A Chayal Boded story

Catching up

2011-03-05T02:40:00.000-08:00

For all the people whom read this blog. I am sorry I have not written in a while. The reason for this is because I have been working in secured areas.

After the course, I returned back to the Nahal Unit. There, I was told that I would be working in the Tara'gad. The Tara'gad is the clinic found on the boarder, which soldiers can go to when they are sick or when then need to. We also go out on different missions as a medical emergency team if needed. The Tara'gad is made up of medics, paramedics and doctors. However, not all my time was spent in the Tara'gad. I also went out to different areas as the main medic on site. Such trips included a driver’s course, where I was the main medical person for 10 drivers. Another example was at training exercises, where I was again the main medic on site. While most of my time was spent watching the exercises or enjoy the view from the back seat of the jeep, I also got to put my training to the test and help soldiers whom got injured.

However, all that now has changed. I am no longer in the Tara'gad. I am now the main medical person for the new trainees. My job now will be to schedule appointments for the soldiers. Look after the health and also to deal with any problems that arise during their training. Besides doing something I know I’m going to love, I will also be getting an interesting experience because now I will get to look at training from the other side. Last time I was back on this base, I was just starting the army and didn't know what to do. Now however, I am also a year and a half in the army and I get to see how the commanders and staff work. I hope that I get to be the mentor to the kids, that my commanders and Hopel (Hopel = Hovesh plugati or company medic. It is also my new job title) was to me.

Finishing up Medics Course

2011-01-13T00:54:00.000-08:00

This week was our last official week in the medic’s course.

While most of our time was spent returning our gear and signing off on a few paper work issues, we did have a very big tests.

The first test was the misdar Mamag (the Mamag is in charge of all the medics’ course in Bad 10. (Bad 10 is the army's Medical Training School.)) he knows everything there is about medics and our course (including the tiny details that one might forget very easily when looking at the big picture. In his misdar, he could ask us anything he wants (including the tiny details which one might forget when looking at the big picture) or have us perform any number of tasks that we have learned in the course. Thankfully we all passed this and with his approval graduated the course.

Once we finished the Misdar, everything became a lot easier. We started relaxing and having fun with our commanders.

On the last night, we broke distance with our commanders. When someone breaks distance it means that we finally get to see them as real people and not our commanders. We get to know their real names, where they come from and a lot more personal information about them. We also get to joke around with them, making impressions and remembering all the funny stuff that happened in class.

Then on Wednesday, we finally finished the course for good. After a brief tekes (ceremony), where we were each awarded pins, we were allowed to go home and leave Bad 10 for the last time.

New Years Finishing off and PHTLS

2011-01-09T03:30:00.000-08:00

Last week we had a quite week. We went on a trip to Jerusalem, to visit Yad Va'shem and had a talk with a man whom was a former medic. We also spent the week reviewing for our final tests. WE had a nice New Years on base and enjoyed the final Shabbat we would be spending together as a group.

Then, this week was our last unofficial week in Course Hovshem (Medics).

To start the week off, on Sunday we brushed up on all of our skills (such as opening up a vein at night, attaching a line and tying it down, and surgical operations.)

On Monday we started our O.S.C.E. An OSCE is a final practical test, where we must show to our commanders that we can live up to the standard that we were taught. For example, in our surgery OSCE, we must show our commanders that we know how to tie down an intubation tube to a person, without it falling out. Another example was during our CPR OSCE, we had to show our commanders that we know how to perform CPR correctly and that if needed, we could perform the task at hand.

On Tuesday we had our final test on all sort of trauma a person can go through. The test included trauma to the chest, stomach, head, broken bones and other trauma incidents that we can find in our "new" line of work.

Then on Wednesday and Thursday, we had a PHTLS (Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support). This is a brand new course that was started a few months ago. The course is meant to teach us how to respond to incidents, in more of a civilian background. For example, we learned how to treat people who have suffered a car crash and other civilian accidents. The purpose of the course was to teach us how to look at things through the eyes of a regular EMT, instead of an army medic. While the differences are small, they are a few changes that we had to learn. For example, back boarding and morphine have two different criteria for when we apply it or when we put someone on a backboard.

While the course was hard (12 hours a day of strait learning and very short breaks) it was a lot of fun and interesting to see the differences between the military medics and a regular EMT.

As a bonus for completing the course (and hopefully passing) I will receive a certificate which is good for everywhere in the world. It will also let me work as a medic and apply for a job as an EMT back home in the states.

This week, will be our last technical week. While we will not be doing much, it will be sad to see people go back to their units. However as in most times in life, while one door is closing, another will reopen up soon I hope.

Traffic control and Doctors

2010-12-18T04:41:00.000-08:00

This week was mass casualties week. Instead of working with one injury or multiple injuries by ourselves, we learned how to work in teams (2 medics, radio man and a doctor) to treat multiple injuries in the field. The way it works is that first: all the injured people got into a semicircle. The medics would then split up, one staying with the doctor and going to one side, and the other medic would start at the other side. Together they would stop any big wound that would cause the injured to die from blood loss. Then the doctor would tell the radio man who had what injury and who would have to be worked on first. The radio man would then call into the central command and tell them about the injuries and that help was needed to evac the injured.

While the radio man was doing that, the doctor and the medics would start surgery on the injured. The whole process takes maybe 20-30 min and you can have more than one team working at once. The rules that come into play, when there is more than one team are that the first one on the scene is the ones in charge. By the end of the week, we were doing training exercise with four teams. That means 4 doctors, 4 radio men and 8-12 medics on one scene with 10 injuries.

Another thing we did this week was be traffic officers. This week was the 10th anniversary of the Harap. The Harap is the army medical clinic. Each course had to send 4-5 people to go and either be security or traffic control and help people park their cars. It was a very nice ceremony and by being there, I got a chance to meet many high up officials who are in charge of the medical branch in the army. Also, there were demonstrations of all the new medical technique that are going on in the country.

Finally, the last thing we did before we got to leave this week was opening up multiple veins on one person. Up until now, we have only opened up one vain per person. On Thursday however, we got a chance to open up 3 veins on one person.

Some other high lights for the week:

It finally rained here in Israel. It even hailed in some areas :)

Surgery week

2010-12-11T00:23:00.000-08:00

This week we continued to learn about the different surgeries we were allowed to help in. The first one we learned was a simple intubation. An intubation is when we insert a long tube down someone’s throat to help them breath. The surgery is not hard and in fact does not even including cutting someone open.

The next surgery we learned about was a Cricoidotomy. This is a more sever intubation, where a small incision is made in the neck, between the thyroid gland and the Cricoid. The surgery is not long, only supposed to last 6-7 min.

The final surgery we learned was how to put in a chest tube. This is done when someone has a Pneumothorax and therefore their lung is either not inflated or something has gotten into the pleura membrane and is squeezing the lung. The Surgery is the most complicated one we have learned so far and is the most successful one of all.

Some other things we did this week:

A training exercise on someone who has had a heat stroke.

A test in pharmacology (where we are test on what drugs to give, what is inside the drug and why do you give that drug)

A class on poisonous animals

Next week will be a more physical week where we start mass casualties.

Midterms and guarding

2010-12-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

The past two weeks have been a combination of mid-terms and guarding.

When we first got to the base on Sunday, we started studying for our midterms as well as start a new lesson topic on surgery. In case there is a war, doctors throughout the country are called up to go into the field and set up a field hospital (called in Hebrew Tzevet 10 or team 10.) Because the doctors come from many different specialty fields (skin, heart, lungs, brain, etc.) they might not remember how to do a basic surgery. This is where we come in, as helpful reminders walking them through the process. For example, we are taught how to perform a tracheotomy (however, we are not allowed to perform the surgery alone) in order to help a doctor whom might have forgotten how to do one.

We also spent the week doing triage exercises. Instead of us working in groups of three (where one guy is the medic, one is the injured and one is the checker), we worked in groups of five, where three people were the injured, one was the medic and one was the checker. The exercise was hard because there is so much you need to keep in mind and you usually get confused between what to do to whom when.

