“It’s a Tough Life”

Our Trip So Far

Our Israel adventure really started in New Delhi at 2 a.m. on Wednesday when the three of us stumbled out of Heba’s house, each with an extra bag full of our Indian purchases, to get into a (very late!) taxi that was to take us to Indira Ghandi International airport.  Our last drive through the streets of Delhi was pretty somber but typically chaotic as even at the quietest hours of the night we still had to swerve out of the way of trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road!

After finally getting to the airport and simply walking away/laughing off our last fight over money with our taxi driver, who wanted us to pay an additional Rs. 200 for “AC” charges, we proceeded to check out.

To make an annoyingly long story short, the three of us collectively had 50 kgs of excess baggage weight costing over Rs. 700 (about USD 12) per kilo.  For some arbitrarily ridiculous reason, the supervisor of the incredibly frustrating woman who was checking us in only made us pay for 20 kg, which still came to about USD 100 each.  As this was equivalent to our budget for an entire week for the past 3 months, we weren’t so thrilled about paying the fine, but there was nothing we could do.

Anyway, the following two hours were spent tending to Ariana who had a fever and chills (we figured either from Lyme disease, Malaria, or general sadness) while we waited for our flight to Tel Aviv via Jordan.  Now after traveling the Indian subcontinent for weeks and weeks and weeks, our sense of distance and time adjusted significantly, so when we arrived in Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv maybe 6 hours later, we were a little surprised.

Our surprise immediately turned into delight when we saw the foxes waiting for us with Yossi, at the arrivals gate.  We were so warmly greeted and even though Israel is not at all unfamiliar to Liz, the three of us immediatley felt safely and happily at home.

Our first couple of days were spent moslty exploring our surroundings; walking along the beach, browsing through the town nearby, visiting the surf shop, spending time and dining at the Foxes apartment and we even participated in a very basic yet informative Hebrew lesson. We also paid a very much needed visit to the doctor for a general check up and to see what kind of damage we did to our bodies from eating street food and drinking unfilitered water in India–and you’ll all be absolutely amazed to know that not one of us contracted a single illness nor did we bring back any parasites.

After this time of settling in and appreciating hot, high-pressure showers, drinkable tap water and clean air, the three of us were taken to the ancient city of Jaffa which is beautiful, sandy and authentic.  We ate at a local restaurant with Yossi–our tourguide for the day, where we ate endless plates of typical Israeli/Middle Eastern food and listened to Greek music.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Before I go on, I should probably mention that when we arrived to Israel (not unlike when we arrived in Australia and India), we didn’t really have a plan of what we were going to do, just a general idea of what we wanted to do.  We knew we wanted to volunteer and do some work here and upon arriving we had a few options: we could work at a kindergarten nearby assisting teachers and supervising children, volunteer at a training centre for seeing-eye dogs, or we could join a kibbutz.  Joining a kibbutz was probably always the most exciting option, but it was also the biggest commitment and for some reason seemed to be dropped after we hadn’t really heard of any exciting prospects when we arrived.

With that said, the day we visited Jaffa with Yossi, maybe our third day in Israel, we found ourselves at the Kibbutz Volunteer Centre, signing up for two months at Kibbutz Baram.  The three of us, perhaps feeling a little senstive after a particularly emotional night–we found ourselves suddenly shaken by the transition from India to Israel and the imminent end of our gap year–we felt a little rushed into the kibbutz and all jumped in our seats when the (unfriendly) woman at the centre told us we would be going to the kibbutz that day!  We explained that that wouldn’t be possible and told her that we’d like to start volunteering the following Sunday.  She agreed, and that bought us some more time to explore Israel.

The following day Yossi took us to Jerusalem.  This city, to say the least, is Biblical.  But in an extraordinary way; we were taken to the church of the holy sepulchre (where Jesus’ tomb is!), the seven stations of the cross, the West (or Wailing) Wall, the Jaffa gate, ruins of a wall that used to surround the city and is mentioned in the Old Testament, as well as other underground markets and old roads.  Each of one of these sites is not just remarkable becuase of its appearance (and they are outstandingly beautiful and well maintained), but becuase of their setting, history and significance.  Just walking through the streets of Old Jerusalem-which are cobble-stoned and lined with Jewish and Arab shops- and seeing the  roman numerals on the stone walls, casually marking where Jesus was stopped on the cross was inexplicably amazing! It may sound silly, or really maybe I just can’t express it, but it gave the Bible-Christianity and Judaism an entire new meaning for me.  I don’t mean to say that I became spotaneously religious, but I was certainly impressed and shocked to see these images in real life.  I guess it’s kind of like reading about ancient Greece your whole life without ever having seen a photo Athens and then visiting the Parthenon.  It just amazed me how real everything is.

Tel Aviv is a different story.  It is equally beautiful and lively and I love it just the same, but for it’s nice cafes, attractive shops, amazing restaurants and (of course!!) people.  The city could pass for European, it is clean, quiet and full of successful businesses and people.  However, we never forget for a moment that we are now in a country that is constantly on high security alert–there are soldiers from the army walking down every other street corner, heavily armed officers in certain areas and even a couple of (I assume) soldiers carrying machine guns while strolling on the beach.

Getting ready to go out in Tel Aviv

As I mentioned before, we are going to Kibbutz Baram tomorrow and it is located practically on the border of Lebanon.  There, we don’t really know what we will be doing–though we have been told a lot of the work is apple picking–we will be placed according to wherever our help is needed.  This is a particularly big kibbutz with about 50 volunteers, so I’m sure we won’t find any reason to dislike it–though we do joke with Mr and Mrs Fox that we might run away and that they’ll get a call from the Lebanese Border Control…

Mother's Day Dinner

Anyway, to say the least, we are happy.  We are enjoying every minute of being in this beautiful country, we are inspired and interested by the people that we meet and the opinions that they share on various topics.  We do miss the noise, chaos, pollution and general uniqueness of India, but we are more than excited to be here and to embark on an entirely new adventure tomorrow.

Final Night before the Kibbutz