Home Sweet Home Part I
Ahhhh Beit Canada…where students and new olim congregate to start their lives in Israel…for a measely 100 shekels a pop (the going monthly rate.) This three six-story building covered in golden-hued Jerusalem stone sure sounds amazing…but in reality it’s not all that glamorous. Really!!
Having experienced the WUJS Institute program in middle of nowhere Arad in the Negev, I knew what it was like to live in a Merkaz Klita (absorption center) among random folk—having lived alongside Ethiopians who only spoke Hebrew and Russians who only spoke Russian.
I knew not to expect much with Beit Canada, decent sized room, small kitchen, bed, table chairs, closet, desk, shelves, etc. Mind you, the shower was the kind where you’d have to use a squeegee…but what should I expect paying such a meager price?
Here’s what else I don’t love about Beit Canada. (Really? There’s more than one thing?
- A shower that floods easily.
- Three laundry machines and two dryers for 116 units, which means I have to get up in the middle of the night to do my laundry.
- The website says there’s a fitness room (Wait, there’s a fitness room? What fitness room?)
- Internet access that runs 2 hours a day from 7-9pm for 500 something people.
- One small kitchen and living room for four girls (as this is what I was given when I first moved in. I barely had room for my things!)
- One closet for two girls one who was here for a year and the other who had made aliyah (do you even realize how much clothes the average girl has?)
It’s nice to be in a multilingual environment where so many different languages are spoken and everyday I am accustomed to hearing not only Hebrew, but French, Spanish, Russian, English, and Dutch.
Still, it’s not so nice when the cliques start forming.
Every night I come home to find the French sitting on the benches on the front patio smoking cigarettes and making inside jokes…in French. Every night I say hi to my one Canadian friend who speaks English and French and watch dishearteningly as he goes back to conversing in his native tongue. I wish I knew French.
Last night, the people who spoke Spanish paraded out of the building to say good-bye to one of their own. Afterwards, they sat around talking and laughing in Spanish. I couldn’t be part of that conversation as I don’t know Spanish either.
The Russians like to sit outside clutching drinks (stereotypical I know) conversing about what they miss about home. (The same thing happened with the Russian teens in the Merkaz Klita in Arad.)
I was placed with three Russian girls none of which spoke English. Lucky for me, my parents happened to speak Russian and come from Uzbekistan, but had I not had any Russian background, I would be stuck trying to figure out how to make ends meet.
The first few times I was in the apartment, the girls had their guy friends come over to “check out the girl from America!!” as if I was some superstar or something. They couldn’t speak to me in English, only gape. And yet, they seemed disappointed when I started speaking Russian.
And here I thought Russians were the hot commodity…
On a Positive Note
I was in Sderot, albeit 6 months ago on Tuesday, November 14, 2006. I remember that day because it was the first day I ever stood on a hilltop overlooking the Gaza Strip.
But my group toured Sderot as well. It’s a small development town, rundown and poor with a high unemployment rate. . People go about their days, but the town suffers tremendously from poverty. Restaurants don’t get business, classrooms in schools are emptying, and in some places litter fills the streets. Houses are only just beginning to become Kassam-proof.
The relative quiet that took place at the time didn’t mean that there weren’t any rockets. They fell on the outskirts of the city and one even fell the day after we visited the place.
We visited the local hospital where a worker spoke to us about the people that enter unwillingly, suffering from wounds or shock. We visited the police station and saw the remnants of past Kassam rockets clearly labeled by date and time. Then we stood atop a hill and viewed the Gaza Strip from a distance. It’s hard to imagine that this is the same Gaza Strip that Israeli friends of mine have said their parents used to visit because of good food and fair prices.
An Israeli friend from Arad once told me he was thinking about moving to Sderot just because the houses there were so inexpensive. How sad!
But in the midst of such trying times for the people in Sderot, one blogger struggles to find the positive in it all. I think we all can be inspired by the optimism in Mechi Fendel’s Jpost blog.
