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.

Nahariya Service Photos!

Some photos from our first two days of Service:

Revitalizing and refurbishing a Miklat - Bomb Shelter

Creating a functional community herb garden with local artists

Illustrating the Gilad Shalit Story at the Mishol Center

Painting apartments of the elderly

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!