This training and learning class took us through Tuesday. Then that night, the commanders told us to go straight to bed and not worry about the midterms the following day because sleep was more important. Of course no one listened and we all stayed up till 12 learning. By the time I was done with my shower and made my bed, it was already 1 in the morning. Then at 1:15 (I looked at my watch because I thought that I had slept for a while) we had an "attack." All the commanders walked into our sleeping area and told us that we had 7 min. to get dressed, with our gear and our guns and follow them to an attack site that just took place. We all got dressed quickly and we eager to start. The commanders then lead us to a well light place and told us welcome to mid-terms. We all took terms trading positions as medic, checker and victim. Of course the commanders were overlooking us and grading us as we went along. The scenarios that took place ranged from a regular victim with a bullet wound, to a soldier on guard duty who was attacked with a white phosphorus grenade, to a guy who is suffering from hypothermia. The training went till 4:15 in the morning. Then the commanders told us to go to sleep till 12, where we finished the mid-term with a written test. Luckily I passed with flying colors.

Then next week and a half was spent doing guard duty. Like all my other guard duty times, the time went by fast but was very uneventful. The shifts were tough (2 hours guarding, 2 hours on the readiness team and 2 hours to our self.) The only exception to this was:

On Saturday night I was coming off a guard shift at 11 at night (the shift started at 9). We then went to the readiness team room to sleep a little before our next shift. While we were there sleeping (not long, only maybe 20-30min) there was an attack on the base. This time however was not a drill.

What happened was that four soldiers had gone out for the weekend (when they were supposed to close for the weekend) and came back to base in civilian clothing. The problem was not that they had left but that they decided to enter through a hole in the fence. The guys on patrol saw the guys and told them to stop. Once they ran, the patrol called us (the readiness team) and we went into action. We sent the next 3 hours closing down the base and putting everyone in a room. We then did a room to room search looking for the soldiers. Of course, we were told that they were four civilians and we didn’t know they were soldiers. At around 4 in the morning, we called the patrol into the room, where everyone was, to see if the intruders were there. It turns out that not only were they in the room, but they had changed back into uniform and acted as if nothing was going on. After the people were caught, instead of going to bed, I went straight to another shift and ended up pulling a 16hour shift with only that 20-30min sleep the night before.

As I’m sure you can tell, this weekend has been nothing but a sleep-in weekend, where I’ve been catching up on sleep the whole time. On top of that, I have been also monitoring my phone in case we get a call up to go help out in Haifa, with the fire. Please keep all the victims in mind this week, as we (Israel) continues to battle the blaze and stop the fire.

Combat Medic course week 4

2010-11-20T11:44:00.000-08:00

The weeks have finally become easier in the medic courses. Now, instead sitting in classes for 8 hours a day, we have started to do more "hands on work."

For example, this week, we learned how to open up an IV in the middle of the night. The difference is that in the morning you can see the vein, while at night we need to feel it. Also, during the day we can tell if we’ve entered a vein or not, with the help of a cup at the back of the needle. If we entered a vein, the cup will fill with blood. However at night, we can’t see the cup so instead we open up the cover for it and feel the blood.

The other thing we learned this week was how to give injections. Since we might have to administer medication to a patient, we need to learn how to give injections and where on the body they go.

The class went something like this:

First the commander told us where and how much liquid to give. Then we prepared our injections with Saline fluid. Then we took turns injecting our partners, first in the arms and then in the butts.

Finally, our commander taught us how to give an injection in the leg. As we got into our groups again to practice this, our commander said to stop what we were doing and to make a circle. He then dropped his pants and proceeded to inject himself. Then, with the injection still in him preceded to explain to us that for this injection we were going to do Ma'agal Lachas (pressure circle).

The way it works is that we all stand in a circle and one at a time injects ourselves in the leg. The only way to remove the needle is for the last person to inject himself. Once the last person is done with the injection, the first person can take out the needle. (This is considered the hazing of the medical corps in the army. Instead of doing weird things to pledge to join this frat, everyone must do this circle game.)

Once we were all done injecting ourselves, the commander said: "ok, now leave it in, while I go take care of something."

The pictured look something like this:

20 soldiers, with their pants down and a needle sticking out of their leg, with questionable looks on their face as to how long will we have to leave this in.

Thankfully the commander came back after a few min and we proceeded to take out the needle one at a time. I was the third on in the circle so while I had to stick it in sooner, I also got to take it out sooner.

The other things we did this week were:

1) Had a total of 3 tests on different things

2) Have different training exercises. (The one where we split up into groups of three. When it was my turn to be the medic, I had 45 seconds to insert an IV. I passed with only 10 seconds left :)

3) We continued to learn about different problems people can have depending on the weather

In other news:

I want to congratulate my cousin, Olivia (from the The Curious Jew) on her wedding to her new husband :)

Starting medics course

2010-11-13T03:33:00.000-08:00

The past three weeks were the hardest three weeks I have had, mentally speaking, in a long long time. The reason for this is because it has been non-stop learning in the mornings, noon and nights. Most of our day is scheduled as followed:

Wake up at 6:15.

Start our morning cleanup, brake at 7 for breakfast and have the inspection at 8.

Then the class schedule is 8-10, 10:30-12:30, 1-2 (lunch) 2-4, 4:30-6:30, 7-8 (dinner) 8-10. As you can see, each class is around two hours (this can change depending on the class) and usually a 30min break (although if class runs longer then the break is shorter and vies-versa, if we finish what we need to d then we get a longer break.) All the classes are taught in Hebrew and for the first week and a half, I only had Hebrew books. Then I received the English material and had an easier time in the class because I finally understood what was going on.

The first week consisted of learning about the anatomy of the body. We learned all about what systems are in the body, such as respiratory and blood. We also learned about some types of trauma we might find in the field and we also started to learn about pharmacology. We also had out first test on what we had learned so far. The passing rate for the first test is 20% of the class. There are 63 kids in my class so not many people passed.

The next week was a continuation of what we learned the previous week, with a lot more focus on the trauma and the effects of certain medicines, such as acomol and other ibuprofens. We also started learning about bandages and what exactly to do in the field when we come upon an injured person.

We also had 2 tests this week. One on the anatomy of the body and a test on Baratz (medical problems either found on base or can get from other sources but relate to injuries. For example, AIDS, HIV a, b, c Rabbis and others.)

We ended up having to close base last week as well. Our job was to run with the stretchers to an attack on base, in case there was on. Luckily that didn't happen and we had a relaxing weekend off.

Then week 3 came upon us. We finished up learning the steps in the field and started BOOMS. Booms are training exercise done on base. The way it works is that the class splits into groups of three. One person is the injured, one person is the medic and one person is with a book that tells him the scenarios and what the medic should do in each state. An example is that a person is found on the side of the road with a bullet wound to the hand. His pulse is dropping fast and he might have another wound on his leg that we don’t find out about till later on.

The medic would have to come onto the scene and treat the person for what he found. The Booms are a lot of fun and a great training tool because it really does help us prepare for real scenarios we might find in the field.

The other things we had this week was a test on equipment. We had learned in the beginning of the week how to use an oxygen tank, suction machine and an ambo (a device used to help someone breathe who isn't.

Throughout the course we have also learned how open someone’s veins, in order to give them medicine. We have been taking turns opening up people’s veins and we have even gotten to the point where we have started to attach IV drips.

We have also learned about Morphine and its effects on the body.

Next week we will continue to do booms and have our classes in pharmacology as well as batarz and other fun things.

The update

2010-10-16T00:28:00.000-07:00

I am sorry I haven’t written in so long. The reason for this is because I have been busy with my parents and the army. The last time I wrote, my parents had just arrived in the country. I had a fun two weeks with them, showing them all I could do and what I have learned. It was a lot of fun seeing them, and time really seemed to fly by.

Then, when I got back to the army, I learned that I would have another chance to see them again real soon. In fact, within three weeks I was back with my family and this time back in the US. It was a lot of fun to be back home and see how much has changed. It was also great to finally sit down with my old friends and enjoy some catching up time.

During the three weeks in the army, I did not achieve much. I am suffering from knee problems and have gone to see multiple doctors on this. Since most of the doctors are Jews, I never get the same opinion twice. Because of this, I still do not know what is wrong with my knee or how to begin to help it.

