I haven't posted in too long...so this will be a synopsis of the past couple weeks.
From the 11-15 we were in Ramla, doing regular volunteering and the likes...tried out a couple new places, the more religious school in the area Bar Ilan (it's kind of boring though, I don't really want to go back) and Moadonit which is an after school center for elementary school kids in need of care but can't afford other options. It's a small building with a little outside area, but they make use of the space available and we play soccer, or climb trees, or whatever the kids want and also some English work at some point. Alright, other than that it was a standard week.
Then last Friday (3/16) 7 of the 9 kids who started the program at the same time as I did moved into a HOUSE on the edge of the city and it's ENORMOUS and awesome, but kind of far away from grocery stores and the bus station...I'm going to take a video very soon (maybe today) and will post that as well.
Alright, so last week MASA (who gives us scholarships for being here, meaning the cover the program cost) had a Building Future Leaders conference in Jerusalem for the week and 400 MASA participants attended along with many staff members who were past MASA participants. And then, in this one week conference, they packed in about 6 months worth of activities. Day 1, President Shimon Peres came and spoke to us (he wakes up at 4am everyday, just FYI) along with Bibi Netanyahu (but Bibi didn't speak).And from there we went directly to this fancy hotel for an Evening Gala complete with hors d'ouevres, a 4 course meal, speeches, and a concert. Day 2 the entire group went to Neot Kdumim which's a huge outdoor park with a lot of different activity sites and we all got to do 3 in our groups. They're all designed to teach us lessons and as group bonding time. The first activity I volunteered to be the one to leave the group for 5 minutes and when I came back I had to get the other 20 people to stand on chairs and clap and holler. Except I didn't know the secret password...and on and on. We also built massive sand castles and herded sheep (which was amazing).
The next 2 days were packed with speakers and demonstrations, mostly online stuff since I chose the Networking track as my desired 'specialty' at the conference. We were introduced to a bunch of websites, heard from a lot of entrepreneurs, and did some hands on (though I don't know how they were relevant) activities.
Here's a lipdub that some of the kids participated in: http://vimeo.com/39054231
At some point there was an American stand up comedian and a performance from SHI360 (who apparently people have heard of).
Anyway, I got back from Jerusalem Thursday night and went to Allan for a lovely weekend Friday. Am now back in Ramla!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Chag Purim week!
They definitely know how to celebrate here...the key is starting on Wednesday and not stopping. And a load of alcohol.
Sunday and Monday were standard volunteer days, Tuesday was the parades and parties at the schools (which unfortunately we were late for and arrived just as the kiddies were pouring out of school - still one of the highlights was a kid who dressed up as 'dinner' and was wearing an enormous box with plates, cutlery, bread, etc glued to the top). Here's me and some of the girls I work with at the Arab Center, which I love:
Wednesday we had an extra long Ulpan session then 3 hours of enrichment in the afternoon - Rabbi Eli, who also talked to my group during Birthright, came to talk to us about Purim and told us about all the festivities going on in Jerusalem for the weekend and told everyone to come and hang out. He lives in the Old City about a 10 minute walk from the Kotel and introduced us to the Heritage House which is maybe 5 minutes away from his house, a hostel where Jewish travelers can come and stay for free. So I went Friday night, and they fed us and gave us drinks basically from when we got there until we left. There was supposed to be another meal on Saturday at 6, but we left instead of going to it because I literally couldn't sit down for more food.
Thursday my program took my group as well as the Ashdod volunteer group on a walking tour around Jaffa and then to the Palmach museum (kind of an interactive walk through with scenery and videos about the beginning of the Palmach and how they were able to survive with such few provisions and negligible training time). We also went to supposedly one of the best hummus places in Israel, but when we got there they told us all their most popular dish was this hummus with egg dish, so we all got it and it was grossssss. Highlights from Jaffa:
Jerusalem and Purim (which I couldn't stop calling Halloween) pictures:
Sunday and Monday were standard volunteer days, Tuesday was the parades and parties at the schools (which unfortunately we were late for and arrived just as the kiddies were pouring out of school - still one of the highlights was a kid who dressed up as 'dinner' and was wearing an enormous box with plates, cutlery, bread, etc glued to the top). Here's me and some of the girls I work with at the Arab Center, which I love:
Wednesday we had an extra long Ulpan session then 3 hours of enrichment in the afternoon - Rabbi Eli, who also talked to my group during Birthright, came to talk to us about Purim and told us about all the festivities going on in Jerusalem for the weekend and told everyone to come and hang out. He lives in the Old City about a 10 minute walk from the Kotel and introduced us to the Heritage House which is maybe 5 minutes away from his house, a hostel where Jewish travelers can come and stay for free. So I went Friday night, and they fed us and gave us drinks basically from when we got there until we left. There was supposed to be another meal on Saturday at 6, but we left instead of going to it because I literally couldn't sit down for more food.
