Week 2 (including a trip to Akko)

Sunday morning (after getting back from Jerusalem) I woke up early to lesson plan, only to find out that the teacher just wanted me to observe the class instead of teach. Mika and I taught a math class afterwards though - and it went really well. The students were very interested in us, and the problems we gave them.

After teaching, our MIT group met with a student group at the college called Ayalim. The group built student villages all around Israel to populate areas of the country that were predominantly inhabited by Arabs. It was interesting to meet with them, but also made me very uncomfortable. I don't want to offend anyone who is reading this, nor do I have any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but I do know that racism is wrong, and the obvious racism against Arabs in this country bothers me more and more each day. We got to talk to the students in the group, and I was pretty straightforward about asking them about their customs, their views on Arabs, and the state of Israel. Some of the students tried to beat around the bush, some were overtly racist, some just had a lot of pride and admiration for Israel. One of the students also asked me quite a few questions - about Christianity, my views on Israel, American life, other places I had traveled…overall it was a good, relaxed, but complex conversation.

Afterwards, I worked out in the [tiny] weight room at the college. It is very odd for woman to work out in Israel, especially by lifting weights, so I got plenty of weird stares. For dinner, our MIT group went into downtown Karmiel and got shawarma (they roast meat on a spinning pole and then shave it off) and falafel. When I got back I celebrated one of my roommates birthdays with some cake.

Monday was another typical day of teaching. But it was a day filled with lots of JOY - the sun came out, and it felt like a warm spring day in Boston. I went for a beautiful run through Karmiel, found a park, and like I was 6 years old again, went down the giant slide and climbed a big rope thing they had and sat up on it, soaking in the sun and praying. I also found a wall to play lacrosse on - which drew tons stares and students talking about me in Hebrew.

On Tuesday, I only had to teach one class in the morning. So Bridget and I went for an adventure to Akko - a nearby city on the coast, which has barely changed since Ottomans lived there a few hundred years ago. Smelling the salt air, feeling more sunshine, and getting to talk with Bridget made it a perfect day. Hopefully pictures can express some of the beauty:

Bridget playing Jonah.

Today (Wednesday), I got to teach Chemistry again! Its the class I enjoy teaching most, the class I am most confident in teaching, and feel like I am actually giving the students a better understanding and enjoyment of chemistry. Played more lacrosse today, spent lots of time with God, and skyped Chantine!!

Friday morning our MIT group is headed to the Dead Sea, to hike, swim/float, and explore. So expect a post about that sometime after Sunday!

Israel - the country of opposites.

I've been talking a lot about what I've been doing here in Israel, but I think its time a write a post about the culture of Israel.

Israel is truly the country of opposites - a picture of a palm tree and snow describes it best. The landscape can go from looking like California, to Pennsylvania, to Colorado, then to Miami, within an hour of driving through it. Whether or not your Jewish or Arab completely defines you (and you are one of the other - no such thing as being 25% this and 50% that…). Israeli's joke about how they are always at war with someone, always on the defensive and the offensive.

I think people here are incapable of feeling awkwardness or shame. Israeli people do what they want, when they want. Which is why the first Hebrew word most people learn is "belligron", which means chaos. For instance, in the school I am teaching at, it is perfectly normal for a teacher to arrive ten minutes late to class, or for students to circle up and play a card game in the middle of the lesson. Its perfectly acceptable for a student to charge their phone during class, and pick a call up if it rings. The teacher's room says students can't enter, but they come in and out all day. Teachers don't have their own classroom, thus they are always just hanging around the teachers room, eating, chatting, not really doing anything. Students here lack any discipline - they are crazy. They talk throughout class without ever getting yelled at, get up and leave when they want, basically lack any respect for any teacher. So its quite a blessing when they pay attention. Teachers seem to lack any lesson plans - when we ask them what we should teach next week, the typical respond is "do what you want", they have nothing planned for us to disturb anyways. Today in one of my classes two girls had basically wrapped themselves up in toilet paper, and the teacher didn't even flinch.

There is also a clear distinction between Jews who are religious and those that are not. There is very little middle ground. They are either orthodox, and are wearing top hats, have long curly hair from their temples, ropes hanging from their clothes etc. Then their are the non-religious, who don't go to synagogue, who drink, smoke, do what they want, and don't really believe in anything.