With the knee usually acting up either randomly or after a long walks or with weight, my commanders decided it would not be a good idea for me to do everything the unit was doing. The reason is because while the army is a great experience, it only lasts three years and not the rest of your life, like your body.

So, while everyone was out in the field learning new things, I was busy at base doing a mixture of kitchen duty and guard work. I can now say proudly that I can cook French fries and French toast :) It was also during these three weeks that I met with different army leaders and discussed my situation with them. The first one I met with was the MP (officer of all my pluga, around 150 soldiers.) He said that it was a real shame that I was injured because I was one of the better soldiers and have excelled nicely. However he said that since your body comes first, I would no longer be in the unit and a have a combat role in the army. He then asked me what job I would like. I told him I wanted to be a paramedic in the unit, so that I could do what I wanted and still see my friends. He said that was a noble job and would help me achieve this new goal.

Then, a few days later, I met with another head general. He agreed with my MP that the body comes first and that paramedics were a great job. He to promised to help me any way he could and said that it will all turn out ok in the end.

Then last week Wednesday, I went to a base in the south and met with the Magad (head of the entire Special Forces Nahal unit) and he said that due to medical reasons I would not be able to continue with the unit and in a combat role. He said that I would be spending the next few weeks working in the medical clinic on base and that as soon as the next wave of medics were sent to the course, I would be as well. Then when I am done with the course and if there is still a spot open in the paramedics course, I will be sent to that job.

I was so happy to finally be doing something I wanted. I was also sad to be leaving my friends. I’m upset, that I’m leaving my friends. It’s amazing that almost after a year; the bonds we make in the army are so close. This bond that brings two people closer together then friendship or brotherhood ever could. This is what I’m the saddest about leaving.

However, with medic’s course and then paramedic’s course on the horizon, I know everything will turn out ok.

Some other highlights of the week:

Tuesday:

Everyone who was on base and didn’t go out into the field went on a trip to visit families whom have lost their children in the Nahal Unit. We went out to a hotel, which was paid for by Nahal and was hosting the families, and went on a trip to a historical sight. We then went back and talked with the families and ate with them.

Thursday:

I said good bye to all my friends and my commander

Returning back to the army

2010-09-04T04:42:00.000-07:00

Its been a long time since I wrote one of these blogs.

Not a lot has changed in that time.

Some highlights:

My parents came to visit me so i had two weeks off from the army. In that time i toured around the country and showed my parents all i have learned

I returned back on Sunday and went striate to the boarder with the west bank. There we guarded in check points and other security areas monitoring the area.

Nothing really new in my life as you can see. Its the army as always. :)

The closing of another chapter

2010-07-30T07:39:00.001-07:00

Bomb school has finally come to an end. While the course was a lot of fun and challenging, it is defiantly one of my greatest accomplishments. I have learned a lot over the past two months and I know I will continue to lean more in the future.

Some of the things I learned in the course were how to enter a house using “alternative methods”, how to place a mine field and how to pick one back up without getting hurt.

We also learned about various mines and various booby traps. Some of my favorite tools were the Hilti (a nail gun that I got to shoot with during a training excursive on Wednesday), a metal detector (I can now can confidently say that I can find a quarter in a beach) and other items.

I hope that I will never have to actually use this information, however if the times does come, I am confident that I am well enough trained to accomplish the job safely and quickly.

What is my next step? Kav. Kav is when we go to the boarder and patrol the area. While I am not sure where we are going yet, I know I will have fun because I will be with my friends. I am also counting down the days until my parents come to visit. The count is: 13 days. Hope the time flies by fast.

Starting excersizes with mines

2010-07-10T00:32:00.000-07:00

This week we started going to the field and putting into practice what we learned in the class. We learned how to lay down a mine field and pick it up quickly and easily. We also got a chance to see how mines really work. Up until now, we have been using test dummies (that don’t actually explode) and we have talked about them in class. This week however, we went to the vadi netek. The netek is a huge open area where we got to put into practice the things we have been learning. We were each given a fairly large amount of plastic explosives and we were allowed to blow up whatever we wanted (within reason of course.)

I put my share of explosives into a bottle of water and compared it to the effects of explosives outside water. It was so cool to see the difference as well as see the other explosives in real life.

Another cool thing I did was get a new pakal (specialty.) My new pakal is magmak hod or metal detector for the whole group. This means that I am the first person into a minefield with the metal detector. It is my job to find the safest pass through the minefield. It also means that any mines I find, I have to defuse. While the job is extremely dangerous, it is also a lot of fun and a lot of responsibility.

I can’t wait to see what next week brings and what we get to do

Starting bomb school

2010-07-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

First off, sorry for the late post. I wanted to write sooner, but never could find the time.

It has defiantly been an intensive and interesting pass few weeks. To start off, we had our masa Alyiah to Beitled (June 13-19). Beitled is an army base used by Gadsar Nahal and Tzanchaniem. This new base of ours is a definite improvement from our regular bases for a few reasons.

1: instead of tents there are rooms with AC

2: this base is only meant for Gadsar or the Special Forces of Nahal and so there are no regular soldiers there.

3: there is more food and better tasting food.

4: there are actually a lot of girls on the base (usually there were no girls at all.)

5: the base is also home for different units (Tzanchaniem and others)

6: The base is big and is therefore called the land of Madas (physical running or working out.)

7: We stated lochami training. Basically it is Krav Maga, stance shooting and short range shooting all in one. The reason for this training is to teach us how to shoot in close quarter areas, such as a house or other small places

8: the base is near Tel Aviv so it is closer to the kibbutz and the center of civilization (means that parents can actually come and visit us when we close base and that there is always good food on the weekends.)

The following week (June 20-25), we left the base and went to Balatz (the base used by handasa Cravi or combat engineers. The base is located in the south, 40 km north of Eilat so the weather there is always hot and dry.

The reason why we went to Balatz was to start learning our specialty course, bomb defuse and setting.

We spent the first week learning about all different types of bombs, cables and detonators. The first thing you learn is the bomb sequence of events. Basically it starts from the igniters, then runes through the wire and goes to the exploding material. The course is a lot of fun. We also spent one of the days in the bomb range (a shooting range but longer and designed to blow up mines.) It was cool to finally put into practice what we have learned. We also spent the week learning about hot entrees. Hot entrees are when we enter a building in the middle of the village. The difference between a hot entree and a regular bomb is that hot entrees are meant to be placed quickly and have a lessen amount of explosives, causing less casualties and causing less structural damage then a regular bomb.

This past week (June27- July 2nd) we spent learning on mines. We learned the difference between anti-tank mine and anti personnel mines. We also had a targil one night, where we pretended to enter a village and we had to enter it using one of the hot entrees and blow up some items we found inside the house. My job was to help blow up the items we found in the house and then get out. It was a lot of fun and I finally can say that I have a better understanding of what it is Palchan Nahal does.

On a sadder note, my MM is leaving me. He has decided that he doesn’t want to be a MM of soldiers in training and would rather be a MM for fighters. It was very sad to see him leave, but we all know that he is doing what he wants and we wish him the best of luck in the future.

starting cav

2010-06-12T00:28:00.000-07:00

Once you have finished training, the regular soldier goes to cav. Cav is usually guarding the border with Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan or any other boarder that exists.

However, since I am not a regular soldier, instead of going straight to the boarder, we go to courses.

The courses are varied and included many things such as navigation, bomb explosive training, counter terrorists and Jump school.

This week, we started navigation. It started with us learning how to read a map, in a classroom, and then going into the field as a large group and navigating from point to point.
At the end of the week, we were navigating without a map and also with only one other person. We would spend each morning and most of the day learning the path we needed to take and then at night, we would walk it. Along our path, there were points we needed to reach. Once we reached a point, we had to write down the code words we found and bring them back. While we didn’t sleep much during the week, it did feel like a big scavenger hunt and a lot of fun.

