Only in Israel...

Only in Israel… is there a $5 million playground that is rocketproof. This morning we heard from a representative from the JNF about this playground in Sderot. This is the project that I raised $1000 for in order to come on this trip. They were telling us about the bombshelters within the playground which is located in what used to be a textile factory. In the playground there is a soccer field, disco, computer and gaming room, and many other things that enables children to play safely in a city that experiences daily rocket attacks. This playground is a safe haven and allows children to enjoy some normalcy to a life that is nowhere near normal. In addition there are therapists to help out any children, as every child is Sderot suffers from PTSD due to the rockets landing almost every day for the past 8 years.

We went into a community in one of the valleys of Jerusalem and worked the land. We helped make a dirt path, pick up garbage, and most fun of all – plant trees!

(L-R) Danielle, Stan, Sabrina, Becca, Jesse, Felix, Me, and the tree!!!

Only in Israel… is there a hospital that does not practice for mass casualty situations because they have perfected the process. After a long morning working outside in the sun we got a tour of the Shaare Zedek hospital, which is one of AEPi’s official philanthropies. The hospital is a world leader in dealing with mass casualties. They talked about how they train hospitals around the world to deal with these situations. Every hospital runs practice drills yearly, however Shaare Zedek unfortunately has become too accustomed to dealing with these situations, and have perfected the process. The hospital has its first 3 floors underground for security reasons. In addition to this, there is a 250 bed underground hospital wing and room for 18 ambulances to be parked outside the ER at once. The hospital will treat everyone, and is non-discriminatory; in addition, Shaare Zedek also treats Palestinian terrorists who are held in Israeli jails.

Only in Israel… is a story like this true, and expected! We headed back to the hostel and the most random thing happened. In Israel I always expect to unexpectedly run into someone that I know from home, but this story could not be any more unlikely. So we get back to the hostel just before dinner and there are about 400 soldiers standing in the lobby of the hostel. They happened to be there for a few days as part of their 10 week training course to become officers in the army. As I walked towards my room someone on my trip told me that there was a soldier that had asked if there were any Canadians on the trip (I am the one token Canadian on my trip). I assumed that it was a soldier that had met a lot of Canadians on a birthright trip, or had relatives, or had been to Canada, or I don’t know what. Someone pointed her out to me in the lobby. I went up to her and said hello, and as she turned around I said something along the lines of ‘Holy shit, I know you!’ To make a long story short, Ashley and I were in the same grade at high school together. She made aliyah (immigrated to Israel), and served as a basic training instructor in the air force for 2 years, and is now training to become an officer. She is the last person I expected to bump into in Israel as we were never good friends in high school and we lost touch afterwards. I had no idea she was in the army, yet alone that she had been in Israel for 3 years!

Ashley and I

In the evening we partied in the hostel as it was our last sleep in Israel. The soldiers had classes and stuff in the evening and had to get to bed for a 530AM wakeup and 3km run, so I did not really have a chance to hang out with the soldiers. I had a bit of time to catch up with Ashley and I also talked to a few soldiers who were on guard duty guarding the backpacks outside the lobby.