Leket, Yom HaMeah, Baror

Unfortunately, on Thursday I learned that I had racked up enough mistakes that each equalled a Shabbat, so I stayed on base this last weekend. I worked in the kitchen for lunch on Saturday, but mostly rested and talked to my family. Sunday morning, those of us who had closed and the mefakdot we were with left to meet up with the rest of the pleuga in Afula. Everyone left from there to head to Nahalal, the moshav where I went to the swap meet a couple times before my draft. We changed into half-bet (aleph is the travel and ceremonial uniform, bet is the uniform owned by and worn on the base, half-bet is bet pants with a T-shirt), and picked corn for this program called Leket. They travel to different farms around Israel and gather volunteers to harvest the parts of each harvest that is, by Jewish tradition, left for the poor. The corn we harvested went to over 500 million hungry families in Israel. It was crazy fun, and good honest work.

Shabbat on base wasn't all that bad, we were allowed time to buy ice cream on Friday afternoon

After picking corn all day, we had mud everywhere

We returned to base and learned a bit about what was going to happen the next day, Yom HaMeah. Yom HaMeah is traditionally a day of personality, social, logical, and technical testing for girls before they go into the army to see better what kind of job they should be assigned to. For us, it was a day for the girls of higher Hebrew levels to do all the same things before we are assigned jobs, but the whole day in uniform and with girls from our course. For me, I felt a little silly at first being there because it has no connection to girls wanting to go to combat positions. But once I got started, it was great. I had so much fun showing off my leadership skills, building little marble slides, and even the computer tests weren't all bad (despite how hard the Hebrew was). It was in Haifa, so it was weird being about 10 minutes from the kibbutz without actually getting to go home, but the day passed pretty quickly. We returned to base exhausted, right before bedtime. That same day, some girls had already had their combat (kravi) interviews a few weeks back, so instead of going to Yom HaMeah, they went to the Bakum to exchange their alephs for kravi alephs and kravi boots. It was hard to see them already accepted into their jobs, but I know my day will come.

The next morning, they changed some of the rules. Now, we are allowed to wear the army-regulation amount of jewelry, allowed to go for runs during our free time before bed, and, biggest of all, we can call our mefakdot by name. When I say that, I mean that we call them, for instance, "HaMefakedet Shirit," or "Mefakedet Shirit." So, from now on, M's name is now MN (initials, obviously, mean protecting her privacy). It was weird at first (okay, it's still weird), but it makes things a lot easier than EVERYONE just being "Mefakedet" or "Mefakedet [Tzevet number]." Funnier still, if we don't ask, they don't correct us or tell us what name we should call them by. So there's still a lot of "HakShev Mefakedet" (Attention, Mefakedet)'s flying around. We also earned longer times to clean up in the mornings, so it actually takes less time now than it did before (strange-sounding, I know), but ten straight minutes is less time than two sets of five because of standing attention in formation in between.

We also met some girls that used to be in our pleuga, a few courses back. It was interesting, but it was hard to pay attention. We were all thinking about what we knew would come the next morning, our fitness test. We got up before the sun and did a set of pushups and ran three kilometers. Considering we had barely had any exercise in the last two months, we all did incredible. I was very much in the middle (my number was 34, but they were missing a few so it was actually 29 or 30), but about a third of the girls didn't finish in time and the best time was about 17 minutes. The average time (my approximate time) was around 18:30-45, which in the grand scheme of things is not that great. Honestly, I was just happy I passed. The girls that didn't will have to retake it later.

"Travel with caution, soldiers are running in front of you"

That night, we finally had our driving safety program. It was so much fun to do simulations, ask questions, and lead discussions with small groups from the machlaka (my station was all about seatbelts). They really got to see me in my element, in a teaching situation, for the girls that I wasn't with on Yom HaMeah. The mem mem complimented us on our two weeks of hard work and that we took it so seriously and that the program went off without a hitch on our parts. It was such a good feeling to see the girls working together and participating without the involvement of the staff. We were really told what to teach, how to teach it, and from there the rest of the time was ours, and we felt like a properly working unit. When we got back to the barracks, some amazing people from the Nefesh B'Nefesh Lone Soldier's program had come bearing cakes, hugs, smiles, and advice. As it turns out, the American/English speaker representative was Hadar's soldier! Hadar was the mem pay (mefakedet of the pleuga) for this group of people working on Hummers, and Dganit was one of her soldiers. The world is so small...

