Har Peepee

On our way back to base (let’s call it S) on Sunday, we visited a couple of Totchanim bases to learn about battalions in which we could be placed for our service. It was cool to meet Totchanim soldiers in their active service, especially female combat soldiers doing the same things as all the boys, which is what all of us want and why we chose this service track. Speaking of whom, the boys were drafted on Monday. There are so many of them! At the start of our tironut, us girls will make up only 8% of the draft, which is a little intimidating. They told us a bunch of people will fall from tironut, so by the end we’ll see what the stats are like by then. Anyway, we had a bunch of introductory lectures about on-base healthcare and general stuff like that this week with the boys, and it was funny to see all of them. All of us Michve girls are allowed to sit next to each other during lectures and classes so we can translate for each other, so we sit and speak English, and then boys would try to talk to us upon hearing the foreign language, and we would immediately switch to flawless Hebrew to tell them, “We’re not allowed to speak to you,” and then switch back to English. We’re with mostly Israelis, and one girl who is French-British and made aliyah several years ago, but almost everyone at least understands English. We end up having a lot of conversations where us foreigners will speak Hebrew and the Israelis will practice their English on us, which is really funny to listen to!

I finally have a picture of my new aleph uniform! Still really big on me

The next day, we went down to the shetach (the field) for a night, which ended up being really fun. We practiced some field techniques, like building the meeting tent, digging sleeping holes, and eating manak (m’nat krav—combat meals (tuna, mostly)). Last time I was in the shetach, we were on a base with bathrooms. This time, it was just desert, so we got our first taste of what we ended up calling “Har Peepee,” (har meaning mountain or hill, and peepee meaning, well, you get it). We practiced running and hitting the ground from grenades (rocks, of which we were not lacking), and picking up people with “injuries,” so we all came back with bruises on our knees. When we came back, and it was dark, we went on a practice masa around the base, which was kind of hard because there was more running than the masaot we did at Michve, but we didn’t have guns so that obviously made it easier from the start. When we got back, we did the traditional pushups with our commanders, shouting our loyalties for our tzevet (ironically this was done non-ironically because we almost never separate into our tzevets). Then, smiling despite being sweaty, disgusting (not having showered for almost 48 hours), and exhausted, our commander asks us who wants to go home on the weekend. We all raise our hands, and one girl shouts out, “KEN MEFAKEDET!” (yes, commander!), which causes all of us to laugh even harder. When we manage to suppress giggles, the commander tells us to wear our aleph uniforms in the morning, and then releases us to our free hour (there was a lot of whooping and jumping at that point).

New bet uniform, even bigger than the aleph (but super comfortable), bucket hat included
This was right after the masa, hence why I am so red and sweaty

Thursday, dressed up in aleph and ready to head out, we go to a lecture about and then sign up for the tryouts for special forces. This is the first time ever some of the special forces in Totchanim are opening to girls, so it is a huge deal. Most of the girls want to go to the tryouts, myself included. But I am going to be honest with them in my interview that I am not particularly interested in their battalions, that I am just there to see if I can pass a gibush (tryout, but translates to “challenge”), which I have heard is an experience by itself. In fact, I am trying to go to the battalion that is slightly less physical and some computer work, but in my opinion one of the most important jobs in the IDF. It is called Icun (ee-coon), and they are the ones who notify Home Front Command to do a Code Red siren and in what area. If I end up truly loving this job, I will not push to become a medic. A big part of my reason to serve was to help save lives, and I feel that this job is even more life-saving than any medic alone can be, as every Israeli knows in our current situation.

On our way home

As far as differences between Michve and S (current base) go, they just go on and on. First being that there is less distance with the commanders. We know all of the staff’s names, we have seen our commanding officer hang from a rope while giving a lesson, they care less about letting us see them laugh, and I personally have done racing sprints with the head sergeant (the only male in our group—I won, but I don’t think he was at full speed). Another huge difference is the rules. At S, they check to make sure everyone eats, showers, and sleeps. At first this was frustrating for me because I often skipped a shower here and there at Michve, but I’ve come to enjoy it. It forces me to socialize with the girls rather than talk on the phone for my whole free hour. At Michve, we weren’t allowed to touch other people, not even girls in our tzevet, unless told or in an extenuating circumstance, while at S that rule only applies to boys, obviously. It is a different way of making friends when you are allowed to hug, kiss, punch (lovingly!), or even just to swing your arm over their shoulder. Which makes for stronger friendships faster, and different relationships in general (most girls at Michve only wanted to punch each other if they were angry, we are combat soldiers so it is only to our advantage to be able to take or receive a hit in a friendly setting for when it’s not so friendly). We are the girls that compare bruises in the showers as if they are prizes! (I don’t bruise easily, so I lost, no matter how hard I hit the ground for them. I was on the same level as the girls that didn’t work as hard.) It is a lot of fun being with such a great group of girls, and I’m really sad to know we’ll be separated next week when we go to our respective battalions, even if we are in the same battalion, we could be in different tzevets. What happens next week will determine our entire training, and thusly our entire service. (No pressure, right?) It’s been an awesome experience with these girls and knowing that we’ve been through an intense couple of weeks already, and seen some incredible stuff (the night sky in the middle of the desert trumps pretty much everything I’ve witnessed so far (you can see the Milky Way!)…even the sunrise/sunset were like a real-time postcard, and probably more beautiful than even seeing Masada at sunrise). Despite all this, I think we’re ready to start our training. It’s hard knowing that everybody knows somebody in Gaza right now (some soldiers are going on seven weeks away from home), and we consider a couple days without a shower “roughing it,” and complaining that our training will be 11 days on base and 3 at home (11/3).

Yeah, it's a hard life

See y'all in two weeks!