Some other interesting facts about Israeli culture that I've noticed (not trying to generalize here, just giving you a picture of some of the differences with American culture):

-The students here are so NEAT - beds always made, kitchen always clean. I don't know if I've ever seen MIT dorms as clean.
-The entire campus goes home every Thursday night, and returns Sunday morning, mainly because Israel is so small that they can, and they like to be home for Shabbat, whether or not they are religious.
-Since the students are only here for half the week, they are here solely to study. So they are basically always working - there are very few clubs, no sports teams (or even a field to practice on), and not much student life in general.
-All Israeli shower floors I've seen are level with the bathroom floor, so every time you shower the entire bathroom floor floods. Thus every shower has a squeegee in it.
-Everyone in college is between 22-30 years old, so it almost feels like being on a graduate school campus. This is because all Israeli citizens serve 3-4 years in the military after they graduate high school. They usually then spend a year of traveling around the world before coming to college.
-iPhones cost almost a $1000 here, and yet EVERYONE has one.
-Many people here smoke - high schoolers, college kids…sometimes its hard to get a breath of fresh air.
-Pretty much every food item comes in a pita.
-Students at this college take 8 classes at once - thus its normal to have 6-12 hours of class a day!
-Since all citizens have to serve in the military, there are people in uniform walking around everywhere here. Every bus or train I've been on has had at least 5 military personnel on it. Everyone who is my age in this country is in the military right now. Its funny to see girls with long hair, makeup, and perfectly painted nails, in a military uniform.


I have definitely never lived in a place quite like Israel. Its closer to America than Kenya was, but still feels very different. Its weird that I may be the only Christian my roommates have ever known or lived with. Its funny to watch a chemistry lesson purely in Hebrew, except for the reactions and equations, which then use English letters. I'm not loving the lifestyle and culture as much as I fell in love with that of Kenya or the Dominican, but I am learning a lot about the culture and myself, seeing lots of cool things, and having a good time. I have never desired to know a country's language as much as I do here - I miss being able to read, something I've taken for granted in all of the other places I've been.

Jerusalem

The unexposed part of the wailing wall from underground.

Mika, Kathleen, me.

"You are standing at the point closest to the site of the Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount."

Friday morning Kathleen, 4 other MIT students, and I boarded the train to Jerusalem, and made it to the Old City. We first went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a beautiful church, and one of the places Jesus may have been crucified. Kathleen and I then went on an underground tour of the Western Wall. Since Muslims have control of the temple mount, the Western Wall of the temple is the closest the Jews can get to the mount, thus it was one of the most sacred places in all of Jerusalem for them. Only a few hundred feet of it are actually exposed, but Kathleen and I were able to walk along the entire thing through an underground tunnel on the tour. It was pretty crazy to think that we were so close to the Holy of Holies, the only place where God's Presence used to be, the place that only a Priest could enter on one day of the year. It was also incredible to see the passion that the Jewish people had as they stood at the wall, and read their prayers aloud.

The wailing wall.

After the tour, we went to the Garden Tomb, one of the sites they think Jesus body was laid. We met and joined a Nigerian group that was passing through (God is too good at knowing what I need and when). It was a beautiful garden, and really cool to see the Bible come alive before me.

Because it was Friday afternoon, the city (and country) was starting to shut down for Shabbat, which starts at sunset (they blow a horn throughout the city when it starts and stops). So Kathleen and I grabbed some food from a supermarket, and headed for our hostel. The wonderful - well kept, clean, and full or other young people. They had a whole hang out room with food, music, pool tables, places to read, and more, so we spent most of the time there. Kathleen and I had a grand dinner together from our grocery shopping - bread, peanut butter, a banana and pomegranate, and digestives.

The group that came together to explore for the day - David, Jeff, Carlos, Sheila, me, Simon, and David.

Garden of Gethsemane.

On Shabbat, everything is closed; Jerusalem almost seems abandoned. All of public transportation shuts down, so your basically stuck wherever you are until Shabbat ends. One of our friends even asked a man to take a picture of our group, and the man replied that he couldn't because it was Shabbat. Kathleen and I decided to go to a Christian-Jewish church service in the Old City, because a few students who were staying at the hostel that we had met the night before invited us to it. It was neat to see Jewish people who had become Christian worshiping Jesus right near the place He had the Last Supper. The students we had met were from Germany and Switzerland, so it was cool to read a scripture aloud in English, while they read in German, and the pastor read in Hebrew. We met a lot of people at the church after the service, including a son and father who wanted to show us around the city. They brought us to an Arab restaurant to get one of their famous dishes that Kathleen had tried to get me to try the day before - melted cheese with a honey-sugar layer on top. It was way too much cheese for me, and way too sweet, but worth the experience.

