The Perfect Storm

A “perfect storm” is defined by Wikipedia as “an expression that describes an event where a rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically.” Besides the fact that Israel is currently experiencing its third straight day of countrywide rainstorms, I think it’s safe to say that today’s events at Daliyot School would fit that description.

So Andi, Tali, and I have been working at Dalyiot for about 2 weeks now, and have had nothing but positive experiences. For the most part, we have been working in various English classes and helping where we can. Also, I have been working with a 1st grader named – you know, let’s just call him Jed, a boy who has had some behavioral issues and has for whatever reason quickly connected with me. The school has been fantastic, the staff has been incredibly supportive, and the kids are a pleasure to teach. That being said, if you’ve ever taught, you know that sometimes you just have one of those days.

Upon arrival to Dalyiot, I headed down to Jed’s class to work with him. Apparently today was immunization day, and his class and many other students were lining up to receive their shots. I got there right before Jed headed in, and he was, as always, very excited to see me. Once we got in, however, Jed was told that they did not have his immunization card and would not be treated. Most kids might take this as a plus – hey, no shot today! Jed, however, was extremely upset to have been left out of something the rest of his class was taking part in. It became impossible to get him to work, and for a while he just sulked in the corner and took out his anger on me. Finally, his teacher and I got to the root of the issue and he pretty much spent the last 10 minutes of class hugging me as hard as he could, until recess came and he forgot all about his troubles.

That was the easy part of my day.

So after that, Andi and I were supposed to go with one of the English teachers to her class. Normally Tali would be with us, but she had been feeling pretty sick and we told her to go home and get some rest. Before reaching the class, a school counselor grabbed me in a rush and started babbling about some kind of major disaster, she desperately needs our help, she can’t teach English, and on and on. Honestly, for a minute I thought I was going to walk into a room with a fire burning and kids playing catch with other kids!

Turns out there were about 5 teachers out sick that day, and they needed help covering one of the rooms. So, Andi and I moved to a 4th grade class that we all spend a lot of time in anyway. Now, I walked in expecting to take over English class, but we were then told that it was currently science class. So why was the counselor so concerned about teaching English? No clue, but if someone could explain that I’d be thrilled. So, being unable to teach science in the first place (let alone in Hebrew), the class was introduced to what would end up being 3 hours of English class.

At first (and this wouldn’t be the only time) the class was extremely difficult to get under control. This was one of those times where my classroom experience helped me survive, as I knew some basic ways to get the class under control… that sort of worked. While we were trying to come up with a lesson plan in 10 seconds in front of the class, we thankfully noticed many of the kids asking where Tali was. Not that I’m happy she’s sick, but that saved our butts. For the first hour, we had the kids make get-well cards for her, letting them learn some English while getting to draw and color, a favorite pastime of the class. Unfortunately, the counselor left (I’m sure to deal with another crisis) and we were left alone with our very limited Hebrew skills to control a class of 9-10 year olds. Admittedly, the cards idea worked out great and kept them busy for an hour – but we still had another hour to fill.

For the second hour, Andi and I decided to split the class in half and each take one group for half the time. The class had a test later that day in their actual English class, and I wanted to help them prepare. In my half, we played a game where everyone stands in a circle and tosses a ball around, and when you catch the ball you have to say a word in a certain category, such as “words that start with B”. Since the test was over hobbies, that was the category. The game went well for a little bit, but not surprisingly, it wound up devolving into kids throwing the ball at each other and running around, refusing to pay attention to the guy speaking English at the front of the room. Thankfully the 2nd half of the class went better, as I made sure to better demonstrate how the game worked and how not to toss the ball to each other.

As was par for the course today though, we wound up with another crisis. One particular student in the class is exceptionally good at English, to the point where she almost sounds like a native speaker. Unfortunately, during elementary school it isn’t uncommon for someone to get made fun of for being smart, which was exactly what happened. There’s nothing – NOTHING – more heartbreaking for a teacher than to hear a student talk about how she wishes she was stupid or that she wants to go back in time so she never learned something. Just awful stuff. Sadly, that was the end of our day – the main English teacher came to administer their test, we managed to get the student back into the class, and returned home, where I started writing this.

Now, this was a pretty rough day, and you might think that I have a lower opinion of Daliyot than when I started. To the contrary, my thoughts on Daliyot haven’t changed one bit. It’s still a fantastic school, with remarkable and incredibly supportive staff, and the kids are (normally) great to teach. But, as any teacher knows, sometimes these days just happen. Sometimes, the weather is bad and kids are restless. Sometimes, a kid is upset about something and takes it out on everyone else around him. Sometimes, teachers get sick and have to go home. Sometimes, teachers panic and overreact (Like you’ve never done that?). Sometimes, lesson plans fall apart. Sometimes, kids get bullied. And sometimes, it all happens at once in a perfect storm. But tomorrow morning, I’m going to wake up, get dressed, and head back in for another day. Hopefully, it’ll go better. But if it doesn’t? I’m still gonna do it again every day for the next 2 ½ months. And these days will happen again, and they will be offset by the great days that are much more frequent. That’s just the life we lead – wouldn’t have it any other way.

