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Published: November 11th 2007
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Well, finally, after a several month hiatus from blogging, while I was back home in the States, I have returned to Israel and to my blog. Its hard to believe, but I've already been in Israel a month. Part of me feels like I just got here, and part of me feels like I've been here for such a long time already. The last few weeks have been spent settling in, and taking care of lots of beaurocratic stuff for my citizenship. So let me start at the beginning.
On October 10 I finally arrived back in Israel. My flight was delayed 2 hours, after we had already boarded the plane, so we were all stuck on the plane an extra couple hours. Luckily, I was so exhausted that I slept through all the waiting and barely realized that we were still on the ground an hour or so later. When I arrived at the airport in Tel Aviv, I was greeted by someone from the Ministry of Interior who took me to the office in the airport, to begin my citizenship paperwork. I swear the paperwork never ends, I've been working on this stuff since February! Anyway, so I
Rachel's wedding
me, Rachel the Bride, Laura and Mike did some paperwork, and received my first official document of being a new immigrant to Israel. Then I was ushered to a taxi with my many suitcases and sent on my way to my cousins house.
That afternoon, with my cousins, I went to a military ceremony. My cousin Oran, had just finished his 6 month officers course and he had a graduation ceremony. It was sort of fitting, to be there on my first day as an official Israeli citizen. While in the US, I am mostly disconnected from the military, and only have a few friends in the military, here in Israel, soldiers are everywhere. You see them on the streets and on the bus on their way home and going about their business, and everyone is a soldier in the future, present or past. So it was very interesting to see an official ceremony from the military, and was a nice celebration for my cousin afterwards.
The following week, I moved on to my temporary sublet apartment in Tel Aviv, and continued with the beaurocratic work. I got my official Israel ID (here every person has an ID, all adults and children). I got a
bank account, and registered for my health insurance (yay for universal insurance). And a bunch of other uninteresting little things. I began my apartment search, which turned out to be even harder than I had expected. Where as in the US, you can start looking months in advance for an apartment, in Israel, as with everything, the housing market is very last minute. People usually don't advertise that they have an open apartment or room until a month before, if not even shorter. And basically you show up at an open house type thing, and interview with the other people already living in the apartment for a few minutes, and if you get lucky, they call you back. I went to at least a dozen of these, and they were at no point fun. But, finally, I did get a call back! And now I have an apartment, in north/central Tel Aviv (off rehov Arlozorov for those who know).
I also went to the wedding of a good friend from Pittsburgh, who got married in Jerusalem. The wedding was beautiful and the reception hall was this gorgeous place overlooking the old city of Jerusalem. And a few of my
other Pittsburgh/Hillel friends were there for the wedding, so it was really nice to see them and spend time with them. The wedding was so much fun and Rachel (the bride) looked so beautiful!
I spent a shabbat with one of my friends who I do genealogy with, and her family. She is from Denmark, but her husband and his family, who came over for shabbat dinner as well, are Iraqi jews, so we had some traditional Iraqi food, which was interesting, but just seemed like meatballs and rice to me! hehe. So it was yummy. It was a wonderful shabbat with them, and nice to experience a different background's traditions. Jews from different parts of the world, while all adhereing to the main principles and traditions of judaism have also developed some of their own different traditions in foods and practices. After all, you can't expect people living in completely different places in the world to develop exactly the same!
So, I started my internship two weeks ago. I am working with foreign workers and illegal immigrants from countries mostly in Africa and Asia. My organization tries to give them assistance through counseling, referrals to necessary services,
and speaking with the government on their behalf. This expands into many many different services, which many of I am still learning about. I am participating in 3 main areas. The first, is doing intakes. This is basically anytime somebody comes into Mesila for help, you take down all their personal information, and what their problem is. I then refer the client to whichever services they need or try to help them the best I can. At this point, I don't usually have any answers for them,because I am still learning everything. The stories these people come to me with are just so tragic and extraordinary. One man I have been working with came from the Ivory coast and has recognized refugee status from the UN. When I first met him, and completed the intake, and the end he told me, in his broken english, that I was the first person in Israel to listen to him about his story and his problem, and even if I couldn't help him, he was so happy just to have someone listen to him and try to help him. It was a very overwhelming feeling. These people come in and just lay their
lives in our laps and all you want to do is take them home with you and tell them you are going to make everything better. But of course you can't.
The second part of my internship is working with 2 babysitters. Last year, some of you may remember, I went to 2 of these babysitters or private daycares, and tried to work with the children. This time, I am working with the babysitters to help them improve their skills, and in general to improve the buildings and the equipment they have. These are mostly illegal immigrants running daycares for children of other illegal immigrants. There are usually an average of 20 children (under 4 years old) for one babysitter, in two or three room apartments or old factory buildings. The babysitters simply do'nt know how to give the children what they need, nor do they have the time or energy, as all day is spent changing diapers, feeding, and making sure the kids don't hurt themselves or eachother. And the discipline techniques are both nonexistent and not at all desirable by my american standards. So I am working with 2 babysitters over the next 7 months to try
to improve their skills and centers.
The third part, which I haven't really started yet, is working with private clients. I have my first meeting with a client this week, so we will see how that goes! Overall, I am finding the work very interesting and learning so much about social work and about the wide variety of cultures I am working with. I am sure I will have many more stories over the coming months to share.
Well, that about sums up the main points of my first month as an Israeli citizen! Its funny, I'm still getting used to calling myself Israeli... I think it will take a while for that to sink in. But I love showing off my Israeli ID to my Israeli family and friends, hehe.
Enjoy the pictures!
Love and miss you all,
Leah
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Mom
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Shalom!
Well, you finally have a place to hang your hat and all your great photos! Thanks for sharing the photos of your apartment. Another wedding - wow and this time in Jerusaleum, how special. Good luck in your Tel Aviv apartment.