MDA training

After Mada’s 10 day intensive training program, I passed my written and practical exams! I am now a qualified first responder. I will be joining a driver, who is a licensed medic, and one other first responder on an ambulance.

There are two shifts: 7am-3pm and 11pm-7am. Hopefully they wont make me work night shifts because I hear they really mess up sleeping habits. During the hours I am at work, I wait at the station until we get a call. Certain drivers are assigned to certain calls and certain first responders assigned to certain drivers. If I get on good term with the drivers, then they will trust me more and let me do cool things like administer IVs. I need to learn all the medical terms in Hebrew so the medics will know I am serious. I better go study!

My first shift is tomorrow and I am excited and nervous. I kind of hope I don’t get any calls just so I can ease into my new work. But how cool would it be if on my first day I got a really serious call?

The Gorgeous People of a Gorgeous Land

“Akuna matada. It means no worries for the rest of your days.” – Timone and Pumba from The Lion King

I have decided that in Africa the people live by the saying “Akuna Matada.”
Life is so chill over there. They don’t try to make loads and loads of money; they just want to support themselves. Because they aren’t work-aholics, they have a lot of free time that they spend socializing on the side of the dirt roads.

Time is never an issue for them and they disregard it completely. This is a nice thought except if you make a time to meet with someone, the person could show up an hour early or two hours late.

The first thing I noticed when I got off the plane that Monday morning was the vast amount of green lushness. After our bus left the smoggy, traffic filled city of Kampala, we drove for hours on end through green meadows and agriculture. There was a house every so often made out of mud bricks next to a clothes line with the most colorful clothes.
We could pull over at any point for a bathroom stop – that’s how much nature there was!

The people of Uganda were super friendly. Whenever they spotted our bus, full of white people, they would wave and yell, “Mzungu, mzungu!” or “white person, white person!” It is amazing how far a smile and a wave can go in any country.

When we got off the bus at a rural market outside of Kampala we were the main attraction. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at the so-rarely-seen white people. It was weird, in the country, some of the little kids were scared of us because they had never seen skin like ours.

We toured and we hiked and we experienced the market. The waterfalls in Africa are one hundred times prettier than American waterfalls only because, in Africa, the hike there is over rivers and through rainforests. We met locals on the side of the road who were fascinated by our digital cameras. We always had to ask before snapping a photo, but often times people would agree only because they wanted to see themselves on that little screen.


On Thursday we drove to a town called Puti and visited an orthodox Jewish community. This group of Jews has no running water or electricity and uses a designated large hole in the ground for a bathroom. Only the adults spoke English, and only a small amount. However, my connection to these people had nothing to do with words. After being welcomed by their leader, we split into small groups and were supposed to be discussing the story of Hannukah with the older students. A few girls and I decided to play with the younger kids instead.

Getting started was hard because they did not understand anything we said. We had to motion and show examples. We somehow taught them Duck Duck Goose, and they loved it. Every time one of them said, “Yuse” instead of goose I laughed, while their peers burst into screams because someone was getting chased. The children then proceeded to teach us a game similar to Duck Duck Goose, called “gam yeladim” (they sang in Hebrew). We went back and forth teaching each other hand games and songs until we ended up doing some Israeli dance. It was so much fun!
What a feeling I had – I felt a deep connection to these girls because we shared the same way of life (Judaism), even though our life styles were very different. It was cool to look around and see diversity, while only looking at Jews. That doesn’t happen anywhere else.

Our sad depart included me stripping my wrist of friendship bracelets and tying them on my new friends. When we left, the children ran after our bus; I felt like I was in a movie!

We spent Shabbat with another Jewish community – conservative and much larger a community than the one in Puti. This community had toilets, water, and the works. It was a completely different experience from the day before. I instantly bonded with a nine year old girl named Bina, after all our names rhyme and her brother told us we looked alike, aside from the skin color. Bina spoke English and lived in a paved house with a bath tub. She showed me her Jewish Day School and gave me a tour of the area. We had Friday night services and then sat down to a nice African meal. I ate matoke (boiled and mashed bananas), rice, g-nut sauce (tastes like thick peanut sauce), lentils, and potatoes. After Shabbat we retired to our tents.

