Volunteering again

 Well, I wasn't going to be late today. I got up at 0500, had one cup of coffee,  and was out the door by 0530. First stop was buying some almond croissants for me and the other two volunteers in our little group.  Always a good idea. Then a bus to the train station.  The train to Ashkelon went through Rehovot instead of due south,  but I had time, and it was interesting. I got a cappuccino in the Ashkelon station and enjoyed my croissant.  Efi arrived around 0815 and Ron arrived at 0845. Efi drove us to the IDF refreshment station. Honestly, I didn't work too hard (cut some peppers and chopped some carrots), so outside of putting some clean dishes away and taking out some trash, I stood around a lot  and said hello to the soldiers.

Ron is third from left in the back row, then Efi, then me. This was all of today's volunteers.

We picked up nice leftover food from Kibbutz Yad Mordechi again and brought it back to the IDF station.  Then, on our way home, we brought some food from the station to a squad at the gate to Be'eri.

Everything was late today

 

I was late for my lunch with Margalit. But we had a nice long lunch and I got to hear stories of when she first moved to Israel. I had hoped to go to Mahane Yehuda, which I did, but the nut place had already closed. Then I headed back to Tel Aviv by bus, but it took forever because of rush hour traffic.  Why didn't I take the train? So I was exhausted when I got home.

Busy Sunday

 

I went to the beginner's dance again. It was great. I wasn't. On the way back I bought a big poppyseed cake to take to my friend's house later. I showered, ate a little and jumped on a bus to the train station. 

I met with another student who will be at Rockhurst this fall. He's another volleyball player (6'6" - easy to find). He will be in the business school, but I assured him that he is welcome in my office any time.  Then I zipped home and picked up the cake and took the #82 bus to Petach Tikvah.

I visited friends who made aliyah a few years ago (I helped with their wedding in Lenexa). In the past three years, they have been in three different apartment buildings. It was a lovely visit, as usual. 

Friday recap

(Bon appetit)

 As usual, I met friends in Jerusalem. I got there fairly early and went to the Mahane Yehuda market to get peanuts.  I didn't need anything else, but the shuk wasn't crowded so I walked around and looked at everything. 

When I returned to Tel Aviv,  I went to the wonderful Nachalot Binyamin craft market that's open on Tuesdays and Fridays. Since I was, and will be, volunteering on Tuesdays,  this was my chance to get a cool pair of earrings. Then I went back and prepped for Shabbat. But, oh dear, I forgot to buy flowers! The clock is ticking. I headed back to the shuk, which was full of people walking too slow, and a number of vendors were closing for the weekend.  And the flower vendors are on the other side of the shuk. But I got there in time and bought a small bouquet of peach-colored roses. My walk back through the shuk was more relaxed.

Addendum to Gaza Envelope

When we were at the car memorial, we met two Beduin men that lost a friend in the 10/7/23 disaster. Efi talked with them a bit in Hebrew and translated for us.

Recovery from volunteering

I am tired today. To use a great American idiom, I feel like I was ridden hard and put away wet. I'm glad I had an unstructured day. I did some light shopping, which included some nice poppyseed cake from a bakery near the bus stop.  I made a snappy tomato-avocado-garlic salad for shabbat (it's marinating).

Tour of Gaza Envelope

For someone who said, "I've never been to Gaza, I've never been near Gaza," I got pretty close today.  Efi took us on a tour of the communities devastated on 10/7/23.

We went to the car memorial. Many of the cars had been hit by RPGs.

We then went to the gate of the deserted Kibbutz Be'eri.

Then onto the Nova music festival site.  We met the mother of one of the hostages who had been working security that night. She and her sister (?) were very kind and told us about her son. They had women's siddurim that are dedicated to some of the hostages that they gave us and we promised to pray for their safe return. My person's name is Arbel Yehud.

L>R: sister, Rome, mother, NYC, me. Photo of son on the van.

 

Then we went to a couple of bomb shelters that don't have doors, but people from the festival tried to hide in them. We met two survivors of that night and heard their stories.

L>R:Efi, NYC,  survivor, survivor,  Rome, me.

On the way home, Efi took a turn that is usually closed to public traffic because it leads to an IDF base. We saw eighteen-wheelers unloading tanks, and then saw a staging area with tanks and military bulldozers. We weren't hustled out of there but we left fairly quickly. We were near Re'im. Interesting night.