Another high light of the week was that we became a tzevet. Up until now, we have been a group, known as group 3. Now that we are done with training, we are considered a tzevet or a group. While there is no difference really, we now wear these hats that have our tzevet name (the name of the tzevet is the name of your mm, 2nd in command. our name is tzevet kimchi.) and are now looked at as a group not to be messed with, and not just some trainees.

Other highlights:

1: We broke distance with everyone and now we are only left with a Samal and the mm. We no longer have a commander above us, so while we now have more responsibility, we also have more freedom

2: we got a pakal coffee (this is considered a big reward in the army)

3: next week we are leaving the training base and are going to the gadsar or the sf base in the north for a week and getting new stuff.

4: we are going to bomb school in two weeks, in Eilat. I cannot wait to start blowing stuff up :)

Returning our things and saying good-bye

2010-05-29T01:18:00.001-07:00

As in most stages of life, when things come to an end, you often need to return things and say good-bye. In our situation, we had to return all our gear and say good-bye to some of our commanders and friends.

Since most of our gear belongs to the base, and since we are leaving the base and going somewhere else, we had to return some items, such as snow pants (in case it ever really snowed in Israel), our small tents, our rain gear and a variety of other things. In return however, we got a go army sweater, bungee rope, a flash light and a shakpas or knife proof vest.

The other part of the week is saying good-bye to our commanders. In the next stage of our training, we are only left with a samal and a mm (third and second in command.) The reason for this is because we are no longer considered trainees and we are now thought of as a tzevet or group. For this reason we don't need 24 hour supervision and thus not so many commanders.

In the army, the way you say good-bye to people is play fight them and then we have a heart to heart. In the heart to heart, the commander usually jokes around with us, tells us where he lives, what he thought of us and we all share some funny stories.

Some other highlights of the week were:

1) we also broke distance with the MM and our new Samal. however, since they are still considered to be our commanders, we don't play fight them and there is no heart to heart. Their is just the usual history facts about them.

2) we took part in the nation wide missile drill. We pretended that a missile has hit our base and that we had to guard it. It was a lot of fun because it was actually a real life situation and we finally got to put what we learned into action.

The ending of another chapter in the army

2010-05-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Well it’s been a hard three weeks but one of the most fun and interesting ones I’ve had.

When I first got back to the army, we continued where we left off, by having shavua machlika. a machlika is a level up from kita and contains two kitot (around 21 guys.)

During the week, I was the radio man for the samal or sergeant of the group. It was a lot of hard work, but fun at the same time. We basically continued doing what we did during shavua kita, where we learned how to conquer a mountain. The difference this time was that we actually learned how one group provides cover fire, while the other group continues on. This is a lot of hard work because if you’re not firing, you’re running forward.

My job however, was to be towards the back of the group to provide cover and report our position, ammunition and wounded to the commanders higher up. This means that I didn’t shoot as much as the others, and got to talk a lot of Hebrew. Some other highlights of the week:

1) we broke distance with MM (the second in command.)

2) Since we didn’t need to bring tents, to sleep in, we needed to dig holes and got to sleep in them at night

3) One night, we had a long march and reached a new camp site in the morning. It felt like we walked 30K but it was only 8.

The next week was war week.

War week is basically a week of simulated warfare. We basically act as if we were invaded by a country and we had to fight to recapture Israel. Every soldier hates war week because it is the hardest week in all of training.

Highlights:

1) During war week, you need to carry all your essentials with you on your back. This means that we were carrying food for the week, ammo and other goods. This also means that we were carrying around 40 - 60 kilos a person. Since I am trained to use the maclar (a grenade launcher) I had to carry it on my back. I carried around 60 kilos during the week.

2) I shot the grenade launcher and had a jam and fixed it

3) We had an omes home every day. (Omes home is when the temperature outside is so hot, that we need to stop training and get under a shaded area because if we continue training, we could get heart stroke.) The advantage of this was that we got to sleep a little during the week

4) We did another all night march and got to sleep in the morning.

5) War week is really a continuation of shavua machlica. What we were doing with 21 guys, we were now doing with 150 guys.

6) All our training exercises were watched by the magad or head of the base and the head of training.

The whole week was a lot of fun, but hard as hell and is defiantly a good simulation of what war would be like if we were ever in one.

The finally week that I had was shavua cumta.

It is during this week, that we have our masa cumta and our tekes cumta.

The masa cumta is a long walk (we did 54K, from our base to Masada) that is held at the end of training as a sort of final test that must be completed to finish.

Our masa lasted 13 hours in total and covered a lot of different terrain, from dirt roads, to streets.

Even though the masa was hard at times, it was also fun because we got to talk during the masa, listen to music and eat food (things that are usually considered forbidden during our marches.)

At the end of the march we had a ceremony at the top of Masada. It was really funny because a lot of American tourists were on the mountain. Within a few minutes of us reaching the top, cameras were already taken out and photos were being taken of us. Asher (another American soldier, in my machlaca) and I quickly went over to the American groups and introduced ourselves. It was a very meaningful experience for them to see Americans, leaving their homes and coming to serve in the army over here.

Once we were done with our march, we went back to base to sleep and we were given the rest of the week off (except for Thursday, when we had our tekes.)

Thursday was our tekes. The tekes took place at the nahal museum in pardes Hannah. The tekes was very nice and only took an hour. It is during the tekes that we turn in our training cumtot and get our neon green, nahal brigade, cumtot. It is a very important step for us because now we are part of a bigger group and no longer considered just trainees.

Kicking it up a notch

2010-04-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

Lately, training has been slow. We have spent most of advanced training either learning about the country, guard duty or learning about new weapons. The last two weeks however have really kicked it up a notch...or 10.

When I first got back to the army, (April 19-24) it was still going slowly. The reason was because it was Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Remembrance Day for the soldiers) and Yom Haatzmaut (Israel’s birthday.) On Yom Hazikaron, we spent the day talking about fallen soldiers. We watched two video clips on Roi Clien and another soldier who sacrificed their lives for the country they loved.

On Yom HaAtzmaut, we spent the day celebrating, by having a bbq and having a talent show. While everyone said they would have rather been at home for the holiday, they said the army did a pretty good job of entertaining us.

Then the knob got turned and things become harder and more fun. The next few days were spent out in the field learning Lasha"v or house clearing. We learned how to enter a house and clear it of bad guys. The highlight of the week was defiantly playing paint-ball against the commanders. At the end of the week, the commanders go into the house and pretend to be terrorist. We (as the soldiers) work in teams to clear them out. It’s a lot of fun, as well as a great learning exercise.

Then we went back to the base for a little R&R before the next week.

Week two was spent back in the field learning to work as a kita (11 man team.) We learned how to work together to conquer a mountain or move in an open field. It was hard work, but a very important week in the army. It is during this week that our commanders get tested to see if they can lead their group into war and how effective they are. The week went by fast and there were a bunch of highlights that I will probably never forget for the rest of my life:

Highlight list:

1) We are no longer allowed to call our commander "commander". Instead we must now call them by their first name. My commanders’ name is Yani and from now on I have to call him Yani or I get punished (funny how things change so fast.)

2) I was placed on the radio for the week and as such I got to work right next to Yani and had to repeat all his orders over the mic and to the group. Because I was so well and “a siren" during the drills, I received Chayal Mitzdayen again and got off on Thursday. Also, the MP (1st in command) said that while I need to improve on my Hebrew, I was a great radio man and that my commander should be happy to have me.

3) When we were waiting to get tested at the end of the week by the MP, as a helicopter flew over head and hit a bird. As a result, the helicopter had to land and our kita was tasked with guarding the helicopter. As we did a 360 defensive circle, the pilots called us up one at a time to look into the helicopter and see inside.

4) We won the right to bring a pakal musica (speakers and iPods) and food on our masa cumta. The masa cumta is a 54k march, where at the end we receive our green berets. It is the culmination of our training and will take place in two weeks (can't wait.) The reason why this is a highlight is because up to now we have never been allowed to eat or talk on the masas that we did and soon well be able to.

5) We had to do a training exercise in front of the Ma'am (Commander for the entire advanced training base.) He said we did so well that we should be really happy with ourselves.