Whenever people meet me (in taxis, in the hospital, etc.) and hear that I live in Sderot, they immediately ask “What are you still doing there? Why don’t you move out?”
Why don’t the people of New Orleans and Florida move out since there are still hurricanes? What about those who live in LA – maybe there’ll be some more earthquakes…
My answer to those who ask is that we moved to Sderot in order to help the town – to strengthen its citizens and to contribute to the welfare, education, etc. – we can’t move out now when the town needs us to keep up the morale and to help its residents try to live “normally” in these abnormal times. I understand that some Kassam missiles fell over the Passover holiday…what’s new? May I continue to write only happy news in these blogs!
Mechi makes me realize that I made the right decision in coming to Israel for the year.
On The Loose
If you’re thinking of heading out to Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Center for a shopping mall experience or movie day, a bit of advice: Inspect that bucket of popcorn in the light outside the cinema before sticking your hand inside in the dark. 
Twelve (!) rare snakes escaped their aquariums and may be on the loose inside the mall; no one seems to know where they may be lurking…
According to the Hebrew press, when employees of the mall’s observatory level “Butterfly Ranch” tropical exhibit arrived to work on Wednesday morning, they discovered the snakes had gone AWOL. The missing species: King Cobras and Pythons. How comforting.
Police are investigating. Theft is the likely culprit of the snake disappearance. Not wanderlust. How the thieves tricked security cameras, security personnel and alarm systems is a mystery to all. But they got away with $15,000.00 worth of rare merchandise.
Terrified Chat
The population of the Negev’s Sderot is suffering tremendously from ongoing rocket barrages out of Gaza. Ongoing as in years. It’s nuts.
In our day/age of YouTube, BlackBerry, IM and the power of “instant”, the effect of someone chatting to another person in real time during a rocket hit is quite surprising.
This IM chat between Sderot resident Shlomo and a friend sitting at a business meeting in another part of Israel was blogged here. An excerpt follows…judge for yourself.
Shlomo: Another warning… Oy!! Missile hitting
me: Stay safe, enough photos, are you in a safe place?
(dead air!!! where is he??? no response to multiple pings!!!)
Shlomo: almost was just killle, kasssm ell 20 yard aawywera, help, househitnxt t12 me. 20 yards awy1!Q#!$34
me: YOU THERE, YOU OK???
Shlomo: no…near heartr atcck. har to dbeare beathe. oh my god. i t waa so close
Shlomo: i wil be ok.. i t waa so close. I have film maye oj hit… hans ahshkING
me: ENOUGH FILM, GO GET SAFE, call for help!
Shlomo: me peopl. r u seriouasdf. (incoherent?)
Shlomo: more missiles… ambulances beging peope to go home
me: ???????? I don’t understand. Are you ok? If stuff is still coming, get safe!
Shlomo: have it. moment of hit. i have it….the film of hit…camera turned off right after hit…
me: should be something, but think maybe staying in one piece more important.
Shlomo: lol…i am zero pieces… going back…. I don’t do boom.
Shlomo: another warning!!!!!!!!!!! runniig. threee more houses hit nearby
!!!!!!!!!!!! three more missiles that is… another hit nearby. 100s running from scene. this is about 5 in last 30 minutes.
Shlomo was okay albeit he had to be treated for biting his own tongue hard enough to need treatment.
Open Call
The Negev town of Sderot has been hit repeatedly with dozens of rockets coming from Gaza over the past several days.
Residents are traumatized, exhausted and overwhelmed.
While the government forms a plan of action (they DO have a plan, no?) the Hebrew daily Yediot has put out an open call to Israeli residents. The translated version:
Sderot residents need one quiet Sabbath. Without air raid sirens or exploding Qassam rockets. This is your chance to open your hearts and homes and host a family this weekend so that they can return home recharged.
Interested in hosting? Call: 08-689-2220/1, 08-661-0434 or 052-6051089
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