Sugar-cheese thing.

We then went to the Mount of Olives, and visited the Garden of Gethsemane. This was the most powerful place to be in for me, because there was no question that Jesus was there on his last night, and because at that place is where our salvation started. I found a place to be alone and pray, and read Luke 22, praying the same prayer Jesus did ("not my will Father, but yours, be done"). We walked up the mount further, until we were able to see all of the Old City as the sunset over it, and the end of Shabbat horn blew.

Kathleen and I spent the rest of the night at the hostel (until the buses started running again to take us home), with our new German/Switzerland friends David, David, and Simon. Hanging out with them throughout the day was so great - they brought so much joy and laughter. Like I learned in Kenya, it really doesn't matter where you are or what your doing; the thing that matters most is the people you are with. Since I've been to Israel I've been praying that God would bring amazing people into my path that I can learn from, and he did just that in Jerusalem. One of the David's was constantly proclaiming God's greatness, and embodied a joy that I've been trying to embody myself these past few days.

Tel Aviv

Kathleen and I arrived in Tel Aviv by train Wednesday night, got some dinner, and met another group of MIT students who are teaching in Tel Aviv at their hotel. Tel Aviv is like the Manhattan of the Middle East, and is right on the coast.

On Thursday, they all had to go to their school to teach, so I decided to explore the city on my own. I started the morning on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. It was so refreshing to walk down the beach for a while (although cold), and then to get some breakfast at a cafe. I made my way to the old city of Tel Aviv, also known as Yafo. I got to see a few cool things, like a house that Peter stayed at (Acts 9:42), an old church, gardens, statues…

The old city - Yafo.

The new city.

It was nice to not have a set schedule for the day - I just wondered around, occasionally glancing at the map. For lunch, I intentionally ate at a restaurant that didn't have an english menu, and kind of just told me the waitress to bring me whatever she thought was good. It was very cheap since it wasn't a tourist hot-spot, and delicious. I ended up getting some kind of egg-tomotato-salad thing in a pita. Afterwards I did more exploring as I made my way back to the hotel.

One very different thing about the day that I never experienced while in Kenya was my ability to blend in (somewhat). The blonde hair is still a pretty good indicator that I'm European or American, but with a hat on, no one could really tell I didn't belong until I spoke. I'm also not used to being able to pull out my phone in public or to not have to constantly be on my guard from pick-pockets; the city is very safe, and because to live in Tel Aviv you have to be very wealthy, nothing I own is even desirable to most of the residents there. Quite different from Nai-robbery...

That night, Kathleen and I stayed with some of her family friends who live in Tel Aviv. It was so great to be with a family (with a 4 year old son and 7 year old daughter). Nothing can beat a warm house, homemade chicken soup, a comfy bed, and little kids to play with, especially when you've lived in college dorms for 2 years. We were supposed to go to Jerusalem that night instead of stay with them, but because it was SNOWING in Jerusalem, we had to go there the next morning. I was a little bummed about having less time in Jerusalem, but staying with the family was well worth it! Kathleen and I even went for a long run on the beach as the sun was setting - and instead of the beach being refreshing like it was in the morning, it was truly captivating. One of those moments when God's Creation captures you, makes your heart beat faster, and all you want to do is worship Him :)

God sent me a rainbow.

My first day waking up in Israel was pretty good. I successfully navigated around the college to get to the offices I needed to get to (its a pretty small campus, but all the buildings look the same, and are not labeled well). I then went to the high school I will be teaching at - Ort Kramim. It is right next door to the college, so I can luckily walk there and back everyday. Our point of contact from the school showed us around, introduced us to the principal and many teachers, and gave us our schedules for the month. I am teaching with another MIT student named Mika, who thankfully can speak Russian and Hebrew. Together we will teach many different classes - Chemistry, Biology, Math, Physics, English, and Mechatronics. In some classes we are just doing enrichment activities, and in some we will actually be teaching the lesson.

