Since I last wrote Friday, I think I have most of 3 days. Shouldn’t be too difficult, since 2 out of 3 were very relaxing days.
Friday I spent a quiet morning drinking coffee, writing and returning e-mails and tasting Dina’s yummy homemade croissant (singular – honest, thought she made trays of them). Then I went with Shlomi to spend the afternoon at Moshav Gefen, eat a leisurly lunch and drink some 2005 Mediterraneo, one of my favorite wines. Shlomi and Hila drove me to Kibbutz Saad to stay with the Drori family for Shabbat.
Only 4 of the 6 children were at home; Omer, the oldest was with a Philadelphia partnership 2000 program in Jerusalem. Uriah, the 3rd eldest was with his grandparents in Tel Aviv. We became friendly with the Droris years ago when Ayelet and her sister Liat stayed with us in Maryland for her brother’s wedding. I stayed in a vacant home (with air conditioning!) and spend nearly all my time with the Drori’s (or in shul). I didn’t miss a minyan from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Friday night we drank a bottle of Tanya Cabernet Sauvignon I brought from the winery on Wednesday. They had friends from Be’er Sheva visit Saturday afternoon (we spent some time in the kibbutz pinat chai, kind of a petting zoo with a snake, owl, 2 horses, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, two raccoon looking things, parrots and cockatiels, ducks and geese, some small arava deer, a chinchilla and I don’t know what else). We also celebrated Kanah’s 3rd birthday.
Saturday night I went with Ayelet to Kibbutz Beeri to see a panel of Israelis and Palestinians speak about beginning dialog on a personal level. I’ve seen similar things in the past – not meaning to be a pessimist, I haven’t seen them succeed, but it was an interesting evening nonetheless. It had to end by 11 pm since the Palestinians had to be back in Hevron at the checkpoint before the curfew at midnight.
Sunday morning I went to the dining hall with Noga (aged 9, my new kibbutz buddy) for breakfast, and then we went to Kanah’s gan for her gan birthday party (if we count parties instead of years I think she’s about 10 now, though she was 3 on Friday). It was fun to see how an Israeli kibbutz gan does a birthday.
Ayelet drove me to Sderot. As a kibbutz member she can check out a kibbutz car as needed, but she pays at the end of the month for the usage, and there is a fairly sophisticated electronic id program to get into the transportation office, reserve and check out a car, etc. Since I found out our USY group was late leaving Jerusalem, Ayelet took me to meet a guy doing volunteer work with Ethiopian High School students in Sderot, Barry Rockman (in Israel since 68, in Sderot for only a year because he thought he could help during the trouble there, and preparing to leave for the Moshav of Eshta’ot next month). Barry, originally from Birmingham, England is 74 years old (though he looks a lot younger) a psychologist and is a bit of a character. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with him. Then we met up with the USYers, gave them an overview of the non-profit Reut that we have been working with the last 3 years, and did some clean up and painting in a rocket-proof park in town. Pictured above is Odelia, a worker with Reut who moved her family to Sderot a few years ago, and Gilad, a Seaboard USYer painting a giant concrete catapillar in the Playground of Wishes. We had a lot of fun and were able to work mostly in the shade despite the heat. Then we headed back to Jerusalem for our wrap up.
We had a quick dinner on Emek Refayim, ran into Washingtonians Hillary Kampner (who I tend to see everywhere) and her son Koby and Susan Shevitz from Cambridge Massachusetts. I’m trying to rest up before another busy mitzvah day with USY. Half the group is going to the Diplomat Hotel, half to the big Brother/Big Sister Clubhouse in the morning, and then we’re all going to pack packages of food with Moshe Kott at Lev Ramot.
All part of the package. Have a good week.
Friday I spent a quiet morning drinking coffee, writing and returning e-mails and tasting Dina’s yummy homemade croissant (singular – honest, thought she made trays of them). Then I went with Shlomi to spend the afternoon at Moshav Gefen, eat a leisurly lunch and drink some 2005 Mediterraneo, one of my favorite wines. Shlomi and Hila drove me to Kibbutz Saad to stay with the Drori family for Shabbat.
Only 4 of the 6 children were at home; Omer, the oldest was with a Philadelphia partnership 2000 program in Jerusalem. Uriah, the 3rd eldest was with his grandparents in Tel Aviv. We became friendly with the Droris years ago when Ayelet and her sister Liat stayed with us in Maryland for her brother’s wedding. I stayed in a vacant home (with air conditioning!) and spend nearly all my time with the Drori’s (or in shul). I didn’t miss a minyan from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. Friday night we drank a bottle of Tanya Cabernet Sauvignon I brought from the winery on Wednesday. They had friends from Be’er Sheva visit Saturday afternoon (we spent some time in the kibbutz pinat chai, kind of a petting zoo with a snake, owl, 2 horses, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, two raccoon looking things, parrots and cockatiels, ducks and geese, some small arava deer, a chinchilla and I don’t know what else). We also celebrated Kanah’s 3rd birthday.
Saturday night I went with Ayelet to Kibbutz Beeri to see a panel of Israelis and Palestinians speak about beginning dialog on a personal level. I’ve seen similar things in the past – not meaning to be a pessimist, I haven’t seen them succeed, but it was an interesting evening nonetheless. It had to end by 11 pm since the Palestinians had to be back in Hevron at the checkpoint before the curfew at midnight.
Sunday morning I went to the dining hall with Noga (aged 9, my new kibbutz buddy) for breakfast, and then we went to Kanah’s gan for her gan birthday party (if we count parties instead of years I think she’s about 10 now, though she was 3 on Friday). It was fun to see how an Israeli kibbutz gan does a birthday.
Ayelet drove me to Sderot. As a kibbutz member she can check out a kibbutz car as needed, but she pays at the end of the month for the usage, and there is a fairly sophisticated electronic id program to get into the transportation office, reserve and check out a car, etc. Since I found out our USY group was late leaving Jerusalem, Ayelet took me to meet a guy doing volunteer work with Ethiopian High School students in Sderot, Barry Rockman (in Israel since 68, in Sderot for only a year because he thought he could help during the trouble there, and preparing to leave for the Moshav of Eshta’ot next month). Barry, originally from Birmingham, England is 74 years old (though he looks a lot younger) a psychologist and is a bit of a character. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with him. Then we met up with the USYers, gave them an overview of the non-profit Reut that we have been working with the last 3 years, and did some clean up and painting in a rocket-proof park in town. Pictured above is Odelia, a worker with Reut who moved her family to Sderot a few years ago, and Gilad, a Seaboard USYer painting a giant concrete catapillar in the Playground of Wishes. We had a lot of fun and were able to work mostly in the shade despite the heat. Then we headed back to Jerusalem for our wrap up.
We had a quick dinner on Emek Refayim, ran into Washingtonians Hillary Kampner (who I tend to see everywhere) and her son Koby and Susan Shevitz from Cambridge Massachusetts. I’m trying to rest up before another busy mitzvah day with USY. Half the group is going to the Diplomat Hotel, half to the big Brother/Big Sister Clubhouse in the morning, and then we’re all going to pack packages of food with Moshe Kott at Lev Ramot.
All part of the package. Have a good week.
I've some great pics of the playground in Sderot - I'm assuming it's the same one. Let me know if you'd like me to send them.
ReplyDeleteNext time I come, I'll have to see Alice, Libby and Moshe....
Have a good day teaching and doing mitzvot!