I woke up very sick on Saturday, which ended up putting a damper on the rest of my time in Uganda. I spent Shabbat lying in the shade, resting and watching. I noticed that the kids of the community basically raise themselves. I only knew who two of the girls’ parents were by the end of the weekend because all the children do is play with each other. They don’t get hurt and if they do, it’s a young kid and a ten year old gril will pick up the child and make him better. It was crazy for me to see seven year old boys carrying babies on their backs and two year old girls walking around aimlessly. No one watches over the kids except for themselves.

We said our goodbyes after Shabbat ended and after our dance party ended. We headed to a hotel and fell fast asleep.

This trip has crossed a lot of things off of my To Do List of life, but more importantly I left Africa with a new sense of worldlyness. I can now say that I have stood half on each side of the equator. Life can be so different somewhere else, but everyone still lives.There are two different lifestyles – mine, which is full of electronics and competition or the Ugandan lifestyle, which is laidback and behind the times. I would love to have grown up not wearing shoes and just playing with other kids ALL the time. But I also cant wait to attend an American university.

Africa is still stirring in my mind. I haven’t quite figured out what life lesson I learned there, but I just like Uganda. I like what I saw and I would love to go back.

MDA

Just hours ago I had no idea where I would be or what I would be doing for the next three months. But now I am very excited to say that I will be volunteering with Magen David Adom – the Red Cross of Israel. My volunteer job is to work in ambulances, dealing with minor injuries as well as emergencies. I have an intense training week and a test I have to pass in order to actually do the job.

It’s crazy that I am going to be waiting in the ambulance when a sick person calls 100 (the 911 of Israel). I will have to stay calm at the sight of blood, and step up to any task that is asked of me.

I am very nervous. Very nervous. But my hope is that the training week will boost my confidence. I will be helping so many people. All I can think of is what a great mom I will be if I know all of this medical information! Think of how easily I will be able to diagnose my kids. It’s like cheating my way into being a doctor.

My apartment is with five other girls in Netanya. Netanya is I between Tel Aviv and Haifa. It’s a cute little town right on the Mediterranean Sea. I have already spent two weekends in Netanya, so it will be easy to make it my home.

Wowie Zowie!

I learned today that there has never been a kidnapping of a child in the history of Israel.

Isnt that just amazing?!

Mom, now you can stop worrying so much!

New Experience Overload

I went on a Tiyyul (hike) with my hebrew class. we learned landscape vocab and the names of different kinds of trees. This is Ilana and me:


This past week was jam packed with new experiences!

Pre-note: Just in case you don’t know, it is mandatory for every Israeli citizen to serve in the army. Men serve for three years and women for two. They serve after high school and before college.

On Sunday I went to a rally for missing Israeli soldiers.
It was awesome. There is such a different attitude toward the army here than there is in America. I got interviewed by an Israeli radio station (in English) and I talked about the differences. Back home I don’t know anyone in the army, or anyone who is related to anyone in the army. So when if a soldier goes missing in America, it doesn’t affect me at all. Back home I feel completely removed from the army, but in Israel it surrounds me. In Israel EVERYONE has a son, daughter, sibling, or friend who is currently serving in the army. Therefore when a soldier goes missing all Israeli citizens are much more sympathetic towards one another. In the summer of 2006, Israel was at war with Lebanon. The whole entire war was over one P.O.W. who was captured in June. Two more men were captured in July, and all three are still captive. The America I know would never go to war just to get a few missing soldiers back. Israel is like a small community of a country, its nice.

The rally’s purpose was to inform people about the state of the three missing men. Family members and friends of the three men spoke to the audience (made up of about 2200 students, youth group members, and soldiers) about how to keep the cause going, “we cant give up now,” “our men will come home alive”… The chairman of the World Zionist Movement spoke to us about how Israel would do all they can to get their men home. It’s like the lives of these three men are more important in Israel than they would have been in America. I don’t even know how to explain it…just three soldiers have caused a national movement to occur. It really gives power to the individual.

On Monday night I went to a dance class at a studio near my hostel. Here is an excerpt from an email I wrote to Ms. Carr and Dance Production 2008:

“While I have been gone, I have had two rencounters with dance. The first was on a fieldtrip with my art class. We went to a Yemenite village and studied Yemenite art and culture. I got to stroll through an art museum, make clay pots, but most exciting, I got to take a Yemenite dance class. Now I don’t think Yemenite dancing is something I will pursue in the future, but it was a good experience. It involved a lot of twisty wrist movements and contractions of the chest. The woman teaching the class had huge curly hair and a velvet pink stretchy dress covering her petite body. I tried to imitate her hip swivels and “Habibi”-esc hand movements. A smile came across my face as my bare feet tapped the ground and I realized that dance is a truly world wide activity.

