the most interesting part. All of the kids were having trouble dealing with the stress of living under fire. Many had begun to wet the beds again and were having trouble focusing in school. They had come up for a song for the kids to sing every time they hear an alarm go off. The song calms them down because it gives them something to focus on and the lyrics in the song are directions for what to do. I've (at least attempted to) include a video of the second grade class performing the song.
The room we were in had a bunch of pictures the kids had drawn about how they feel about the attacks. It was really sad to see them all. One kid had drawn his family but instead of heads, he drew targets. Another had drawn his world shattering.

When an alarm goes off, depending on how far you are from the border, you have between 15-30 seconds to go to a shelter. Whenever we went to a new place, the first thing they told us was where the shelter is. Although we didn't have an alarm on my trip, a few of my friends were on a different trip to Sderot and they heard an alarm. Half of them were on the bus and half had just gotten off. The people off the bus ran into the building and hid inside the doorway. The rest just ducked down on the bus below the windows. Just that one experience had people really panicked and none of us could imagine living like that on a daily basis. Some of us will have to for three months. Although none of us are living in Sderot, two of the towns that OTZMAniks are going to for track 2 have been hit. Kiryat Malachi is not one of them.
After the GA ended and my mom returned, life returned to normal in Natzrat Ilit. We only have a week and a half left to live up here. Everyone is getting panicked about packing all of our belongings back into our two suitcases, although naturally we're all waiting until the last few days to actually do it.

Back to the Grind

For our first month in Israel, we were all told so many times that things will really start up after the holidays. We all found this to be very true. Ulpan started up with new enthusiasm and we were all given a new list of different volunteering opportunities. Although my schedule was already pretty busy I added a few new ones, such as working in an afterschool program in Nazareth and in an old-age home in Natzrat Ilit.
I went to visit the old age home for the first time last Sunday. A few friends and I sat down with an man who was originally from Gilbraltor but had lived all over the world and knew about 7 languages. He had been a teacher and we talked with him about politics and got him to read our palms. He said I was going to have four children and be financially successful; which is also what the palm reader in India said. There was also an old lady who liked telling me about all her health problems. She asked me if I worked in Carmiel. She said she knew someone who works in Carmiel who also has big cheeks and she thought I might be her.
My favorite volunteer position that I have is the English class we have in the absorption center for the Ethiopians. Twice a week, Adam and I meet with two boys named Amalu and Setkarjew. We talk to them about how life was in Ethiopia compared to Israel and the US. They're both really nice guys and it really is my favorite part of the week when we get to go teach. The classes have also really helped us to get to know the other residents of the center (We also have a class for the people living here from FSU). All the Ethiopians are much friendlier when we see them now and it's a lot more pleasant living in the absorption center when we're not completely isolated by our little American bubble.
Every week, OTZMA gives us a food stipend of $10 a day. We have only a toaster oven and a stove to cook with, so it has led all of us to experiment a little and to polish up our cooking skills. I never had any cooking skills from the start, so this was quite a challenge for me. A few weeks in, I learned how to make my first grilled cheese sandwich. This led me to think that I could survive off eating scrambled eggs, pasta with olive oil and garlic, or grilled cheese for every single meal. That quickly became boring, so I started experimenting. I'm glad to say that my cooking skills are slowly improving. I made a vegetable soup from scratch last week and earlier today, I was part of a joint effort to make apple sauce, which turned out amazing. I'm still afraid of trying to cook meat, but hopefully eventually I'll get there. For part 2 of OTZMA, I'm living in Kiryat Malachi with 5 other people. Four out of the five are really good cooks, so hopefully they'll be able to give me some tips.