You are Canadian, make pancakes!

Sorry for the delay in posts. We promise more to come soon. Here is another update.

Where to begin....

Words cannot describe the experience we're having. The past few weeks in Bat Yam have been filled with highs and lows. Though the volunteering got off to a rocky start, once we got used to the camps it started getting easier and easier. One of the first programs conducted at Camp Nitzana was Canada Day activities. Arriving at camp in the morning, we were informed that today was Canada Day, and therefore we would be teaching english words and making pancakes, Canada's 'national food'. My job was the pancake making, in which I was given a hot plate, flour, sugar, eggs, and oil, and sent on my way. What was missing was a recipe... being Canada's national food, of course I knew how to make pancakes! Cue improvisation. (They turned out to be very tasty, for those who were wondering).

This was our introduction to working in Israel, where you have to take everything as is comes and just go with the flow. The rest of the week followed this pattern. Whether at the pool, in camp, or on outings, we just went with the flow and enjoyed our time with the kids. At times, this was a very frustrating experience, due to the language barrier, kids misbehaving, and never knowing exactly what was going on. However, there were also the benefits and warm feelings that came along with the experience.

At the end of the day, what we are left with are the memories we make and what we gain from volunteering, and the knowledge that we are making a difference in a child's life. This can take the form of the look of excitement on the kids faces when they see us every morning to how one girl invited me to live in her house and wants to come back to Canada to visit mine. No matter what happens in the next two weeks, volunteering with Hillel in Bat Yam will definitely be a trip to remember.

Check out these videos of Canada Day at one of the camps.

- Nechama Hirchberg

We are here! and yes, we know Justin Bieber

We are here in Bat Yam, and after getting settled and fixing some blog related glitches, we are up and running. Welcome to our blog and we are so excited to share our adventures and experiences with you.

My name is Jaime Reich and I am the Hillel of Greater Toronto staff in Bat Yam this summer. We will be updating our blog often, each time through the perspective of a different participant/group of participants. We cant wait to hear what you think or answer any questions you have so please follow, comment, and wait eagerly for our posts :)

And now for our first post from the brave student who volunteered to write first, David Cross.

The Bat Yam-ers (Bat Yamites? Bat Yamos? Bat Yamians?) arrived at their apartment on a sunny Thursday. Deftly taking a tour of the apartment, we found it had an extra shower situated in the kitchen, which we couldn’t begin to explain but figured “it was awesome”.

The group bonded through cleaning, making shabbas dinner, eating, sleeping, asking Cross to kill roaches, and reading girly magazines. For shabbat lunch, we were hosted by two Ethiopian families. We learned a lot about their culture and their time immigrating to Israel. We also tried ethnic food such as Injarrah, which was like a sour dough crepe.

On Sunday, we met the children we would be volunteering with. One way of describing our feelings about the groups we were put with was "interesting", the other is "terrifying". We were a little shocked at how much the kids fought, screamed, and disregarded any semblance of what we believed was behaviour. As well, the Israeli counselors didn't bother breaking up any of the fights among the children.

There were bright moments, however. Jenna, who speaks about 4 words of hebrew managed to communicate with her kids, understanding what they wanted her to draw. Brian sang hebrew songs with his kids at karaoke, and Cross was much amused when one of his kids asked him excitedly "Do you know Justin Bieber?"

The Hillelians are looking forward to the coming weeks where they will volunteer with the ethiopian community teaching english. Until then, L'hitraot!

- Cross