I am now sitting down at my lap top, in my hostel room, exhausted from taking a hip-hop class. This class was amazing. I was extremely intimidated to go because I knew the class would be in Hebrew, and I only just starting learning the language. The Yemenite class had been in English because it was will my American class from school, but this time I was on my own. I left my dance pants, half soles, jazz sneakers and jazz shoes in Berkeley so I showed up to the class in sneakers and leggings and a V-neck. The teacher ended up being the sweetest woman. The first half of the class was all technique with plies and rond de jambs. I haven’t done any real stretching in a very long time, so it was painfully satisfying. The teacher counted in English, I guess because numbers in Hebrew are all two syllables and in English they are mostly one syllable, which is faster to say. The language barrier ended up being less of a problem than I expected. I had to use my eye sight much more than usual because I couldn’t verbally understand if a foot was supposed to be pointed or flexed, I had to watch and see. It’s just remarkable that anyone can attempt any type of dance no matter where on earth they are. I had so much fun learning a hip-hop dance to “The Way I Are,” which has made its way half way around the world.

Dance is something that covers every continent. It is a language that can be spoken in any country and it is phenomenal.”

I went to an Ethiopian Community center for a field trip. I learned about how the Ethiopian population believes that they are from the lost tribe of Dan. After the first temple was destroyed, they fled Israel and settled in Ethiopia. They have bee returning to their homeland of Israel ever since it was created. I got to learn about how their Jewish customs are the same as and differ from the Jewish customs I know. They only celebrate holidays that are in the Torah, which means they miss out on Purim and Hannukah (my two favorites!). In Ethiopia, they have a day called Sigit on which they hike up a tall mountain and pray to G-d to be taken to Israel. This “holiday” is taking place this Thursday and I get witess it on another fieldtrip…the only thing I don’t understand is why they would have this holiday IN Israel… I guess I will find out!

Well that’s enough for now, but my next entry will include my experience on a Kibbutz.
La-he-tra-ote = until next time, bye= להתרןת

October 14

During Sukkot we went to a food fair and saw a hip hop group perform on the street. They were SO talented and it really made me want to dance, so i am going to look into classes.

Last week was pretty hard for me because I was homesick. Everything somehow reminded me of my family, friends, and home. It was even hard talking to my parents on the phone because I just felt like crying when I heard their voices. However, I had an amazing weekend that changed everything. I went with a friend named Ilana to Netanya. We stayed with two girls (Anna and Lauren) whom we met at our orientations. The weekend consisted of Anna working on college applications and Lauren explaining life lessons to me (to push past the homesickness). I really didn’t want to move on from high school life – especially all of my amazing friends. Lauren, who has already completed one year of college, made me realize how necessary it is to let go of high school in order to make the most of this year. I realize now that although high school was fabulous for me, I can move on and still keep Berkeley High; I will just keep it in my past – incredible memories! And no matter who I meet here I know I will always have my high school friends.

The hostel always empties at night because people feel the need to go to clubs in order to have fun. It was a relief to spend this past weekend on the couch – there aren’t any clubs in Netanya. We watched Harry Potter and drew Sharpie tattoos on each other. Also, I got to see Gili – an Israeli who worked at Camp Kee Tov with me this past summer. She invited me to stay on her kibbutz. I cant wait to stay with her because my mom talks so highly of kibbutzim and I want to experience one for myself!

I came back to the hostel and immediately started studying for my midterms that are coming up this week. I am sure that it is not as stressful as real college, but I haven’t had anytime for school lately – we have had so many breaks because of Jewish holidays that I feel like I haven’t even started learning anything, yet I have midterms this week!

I now feel completely safe and confident with the buses. I told my brother how exhilarating it is to know how to use public transportation. Now that I can get around on my own I feel like Israel can’t stop me from doing anything I want to do.

