Reflections on Day 1

After endless hours of traveling, 19 jetlagged Brandeis students arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, ready to work hard and experience the "real Israel." We spent the first day trying to overcome our exhaustion from travel and Sylvester (New Year's Eve) celebrations - and being introduced to our worksites! In my first morning of volunteering, my group of five arrived at the sparsely decorated apartment in habited by Shosh, a woman living in the Shprintzat neighborhood of Nahariya. When we arrived we saw the tow rooms that we would be painting. Our professional counter parts had already begun spackling, so we did not even see the original state of things., but the walls were still dirty, old and falling apart. We donned our green work overalls and jumped right in! By lunch time we had bonded with the painters and with each other, completed a bright white coat of paint, and a beautiful purple walled bedroom...and our overalls were not as green as when we first started! Lunch was followed by some time for learning and reflection, and then we were received by a group at Nahariya's city hall. There we learned about the municipality (and were fed, yet again) and saw photos of Nahariya's experience during the war with Lebanon in the summer of 2006.

The afternoon was spent working and volunteering with community clubs, also in small groups. My group of five (different) girls visited the Bayit Ham Labanot (warm home for young women) where the organizations youngest cohort (ages 14-18) were spending time after school, as they do three days each week. The girls were a little bit overexcited about our visit! After a while they quieted down a bit and we were able to talk and interact with the girls for some time before they left for a different activity. At that point in the afternoon we had the chance to speak with the "house mother" and the resident social worker, who explained more about the girls who visited the home. We debriefed after the visit and have more realistic hopes for our next visit. We're excited to have another chance to get to know the girls.

Our first night was complimented with dinner and some ice breakers with the UMass group, who is also volunteering in the North of Israel. Most of us collapsed pretty early that night, in an attempt to catch up on sleep. We were probably more tired than when we first started, but overall, it was a great first day!