Thursday my program took my group as well as the Ashdod volunteer group on a walking tour around Jaffa and then to the Palmach museum (kind of an interactive walk through with scenery and videos about the beginning of the Palmach and how they were able to survive with such few provisions and negligible training time). We also went to supposedly one of the best hummus places in Israel, but when we got there they told us all their most popular dish was this hummus with egg dish, so we all got it and it was grossssss. Highlights from Jaffa:
Jerusalem and Purim (which I couldn't stop calling Halloween) pictures:
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Ramla Week 3
Been so busy (which is great) and so drenched in rain (which is horrible....you'd think after Blacksburg I'd be used to ridiculous weather).
Sunday I had Ulpan in the morning then went to visit a community center on the other side of town (in the Arab area) where I think I'm going to be going a couple days a week after school to teach English or just hang out and play games with middle school to high school age girls who are typically only allowed to leave the house for school, but have gotten permission to attend this workshop hosted in their new community center.
Went to Tel Aviv Monday and ended up at the Dizengoff Center which is a very unique looking mall, that happened to have a Michal Negrin, which happened to have a promotion running....
Then back to Ramla to sit in on other kids volunteering at the 'Underground' (to get a sense of how things run and what kinds of lessons we'll need to plan) which is a program for adults ages 18-30 ish who want to learn English at night.
Tuesday was back to Ulpan for our last full day of Hebrew lessons (now we'll have lessons twice a week, maneuvering the schedule around our volunteer times) and then we were invited to go to Hertzelia to be extras in a movie called Youth. I know nothing about the movie or if I was even in it, but we were at a movie theater for about 5 hours as they filmed scenes where normal people were either sitting in the theater pretending to watch movies, walking around, buying popcorn, etc etc. I spilled a huge thing of popcorn, and after that pretty much watched the last couple hours from the sidelines. They had a couple soldiers join us, though, so it was cool to talk to them and learn what they're up to and how they get involved in different, random community activities.
Wednesday and Thursday I had my first official days of volunteering finally! The differences between schools here and those at home are startling. Everything here is informal, slightly (being generous here) disorganized, and a VERY loud. The kids scream, the teachers scream, they all slam doors, stand on chairs/desks, just basically do whatever they want. I worked mainly with 4th-6th graders this week...4th grade was nice (and they think I'm super exotic...) but the 6th graders, especially the boys, are impossible. Most of the time we'd get to a class then the teacher would send me outside with 2-4 kids to work with, and their levels of English could range from fluent to 0. And their level of participation ranged from fully participating to screaming expletives and throwing stuff at windows. I really need to improve my Hebrew...
Ok, here are some of the most boring pictures: my apartment:
Sunday I had Ulpan in the morning then went to visit a community center on the other side of town (in the Arab area) where I think I'm going to be going a couple days a week after school to teach English or just hang out and play games with middle school to high school age girls who are typically only allowed to leave the house for school, but have gotten permission to attend this workshop hosted in their new community center.
Went to Tel Aviv Monday and ended up at the Dizengoff Center which is a very unique looking mall, that happened to have a Michal Negrin, which happened to have a promotion running....
Then back to Ramla to sit in on other kids volunteering at the 'Underground' (to get a sense of how things run and what kinds of lessons we'll need to plan) which is a program for adults ages 18-30 ish who want to learn English at night.
Tuesday was back to Ulpan for our last full day of Hebrew lessons (now we'll have lessons twice a week, maneuvering the schedule around our volunteer times) and then we were invited to go to Hertzelia to be extras in a movie called Youth. I know nothing about the movie or if I was even in it, but we were at a movie theater for about 5 hours as they filmed scenes where normal people were either sitting in the theater pretending to watch movies, walking around, buying popcorn, etc etc. I spilled a huge thing of popcorn, and after that pretty much watched the last couple hours from the sidelines. They had a couple soldiers join us, though, so it was cool to talk to them and learn what they're up to and how they get involved in different, random community activities.
Wednesday and Thursday I had my first official days of volunteering finally! The differences between schools here and those at home are startling. Everything here is informal, slightly (being generous here) disorganized, and a VERY loud. The kids scream, the teachers scream, they all slam doors, stand on chairs/desks, just basically do whatever they want. I worked mainly with 4th-6th graders this week...4th grade was nice (and they think I'm super exotic...) but the 6th graders, especially the boys, are impossible. Most of the time we'd get to a class then the teacher would send me outside with 2-4 kids to work with, and their levels of English could range from fluent to 0. And their level of participation ranged from fully participating to screaming expletives and throwing stuff at windows. I really need to improve my Hebrew...
Ok, here are some of the most boring pictures: my apartment:
Bedroom
Other half of bedroom
Table
Living area
Kitchen
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