6) We did a training exercise, where we pretended to go into Syria and blow up a car. After we planted the explosives, we all got to yell: "Al a Palchan" (why to go Palchan, my unit.) Up till now, we were never allowed to say Palchan or anything relating to our unit so it was nice to finally say something.

There are still many more highlights, but the most important one is:

7) My cousin: http://curiousjew.blogspot.com/ has gotten engaged. Congrats.

Warning to my loyal fans (the fame has gone to my head.) I have a 21 coming up next week. This means that I will be closing the base for 21 days and will not be near a computer for the next three weeks. I am sure that I will have a long blog to write when I get back. In the off chance that I do get a computer before then, expect a quick blog to be written about what I did. In the meantime I wish everyone a happy Log Ba'Omer and happy Shavuot.

An emotional roller coaster of a week.

2010-04-17T04:25:00.000-07:00

Last week (April 4-9) we spent a week working on all of our shifsoriems (ties) and having a misdar. A misdar is a check made by either the MM (second in command) or the MP (first in command). The highlight of the week was on Thursday when we went on a 36k march through the field. While the march as a whole wasn't hard, the last leg of the march (the final 6 k, when we open up the stretch), was the hardest part.

We also go to meet our medics for the first time. While we were at basic training, our medics went to the medical training course to learn to me combat medics. These guys are really cool and they fit right in with us.

The next week (April 12-15) was also a relaxing week. Half the group, went to Beslach (a base used for advanced training or officers course.) Once we reached the base, we were split up into our learning groups. The options were either: GPS, Radio, Makach (a 50.cal machine gun), Machlar (an automatic grenade launcher), Mortar, Driver for an Amour personnel charier, or MishMish (someone who works half the day in the kitchen, and then half the day guarding our stuff). I was picked for the Machlar,which is this really big grenade launcher. The gun alone weighs 34.3 kg and that's not including the stand, ammo or a variety of other parts that need to be carried along with the gun. The crew that has to use this gun is made up of 4 people, each of which has a special job. The breakdown is like this:

#1 - shooter

#2 - commander of gun - says where to shoot and what's the range and so on

#3 and #4 - help to carry things and then help to set up.

When it comes time to shoot, #3 and #4 are sent to the bottom of the hill to protect the back, while #1 and #2 stay at the top of the hill with the gun and shoot.

Even though the gun weighs a lot, shooting it will be something i never forget. The gun makes such a big boom, that you scare yourself the first time you hear it.

The course only lasted 4 days. The first two days were spent in class, the third day was spent shooting and the last day was spent cleaning up and having a celebration for the end of the course. The class included the four of us (Nachlawim) as well as soldiers from the Golani Brigade and the Gadsar Bedouin brigade. At the celebration, Chayal Mitzdayen was chose. A Chayal Mitzdayen is a soldier who works really hard during the week and is someone who helps out when needed and is willing to give of himself. Its basically like the good student award. Every group got one (from the GPS, Mortars, Makach, Machlar, MishMish, drivers and Radio courses), so in total there were 7. I was one of the lucky 7 and as a result, i got to leave the army early on Thursday (while everyone else got to leave on Friday.)

Of course Murphy's law has to come in sometime during the week and this week it hit us hard.

While half the group was away at Beslach training, the other half of the group was at our advanced base guarding.
The medics however, went to our basic training base. The reason was so that they can learn a little about what we learned in the basic training course. While they were there, on of the medics committed suicide. Its often funny how it takes a tragedy to bring people together, but that is life. As a result of this, now more then ever, the group feels like a family, supporting one another through our time of pain and suffering.

Here's hoping that next week goes by smoothly and without any other incident.

Coming home and getting back to buisness

2010-04-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, i went home for my Regila or week off from the army. The trip was great and adventurous because not only did i got to see my family and friends, but i was also in the middle of a hurricane and without power for 6 days (the majority of my trip.)

When i got back, it was back to reality and back to the army.

My first week back was a week at Mikva Alon. Mikva Alon is the army Ulpan base. This is where new Oliem go to learn Hebrew, if the army feels that your Hebrew is not good enough. The program combines Ulpan and basic training for the soldiers there.

We, on the other hand, were there to learn more about our selves and why we are fighting. The week was broken down into:

Day 1: we went to Lochame Gitaon. This is a kibbutz that was founded at the start from country. The specialty of this kibbutz is that it was made up of ghetto upraises and so they created a museum that portrays the Warsaw uprising and the uprising of other ghettos. The museum is very interesting because instead of showing camps and death, the museum features more of the uprising side and the brave soldiers who lead them.

Day 2: problems in the country; new immigrants vs. Israeli born people, Jews. vs. Arabs and so on.

Day 3: We talked about problems with the army, the democratic system and the laws of the army. We also talked about Code of Conduct in the army. We were given different situations and asked if what the soldiers did was right or wrong. An example would be that we were in a city and we are suddenly hit with a rock. When we turn around to see who threw it and it turns out to be a child 7 years old. After we tell him to stop, we keep going and we feel another rock hit us. We turn around to see the same kid holding a bigger rock, that if it hits us, we will be hurt. What do we do? Do we shoot in the air, causing a scene and an international case, or run away and act like a coward and make it seem like we will do nothing.

Day 4: we talked about our enemies: Syria, Lebanon and Iran

Day 5: we went to the Acco Prison to see some of the history of the country.

The week was really fun and interesting because we got to learn a lot about our selves and how the army and country works. It was also nice to finally eat good food in the army and to sleep in a building on bunk beds.

Then we went back to base and relaxed before our next week, which was guard week.

Guard week was the same as usual, with guarding at weird hours and not really doing anything fun.

Then came Passover. Passover was a lot of fun and a great experience to be on base for it. There was a lot of food to eat (finally) and it was great spending the holidays with my "family." While we all wished that we were home, we all knew that we would be spending the next 24 hours with great people and great friends. The week went by fast and now are reaping the rewards of the holiday by resting for four days.

Remember the younger years and finally finishing

2010-03-06T00:47:00.000-08:00

Remember when you were a little child and your parents would make you do chores and you would get rewarded at the end of the week with some money? Life doesn't change when you grow up I found out.

My group, along with another group, was put back onto guard duty. We would switch off days. (Monday and Wednesday we guarded the base and on Tuesday and Thursday the other group guarded the base.)

On guard days, nothing really changed. Guarding has becoming a sort of self-reflecting time because for three hours we watch and get to be alone. Most of my reflecting turned into what I am going to do when I get home. What will I eat, who I will see and so on.

On days that we weren't guarding, we spent the time working either in the kitchen (cleaning, cooking) the other jobs we did were working for the Ra'sar (the person who is in charge of the entire base.) We spent the time putting up tents, taking the old tents down, cleaning the base, washing different parts of the base and basic "house-cleaning."

Then on the weekend, my group got to go down to En-Gedi for some guard duty. Unfortunately for me I couldn't go because I was still on the injured list. So, while the guys got to go off and have some fun at the beach, I had to stay back on base. The good part was that all of a sudden, it got really gray outside and it started hailing. Big hail. The commanders had us repair all the tents and then gave us 10 min to let us have a snow ball fight. It was funny to see the Israelis play with hail because to them, hail is a rare occurrence here in Israel. It was also fun to see a group of 50+ soldiers playing in the snow.

The weekend was also Purim. Holidays on Base are a great experience. For example, on the first night of Purim, a rabbi came to base and he read the Migila for us. After that we spent the time singing and dancing. The next night, a group of Haradiem came by, dressed up and again sang and danced with us and read the Migila. The down side to being on base for the holidays was that both parties wanted us to drink. (During Purim, one of the commandments is to drink until we can’t tell the difference between good and evil. The problem was that since we are soldiers, we aren't allowed to drink and therefore we weren't able to complete all the commandments. However it was still a lot of fun to sing and dance with 30 other soldiers.

Then it was back to reality and a new week.

