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| The מרכז קליטה is at the top right under the oog in Google. We are so close to the beach!! |
In the 2nd part of the program our group of 35 is being divided into smaller groups and sent to cities all across Israel. I am going to be moving to a town called Ofakim with Richard who is also from the DC area. Ofakim is the P2K partner with MetroWest in New Jersey but they took us in because generally they want to place 3 people together in a town and our partnership (Washington D.C. and Beit Shemesh) only has 2.
So, אופקים (Ofakim) is a small developmental town with about 27,000 residents. There is one main strip that runs through the center of the town and not much else. There is a bar, a shwarma place, a coffee shop and some random stores with basic necessities. There is also a small shopping center that I have not been to yet because everything was closed on Rosh Hashanah. Knowing what little I know about Israel's smaller cities, I am assuming there is not much there. 30% of אופקים is ultra-orthodox and there are over 65 synogogues in אופקים and the surrounding areas. We have been told that life in אופקים can be difficult but that it is one of the most rewarding places to volunteer. However, the importance of learning Hebrew was also mentioned as אופקים does not have a lot of English speakers. On the bright side, it is in the northern part of the Negev (I can find reptiles!) and it is about a 25 minute bus ride from Beer Sheva
Our coordinator in אופקים is Tal. She has been so helpful so far and I know both Richard and I are looking forward to getting to know her better during our stay in Israel. One of the important aspects of the program is the adoptive families that we are given in our towns. Tal put me with an AMAZING family that could not be any better. She sent Richard and I both emails about our families and she and Brian (an OTZMA alum who is now going to school in Israel) came and met us here at the מרכז קליטה and filled us in on what to expect. Tal and Brian helped us figure out how and when we would get to אופקים. My family in אופקים is truly amazing. They are of Moroccan and Iraqi descent and they run an ethnic catering business. Osi (my adoptive mom) is such a cool woman. I was so nervous about meeting the family after hearing (from Tal) that they have more of a festival than a Rosh Hashanah meal. There were about 25 people there the first night and I got all dressed up, only to find that everyone was wearing jeans and t-shirts for the most part. Holidays in Israel are pretty casual in terms of dress it seems. So they had a lot of family over for dinner the first night. Osi and Shmuli have 3 sons who are 10, 9 and 6. They are awesome kids although they are still learning English so it was hard to connect with them at first which was tough for me because I really wanted to get to know them.
Many other family members were there including Osi's brother (Ofer) and his 4 kids. Roni, his daughter and Osi's niece, took me in and hung out with me most of the night which was really nice because she spoke English with me. Ofer also has another daughter and 2 sons, a 24 year old and a 3 year old who is just about the cutest toughest little boy ever. He speaks English, Hebrew and Hungarian which I thought was pretty impressive and it was funny hearing him interchange them all. Ofer's other daughter is 18 and is gearing up to join the army in a couple of weeks. I really wanted to talk to her about it but her English was not so good and she was pretty quiet in general. To the left is a picture of an Israeli nap :) The next pic is Ofer's youngest and the little boy of a family friend.
There were many more family members that came to celebrate that night including Safta and some of her long lost family from the states. They had 2 sons close to my age that came with them and I could immediately tell they were the Americans. They are working in Columbia and I found it interesting that for 2 guys who live outside the country, they were so uncomfortable! They actually complained to me that they didn't know anyone and that it was weird. I said "take away your parents, your brother, the fact that you have spent a lot of time in Israel and the fact that you speak Hebrew. Thats how I feel." I think I had way more fun than they did!
So seeing as they own a catering business the food was INCREDIBLE!
I ate things that I have never tried before and didn't know what most of it was. I would ask and get an answer in Hebrew, which didn't really help that much because we had really only had 2 days of Ulpan (Hebrew lessons) so I just tried a bit of everything. There were definitely things that I did not care for but most of it was just amazing. I have never eaten so much in my life and more and more just kept appearing on my plate. After the meal most of the more distant family left and it was just the more immediate family that stayed. Rosh Hashanah is quite the celebration in אופקים! They exchanged gifts and I was pleasantly surprised when I got an awesome eye-shadow kit. :) At the end of the night Roni drove me home and Richard and I hung out in our awesome apartment and drank some beer which I have unfortunately grown fond of. Damn you Goldstar! So we had some sticky traps in the apartment which for some reason didn't click in my head at first. However, when we got home and found a little mouse stuck to the sticky pad it hit that there is a mouse problem in the house. I really really hate those kinds of traps because of the way that the mice die (I am realistic about the course of life and death but I can't let something suffer and neither Richard nor I could end it quickly for the little guy) so we got some olive oil and spoons and took him a little distance from our house. We worked him off of the sticky pad and although I am sure he got eaten by something hopefully it was quick.
We also have some geckos that hang out on the roof of our porch. One night we had the pleasure of watching one hunt and eat a cockroach which was pretty cool. The downside of the geckos eating the cockroaches is that they do need to poop and they thought that my towel was a good place for that. Oh well. At least I learned how to handwash my clothes for the first time! I won't say how successful or unsuccessful I was but it was an improvement for sure. Our apartment is pretty cool although the bathing situation is quite bizarre. You have to sit on the seat of the tub and hold the shower head above you while in the corner of this pretty decent size room. I felt kind of like a mermaid minus the tail and cool sea-shell bra. We have 2 rooms and a nice kitchen and seating area for dinner and a couple couches to hang out on. All-in-all I think we are pretty lucky about the house that we will be in. Here are some pics of our place - pardon our quickly created mess.
So, back to my family. I spent the next few days going back and forth from there house and got to know everyone much better. The 2nd day there were about 30 people there but for Shabbat it was just close family. It was nice spending that time with the family. I finally won the 3 boys over playing "כסף גדול" which means "big money" and is similar to Monopoly. They spent the time teaching me how to count and making fun of me for not being very good at the game... partially because they kept cheating. Oh, boys. Then we played in the swimming pool for a while and the oldest son, Offick (will get the correct spelling on that one..) decided that he wanted to teach me hebrew. He gave me 3 pages of new vocabulary and taught me how to say "I want an Israeli husband" in Hebrew. He also drew me some pictures to give me vocab for animals that he didn't know the English name for. Then he yelled at me for not doing my homework. It was awesome.
Saying goodbye to the family was no fun but I will certainly be going back to see them again soon, probably for a few days for Sukkot. Plus I've been hungry since I left and I could use some of Osi's amazing cooking. I made her promise to teach me how to make something, now I just have to figure out what I want to know how to make. Its just all so good. I am surprised at how much lamb and fish I have been eating here. Never thought those would be things I would want to eat. Oh, surprise meatballs are really good too! The surprise in Osi's is a slice of hard-boiled egg in the middle. Bizarre but amazing. It was so nice to hang out with them and they really made me feel like a member of the family through and through. They taught me all about all the plants on their property and we talked about their bee hives that they collect honey from. I also learned the ever valuable "I don't like bees" phrase in Hebrew. :D
There is more about Ofakim but that is most of it so I will fill in what I missed later. I am tired now and it is time for a NAP!!!
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