After our day at the school, I came back to my room, relaxed and ate lunch. Then went for a run around campus - and got plenty of odd stares. Apparently its not very common for woman to work out here…even less common for people to be working out when its raining. I did end up getting poured on, but when I got back to my room and looked out the window, I saw a gorgeous rainbow in front of me. I LOVE rainbows, and haven't seen one in a few years! It led me to read Genesis 7-9, the story of Noah; for just as God established a covenant with Noah with the rainbow, I remembered how God has promised to provide for all of my needs and to protect me. And from that, all I wanted to do was praise God, for what He did in the DR, for getting me to Israel safely, for His beauty, and for all that He would do in the coming month. No matter what He will take care of me; He knows my  needs before I do and will always provide.

For dinner on Monday, three of my suite mates made me some Israeli/Yemen food. It consisted of little bread things that you put sautéed veggies on, edamames, hash brown like things made out of corn, and they insisted on me having coke with it haha. It was quite good, and getting to talk to them and laugh with them was so great. We kept talking and saying that I was helping them study for their english test so in reality they didn't need to go study. Afterwards my MIT friends Bridget and Kathleen came over, which meant another late night…

On Tuesday, Mika and I had our first real day of teaching. I taught for the first few minutes, introducing ourselves, talking about MIT, what we studied etc. Then because it was a computer class and Mika is a computer science major, she took over the rest of the class. Overall it went pretty well. The rest of the day was filled with meeting with different teachers. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, and I finally got to bed somewhat early.

Today (Wednesday), I was teaching on my own at 8:45 am, a 12th grade Chemistry class. But because I had barely slept in so long…my body slept through my 4 alarms and woke up at 8:30am…which meant I jumped out of bed, basically ran to the school, and got to the classroom only a few minutes late (and the normal teacher wasn't even there yet). I don't even think she noticed I was late. I of course felt awful about waking up so late, and prayed the entire time I was walking there. Prayed God would work through me despite things not happening as I wanted them to that morning. And He did. The lesson ended up going very well (thank you Mrs. Sherman, my high school chemistry teacher), the students were attentive and interested, the teacher was surprised at how much information I was able to teach, and graciously thanked me. That was the only class I was teaching that day, so I came back to my room, read, slept etc. I wanted to go for a run…but it hasn't stopped raining since I got here! Today it was even thunder storming and hailing, not something I thought I would ever see on palm trees. My roommate was shocked - it was the first time she had ever seen 'snow'. Lucky me, the first time I come to Israel is during the worst winter they have had since 1992.

I don't have to teach tomorrow because all of my classes got canceled due to assemblies. Which means I am going to Tel Aviv tonight with Kathleen, then to Jerusalem for the weekend. Ill be back Saturday night!

The view from my dorm room, where I saw the rainbow!

The building I live in. 

Late night snacking on Israeli chocolate :) 

Shalom!

Last Saturday I landed in Boston from the DR at 8 am, and was very excited to see my family, Antuan, Mrs. Coop, Marc, and everyone else there. I got to tell them a little bit about my trip, but quickly had to transfer a few things to the suitcase my mom brought to the airport for my next adventure. It was great to be in Boston for an entire 2.5 hours, but by 10:30 am, I was sitting on my next plane headed towards ISRAEL.

I was headed to Israel with an MIT program called Global Teaching Labs, in which MIT funds students to teach in high schools in various countries for the month of January. Most people in my group of twenty were already in Israel by the time I got back from the DR, but luckily, a close friend who was in my group and had been there twice before just happened to be on my plane there. We met up in Newark before our 10.5 hour plane ride to Israel. The plane was great - finally a time of rest and doing nothing. I actually adore long plane rides, because it forces me to read, journal, sleeep, and rest (I almost wish it could have been longer so I could have slept more…). Although I didn't get to sleep in a bed for two days, I did get to see 4 consecutive sunrises/sunsets from a plane over the line of clouds, and was reminded of God's constant beauty despite my always changing location.

I am very comfortable with traveling, very used to airports, and wasn't really worried at all about navigating through the Israel airport and to the college I was staying at. However I did underestimate what a blessing it had been that most of the places I had traveled to predominately used english. Being in Israel is like being a 4 year old kid who hasn't learned how to read yet. Your surrounded by signs everywhere, and you know they mean something to most people, but to you its absolutely meaningless, even though you want to know what it means. Some signs will have english under the written Hebrew (and sometimes Arabic), but many still don't. That's where God providing me Kathleen on my plane became one of the greatest things He could have given me (although miraculously understanding Hebrew would have been pretty cool too). I didn't really worry at all the entire trip (I had learned that lesson from Kenya), but I was still humbled by not being able to understand anything around me (kind of like when my professors are writing things on the board…), and my constant need for direction from others.