Last week we worked on taking over a mountain in groups of four people. One of the people was the leader, the second guy was either the grenadier or a sniper, the third guy was either the MAGist (me), Negavist or sniper and the last one was either a grenadier or regular soldier. The way it works is the leader calls out what to do and we work our way up the mountain until we reach the enemy and fight in close quarters. The training only lasted from Monday to Wednesday. On Thursday we had our Bochan 05. A Bochan is a test, which can either be physical or written test. This test was both practical and written. This Bochan was a test on everything we learned since the start of basic training. It included weapons, chemical warfare, first aid and also radio. The written test consisted of questions relating to the weapons, radio, and chemical warfare and also about Israeli history. Since the test was all in Hebrew, all the Americans got a Mashakit Alyiah. The Mashakit helped us write and understand the questions. After the written part, we went to the practical test. There we demonstrated how to load, take apart and shot the weapons and also how to apply first aid and talk on the radio. The test went well and no one failed.

This is also the final step in our basic training. From here we go to advance training for two months and then to special training.

The commanders then let Asher and I leave to go home and start our packing!!

Hope everyone had a great Purim :)

A rollercoaster of a week

2010-02-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

The title basically sums up my emotional and physical status for the past two weeks.

Last week (February 7th - 13th) we went back to the shooting range to relearn the basics of shooting. It was nice to return to our basics because there's a lot of things you forget when you are busy learning other things. The week went by fast and a few things have changed for the better (namely the weather has gotten warmer and so being outside isn't so bad.)

Friday: believe it or not, already four months have passed since i started the army and seven months since i have left the states. At the end of basic training (two weeks) the army grants you a week off, as a present. I decided that i have been away for too long and that i think its time i come home for a visit. I have been asking my commander for a month now to let me go home for the time off, as well as another week (according to Hayal Boded rights I have 30 days when i can be home.) Finally Asher and I (another Garin Tzabarnic who is in my group) have receive the news we have been waiting for and are coming home. Of course after receiving the news we both started crying and as such got made fun of by our Israeli counterparts (i love Israeli Humor.)

On Friday we also finished up shooting and started our new task of guard duty. This time we were guarding the main base, which is a lot nicer and bigger so it is more fun to guard. At night we were sent to our guard posts and started our shifts.

Gal and I (an Israeli from my group) were sent to guard the bunker. The bunker is a large storage area for ammunition. In fact from one end to another is aprox. 40 min walk. The purpose of the bunker, is that if there were to be a war tomorrow, we could all run to the bunker, grab ammo, fuel or anything else and go strait to the battle front.

Anyway, while we were guarding we received a surprise visit from one of the MM's (2nd in command.) The reasons for the visit was to make sure that we were on our A game and nothing got by us. The visit also wasn't a normal visit because instead of coming up to us and checking our ammo clip and water, he "hid" in a dark corner for us to pass him. Once we did, we followed us for a while and then without warning, he grabbed Gal and screamed Soldier. (again it was dark and we didn't see him.) Gal quickly grabbed him and shouted what are you crazy?!?!?! My response to this was to take my gun, raise it to the head of the MM and put my thumb on the safety switch. Gal then quickly says; "Shit MM." and I proceed to lower my gun. The MM then said while we did end up reacting in the right way, we should have heard and saw him from the beginning and since we didn't, we could have been killed or captured by Arabs or Bedouins, who live in the area.

After the little incident, we returned back to our sleeping area and enjoyed the rest of Shabbat. Of course there were more guarding shifts to do.

At the end of Shabbat, we were sent out again to guard (this was going to be my 4th time guarding.)

While standing in my guard tower, i suddenly felt pain in my knee. After my guard shift i went to the medic and showed him a very swollen knee (the size of a baseball) and he said: "I don't know whether to send you to the hospital now or in the morning." i told him that since this was not life threatening, i could wait till the morning to go.

On a side note: While Asher and Eton (another Israeli from my group) were guarding the bunker, a group of Bedouins came within 500 feet of them. They quickly got on the radio and within 20 seconds, the MP (1st in command), Magad (head of the training base), the ready team and a lot more soldiers were there and the Bedouins were quickly escorted off the area.

As for me:

Sunday morning i went to the doctor, where it was discovered that i had bacteria in my knee and since there was major swelling, i was supposed to take the week easy. As such, i spend the week in the tents doing nothing. Most of my day was spent either sleeping in the tent or reading a book. The rest of my group however went down to the shooting range again to do advance shooting. From what I hear it was a great week.

Then the rollercoaster ride finally hit the last drop.

Even though Asher and I had permission to go to go back home, we were missing a big item before travel. That item was our Israeli passport. Even though our American passports are still good, we are not allowed to enter the country (Israel) because we are now holders of Israeli citizenship. As a result we got a Yom Sidduriem (a day that you are off from the army to take care of bank work, passports or any other official business. ) WE left the base on Wednesday and by Thursday afternoon, we completed our passport paper work. I can now proudly say that i am coming home some time soon!!!

P.S.

I know it seems like I don't update the blog on a regular basis. I apologize for that. However, I only get access to a computer once every two weeks. (mainly on the weekends) and that is when i write my update. Hope everyone understands and enjoys reading this blog as much as i love writing it.

Guard week and learning to take over a mountain

2010-01-30T11:24:00.000-08:00

Last week my group was put on guard duty at the base. That means that my group had learn and then spend time guarding strategic areas around the base, such as the front door and guard towers. Each guard shift lasted for three hours (10-1,1-4,4-7,7-10...etc) The shifts lasted all day and night and only a few people were on at a time.

If we weren't guarding during the day, we were spending time learning about grenades and Abach (atomic, biological and chemical warfare.)

At night, if we weren't guarding, we were on Kita Conenut (ready team.) That means that we slept with our boots on and with our uniforms. If anything went wrong, such as an attack on the base, we would have to run out and grab our equipment (either a stretcher, radio or water bag (the water bag is used to carry water which can be thrown on a person who is having a heat stroke.))

As i said before, during the day we spent time learning about grenades and chemical warfare. We learned that there are 5 types of grenades and we also got a chance to see the chemical warfare suits and got to put them on. We also learned what to do in the event of a chemical break out and how to respond (not hinting at anything but you never know what may happen in the NEAR future...)

At the end of the week, we all got a chance to throw a grenade and are now grenade and chemical warfare ready.

On the weekend, i got a chance to go back home to my kibbutz for a garin tzabar seminar. It was great seeing everyone again. Everyone couldn't stop talking about their army service and what they have done.

On Sunday i went back to base and spent the week learning how to respond to an attack, while out on petrol and by your self or with a group of four people. The first thing you do is jump behind cover, then yell that you've been attack. You then state how far away if your enemy, how many and what direction they are in. You then continue to work with your group up the mountain or on the path until you reach the enemy. While the physical tasks are easy, the Hebrew that you need to say is hard to learn. But after a few times i got it down and i can now say the orders easily and clearly for everyone.

The other interesting thing i did during the week was take an Arabic course and driving course.

The Arabic course was interesting because we learned how to say different phrases that we will need to use out in the field.

The driving course however was the definite high light of the week. We spent the morning learning all about anti-lock breaking system, drunk driving, driving while sleep deprived and other various things. in the afternoon, we went out in cars and drove for a while, on a course and got a first-hand experience at anti-lock braking. The course included driving at full speed and then slamming on the brake, slaloms (driving in and out of cones) and then driving on the shoulder and slamming on the brake.

I hope next week will be as fun as this week was.

War week and Swearing in

2010-01-22T00:58:00.000-08:00

These past two weeks have been one of the hardest weeks in all of my army service so far. (in fact most soldiers say that war week (or field week) is the hardest week in all of basic training.)

On Sunday (January 10)

WE spent the day cleaning up the base and getting ready for field week. Basically, we spent the day making shifsoriem (or ties) that connected all of our gear to us. for example, we had to make a special shifsor to connect our water bottles to our vests. WE also made a shifsor for our shovels and our tents to us.

On Monday - Thursday

We left the base early in the morning and went on a 6k march to our "camp site". Once there, we set up camp and quickly got down to business. The whole purpose of field week is to learn new maneuvers (such as marching placements (where to be in a march based on our weapons, how far out we should be from one another, new hand sighs), how to live in a field and what we should expect if we are called out to war.) Most of the days were spent practicing marching in formations and reviewing sights.