Yokneam! (and the past month...)

We've finally moved to Yokneam and I can say that we're just about settled. Our apartment is one enormous step up from the absorption center we lived in during our three months in Ashkelon. We have an oven!...not that any of us can quite figure out how to use it.

A full kitchen and living room had all of us shocked and quite pleasantly surprised. It's a shock to the system to move from a dorm style building with 38 Americans to the much quieter existence of an apartment with two roommates (not to imply that we can't still hear every word each other says because with the way noise carries here, its as is we're always all in the same room). But before talking about Yokneam, a quick summary of my last month:

I was in Istanbul for about a week with a friend from Otzma and we had a wonderful time. Going to Turkey was something we planned incredibly last minute (two weeks before we left, maybe?) and somehow everything just magically fell into place. We were friendly before the trip but ended up traveling really well together and enjoying each others company.

We luckily found most of the same things fascinating and I'm a little embarrassed to admit we would get so excited at each new site (while simultaneously reading our individual copies of Lonely Planet: Istanbul) that we'd make notes on scrap paper and go back to our hostel to look up our homework online later in the night. I was exposed to a whole new culture that I previously knew hardly anything about. I was so shocked (probably a big reflection of my own ignorance) how much amazing history there was to find in Istanbul itself. I had never been to a Muslim country and found the stunning mosques absolutely fascinating. And since the Bosphorus River, which runs right through the city, separates both the city and country into part Europe and part Asia...I went to Europe over break!

We decided one evening to try and find one of the few synagogues in the country which represent the very small Jewish community in Istanbul. As we happened upon the building and decided to take a picture of the exterior (we wanted to record how understated and really hidden the building seemed) a man in a suit ran at us yelling to stop taking pictures. He can only be described as secret service as he was in a suit and spoke into a tiny microphone in the lapel of his jacket. He watched us delete our pictures and after swearing up and down that we are Jewish he explained to us that in order to get a tour of the synagogue we would have to contact the Chief Rabbi of Turkey to receive permission. We walked away stunned but on a mission.

On the last day of our trip we were able to visit two synagogues and a Jewish museum. Both shuls were hidden and extremely difficult to spot unless you are explicitly seeking them out. But then as you enter they somehow open up into these big beautiful establishments.

Neve Shalom, where we were encountered the security guard, we found out was the victim of two attacks in the past couple decades. Gunmen entered the synagogue during Shabbat services in the 80s and just a few years ago there was a car bombing. Amazingly Neve Shalom is still beautiful and active.

After returning to Israel I was in Jerusalem, studying at Pardes for two weeks. It was a really interesting experience and overall I really enjoyed the text study. Being in Jerusalem I expected to get back into being forced to use my Hebrew but since I had never before lived in Jerusalem I now realize, that was just not true. I hardly spoke a word of Hebrew over those two weeks since everyone's English was far and away better than my Hebrew. And that's really an understatement since I felt surrounded by Americans almost the entire time, and when I was around Israeli's they were all pretty much fluent in English. I was relieved honestly to get out of the city so that I could feel like I wasn't trapped in an American bubble and I could be around Israelis again.

A week and a half in Yokneam and I already have improved my Hebrew more than I ever would surrounded by English speakers. We've been working in an elementary school for three days and being with children makes is extremely necessary to improve, quickly! The teachers communicate with us in English and there are even a few kids who know the language but for most of the day, Hebrew is really essential. It's a situation I've really managed to avoid amazingly enough over the past four months because I've been terrified to use the language. Now that it's unavoidable it's putting a lot of pressure on me to get better fast! And really in three days I'm already utilizing a lot more of what I know than I have been. I definitely still sound absolutely ridiculous when I speak, but I understand a lot more and I'm just hoping someday I'll get to a point when I don't sound absolutely ridiculous.

Yokneam itself is a beautiful city with a real small town feel. There is one large shopping center and I have yet to go there without recognizing someone (and we only moved here last week!). It's located in the mountains so its hilly and offers a great view from almost anywhere. Because it's the partnership city to St. Louis when I tell people where I'm from they get really excited (not something you'll find ANYWHERE ELSE in Israel where they usually say "I've never heard of that place"). The Partnership 2000 coordinators, people associated with federation in St. Louis, have really taken care of us here and are still helping us to figure out the logistics for all of our volunteering while in Yokneam.

Last night we volunteered at the youth center for the first time and just spent time hanging out with the kids who were there doing mostly nothing with friends. I played a couple games of foozeball and ping pong. Fun fact: the direct translation of foozeball in from Hebrew to English is "table soccer" (from cador regell shulchan). We had a really fun night hanging out with some of the high schoolers there, trying to communicate in the Hebrew I could speak, and the little bit of English they could contribute too.

So far its been a pretty smooth transition to living up here. Even though I see the importance of taking Ulpan in Ashkelon and I did volunteer a few days a week there, I often felt frustrated that I wasn't doing what I came here to do this year, which is to volunteer full time. Now that I've moved to Yokneam and the second track of Otzma has begun I know that I'm finally getting that opportunity. I'll be happy to share as those unfold! (picture: Max, me, and Tali with a view of Yokneam in the background)

Yom Tov!