Jess becomes a bit more aware...
This weekend everyone in the OTZMA group went to his or her adoptive families this weekend. OTZMA has provided everyone in the program with a host family for the year. So we can have the experience of a real Israeli family lifestyle and a home cooked meal every now and then. The constant meals consisting of hummus and pita are growing a bit old.
Anyways, this meant that all of us were to spend the weekend with a family, some who are Israeli and some who have made aliya, whom we did not know and yet were expected to feel at home with. This was an awkward thought for most of us and the bus ride to where our families were to pick us up was a bit anxious for me. I stepped off the bus and turned to a car of two girls with huge smiles on their faces and felt immediately at ease. One turned out to be my new sister and the other was her best friend Continued...
The family lives on a Moshav, which is a more independent version of a Kibbutz. In fact this Moshav happened to be a Kibbutz a few decades ago, but has turned more individual over the years because the Kibbutz lifestyle is not profitable enough. Basically where they live looks like Israel Suburbia, like the American equivalent, but with a socialist twist. Within the neighborhood there were some central locations, there was a grocery store, a place where everyone gets the mail, a playground, tennis and basketball courts, a pool, and a synagogue. Now the really neat thing about this community is the connection between everyone within it. Every year the children that are born grow up together in a group environment having 15 to 20 people that share their life experiences. The oldest daughter, who was the one that picked me up, is 18. She is about to join the army in December and talked to me a lot about growing up with all her friends and her thoughts on leaving for the army very soon. Most really like the life on the Moshav even though, by many people’s standards, it is not the most exciting place in the world. Evenings are spent with family and friends - just hanging out. The Moshav runs group activities for each grade level helping to bring in the ideas and values of the culture. In the end this does seem to work for the kids. It is extremely rare that anyone gets caught up in drugs or alcohol and each age level has a wonderful social network of their best friends around them all the time. The neighborhood feels very safe, quite, and peaceful all the time.
I also talked to the oldest daughter and her friends a lot about the army. If I were leaving in a few months for the army I would be FREAKING out. But the mentality here is very different from how I think. Her mother is excited for her rather then scared, knowing that this is more of a coming of age time rather then a death sentence as it might be seen as in America. Her friends that had already left had complaints about the food and living arrangements, but were thrilled about the responsibility and being on their own in a totally new environment. I talked to some of her family friends as well who had just gotten out of the army. The two girls that I spent the most time with had very very different army experiences. When you enter the army, you are given some tests at the beginning to determine your placement and job for the entire duration. One of the girls was sort of a social worker for the army. She told me she did not have to carry a gun after a few months and spent her time finding at risk families of soldiers that needed assistance and locating resources for them. The other was placed in Gaza. This was a year ago and she spent her days viewing surveillance tapes for 4-hour shifts at a time. She told me she was not allowed to take her eyes of the screen for the entire time and was there to stop a few almost attacks! It was very interesting to hear how both really loved their jobs in the army and were placed accurately just from the tests in the beginning.
Anyways, this meant that all of us were to spend the weekend with a family, some who are Israeli and some who have made aliya, whom we did not know and yet were expected to feel at home with. This was an awkward thought for most of us and the bus ride to where our families were to pick us up was a bit anxious for me. I stepped off the bus and turned to a car of two girls with huge smiles on their faces and felt immediately at ease. One turned out to be my new sister and the other was her best friend Continued...
The family lives on a Moshav, which is a more independent version of a Kibbutz. In fact this Moshav happened to be a Kibbutz a few decades ago, but has turned more individual over the years because the Kibbutz lifestyle is not profitable enough. Basically where they live looks like Israel Suburbia, like the American equivalent, but with a socialist twist. Within the neighborhood there were some central locations, there was a grocery store, a place where everyone gets the mail, a playground, tennis and basketball courts, a pool, and a synagogue. Now the really neat thing about this community is the connection between everyone within it. Every year the children that are born grow up together in a group environment having 15 to 20 people that share their life experiences. The oldest daughter, who was the one that picked me up, is 18. She is about to join the army in December and talked to me a lot about growing up with all her friends and her thoughts on leaving for the army very soon. Most really like the life on the Moshav even though, by many people’s standards, it is not the most exciting place in the world. Evenings are spent with family and friends - just hanging out. The Moshav runs group activities for each grade level helping to bring in the ideas and values of the culture. In the end this does seem to work for the kids. It is extremely rare that anyone gets caught up in drugs or alcohol and each age level has a wonderful social network of their best friends around them all the time. The neighborhood feels very safe, quite, and peaceful all the time.
I also talked to the oldest daughter and her friends a lot about the army. If I were leaving in a few months for the army I would be FREAKING out. But the mentality here is very different from how I think. Her mother is excited for her rather then scared, knowing that this is more of a coming of age time rather then a death sentence as it might be seen as in America. Her friends that had already left had complaints about the food and living arrangements, but were thrilled about the responsibility and being on their own in a totally new environment. I talked to some of her family friends as well who had just gotten out of the army. The two girls that I spent the most time with had very very different army experiences. When you enter the army, you are given some tests at the beginning to determine your placement and job for the entire duration. One of the girls was sort of a social worker for the army. She told me she did not have to carry a gun after a few months and spent her time finding at risk families of soldiers that needed assistance and locating resources for them. The other was placed in Gaza. This was a year ago and she spent her days viewing surveillance tapes for 4-hour shifts at a time. She told me she was not allowed to take her eyes of the screen for the entire time and was there to stop a few almost attacks! It was very interesting to hear how both really loved their jobs in the army and were placed accurately just from the tests in the beginning.
posted by JessMauer at 10:54 PM
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