Making the Desert Bloom

We started the day off continuing our painting in Yerucham until lunch time. After lunch we drove down south further into the desert to do an hour and a half hike. It was beautiful to see the natural desert. At one point I hiked up a steep hill and was able to look down in all directions from the middle of the nowhere – I was on top of the world! After the hike we visited the grave of David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel. He is buried in Sde Boker overlooking the desert we had been hiking in. After being Prime Minister he moved to this city and joined a kibbutz which fulfilled his dream to develop the desert in Israel. Such a well respected and important man in the beginning stages of building Israel as a country took up regular jobs in the kibbutz, where is first job as the past leader of Israel was a sheppard. We learnt about his vision and foresight to realize that Israel’s greatest challenge as a country in able to succeed as a nation is to develop the destert, which makes up 60% of the country. Israel must find a way to cultivate the land and make the desert bloom if it is going to succeed.The hill I climbed (I'm the speck on the top sitting on the left). Our tour guide Yishai is in the forefront of the picture.

The grave of David Ben Gurion and his wife Paula. The desert mountains can be seen in the background.

In the evening we had dinner and went to a bar where David Broza was performing (somewhat comparable to John Mayer, but much older). We had a great time and partied well in to the early hours of 2009.

The city of Be’er Sheva, as well as many other cities had decided to cancel school for the day due to rocket attacks reaching the city for the first time ever. Thank G-d for this because Hamas had fired many rockets today including one that hit a school in Be’er Sheva. Had school not been cancelled, the damage would have been much more than structural. Additionally new years eve parties were cancelled, and a limit of 100 people were allowed in one place for security reasons. Be’er Sheva like many other cities has now become a ghost town as people are staying close to or in their bomb shelters.

First day of work!

Today we heard from the mayor of Yerucham where he spoke to us about the troubles facing this community. The city was established in the early 1950s and there have been difficulties trying to get people to live here because of its location. As the mayor said – ‘drive to the middle of nowhere and turn left’. The majority of the people here are new immigrants and the city is one of the poorest in the country. Yerucham is seen as a city that nobody wants to live in and a big problem is self image. To start our volunteer work we spent the day painting a bomb shelter and a number of other buildings around the neighbourhood. Despite its necessity, it is horrible to have to picture the need for bomb shelters right next to a nursery school. Anything that we were able to do to change the image of that bomb shelter by painting pictures on it can put the children at ease, and bring life and colour to the community.

One side of the bomb shelter

In the late afternoon after a long day of working we went outside the town to the makhtesh hagadol (large crater), which is unique to Israel. Despite its name, it is not the largest one in Israel. It was amazing to be able to look out in all directions and see no civilization whatsoever only a 5 minute drive from Yerucham. This really put into perspective where we were.


Today rockets were fired from the Gaza strip to Ashdod and Ra’an, the furthest north and east respectively that Hamas has ever reached with rockets. One person died in Ra’an.

Travel Day 2

Still not there yet. Long story short, I get out of the airport in Tel Aviv at 4PM local time after a layover in Zurich, Switzerland. Amazingly everything went smoothly and I even got my luggage! From the airport it was a 2 hour drive south to Yerucham where we would be staying for the next 3 days.

I had a chance to shower and then we went for dinner in the hostel where we were staying. They advertised an Israeli dinner, but there was only bread, humus and salads at the table, which was disappointing. After about 10 minutes they brought soup which was surprising because we did not know there was more food. Then came the fries and rice. Five minutes later they brought schnitzel. Then I started to get full – I should not have eaten so much bread and humus had I known there was going to be schnitzel. Five minutes later they brought out the shwarma. I was not prepared for this much food!!! And lastly desert! The food was great and plentiful as it continued to be for the entire trip.

We had orientation after dinner and then we were given free time. Yerucham is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Israel and thus there is nothing to do here. We spent the rest of the evening at the park and hung out at the hostel.

The Amazing Race

The blog title is misleading – there is nothing amazing about this race. 5 airports, 4 countries, 3 flights… wait – that doesn’t add up…

My 6AM flight from Toronto to New York was cancelled and the only way I could get out of Toronto was by land, not air. They booked me on a flight from Buffalo to New York at 11:30AM, so I had to drive to Buffalo. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. As I was waiting in line to check in, the power to the entire airport goes out! They manually write me a boarding pass that isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Because of the last minute flight change, I was not guaranteed a seat on the flight. I check my luggage and go to the gate where someone might be able to help me. Since there was no power, the people at the desk were unable to confirm my seat – they told me to call their hotline to confirm my seat, but the hotline told me to speak to the person at the gate! This continued for almost 4 hours!

At 1PM (an hour and a half after the flight was supposed to leave) power came back on. After waiting in several lines they gave me a spot on the flight, and a real boarding pass! At this point I am continuing to freak out because I need to get on a plane ASAP which is not here! The plane was redirected to Rochester and is now scheduled to leave at 245. This is not good, as my next flight is leaving at 610. Once on the flight, I manage to relax for about a nanosecond. My stress level then skyrockets as the flight can be summed up by the phrase “screaming baby”.

My boarding pass! Unbelievable!

We land in New York at 430, leaving me an hour and a half to disembark, get my luggage, change terminals, check in, go through security and find the gate. I also have no idea where to go to accomplish any of these tasks! When I got to the luggage carosel I immediately went to lost luggage. I was fairly confident that my luggage had made it – but I did not have time to wait for it. I was watching the far carosel from a distance as the lady was doing the paperwork; all the while I did not see any luggage! After the paperwork was done to re-route my bag to Israel I left the room and saw people on my flight at a different carousel! I immediately found my bag and told them they didn’t have to re-route it. To make another long story short I get to the gate 5 minutes before I get on the plane. Obviously I was the last person from the group to arrive. Ironically, had I made my initial flight from Toronto I would have been the first person to arrive.
At this point things started to improve. After a game of musical seats, I won by getting the aisle seat behind the washroom which had extra leg room!

Greeks Build Israel - Preface

I am going to Israel again! 4th time ever, and 3 Decembers in a row! This time it is Jewish National Fund (JNF) mission to do community service work for a week. A prerequisite for this trip was that I was required to raise $1000 for a rocket proof playground in the city of Sderot, which has been bombarded with over the past 8 years. This is one of the closest communities to the Gaza strip, only 1.5 km away from the border. Residents have only 15 seconds to run for cover once a rocket is launched. More info on the playground later in the blog. Money is still required for this project – you can still donate here. The trip was made up of 39 people in fraternities and sororities from all across the US and me as the lone Canadian. There were 3 of us from AEPi. Even before we left for Israel to help out the communities, as a group we made an impact in Sderot by raising over $40,000 for the playground.

Here is a map of Israel to give context to where I was. The light blue line is the current range (40 km) that Hamas is able to fire rockets from the Gaza Strip. On this trip, Hamas fired rockets into Ashdod, and Beer Sheva for the first time ever – the furthest they have been able to reach. Approximately 15% of the population of Israel lives within the rocket range of Gaza. Since 2000, over 8700 rockets have been launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel – an average of 3 rockets EVERY DAY!