Hopefully all will stay peaceful with me. They don’t celebrate Halloween here in Israel and my counselor wont even let me organize trick-or-treating at the hostel because Halloween isn’t a Jewish holiday! My roommate and I are decorating our room with printed pictures of pumpkins and I made some ghosts out of tissues and friendship string. Hey, I’m still American! Halloween here I come!

September 28

We get to do our own laundry here and as you can see, it's been quite difficult for me to figure out!

I have had some more amazing culture shocks in the last two weeks. For Yom Kippur I stayed with a family who spoke great English because the mother is from L.A. and brought her kids up speaking English and Hebrew. I had an amazing vegetarian meal (the mother, Fern, says its much easier to keep kosher if you are just vegetarian – very convenient for me). I finally got to load up on protein from the delicious fish and tofu Fern made. I cant stress how much I enjoyed the meal!
The two girls didn’t feel like going to services so I went with Fern and her husband, Arnon. These services were much more bearable than the ones I went to for Rosh Hashanah. The men and women were NOT separated and I recognized some of the melodies.

Because everyone in Israel gets Yom Kippur off, it’s like a reunion for all the kids in the army who haven’t seen their friends in a while. The older daughter just got out of the army so she went to the town square to see some familiar faces. The younger daughter, Shera, is 12 years old and stayed out until 2:30 in the morning walking around with her friends! Fern told me that Jerusalem, and Israel in general is very safe, much safer than the U.S. It’s not a law, but no one, and I mean NO ONE, drives on Yom Kippur – even non religious people leave their cars parked in their driveways for these special 25 hrs. Instead of going to services, most kids ride their bikes on all the streets and even on the freeway. How cool is that?!
I had a really great time with this leniently-conservative family and because they live in Jerusalem, I will hopefully be there again soon.

Last night ended the first of seven days of Sukkot (yet another Jewish holiday, celebrating the autumn harvest). A lot of kids from the hostel left for the weekend because we got four days off of classes. However, the kids that stayed behind headed to Ben Yahuda (the street where there are lots of bars and clubs and young adults like me). Much to my surprise, there was SO much going on because of Sukkot. There was a stage set up in one of the squares and I watched a man in a black coat, long beard, peis (curls hair near the ears), and a black hat jumping up and down and singing in Hebrew. It was such an oxymoron – usually the Hassidic Jews are contained and quiet, but I saw them riled up in a crowd singing along! Every restaurant on Ben Yahudah had a sukkah for people to eat in and they were all full. The sidewalks were so crowded that I had to push my way through, like trying to leave the Little Theater after a Berkeley High performance. The whole street was alive with Israelis, food, and music.

I am starting to love it here. Just walking around is always fun because I see so many new things. I went to the Mall this morning to mail some things and it was just a big party – again in honor of Sukkot. There were people on stilts and art projects for kids. The biggest Sukkah in Jerusalem is made out of candy (a play on words because Sukka-riya means “hard candy” in Hebrew). For those of you who know me real well, you know that a candy Sukkah would be a dream. I will hopefully find out where it is tomorrow. If I go there, my life would be complete and I guess I would be ok with dying anytime after.
Hag Sameach (happy holidays) and I hope you all have a great harvest! Haha.

September 17

This is Hayley. She is from Houston.

I am back at the hostel - my new "home." I feel so much better now about my situation. I’m starting to memorize my schedule and I organized a binder for school.

I want to share with you all a cultural experience I had on my way home from Nahariya. Melissa and I went our separate ways in Tel Aviv – Melissa took a bus to her apartment while I ventured off into the night to get home to Jerusalem. You have to know that we are advised not to travel at night by ourselves, especially because we haven’t been in the country long enough to know the public transportation yet. However, I did not have a choice because I had to get back for class on Sunday and trains don’t start running until late Saturday night because of Shabbat.

I found my way to the ‘grey hound’ bus station area and bought myself a ticket on the last train to J-town. The bus was very crowded – people even stood for this hour-long ride. A mother sat down next to me and put her two-year-old girl between us, so I squished against the window. Then she said something to me in Hebrew that I, of course, did not understand. The next thing I know, she is holding her ~6 month old baby out to me. I take the boy and she says “toda” (thank you), informing me that I have done the right thing. She walks away and leaves me with her two children. After five minutes of me being amazed that she trusted a stranger and in awe of the adorable child on my lap, the mother returned and retrieved her child. The four of us spent the next 55 minutes cozily nestled into two seats.