Now, I am home for the weekend, and just two more weeks of the official course left!

Jerusalem, Shmirah, Jerusalem

Let's go back in time, to about three and a half weeks ago, after Shavuot. I met up with my pluega in Jerusalem, at Yad Vashem. We split into groups of Russian, English, and Hebrew, and began the tour. It was very special to be there and be representing not only the IDF but many of us were descendants of Holocaust survivors (myself included). I got stopped during a break by a tourist who wanted to know why soldiers would want a tour in English. I explained to her that we were new immigrants and in a Hebrew course. She was very shocked but visibly pleased that the IDF takes care of its immigrants so far as to teach them the language. I agreed with her and went on to say that the course I am in is the only one of its kind in the world, of any military. We finished the tour and went outside to take in the view and started walking over to Har Herzl.

Har Herzl is the central national military cemetery in Israel. At the very top, of course, is the grave of Theodore Herzl, who is said to be the father of Zionism. The ring of graves on the level below hold Prime Ministers and other important Heads of State. The bottom level (the biggest) holds space for any soldier that died during service (even if it was a car accident or illness). The interesting thing about this level is that all soldiers are considered equal. There are Chiefs of Staff buried next to First Lieutenants, who are buried next to Major Generals buried next to Sergeants. The only order is chronological, so many times they are grouped by war. There are also sections for those who died during their illegal immigration back during the British Mandate, soldiers missing in action, and an entire memorial for those killed in terrorist attacks. We toured by tzevet, led by our mefakdot. M gave us a brief history of most heads of state (we had just learned about Herzl in our Zionism class), and took us to all the important places to see and visit. We placed rocks on whatever graves we chose. When I saw the Hannah Senesh grave, I suddenly realized it had been exactly a year (a few days off, the same week) that I had last been to her grave with Birthright, and sang to her and imagined what it would be like to tour this incredible place in an IDF uniform. When we finished visiting the terrorist victims memorial, she threw us all off guard by telling us a personal story of a boy she went to school with who was in the Maxim restaurant bombing in Haifa over ten years ago. He lost most of his family and his eyesight in that attack, but she told us how he continued to be a funny and strong-willed person. We were all on the verge of crying while she told that story (of course including M), but there was an unspoken promise of "I won't cry if you don't cry." Near the bottom, and subsequently the end of our tour, were the newer graves, and I stopped by Michael Levin's (a famous American Lone Soldier that was killed in action in the second Lebanese war). A year prior, it was at his grave that I really pictured myself as a soldier, and this time I wanted to complete the circle. I left him a rock, and we finished the tour.

I left Har Herzl with some of the girls to go enjoy the rest of the Jerusalem day. We headed over to the shuk and found ourselves in a tiny coffee shop. Galya told us this shop handmade an Egyptian drink called sahlab, and she had her heart set on getting some. We decided to hold off on ordering anything until we tasted what she had been raving about the whole way over. It was a lot more like a pudding, and made from orchids, but still incredibly tasty. Most of us ordered our own (mine without coconut), and they were so delicious. All of a sudden, Galya insisted that she take a picture of me, to document my first sahlab for my blog. I was in complete shock, and it was really cool to know my friends have been reading it. They said that they love being able to go back on things that they might have forgotten from our long days (that tend to run together) in the army. After the cafe, we headed inside the shuk and decided to find the best cherries around. We ate so many cherries tasting them from vendors, we almost weren't hungry anymore, but when we finally decided on what kind to get, we finished the half-kilo in just a couple hours. We also figured we should probably get a real meal, so we ended up with some amazing felafel on our hands (and in our stomachs!).

This was about 10 minutes after the purchase, half gone

We met up with Galya's seminary friend and went over to Ben Yehuda to grab some more coffee. Shani was heading home soon, but Galya and I wanted to get out of our uniforms. We wanted to change in the bathroom, but it was way too small. The bathrooms were up on this balcony above the cafe so we took turns guarding the stairs while we changed into civilian clothes. The patrons below had watched us all go upstairs, and then heard us giggling and moving around. There was even a couple right at the bottom of the stairs that we eventually figured were trying to break up, but were distracted by the fact that these two female soldiers suddenly emerged as a couple of 19-20 year old girls. We hung out there for a while, and then after Shani left, decided to visit the seminary over by Emek Refaim. When we arrived, I introduced myself and said where I was from. All the girls pointed in a direction and said, "Oh! She's from Nashville, too!" The girl turned around, and it was a girl I had gone to elementary school with. Her dad, a rabbi, had done my dad's eulogy, even. I was in shock to see her, but so excited to see each other after about eight years. It was truly incredible and a once in a lifetime kind of surprise meeting. The worst part was that she was about to leave in a couple of weeks, before I finished shmirah. We talked for two hours about everything. I was so sad when I was going to have to leave, but it was so great to see her. The next morning, I met my stepbrother Moshe for coffee and then headed home for the weekend.

