Blogs from Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel, Middle East - page 10

sorry i have taken so long to do this. this trip has been completely overwhelming in very way. Never did I anticipate that within less than two weeks my whole world would come undone.. I came wanting to be challenged, in search of myself and to to refine my ideas. Rather than finding answers, I now have whole new sets of questions altogether.. have been eating so much, making so many amazing new friends and exploring the city. Got a little sucked into the insiduous hostel lifestyle and been grounded here in Tel Aviv since the program has ended. It has been magical, but given the limited time I have in this magical, mystical, mad country I need to move on. Today my two beautiful roomies and I are going to head to Haifa. I have ... read more

So this is my long blog entry/short essay that Yehuda (my program director) said he wanted. It's a required part of the class. I figured I would post it here because it talks about my work in detail. I work at an organization called Windows: Channels for Communication. It is a non-profit organization that was started in Tel Aviv but now has chapters in America, France, and the UK. Technically the organization is also an NGO but the Tel Aviv chapter is only registered as an NGO in Israel and not America, the UK, or the West Bank. The mission of windows is to confront the barriers to dialogue between the multiple groups living in Israel, specifically the Palestinians and the Israelis. Windows focuses on trying to empower youth to challenge the status quo of the ... read more

So there were a lot of things that I could have written about this week but I decided to write about minorities. Or specifically how weird it is to be a minority for once in my life. At least a legitimate minority as I was pretty much in the political minority while I was in undergrad but it’s really not the same at all. I always took for granted the real lack of religiosity there is in the states. My area isn’t devoid of religion but it’s definitely not as upfront and in your face as it here. And I understand that in other parts of the US, such as the Bible Belt, religion is probably much more prevalent and overt. The most overtly religious things we have in my county are the Churches, as they ... read more

Something that has really been on my mind since coming to Israel is religion. And I know, it's a little bit redundant for me to say that because everything in this country is about religion, you can't get away from it. As a Christian, I am really confused about the lack of Christianity in this country. I know that there are a decent number of Arab Christians but I haven't met any white or anglo-saxon Christians yet. I feel like this demographic is really under-represented and I don't really get why. Another religion I don't understand is Islam. I don't mean to sound racist or prejudiced but I really don't understand the appeal. Our guide in Bethlehem, Hamdan, told us the story of how he his parents kept him locked in a room until he was ... read more

So I've been at my internship for a couple days now and I really like it, especially compared to the stories that other people are telling about their internships. There is another intern there right now, named Laura and she is awesome! She helped me figure out the bus system and we've hung out a couple times already. There is another intern, Anais, who is french. She is really awesome and I love her accent. Emily is my internship supervisor and she is super nice. She's letting me pick my own projects, in addition to the couple projects they need done now. The first thing we did was sit down and talk about the NGO itself, what the program's mission was, my internship, my duties, and what I want to accomplish. I was a little worried ... read more