Shana tova haverim! (Happy new year, friends!) I'm writing to you during my four day vacation for the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.
Though we were only at the Mechina for 9 and a half days, they were very packed indeed - so busy that sadly I can't include every activity we did here (so I'll try to talk about the most interesting ones). I started off last week being very sick so I had to stay in my room and sleep during Sunday's activities, which was frustrating, but it meant that I could go the next day to our seminar in the north by the Sea of Galilee (the Kinneret) about group-building. The seminar took place in a museum/educational institution, so we slept in sleeping bags either in the basement or outside near the water. I really liked the seminar, which taught us to put our fellow Mechina participants first while still maintaining our personal needs. It also created some interesting historical connections between the idea/terminology of a group and the state of Israel (through kibbutzes, the independence day way, etc.) The seminar ended on Tuesday night, and then we slept for three hours in the museum basement.
Why only three hours you ask? We all woke up at one in the morning in the morning and got on the bus to go to Safed (Tsfat) for a tour. An ultra orthodox Jew (Chabad to be exact) who used to be secular led a discussion with us about spirituality, and then gave us a tour of Tsfat and explained why it's so holy - Jews often call it the city of wind because of its spirit. We also went into a synagogue before the sunrise to see the Jewish practice of "Slichot," or "apologies" for sins that takes place before Rosh Hashanah. Though we were all super tired it was an amazing and new experience.
When we got back we slept until two in the afternoon and then did a theater activity throughout Jaffa. In order to learn the city's rich history, we split into six groups, and each group got a period in Jaffa's history. Our assignment was to write a seven minute play about the period, and then perform it at a site in the city that corresponds with the time period. For example, my group got the Ottoman period, so we wrote a show for kids using popular Hebrew kids songs (and also Heigh Ho and Party Rock, which is NOT a kids song) and rewriting the words to explain what happened during the Ottoman rule in Jaffa. Then we performed in the Clock Square of Jaffa, and a bunch of Japanese tourists came to watch, as well as the rest of the people in the Mechina! It was a really fun activity, and all of the groups were really creative. (I've posted a couple of pictures from our show in particular.)
The next day we went on a guided tour in a museum about the most extreme underground Israeli movement that fought the British mandate before Israeli independence. The day after my committee (Jaffa and the Community) led an activity where we sent out small groups and asked them to talk to certain vendors and also random people in the area of Jaffa's flea market. They came back with amazing, funny, dramatic stories about the city - my favorite is an urban legend that says that there are four turtles and some rats that have all been mutated due to living in Jaffa's sewage system who thrive on pizza and burekas (a filled pastry) and protect the city. After that my dad and my sister Shani came and visited me, and then we got ready for Shabbat. We welcomed Shabbat with a student-written service by the sea, which was very moving and fun.
On Saturday we rested and slept a LOT as recuperation for the week. I walked along the boardwalk on the beach to Shani in Tel Aviv and ate frozen yogurt with her. When I got back we did our end of the week summary, then Havdalah (the ritual that separates Shabbat from the rest of the week).
The thing that excited me most this week was the beginning of our preparation for volunteer work! On Sunday we had a long lesson with Rotem, the coordinator of volunteer work for the Mechina, where we learned a little bit about all of the different institutions where we can volunteer. Then Sunday evening and Monday morning we had a series of really interesting lectures about different cultures in Jaffa, and how to bridge the gap between our culture and other extremely different cultures without offending or being overbearing. The first lecture about intercultural relations was given by a Russian Israeli who immigrated twenty years ago and now works with new immigrants. The second lecture about the Ethiopian population in Israel was given by an Ethiopian immigrant who writes for Israel's biggest newspaper. The third lecture was given by an expert on immigrant workers and refugees. After the lessons we took a tour of two institutions where we can possibly volunteer this year. One is a youth club for children in first grade to fifth grade who are children of migrant workers and refugees. Because of their "at risk" status these kids, who all come from the same school, go to this club every day where they do their homework, do fun activities, and eat lunch and dinner before going home. If we choose to work there, we will be assigned a specific child to work with and tutor, and will also lead a group activity twice a week.
The second institution we visited was called "Bnai Darfur," which is a support center for refugees from Darfur who have walked up from Sudan through Egypt and arrived in Israel. One of the first refugees to arrive in Israel spoke to us about his journey and the dangers that accompany most of the Sudanis who make the trip. If we choose to volunteer in this institution, we will mostly tutor both adults and children in Hebrew and English so they can start integrating into Israeli society.
Though this has been an amazing week and a half, it hasn't been without its trials and tribulations. We got back from the seminar to find that my apartment's bathroom was nonexistent - we didn't have a bathroom or a kitchen sink all week, which was very hard. The whole mechina had thought it was hard to have six showers for 52 people until one day two of the apartments had faulty pipes and one of the main room's bathroom was out of order, leaving all of us with a grand total of 2 showers/toilets. There were also confirmed rumors of a rat and a mouse walking around the building, so an exterminator came yesterday to fix that problem! It's been tough but we survived :)
I'll finish with a celebrity story - we said goodbye to our upstairs neighbor on Tuesday, who had to move out with her little scotty dog. Her name is Hili Yalon, and is fairly famous in Israel for being one of the stars on a popular teen show from a few years ago. On her last night I was sitting with two friends on one of their apartment's balconies when we hear a shout from above: "Need some onions?" and then thump, thump. Hili decided she did not need onions in her new apartment and threw them down to us/at us. So next time we'll make spaghetti sauce hopefully it will be famous!
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