Volunteering at IDF refreshment station

Laundry and shower facilities for soldiers

Dry storage (shipping container)

Kitchen (gas range not in photo)

Dining room

General layout-dining room on left and kitchen on right

Main entrance

Efi Kamara (retired colonel) drove me and the two young women (one from NYC and one from Rome) that volunteered yesterday to the Mavkiim location where there's a refreshment station for the IDF soldiers heading in and out of Gaza.  Everything at this place is donated: the tents, appliances, the food, and, of course, volunteers. A lady, Anat, is in charge and supervises all the food prep.  She's there every day. We served a couple hundred soldiers while we were there and talked with a few. They are able to take food with them or to their buddies. They eat off real plates with real forks. The Hebrew means "Who lives" and it's the logo for the station.  There was a hot lunch with soup and Israeli salads, as well as prepped sandwiches and coffee. And of course,  everything was kosher. It's amazing.

Effie and I stepped out during a lull, and went to Kibbutz Zikim to pick hot peppers. The greenhouses there are not glass, but mesh (to reduce the intense sunshine?) so it wasn't terribly hot in there. I worked a row with a retired Israeli police officer. I practiced my Hebrew and we got to know each other. We picked peppers for a couple hours and returned to the refreshment station. 

Volunteering at a farm

Today was a real volunteering day. I got up early and took the train from Tel Aviv to Ashkelon. I was early so I bought a coffee and waited for my friends. We drove down to the moshav on the map (little red rectangle) and joined another group in packing cantaloupe.

That's me in the yellow shirt. The exhausting part wasn't carrying the boxes or reaching into the bins, but choosing 4 or 5 or 6 melons of roughly equal size to put in a carton. Then the cartons were stacked on palettes by number of melons. They were stacked to 9 layers high then saran-wrapped for transport and moved by one of the two forklifts. Big operation. We quit about 13:00 and this is what was packed by all the volunteers today:

The farmer insisted that we all take home cantaloupes. He wouldn't let us take any of the rejects (which were just cosmetic) and I found one the smaller ones that he was happy about. It's still a lot for me by myself.

Running and resting

The volunteer thing didn't work out so I decided to take a run by the beach. I did leave the apartment at 0700 to avoid the heat, and there was a lot of shade from the big hotels. I'm always pooped after running so I took it easy the rest of the day.

This morning I again attended the beginner's Israeli dance class (see also last year). I wasn't great, but I didn't have to be. It was great. After cleaning up, I met with a new engineering student of mine who lives here.

Jerusalem

I went to Jerusalem to meet some friends. While I was there, I went to Mahane Yehuda and purchased more real food: roasted peanuts (Israeli peanuts are not to be missed), stuffed grape leaves, and a beet salad. I picked up some pretty flowers at the bus station. So I went off program a little and bought some malabi for dessert tonight. I'm going to Friday night services with my neighbor Leah.

Shopping day

This day is always dedicated to buying REAL food. So I went to the shuk and acquired kleenex (OK, that's not food), cheese, eggs, scallions, parsley, lemons, olives, olive oil, cauliflower, fresh apricots, tomatoes and cucumbers. All in one trip. Sat down for a bit, then headed over to the grocery store to get grapefruit juice, soup, and pesto. On the way back, I went to the bakery across the street and got a Beduin bread, a zaatar pita, and an almond croissant.

Returning

I headed back to Israel. I thought it would be better to arrive during the day (instead of dusk) which meant an earlier set of flights, which required an airport hotel in Kansas City to make the 0630 flight. BTW, I had no idea how busy the airport is at 0600. Well, the downside to arriving in the late morning is that the apartment wasn't ready until 3:00. I hung out at the airport because there's a little food, drinks, chairs and toilets. It turned out that there was a problem with my SIM card, so I was able to get that straightened out while I was there. I'm staying at the same apartment as last year because it was nice.