The Beginning of the End

As of now, I have 16 days left in Israel. We had our final ceremony a few nights ago. We have it before we actually end because some people have to leave early to work at summer camps. I've already said goodbye to one friend. She lives in Milwaukee so chances are it's going to be a long time before we see each other again which is really bizarre to think about. Tonight I'm saying goodbye to two more. Just typing this is making me sad. The whole ceremony was bittersweet. It was the last time that the whole group will really be together. Although nothing about the ceremony itself was sad, a lot of us were close to tears. The ceremony was for otzmanikim and their adoptive families, so Neta and Idit came. They've been really amazing this year- whenever I spend the weekend at their house, it really is like going home. They take good care of me and I've definitely become part of their family again. Neta and I have reconnected and become good friends again after 10 years of being apart.

We also had a surprise guest at the ceremony. About three weeks ago, Dave left the program because he had mono. He miraculously healed at home and hours before the ceremony began, he showed up at our hotel in Jerusalem. It was great to have him back- everyone was shocked to see him again.

I'm still working with ENP and enjoying it. A lot of the interns here go to Hebrew University and their program ended already so a few weeks ago, we all were taken out for a thank you lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant nearby. It was really nice hanging out with everyone and talking about things not work-related. It was scary to see their program ending because even though Otzma is one of the last year-long programs to end, it's the beginning of the end to watch everything ending around me. One of the other interns here, Mara, is from San Francisco and we actually know a lot of the same people. It's been really great working with her and getting to know her. We'll definitely be keeping in touch back in the bay area. Mara has extended her trip and so she's still here working with me at ENP. She knew Danna from BBYO back in high school, so when Danna came over last weekend, Mara slept over too.

Earlier this week, I went to a scholarship ceremony for ENP. They work with federations to give university scholarships to Ethiopian students. The only white people at the ceremony were ENP staff and a couple of the speakers. This was the most immersed I've been all year in the Ethiopian community. The ceremony was 2 hours of speeches in Hebrew that I had to take notes on- that's right folks, I guess I can definitely speak the language now. Which is perfect timing cause my English is starting to go. (Whenever we speak in English here, we use simple words because we never know how much someone understands. So everyone's higher language vocabulary is going.) I've been through plenty of ceremonies this year aimed at Americans so it was really interesting to go to one aimed at the Ethiopian community. At every ceremony for Americans, we are always encouraged countless times to make aliyah (move to Israel). This ceremony, the overriding theme was to give back. Only 3,000 Ethiopian-Israelis are in university so all of the speakers really encouraged the students to go back and volunteer in their communities, in the teen centers, schools and community centers and to be an example to other Ethiopian-Israeli teenagers and encourage them to aim for university too. Part of ENP's rhetoric is that they work with the Ethiopian community to help themselves to advance in Israeli society. This was the first time that I was able to really see that in action. It was really touching to see how hard everyone had worked to reach university. A few of them were studying at top universities. One girl I talked to was from Kiryat Malachi. After seeing first hand the quality of her high school education, I'm pretty amazed that she managed to reach university. Though there were programs in place in Kiryat Malachi to help students that worked hard, it was clear you had to really want it and try hard to succeed.

Here's all of the interns at lunch!