A small update

Life in Yerucham
Where to even start…

Yerucham is now home. It’s been about 2 weeks since we have moved down here. Feels longer though. Definitely a different change of pace here. So quiet. I think my body is still trying to adjust to the dry climate here. We are finally settled in our cozy little apartment. Shauna and I have found a new love for Fitness cereal, and sweets.

The day after we moved in we observed in the schools and ended up helping out a little bit. That following Sunday was the beginning of the full day, 5 days a week teaching in both schools- the public high school and the girls’ religious school.
In the secular high school, there are quite a few English classes we help out with. In some cases, we are trying to push the students to a higher level for the Bagrut- from what we were told this is an extremely important English test they HAVE to take. How well they do on these tests determines the type of army placement (since the army is mandated when they finish high school), and it determines where they can get into university after the army. It even puts a barrier on what kind of job they can get if they don’t do well on the test. Some of the students either don’t care or don’t understand how crucial this test is on their future. I have found that the older students tend to be calm and collected and will attempt their work-some of them. Others copy off other students and don’t try, and it only hurts them in the end. The younger students in 7th and 8th grade are wild and often out of control. They are always running around, screaming at other kids, sometimes the teacher. Of course there are those select few in every class that want to do their work and learn. It also doesn’t help that the times of these classes are at the end of the day where they have no more attention span. Most of these observations were in the first week. I think the students were kind of excited about having new people there. The second week is going a little better, behavior-wise. In some classes we split up in groups and it has really helped some of the struggling students. It makes us feel like we are needed here and it is a nice feeling to help. There is still hope! The teachers are more than helpful. I really enjoy working with all of the English teachers, and several of them are originally from the U.S.! It’s fun to hear their story of how they moved to Israel.

I also just started volunteering with the gymnastics here. It takes place in a basketball gym; the mats and equipment are either against the wall or pulled out from a side room. Resources appear to be limited. This was nothing like I had back in the states, but I saw that it still worked out well! Gymnastics takes place twice a week for 3 hours. Each hour a different group of kids come. The last hour the more advanced ones come and practice. There was one girl who just by looking at her you could tell she was a natural born gymnast. No one wears leotards, it is all casual clothing, and the little boys take off their kippas! There are stations for beam, vault, rings, trampoline, and a few other smaller things. The hardest part for me will be the language barrier. Luckily, I work with a couple of my students who I teach English to! It is funny how this is working out, I teach them English, they teach me Hebrew!
So far, living in Yerucham is working out well. There may not be a lot to do after our work, but maybe that is a good thing. We are able to concentrate on what we are here to do, volunteer in the community. We are getting to know the people and the neighborhood every day. Everyone has been more than helpful to our needs. It’s funny how many students I run into at the local supermarket. Several of the shops and cafes (if you would call them that) close from 1 to 4, like a siesta, and then open back up for a few more hours. They do this because everyone with a big job is working and they don’t get much business then.

The first weekend we were here Shauna and I were hosted by the student village, Ayalim, for Shabbat. The student village consists of young men and women who are done with the army and are now enrolled in school. They commute to school every day but they also live in a village they have built, and are still building, themselves. Ayalim is a group devoted to settling the Negev Desert. They are also involved in extra after school activities with the town. It is such a great program. OTZMA even volunteered with this Ayalim back in September; we contributed to the building of a village in the middle of the desert. The dinner was delicious, everyone was nice, but it was so awkward. They mainly spoke Hebrew, which is only a natural habit. Imagine if you were with a group of friends (you speak English) and there were one or two others who didn’t speak your language. You naturally would carry on a conversation in English. OF course they talked to us and were very nice, it was just an awkward first meeting. A few of them invited us on a hike the next day.

We met them the next morning and walked straight into the desert. We were going to find this type of flower that blooms before the rain season. We saw 2 tiny yellow flowers and continued our hike! It was so beautiful once we climbed higher up. The hike took us around 3 hours to do, and once we got back to the village, they invited us to stay for lunch. I learned how to make sushi! The meal was with several others from the village, the food was delicious, and it wasn’t as awkward as the night before!