Some of the interesting things that happened to me on my "outing":

At night, we would either dig holes to sleep in or set up our tent. Of course there is no such thing as a great nights sleep in the army and this was more then true for me during this week because every night we would have a hakpasa or attack. Since the commanders took away our watches before we left, we never knew how long we slept for. One night, the commanders put fake bullets that make a sound when shot and started shooting up in the air screaming in Arabic. The immediate response was all of us getting out of bed and running to our coverage position. By this i mean we were assigned areas to cover if we were attack. Mine was the south side, along with some other people. Immediately after, the commanders said that our position has been taken over and we need to pack everything up and move to a new area. Of course, no attack goes without injury, so we pretended that some of us were injured. We always carry around a stretcher and quickly put the injured people on the stretcher and moved to our new camp site a few kilometers away.

Crawling up the side of a mountain. from the very bottom to the very top. This took us a little over 2 hours since everyone had to do it.

Eating meals also took on a new meaning. Since we were in the field, no one could eat a meal without protection over the site. This meant that only 10 people were able to eat at a time (out of 21) because 10 people needed to guard the site in a full 360 degree circle. Also, there is no just walking up to get a meal. Our commanders would always have us lined up and crawl 30 meters to our food and then make us guard. Also we were only given 20 min to do all this. Basically it came down to us reaching the food with 10 min left. By the time we opened up all the cans there was only 8 min left to eat and then switching between guarding and eating left us all with only 2 min to eat.

On the last day we had a test where every kita (or small group of soldiers) had to show what they learned throughout the week. Basically the test included building tents, running with the stretcher, injured people on our back, camouflage and of course crawling.

Then to finish everything up, we had a march called masa samal or sergeants march. this means that instead of our commanders leading us, the samal or our third in command leads the march. Basically it means walking at a faster pace, running up and down mountains and more of an intensive march. The march lasted 8k (or close to two hours with a break in the middle). When it ended, we found ourselves back at base, near the shooting range.

Wednesday - Thursday:

WE spent the rest of the night pitching our tents for one more night and then spent the next day shooting.

Friday - Saturday:

Shabbat - we spent most of the day sleeping and relaxing and getting ready for a great weekend.

Sunday - Monday:

Sunday and Monday were relaxing days so to speak. we spent the days shooting again in the range at different positions, from standing to sitting to kneeling.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday, i spent the day out of the base. On the sergeants march, i badly twisted my ankle. As a result, i had spent the past few days (Thursday - Monday) on Betiem or on the injured list. This means that i never had to run anywhere and had to walk from place to place. On Monday i was sent to the doctor to make sure that my ankle want broken. She had decided that i should go to a real hospital and get my ankle x-rayed to make sure.

For this reason i got to go to Harrap or the army hospital located in Be'er Sheva. Most of the day was spent finding the x-ray room and the pharmacy. The hospital is so big and covers so many needs that it take forever to find the rooms i needed. Since i was also out of the base, i got a chance to eat some real food. its was finally a really great break from the army that i needed. The sad part was that I want able to join my group for the 11k march that we do to earn our Nahal tags. It just means that I will have to do it some time in the future with all the other soldiers on Beitiem.

Wednesday:

Wednesday we spent the day practicing for our swearing in ceremony. We learned how to stand, how to move to our spots. how to receive our guns from our MM (2nd in command) and what to say.

Thursday:

We got up very early and dressed in our A uniforms. We then quickly cleaned up the base and went to Jerusalem. Once we reached the old city, we spent the day touring around. Our first stop was a mountain that you can see and look out into all of Jerusalem. It was a great view and a great way to start off the day. The next stop was Har Hertzle or the military cemetery. There we walked around and go to hear of some of the brave soldiers who lost their lives. One of the graves that we passed by was that of Michael Levine's. The soldier who came from Philly and died in the second Lebanon war. From there we went to the Kotel, or the wall, where we practiced the ceremony a few more times. An hour before the ceremony, all the Chayaliem Bodediem were called for a special ceremony where we got gifts and heard a great speech from different high officials and Tzvika levi (the father of all Lone soldiers in Israel)

From there we had the teckes. It was a very nice ceremony and it means a lot to a lot of people.

from there i went to Mamila street to have a great diner with family and then i went home.

While the week was hard, it was a lot of fun and there is such a great feeling among us that we've done something imposable and passed and now we can take on anything.

Next week, according to our schedule, is going to be grenade and chemical weapons week. Cant wait.

First Shabbot in the army

2010-01-08T03:35:00.001-08:00

So i know its been a while since i wrote on the blog. The reason for this was because i had to close base for the first time.

Last week (December 28 - January 1) Monday:

We spent the week shooting with our M16. This was going to be the last week we spent at the advanced base we were in because on that Friday, we moved back to bach Nachal Tov (our original home base)

The other great thing that happened this week, was that we got our Pacal (or specialty) weapon. The options were: sharp shooter (or Cala in Hebrew), negavist (light machine gun), Magist (heavy machine gun), law (anti tank), and a Matador (also a rocket).

It turns out that the reason why we've been shooting so much (for a month strait) was not only for us to get to become acquainted with our rifles, but so that our commanders can best gadget us on what weapon we should get. For example, the ones who shot the best on the M16, were sent to sharpshooter school. For me, since i am a big guy, good looking and never giving up, i was sent to be a magist.

On Friday:

We were sent back to the original base and given time to go to the store on the base and buy some goodies for the week. After that (at around 2 or so) we were given Shabbat time. basically it is all the rest of Friday and Saturday to do what we want (mostly sleeping or going to shul to pray.) The only rules that apply to Shabbat on base is that we must either be in our uniform or civilian clothing, we must have our gun on us at all times (this i found a little bit annoying because Shabbat is a time of rest and we shouldn't have to walk around with guns on a restful day.) we had to attend certain meals (lunch and dinner) and that was pretty much it. There were also some rules regarding meals, such as we weren't allowed to leave the dinning hall, until our MP (highest official lest, and we weren't allowed to start until he started. There was also a rule that we cant write on Shabbat, so all our pre and post meal reports (a report on how many people are in our group, how many are with us at the present moment, how many are missing and where they are.) all had to be given by word of mouth.

While the time to our selves was great and relaxing, the moment Shabbat ended, our commanders took full advantage of us not running all day.

Saturday night: we went for a quick (35 min.) run around the base. Then we did some pushups, sit ups and went to bed.

Sunday:

we spent the day learning about our new weapons. For me this meant having a class about everything relating to the mag, including history, specifications, and other technical things. We then spent of the rest of the day getting ready to shoot the guns at the shooting range.

Monday-Wednesday

We spent the next few days at the shooting range. On Monday we were led out of the base and marched to the shooting range. The first few hours, we spent the time setting up tents. That right, we were going to be sleeping in the field, even though the base was only a few hundred meters away. After setting up the tents, we went to the shooting range and finally got to see our new "toy" in action. There is nothing more impressive, then seeing this giant gun shoot a tiny target 300 meters away. We also spent the rest of the time learning how to shoot from the sitting, standing and lying down position. WE were also given many time test (such as shooting three targets in 1 min., setting up the gun on a stand and shooting three more targets 3min. and finally a running, crawling, shooting test in 2 min.)

Thursday:
Today was parents day at the base. Basically, the base is open up to all parents of soldiers and they can come by and see what the base is like, get to meet the commanders and the higher officials. For me , and other lone-soldiers, we were taken to a spa, pool club in Rananah. from there, I went to Jerusalem to see the swearing in ceremony for my friends in Tzanchaniem. IT was a quick ceremony, only 30 min., but it means that now these guys are sworn soldiers of the state. They receive a bible and a gun and our now proud Israeli soldiers.

My swear in Ceremony will be January 21, so if anyone is in Israel and near the Jerusalem area, please feel free to come.

Shooting week

2009-12-25T04:17:00.000-08:00

Hello and Merry Christmas,

This week was our shooting week. Basically, besides running, push-ups, sit-ups and sprinting, we shot our guns.

Sunday:

We arrived at base, late in the day, and spent the rest of the day setting up base. This means that we took our cots, bags, mattresses and sleeping bags out of the storage room and put them in our tent.