I learned that full-on families use public transportation all the time here. Women with small children, who aren’t even poor, take buses and trains. Additionally, Israelis who are serving in the army get free public transportation. It’s nice to look around and see men and women proud to be wearing their green uniforms.

When I got out of the taxi at my hostel I felt completely liberated and a sense of confidence rushed through me. I felt like I had conquered Israel. There is nothing here I cant do now!

The Holy Land

This was our first shabbat and we went to the Western Wall.

I haven't even been here for two weeks yet, but I feel like I've been gone for months. I've been putting off writing this blog entry because I don't want to face the truth that I am homesick already.

In every public area I feel so foreign, because I am. I'm generalizing when I say this, but Israelis are not the most accepting people. They cut in lines and push in crowded situations. I'm used to the pushing because of Berkeley High hallways, but at home I feel no shame in pushing back. I don't push back here because I feel like I will be giving Americans a bad reputation or something like that, I don't know. I feel vulnerable in every situation because I don't speak the language. Hebrew classes just started and they made me realize how much Spanish I actually know, because compared to Hebrew I could say I'm fluent in Spanish.

I spent the Jewish New Year with a girl named Melissa, with whom I went to Portugal, and her cousins up in Nahariya. We went to synagogue three times - all of which made me so happy to belong to Beth El back in Berkeley. Because the synagogue we went to was orthodox, the men and women are separated by a movable wall. The whole service (the rabbi, the torah, the bimah) all take place on the men's side, while the women listen in and stare at a wall. I felt so excluded like, "why the hell am I here?" In Israel the synagogues are 95% orthodox, 1% conservative, and 4% reformed. The Israelis don't accept the conservative movement so most conservative Jews who want to be accepted just become orthodox. You won't find an Israeli in any of the Reform synagogues - these are mostly full of Argentineans and Americans. So when I get back to Jerusalem I will have to do some research to find a reform temple near me.

Nahariya is so north that from the beach, Melissa and I could see Lebanon. Melissa's family showed us three places where missiles fell last summer during the war with Lebanon and these locations are all (don't read this mom)within 10 blocks of their house - scary!

On the positive side, my roommate Stacey (on the right the two of us are in an Italian synagogue in Jerusalem) and I get along and the Youth Hostel is very nice. We have a swimming pool and a gym (which I should be going to every day because meals are "all you can eat" buffet style). Hopefully once a little more time passes I will settle in more and stop comparing life in Israel to life in Berkeley.

Being away from home makes me realize that the city and the people of Berkeley are truly amazing. I miss you all so much and would love to hear about what's going on in your lives.

Shana Tova V'Metukah(have a good and sweet year),
Nina

Por-2-gal!

Ola!i have so far visited Lisbon, Porto, and Belmonte. Porto is just gorgeous. As i looked out the window of the tour bus i saw yellow apartment buildings and blue mosaic tiles. Everywhere i went i saw laundry hanging on the black iron-rod balconies. Here and there are vines climbing up old, but gorgeous gothic buildings. Porto is dirty but full of culture.
So far i have learned a lot about the Spanish Inquisition and i have heard numerous stories of the Morano Jews (jews who pretended to be catholic during the inquisition in order to be able to continue life in portugal or spain). The inquisition lasted for about 300 years so its amazing that jewish traditions still exist here. We met a woman named Louisa who was brought up in a catholic community but didnt celebrate christmas or easter and was told by her parents not to eat pork. Her father was the one who picked up all the similarities between his family´s customs and jewish ones. sharing this with his children opened up a new window for louisa and her brother. louisa "re-converted" last year and plans to make aliyah next year.
In the past few days i have been really touched by the stories of these jews who have come out of hiding. small, but present jewish communities are begining to re-form in the big cities of portugal.

i love it here in Portugal but i am getting antsy - i want to be in Israel already!

missing you all,
Nina
(just for fun, obrigada(girl) obrigado (boy) is how you say thank you here!

Going to Portugal!

Hi everybody,

Welcome to my blog!
I'm leaving on Saturday to tour the world. I fly to New York and stay overnight with my grandparents. Then on Sunday i meet a group of about 30 kids with whom i will be going to Portugal. I'm excited! Yay world traveling!!! WAHOOO.

Please feel free to email me at any time: ngkalltheway@sbcglobal.

More to come!

Love yall,

Nina