no hebrew, no cows, no jesus, but its still a crazy time.... mel returns to israel part two

Date:Tue, 28 Dec 2004 08:00:19 -0800 (PST)

Subject: no hebrew, no cows, no jesus, but its still a crazy time.... mel returns to israel part two

Shalom L'kulam,

Hoping this e-mail finds everyone happy and healthy and enjoying the joyful season between Christmas and New Years. It's hard to believe I've only been here a week and a half--it already seems like forever ago that I left College Park behind. Contrary to popular belief--I am surviving and thriving "bli luach z'manim" (without a schedule)--meeting interesting people and having interesting conversations, exploring new lands and finding adventure along the way.

There's something both terrifying and exhilerating about still not knowing where you will sleep that night at 8:00 PM, but this freedom is something I hope never to lose as I shoulder my big green "tik" (backpack) and head offinto the sunset with "Uuf Gozal" ("Fly Away Little Bird" a popular Israeli song) ringing in my ears.

This past week I have been mostly in Jerusalem, volunteering at a soup kitchen called "Carmei HaIr"(Vineyards of the City) right in the heart of the city. "Carmei" is actually an acronym that stands for"Kol Raev Mimenu Y'chol" (So That All Hungry Among You Can Eat). The soup kitchen's philosophy is unique in that it is more like a restaurant with volunteers that provide food at a "pay what you can if you can" price. It is a beautiful dining room with curtains and incense burning and the volunteers wear matching aprons so anyone walking by on the street could mistake it for an actual restaurant (many American tourists have, in fact, sat down and waited to be served--gotta love that country).

The patrons are served soup and a choice of fish, meat, or veggie entrees--for most it will be their only meal of the day, hot or otherwise. The best part is that the director has told me in the year since it has opened, many of the "regulars" have started taking better care of themselves and their self esteem has improved when they realize that they are not eating in a regular soup kitchen, but more a restaurant where a few people do pay for their meals.

Sometimes if I'm not fast enough in bringing the food,some of the patrons will make fun of me and say "What, are you going to get married before you bring me my soup?" which is actually funnier for me than it is for them, because while marriage is not even on the horizon for me, when they see a 19-year old girl in a skirt in Jerusalem they assume that within the next year there will be a wedding and two years maximum before there will be little Melanies running around (oh man could you imagine anything scarier?).

On that note--I spent a night or two with my friend who is currently studying for a year at a midrasha (girls' school for a year of intensive Jewish texts learning), also the campus for a teaching college for religious women. Most of the women in the college arebetween 20-22, and over 75% are married. The best part is that the women bring their youngest babies to class with them because they're too young to leave at the school's daycare (which, incidentally, I think there are more kids in the day care than women at the college).

You can walk into any lecture and see four or five women rocking babies and taking notes at the same time. I can just see it now--me walking into my government and politics lecture with a baby over one shoulder and a messenger bag over the other. I wonder if hearing about Pareto suboptimality and the prisoner dilemna game in chimpanzee societies at such an impressionable age would negatively affect the child's development.

But volunteering at the soup kitchen led to a very interesting experience over Shabbat. On Friday night with my Nesiya 2002 crew we decided to experience the classic broke students in Jerusalem shabbos adventure--free dinners with Jersualem families who open their homes to people on Friday night, every Friday night. We ate dinner with the Machluses--a huge Haredi (black hat very religious) family who cram 90-100 people into their tiny living room every Friday night to sing eat and make merry over the kosher wine, all without enough room to lift even your pinky toe.

After a moving Friday night services at the Kotel (Western Wall)--so incredibly beautiful even in the rain with the various minyaniim (groups) dancing and singing and praying and yelling-- we trekked an hour and a half through the pouring rain and various Arab neighborhoods to the famous Reb Machlus' house.

It was a wonderful night, made even more poignant by the fact that at our table, among a few Canadians and British teenagers studying at Yeshivot and a handful of the aging hippie population still bumming around Jerusalem, were four or five people who I had served the past week at Carmei HaIr. It was mamash a humbling experience to sit at the same table and share food with the same people I thought I was "helping"all week.

I don't know if they recognized me and I wasn't about to bring it up, but to change so quickly from being on the giving end to being on the recieving end was not something I will quickly forget.

On another note my Hebrew is... well, there's a lot of room for improvement. I find myself making a lot ofthe same mistakes as last year--as in r'aeva vs. ra'vaka--"Man I didn't eat breakfast today I am so single!" (said of course to a cute Israeli soldier). I find myself thinking "Last year I learned to milk cows and speak in Hebrew. If I can't talk in Hebrew and I have no cows, did I really accomplish ANYTHING in those six months?"

As far as the money situation goes, I'm making an artout of living on less than 20 shekels (about $3.50) a day. I also started learning to fire twirl with Josh's downstairs neighbor, and one night we went to Ben Yehuda street and we made 150 shekels (about $35) in two hours.

Note to various older family friends, parents and grandparents--please ignore the last paragraph.

Unfortunetly going to Bethlehem on Christmas did not come into fruition; we did go to the Church of the Holy Scepultre (where they have a cross believed to be made out of the same wood as Jesus' cross) but there weren't any Christmas activities. The entire Christian Quarter was very quiet. Mom, Dad, and grandparents--you should ignore that paragraph too.

Well that's all for now--I'm continuing to m'tayelet, to wander around this country, exploring various snipets of Israeli society--an American-Israeli midrasha, an Israeli army graduation ceremony, kibbutz, moshaviim, settlements, both sides of the'green line,' Tel Aviv nightlife, sunrise at the kotel, community theater in Efrat, shabbos afternoon in Jerusalem with nary a car in some neighborhoods...

There is so much to do and so much to try and so much to see and its difficult to experience it all. I am currently in Haifa with my friends here, some of whom are on a few days' break from the army and some of whom will "l'hitgayes" (go into the army) in two weeks, trying to cram everything in before they go back.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe new year... may it be a year filled with laughter, love, new opportunities, and lots of people writing back to me to make me feel loved.

B'ahavah,
Melanie