Last weekend Shauna and I traveled to Arad via one of the teachers we work with. She lives in Arad and we took her up on her gracious offer to go. We visited Arielle and Jason who are 2 other ITC’ers from OTZMA. We took a little tour of the town, cooked dinner and then grabbed a beer. The air so fresh in Arad and the clear night sky allowed me to see two shooting stars!! It was pretty chilly at night and while we were out, the clouds rolled in…on the town. It was so foggy we couldn’t see 20 feet on front of us! Luckily, Arielle and Jason live up on a hill so by the time we got back to their house we were out of the clouds and could see the stars again. The next day we all caught the bus to Beer Sheva. They were going into town to get some shopping done. There Shauna and I caught a bus to Tel Aviv. We went to Tel Aviv to see a friend, Rikki, who is leaving for the states soon.

This bus ride to Tel Aviv was the worst bus ride I have ever taken. First, we get to the station just in time to catch the bus to Tel Aviv; even though the bus driver closed the doors in front of me with Shauna inside. Somehow I got on, but since I was the last one on, there was not a single seat available! When this happens to people (which is more often than you think) they usually stand near the back door since there are steps there. This time there was already this man on the steps, so I was just awkwardly standing up in the isle. He seemed a little off but I didn’t pay too much attention to it. Then he spills his water in the isle (I didn’t see) and this nice soldier told me to move my bag because it would have gotten wet. Then I make eye contact with this odd man and he tells me to sit down, a spot near him…(this is all in Hebrew by the way) I know he was being nice, but I was still hesitant. Everyone around me is looking at me, I could tell exactly what they were thinking..Is she going to sit? Well, unfortunately I agree to sit. The bus ride is an hour and a half long and it was only the first 5 minutes. So I sat on the edge of the step to where I am basically still in the isle. Then I notice why this man seems odd. He is a smelly drunk. I could smell the alcohol on himself in addition to his bad odor. First thing he does is offer me a muffin. I politely refuse. Then he asks me maybe 4 times if I am alright. Then he starts talking to these ladies who are sitting right above us. They start joking around; some of it is funny, of what I could understand. Then he pulls out this liter coke bottle- not full of coke, full of Arack, a disgusting alcohol sold here in Israel. He takes a long swig and puts it back in his bag. He continues to talk to the women and to ask if I am alright. After an hour of uncomfortably sitting against a pole, I was given a sign (maybe by GD) to stand up. This drunken man pulls out the alcohol again, drinks from it, then proceeds to DROP IT. The alcohol of course spills ALL OVER ME. So I jump up and I am disgusted. It spilled all over the steps where we were sitting too. This got other people’s attention to what was going on…so that made it even more awkward. I wish I knew what to say to him because all he did was shrug at me! Ugh! So I stayed standing for the rest of the ride, there was no way I was getting back down there. The drunk then lies down in the middle of the isle and uses someone else’s bag as a pillow. People start laughing and taking pictures- Shauna has a video of this.

I was still in shock of this whole disastrous ride. I felt gross and smelled like alcohol. Then as we are waiting in line to have our bags checked to get into the bus station, this young man asks me for the time and then proceeds to tell me I have beautiful teeth and hit on me. Too much at once! It all just boggled my mind.
The rest of the day and night were great though. We met up with Rikki, her loving grandmother cooked up a delicious dinner, and we went out to a couple of bars at night and had some fun! The weather was perfect, and the company was great.
Her grandmother also cooked us breakfast that was called Jaknoon. I am positive I butchered the spelling, but it was a Yemenite breakfast consisting of this type of dough baked over night, so good. Then we went down to Yafo and walked around. It was extremely touristy but beautiful!

Once we got back Rikki and her family had to go to work, so Shauna and I left to go back to Yerucham. Now is another busy week of teaching and volunteering. Next week, we get to reunite with our fellow OTZMAnikim when we meet them for an education day!