Greetings from Ma'alot!

By Dana H.

Greetings from Ma’alot! My time in Israel thus far has been amazing! The plane ride was exhaustingly long but made enjoyable by the awesome person who sat next to me! Jess, a girl from Brandeis with whom I talked to the entire time! The first night in Israel started with a hoppin’ night out in Nahariya for New Years, or as they call it here, Sylvester! Then we got straight to work. Each morning we go to an apartment building where we are in the process of painting the stairwells. At the beginning I couldn’t understand why this was the project we were doing but as we continued I saw that the people who live in the apartments were sooooo appreciative! There was one woman named Mazel who I call “the mommy” of the project! Each day she sets up coffee, tea, cookies and other snacks for us while we work and every day she opens her house for us to use the bathroom.

In the afternoon we have a couple of social service projects we can work on and I chose to work with children at risk. It is basically an afterschool program that children from broken families, single parent homes and other risk factors are able to go to for free. It is located in a bomb shelter. I noted on the first day that I thought it was great that the children hang out in this bomb shelter that is a very comfortable place for them so that when god forbid they have to be in there for an extended period of time they feel at ease. As a matter of fact today (Sunday), there was a rumor that there were a couple of rockets dropped in the center of town. About four or five women came running into the bomb shelter all disheveled and crying. I was in the middle of making an art project with the children in the back room. I didn’t actually see the women run in but I could hear the commotion going on in the front room. This was a terrifying experience because honestly I had no idea what was going on. The first thing I heard was, “in code” so the children didn’t understand was, “What’s happening in the south is happening here”. So many emotions ran through my body and I didn’t know what to do. I went to the sink and washed my hands, quickly thought about it, and realized, “Here I am, with children, I need to keep myself together and be a role model to show the children that everything was going to be okay”, even though in my mind I really didn’t know if everything was going to be okay. I composed myself, walked out of the bathroom and tried to comfort the children. I soon found out that it was just a sonic boom from a jet that flew over the town. A sigh of relief came across me. I was still in a state of shock but I was so relieved that it was not a rocket. I see this incident as a huge learning experience. It was an insight into the fear that Israeli’s feel everyday of their lives. You can watch the news, look at pictures, hear stories, but that feeling that I felt today would never be experienced by simply doing those things.

On a lighter note, this trip has been amazing so far! I came on the program not knowing anyone. I was pretty anxious because I thought that everyone knew everyone else, but in fact that was not the case; the group is great! Stacey is organizing a talent show, which will be on the last night we are all together to serve as a group bonding activity. We already know that Hannah is the most talented in the group, some of her talents include: folding a t-shirt really fast, blowing the insides out of a hardboiled egg, she has a great showering process, talking in a weird gremlin voice and I’m sure many more! Shari will star as the emcee, Josh G. and Mike K. are in the process of finding a guitar to complete their act, Stacey and Sophie are still accepting anyone who would like to join their dance, Carly will be displaying her burping abilities and the rest of the performances will be TBA. If you would like to see your child perform we will fly you first class out to Nahariya on Turkish Air (best airline ever!), if for some reason you cannot make it you can see it on video as we will have professionals filming (a.k.a Carly and Zahava). I just wanted to let you know it is raining outside and this is the first time I have ever seen rain in Israel!!!


One highlight of the trip thus far was Shabbat Dinner at a host family. I was a little bit nervous about the dinner because I was afraid it would be awkward but it was not at all. The first thing that I found out about the father was that he was the Matnas Director (JCC Director), my father does the same exact thing in NJ. There was a connection already. They had a 19 year old daughter in which Carly and I really connected with, even so much that she invited us to go out to a party with her. At the end of the night they gave us little gifts to bring home to our parents. It was so nice and I really enjoyed feeling the warm hospitality of Israelis.