Initiation

I send these messages out in weekly emails so let me know if you would prefer to be on the list ~Kfi

So this week I officially became an Israeli. On Monday I got my Israeli Identity card (teudat zehut) and opened a bank account after spending 40 minutes learning about how banks here suck and take your money for everything you do. Yay! I have also moved almost all of my stuff into my apartment and even have a mattress there, but have yet to actually sleep there. But all that doesnt count. I truly became an Israeli on Tuesday, when I left my cell phone in a tremp (hitchhike car) on my way to Netivot.

So yeah, this week I went to Netivot for 2-3 days. For those of you who dont know, Netivot is an Israeli town near the Gaza strip that, along with Sderot and other towns in the area has been under rocket fire for the past seven years. Obviously, due to the current war in Gaza, the rocket attacks have become more frequent, and there are usually 2-3 a day. When a rocket is launched, a siren goes off in Netivot and the residents have approzimatly 30 seconds to get into a bomb shelter before it hits. In Sderot, they have 15 seconds. Since that is not alot of time, most of the familys in Netivot and Sderot have been living in the community bomb shelters. My friend Eli and I went down to volunteer with a group called Lev Echad that goes around to different shelters and cheers up the families there. Because it has not been not safe to send the students to school in over a week and it is not safe to let them play anywhere but inside or right outside the shelters, they are depressed and scared and really bored. So groups of four or five volunteers go around to the various shelters (there are over 80 of them in Netivot) and play with the children or talk with the teenagers or help out the adults. We also go to the houses of the older couples who cannot leave their homes.

I have read alot about what is going on down there, and even written a research paper about how these attacks are affecting the children growing up here, but it is something else entirely to see it.

We started out on wednesday and went to shelter where four of us played with 15-20 children. We did art projects and games, and skits and entertained them for about four hours. I did not even here the first siren or the boom when the rocket hit because we were in the shelter the whole time. But eventually, the adults were getting annoyed with all the noise we were making so we moved outside and played on the street corner for awhile. It is kind of eerie there because the town looks just like any other Israeli town, and the children are playing just like other children, and sometimes it takes you a moment to realize that the streets and houses are abnormally quiet and everyone kind of orients themselves around the shelters.

The second siren went off just as I was leaving the high school where we were all staying. It was really nice outside and a group of clowns had driven down to volunteer so there were alot of children and volunteers outside playing games etc. When the siren went off, everyone started running outside and one of the smaller girls, Ranana fell on her way inside. She was quickly picked up and we all got inside and were fine but you could tell that she was crying more from fear than actual pain. It killed me that there was nothing I could do or say to make her feel safe. I cannot even imagine growing up feeling afraid in my own house.

We actually went and saw a house that had been hit on Saturday and I could not believe the damage that these rockets can do. More than half the house was obliterated and the one next door was full of holes just from the shock of the blast!

Anyway, I dont want to go on and on about this because honestly I am still trying to absorb it all myself. All I can say is that I am amazed by the strength of these people and I cannot believe that they have had to live like this for so long. They make me proud to be Israeli.

Dont worry, I have had enough excitement for this week and will be staying safely in the middle of Israel for the next few days. For those of you who want to learn more about Sderot/Netivot, you can either ask me or check out this website http://sderotmedia.com/?cat=5