When we returned on base the next Sunday, we had packed our bags for two weeks. We spent Sunday through Wednesday preparing for shmirah (guard duty), studying lots of Hebrew, and enjoying our history of Israel classes. I had talked to M quite a bit about my future in the army the week before. Together, we realized the best direction for me was to train for combat and from there push to become a medic. I've decided that I really want to be in the Totchenim (artillery) unit. I learned so much about it and I would be so incredibly proud to be in that unit, and that I would have an extremely meaningful service there. M put me on the list for a special female combat soldier interview with the placement officer.

Sunday, the girls that signed up for combat started our weekly combat training, which was fantastic. We started off with a 2K and a little strength training. In the middle of the week, me and three other girls from the machlaka had been chosen by the mem mem (mefakedet of the machlaka) to run a driving safety program for her. On Tuesday night, I was surprised by M with confirmation that my request for a day off had been approved. Thursday morning, I left early to go to Jerusalem to see my stepmom Jill. It was exactly what I needed to see her, as I had been missing my dad so much lately. That evening, I met up with some kids from Nashville on a two-week exchange program called GetConnected. While I was waiting for them to show up, I was walking on Ben Yehuda, talking on the phone, when I saw some red hair and a face I thought I might recognize. When she turned her face towards me, I almost dropped my phone. The last time I had seen this girl, a childhood friend, was at my dad's wedding. Once again, Jerusalem had reconnected me with a person from my past life. I eventually had to continue on to meet up with the kids, but it was incredibly crazy and awesome to see her. I arrived at their hotel, and saw my friend Hadar (the shlicha). She was a chaperone on the trip, and all of a sudden she was handing me things from my mom. In addition, there were a bunch of letters that she said were from Akiva kids. I knew that if I read them then, I would cry. I knew they were all from kids I had been in camp with, guarded at the pool, taught them at Hebrew school, or even their whole lives. We all went out and had dinner together, and it was extremely emotional to be around people from home, on uniform. Hadar said she's coming back in a few months, so I'm really excited for that!

I came back to base Friday morning, just in time for an emergency drill. As soon as we finished, we were released for Shabbat. What that meant was that there were a few meals and activities that we had to report to, but outside of that was free time. I had shmirah at the same time as dinner, so I didn't get to enjoy from what I had heard was the best meal available on base. (Of course I ate, but in full gear and before everyone else came in and started singing.) That night, I had shmirah at sundown and again at sunrise. It was actually not as bad as it sounds. Other than that, we enjoyed Shabbat and rested plenty. I read the letters the kids sent with Hadar, and just like I predicted, I cried like a baby. The letters were so simple but perfectly sweet. Around the afternoon, we were called out of the rooms. We figured it was another drill, but as it turns out there was a huge fire on base that the girls on the emergency team had to go help with. It was absolutely crazy, but then we went back to our Shabbat routine and rested up for the week ahead. 

We started, and continued, the week with shmirah. It was mostly normal, except it was "Shavuah Ivrit" or Hebrew Week. We had a contest between the tzevets by writing essays and letters, making posters, and doing presentations. In the end, the points weren't counted completely right (they left out some points that our tzevet earned on the last day, at least), but a tzevet from machlaka 1 won. I spent the whole week translating the letters from the kids into Hebrew. On Thursday evening, right before our last night of shmirah, I got to hand out the letters to the girls in my machlaka. All the girls really loved them, and it gave us that last wind we needed to get through until Friday morning. On Friday morning, we were woken up an hour early with what we thought was another fire or drill. We asked the mefakdot, "Is everything okay??" and they responded, "NO! There's a masa!" So we had to get dressed in full gear, put mud on our faces, and go on a surprise morning masa up a nearby mountain. It actually wasn't too bad, and at the end, right before we raised the flag that morning, we each received a Tanach (Jewish bible). There were also New Testaments (we don't have any Muslims in our pleuga), but tmost of he Christian girls were okay with a Tanach. As soon as we got back, we switched guards for the last time and had a chance to wash our faces before class.