We made it to the train headed for Akko pretty easily, but were pleasantly surprised to find out after being settled on the train for a little bit that it had stopped running because of flooding of the tracks. The entire train was emptied, and we were forced to find a bus to Akko. We ended up running into two other students from MIT, and followed them to get a sherut, or shared van, which took us to Haifa. Two buses later and a bit of walking through the pouring rain, we made it to Ort Braude College, our home for the next 4 weeks. After being welcomed by a full bag of Israeli goodies, a new backpack, and lots of info, we checked into our dorms. A hot shower never felt so good!

Oh and I forgot to mention I was proposed to in the midst of all that traveling by a Turkish man who barely spoke english…

I am living in a suite with 4 other girls, one which I share a room with. We have three bathrooms, a 'kitchen', and 3 bedrooms. I'm excited to get to know all of the girls and many other students here!

After showering and unpacking, our director here (who is exactly like the mom from the Incredibles and more like a grandmother to us), took a few of us out to dinner and grocery shopping. One thing I learned about Israeli culture - pretty much all restaurants either serve dairy products or meat, but never both because they are kosher. The restaurant we went to was a dairy restaurant, and because the whole restaurant was in Hebrew, our director Maxine basically read the whole thing to us like we were little kids (reading it in the "backwards" direction to us english speakers). She basically just ended up ordering for us - sweet potato ravioli, a salad (this is where the dressing comes in walter), pesto lasagna, and vegetable lasagna, with a grand dessert to finish it off. Picked up some grocery necessities (bananas, bread, cereal, peanut butter, milk, apples, and oranges of course)…not knowing what anything actually cost (what is 80 shekels to you?).

Came back to my room afterwards, skyped/caught up with some people at home, and slept exactly how you would imagine someone would sleep who hadn't had a bed in two days :)

My dorm room for the next four weeks!

Cristo, puede mover montes.

[Savior, He can move the mountains]

For those of you who followed my Kenya blog, you probably know that I love and seek out adventure. And even though my journey at MIT is still one of the biggest adventures I've been on (the drinking from a firehouse analogy is all too true), I just can't help but do other crazy things when the fire-hose shuts off for a bit.

So after being home for a week for a wonderful Christmas and time spent with family and friends, of course I hopped on a plane and left the country.

My first destination: the Dominican Republic. You can read my last post for more info on it, but it was a trip with my home church (Faith Community Church of Hopkinton), with 22 college-aged students and leaders. I was there from December 28th to January 5th, building a chapel for a village congregation and ministering to local college students. I honestly was not too excited to go before the trip, and was questioning why I was even going. But God obviously had big plans for me down there. Because I had been there once before, I was able to jump right into construction work, which I love. It was also SO great to connect with the Dominicans that I became really great friends with a year and a half ago, especially because I thought I would never get to see them again last time I left the DR. I also got to reconnect with my FCCH family, since I have barely been home since I left for MIT.

One of the coolest parts about the trip was that I got to go to a service at the chapel I helped build last year. They asked me to speak at the service about my experience in being back, and all I could really say is how blown away I was by God, by the love of the people sitting before me in that chapel, and how cool it was that we could all worship the same God in spanish and english together.

Another time God allowed me to just feel His peace and freedom was when He made it POUR and our whole team had a crazy water fight. It was such a spontaneous, God-orchestrated time of release, fun, going crazy, and being washed clean after a hard day of work. God continually awed me with His beauty while I was there - He took my breath away countless times with sunrises, stars, the moon, mountains, and the view of the city from the roof of the building we stayed at.

But like my time in Kenya, and everywhere else Ive been, the part that made it SO hard to leave (my heart was aching as I walked into the airport), was the people. Saying goodbye to people Ive kept in touch with over the past two years, along with the new Dominican friends I met, and my FCCH team once I got back to Boston broke my heart. Part of me wanted to tell myself to never travel again, because leaving hurt too badly. But God brought me back once, so I am just praying He will bring me back again. Praying I can continue to keep in touch with everyone down there, with my FCCH family, and keeping all of them in my prayers.

I could share a lot more…so feel free to ask questions. I hope pictures also do a good job of describing my journey down there!

Con mi fe, te exaltare

Con mi amor, te exaltare

Con mi ser, te exaltare.

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