It's amazing what some shoe polish can do! This was my last day with this gun

I'm going to pause here and write the rest in a second blog, to split it up.

Shavuot

After the ceremony, we returned to base. We went deep into our Hebrew classes, and began to obtain more privileges now that tironut is officially over, even though we were still learning about a few things here and there (I absolutely loved our unit of first aid right before our tekes, and even did some practical tutoring with my tzevet). We had another Yom Sidurim, but this one was for each of us to do on our own. I had a lot to get done, so I left early Thursday morning. I am trying to get my American driver's license switched over, but upon arrival to the DMV, they told me I didn't have the right paperwork. Fortunately, I also learned that I can drive with my American license until it expires when I turn 21, but I still have three years from when I made aliyah to switch it over, expired or not. When I got back to the kibbutz, still in uniform, I decided to surprise my ulpan teachers and say hi. They were administering the final exam that afternoon, and I also wanted to see the ulpanistim and wish them luck. I got there in time to sign cards, even! I also surprised my little brother and visit him in the gan. They were headed to the dairy to meet some cows before Shavuot (a holiday where traditionally dairy products are eaten). I went with them, and we had so much fun with the cows and calfs, but not with the smell! On their way back, I decided I should probably get a shower and a nap. I gave him a big hug and kiss and promised him I would come over for dinner.

Cows are one of the only animals that say the same thing around the world- MOO

Sunday we returned to base, and prepped for yet another short week. We took our final tironut written test on Monday, and there were some things I was pretty sure I got wrong, so I was happily surprised when I got 97%! We also took Hebrew tests, which were pretty hard. We'll get the results next week. We also learned more about Zionism, especially Zionist women. There was a speaker that came in to give us a quick run-down of some of Israel's coolest women and why they are important. They've started this unit with us because we are one of a few purely female pleugot in the whole army, and it's pretty special that we can easily take a course on Zionist women and female Israelis that changed the world. Thursday, we are going to Yad Vashem (Holocaust museum) and Har Herzl (largest/most important military cemetery in Israel) in Jerusalem, so we also learned some about the Holocaust (we already learned about Theodore Herzl).

On Monday morning, I took a bit of a dive on the concrete, so I've got some bandages on my hands and left leg, but let's hope that'll be the worst of my army injuries!

When we were released on Tuesday morning, I had to stay an extra half hour. Last week, my hair tie fell out while I was running to the chet, and I had to tie it back up. A few seconds after time was up, I was finishing up, but M showed up and saw me moving. So I got in trouble for that, but it wasn't too bad. I still got home by nine, and had a nice long nap before the kibbutz Shavuot ceremony. There was a parade with floats for all the different parts of the kibbutz, lots of dances and singing, and a show of the first tilling for the season. Kids had crowns made of flowers and lots of people were wearing white. We got to see all the babies from the past year. During my sister's dance, my brother was standing in the front and refused to sit down. We tried to grab him and tell him to sit, but we only got him to move aside. And then, during my kibbutz mom's dance, this little baby was standing by me and grabbing my hand. So I grabbed both and got him to dance along. All of a sudden, he swings his leg over my lap and sits down! Everyone around me was laughing so hard, but not as hard as when I turned to his mom and asked his name. After a couple minutes, he gets up and sits down on my friend's lap next to me. We were all just hysterical, but he was so cute! Only on the kibbutz things like that can happen.

There was a parade of all the different components of the kibbutz

Some first and second graders got to ride in the back

All the babies born this year

My sister doing a dance with her classmates

My kibbutz mom also dances! I was totally surprised by this

Sheffy got in on the dancing action

They started to work on the soil a bit right there so we could watch

Climbing on tractors

Lasagna, cheesecake, coffee, and great people to finish off the night

It was a great holiday, but things are about to sober up pretty quickly. This morning, I'm headed out for Jerusalem to meet up with everyone for our tours of Yad Vashem and Har Herzl. It's going to be pretty tough emotionally, but I think it'll be alright if we support each other. And honestly, after a month, I think I can expect that from these girls that I've gotten to know.

Tekes Hashba'ah

In Akko, there is a prison from the British Mandate that held members of the rebellion groups Haganah, Lehi, and Irgun. The prison is known for a famous break-out and a number of executions (eight Jewish ones). The majority of the prison is still intact, and its entirety is now a museum on the Mediterranean Sea shore. The room were the hangings took place contains all the original parts, but of course a few things have been added, including plaques explaining what it was, the names of those hung there, and the first few lines of Hatikva (The Hope), the Israeli national anthem, ending with ...

The Jews hung in that room may not have had the chance to finish singing the song of our people, but every single soldier last Tuesday not only had the freedom to sing Hatikva in its entirety, but also to swear our allegiance to the Israeli Defense Forces and the nation of Israel. We had a group oath, with all the details of what we were promising, a confirmation of the group oath, and then the individual swearing-ins. 

We arrived in Akko a couple hours before the ceremony. During our rehearsal, I saw my friend Ayelet! She and her sisters babysat me back when we lived in Cleveland, Ohio. I got to see her for a bit before we actually started, and she had her super cool camera and sharp eye with her so a lot of the photo credit goes to her.

This was supposed to be our time to shine our shoes, but the lines were so long I went for the spit-n-rub

Right before we got started, but were already in formation, I saw Josh, who my mom "adopted" when he was in college, and a couple of my friends from the ulpan. Tzvika Levy (huge proponent of Lone Soldiers from the west) brought gifts for Lone Soldiers that had been put together by people around the world. When we started the ceremony, it was blazing hot. We were told constantly to drink water, but got in trouble if we were moving at the wrong times (which were always our opportunities to drink). Army logic! We ended up not caring as much about staying static the whole time and more about staying hydrated. As you can see in the photos, we also had to wear our kumtot (wool berets) and keep our sleeves down the whole time, so it was HOT. Most of us were really excited to start, though, and it was fun because the group oaths were basically a contest to see who could yell the loudest. 

Can you spot me? I'm all the way on the edge

We started with the group oaths, which were led by the commander of my pleuga (the mem pay), and then the confirmations went around the giant chet (three-sided square, our regular formation) by machlaka and led by each of our sergeants. There were speeches by the commander of the base and someone else (we weren't really sure who she was, maybe an officer for one of the boys' groups. At that point, it was hard to stay focused. They talked too fast and we couldn't hear very well. We tried to stay quiet and just made sure the girls that didn't have canteens got enough water. In the middle, I saw my mom's friend Bunny from Nashville who is visiting her family for a few weeks! Finally, it was time for the individual oaths, where we ran up to the commander of the machlaka (mem mem), grabbed a rifle and holy book of choice, held them against each other, and shouted "Ani Nishba'at!" (I swear!) and then ran back to formation.

The very moment I swore on an M-16 and Tanach to protect Israel to the best of my ability

When it was my turn to go, I shouted so loud the mem mem (green beret, across from me) couldn't stop a huge smile from spreading across her face. I wanted everyone to know I meant it, and I think she could tell. If she knew how many soldiers she has in her machlaka who really truly want to be serving Israel, she would be proud.

The raised flag, after the ceremony, photo cred to my friend Jesse

We ended the ceremony with Hatikva. It was very moving and special. When we finished, we were released for some time with our family and friends. I was so shocked to see my kibbutz dad all of a sudden! I wanted to tease him for being so late, but he explained that he had been there the whole time and it was me who didn't see him from a few meters away. He has about six pictures of me almost seeing him, but never actually recognizing him in the crowd. Josh, Shaun, Arieh, and Ayelet came down from their seats on top of the wall, and when everyone was together it was the greatest feeling in the world to have everyone surprise me there. (I knew a couple of them were coming, but not everyone!) I got lots of sweets and a package from my mom that Josh gave me. Everyone got to know each other and it was fun to see people from all different aspects of my life. (Josh is my adopted brother but is not in any way connected to my adoptive dad, and so on.) When the time was up, it was very hard to say goodbye. In the end, all the girls were about five minutes late, which we paid for later that night, but didn't have to worry about while we were off base. We got a tour of the prison, and headed home.

This was when I *finally* found my kibbutz dad Sheffy

Because we did tironut and some Hebrew classes at the same time, we didn't finish all of tironut before the tekes. So, ironically, when we got back to base we almost immediately went into classes to finish learning about some basic stuff, and were completely exhausted when we went to bed.