Monday:

We went down to the shooting range and worked on zeroing in our guns. Basically, we had 5 bullets and had to shoot them into a 25m target. We worked on getting a grouping of bullets close together and then adjusting our sights by moving the aimer accordingly.

At night, we had a masa, or Journey. This time it was only 6km or 4 miles. The sky was cloudy this time so we didn't get to see the stars like last time, but it was still fun to do.

Tuesday:

We went back to the shooting range and worked again on zeroing our guns (there are 22 kids and only 6 shoot at a time. Also, not everyone gets a close grouping their first time.) However, this time when we shot, it was at 50 meters and also before, when we were at the 25 meter line, we had bags of sand in front of us to rest our hands on and help us aim. The third time we shot, we had to wear our tactical vests with our helmets on. The reason for this is so we know what to expect if we ever have to shoot in the field. This time they took the bags away and we had to hold the gun without any help. At night, we went for a little run (only 1k)

Wednesday:

Back to the shooting range! This time we went to an open range. By this I mean we went to a firing range in the mountains and on a dirt surface and not cement. It was a lot better on the elbows, because the whole time we are lying down with our elbows up and it tends to hurt after a while. We also got to shoot today under a time pressure constraint. The rate was: 5 seconds to get down into the shooting position and fire 1 shot. 6 seconds to jump down into the firing position and fire 2 shots. And 8 seconds to get down into the shooting position and fire 3 shots. Every time rate, we did 5 times, in a row. So instead of shooting 5 bullets in our own time, we had to shoot 27 bullets according to the time rate (5 times we shot 1 bullet, 5 times we shot 2 bullets and 5 times we shot 3 bullets.) The next firing test was only 15 bullets (3 bullets in 8 seconds 5 times). The final test for shooting was to get down into the shooting range, fire three bullets and then change magazines with another 3 bullets. The whole time we were wearing our tactical vests.

At night, we went back to the shooting range and did night time shooting. There are different rules to fire for night time shooting. One of the big ones was that everyone had to fire at the same time. There is nothing more powerful than 8 guys shooting a gun all together at the same time.

Thursday:

Thursday was a calm day. In the morning we had a meeting on the spirit of the army and then we went back to the old base to go to the shecem (the only store on base, where soldiers can buy drinks; soda, juice, water; and food: chips, cookies, candy, and other things.) It was an easy day and at night we went back to the old base to sleep.

As always, it was a great week and we did a lot of things that just make you stop and say wow, only here in the army will I ever get to do something as cool as this.

Shooting and Health all in one week

2009-12-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

This week was one of the toughest and most fun weeks I have ever had in my life.

Sunday:

We arrived to the base and had a class all day (and well into the night) on first aid. The course is to certify all combat soldiers in basic first aid. That way they can help other soldiers in the field while they wait for the medic. The course included the basic first aid things (heat stroke, dehydration, snake/scorpions/spider bites, hypothermia and many other things) The course also included what to do if a soldier is in the field and his group happened to be attacked with a grenade. We learned how to tie a tourniquet, where to apply pressure, what to do and then whom to call.

Monday:

We finished off the first aid course, took a test (which everyone passed) and then we moved bases. The new base is somewhere farther south of the past base and looks very much the same. While I’m sure that most of the readers have been through a move in their life (I have been through 4 but can only remember 3) But there is nothing like a whole pluga (large group of soldiers consisting of 300+) moving. Everything from beds, cots, bags, plates, basically anything everyone needs for living had to be moved.

Tuesday:

We started the day at our new base. We also started shooting today. We learned all about the safety at the gun range and rules. We also learned how to shoot and how to improve our shooting. Out of 6 bullets I got all 6 on the paper. At night, we went on a masa (journey) for 4km. It was incredibly cool to see all the shooting stars and the night sky.

Wednesday:

More shooting. This time we learned on how to improve our body positions and how to improve what we do when we shoot so our shots are better. This time we were only given 5 bullets and again I got all 5 on the sheet. At night we did some sprints and a lot of pushups. We also went through all our gear and loaded up our magazines. Now whenever we walk anywhere (even if it’s to the bathroom, we need to have two magazines with us and the gun. The reason is so that we can always be ready in case we need to be.

Thursday:

We woke up early this morning and were only given 45 seconds to be outside our tent with whatever we had on and a gun and magazines. The idea was to train up to be ready for a time of war, when you have no time at all to get dressed and fit. Then we were told to put on a white shirt with our name on it and follow the Mifacdem to the Krav Maga place. wow. Krav Maga for the army is nothing like you think it would be. Back home I took 1 year of Krav. It was a lot of fun, back home because 30 min you are doing cardio work and 30. min you learn technique and fit. Here, class is for an hour or more (we weren't allowed to wear watches) and the whole time we spent running sprints and having to be in the push-up position, without having our knees touch the ground. There was no fighting or anything. It was really tough and the reason why the class is set up like this is because when we have to use Krav, it I all intensity and constant fighting spirit. "There needs to be a switch in the mind that now we are fighting and not in training or on base or anything, juts Krav" - as according to my M'M (Mifaced Machlaca - 22 people group)

Then rest of the day, I was put on tornaut duty. That means that instead of going into the field and shooting, like in the previous days, I had to stay back, near the tents, and help the rasap (the one in charge of cleanliness and order for the tents, food and everything else.) It was a tough job because there had been a lot of wind the night before and continued into the day and all the tents fell, so we had to spend the entire day cleaning up the tents and putting them back together. At night, a bunch of religious people came to the base and we lit the Hannukiah and ate sufganiout (jelly donuts) for Hanukkah, Of course, as tornaut, I had to first help set up the room of the candle lighting ceremony and then hand out jelly donuts and only at the end did I get one. It was a fun day though and the rasap said I was the best toran he has had in a while.

Throughout the week, one thing that has not yet stopped to amaze me is how much Israelis go out of their way to help me understand things that I usually won’t. For example, during the course for the first aid, all the Olyim Hadashiem (new immigrants) were taken to a special class and were taught the material in a lower level Hebrew and at a slower pace. Also during the test, if something wasn’t clear, the teacher would repeat the question in English for all of us. The other example is that my kita (class – 11 soldiers) has to teach me 10 New Hebrew words every day. The Mifaced checks to make sure they do this by asking me at night what words. Also, whenever we are learning something, such as the grenade launcher or something else, if I don’t understand something, everyone is willing to help me understand. Usually, at the end of the course someone says: “I love how if you don’t understand something you ask. That’s the most important thing and we will always be there to explain it to you. (The sentence was repeated to me from soldiers, my mifaced, my Samal (sergeant) and the rasap.)

The other thing I learned this week is how much I miss hot food. Just like in the gibbush, we were given only field rations (tuna, corn, pineapple, halva and the two new foods in a can; vegetable spread and spicy tuna.) Hopefully next week we will finally be taken back to the cafeteria for some real food.

Hag Sameach to all.

1st real week

2009-12-11T02:18:00.001-08:00

Wow. This week was the first real week in the army.

One Sunday we had a day off, as a gift for doing the gibbush last week.

Sunday:

I went to Jerusalem to meet with the great Yossi Jameel, the writer of the Muqata blog. (You can read his work at http://muqata.blogspot.com/) I really recommend this site for people who want to stay updated on whats happening in Israel.

I also met with two of my best friends from high school.

After a long and relaxing day off it was time to go back to the army.

Monday:

I woke up early at 6, and went straight to Be'er Sheva to go back to base. There, we finally found out if we passed the gibbush or not. Lucky I passed and was placed in one of the elite units. After a sad goodbye to my friends who didn't pass, we went to our new area for sleeping. There we met our new Mifaced (this time, he will be our commander till the end of my army service) and my group (also going to be the same till the end of my army service).

The group is made up of 15 kids and together we make up a kita. There are two kita to a machlaca (bigger group) and there are 4 kitot to a pluga (all of Special Forces)

There we also met our new MM (head of our machlaca) and MP (the head of the pluga). The all seem like great people who are going to look after us.

In total, 7 Garin Tzabar people made Special Forces and two others are in my group.

Tuesday:

We did some clerical work and received our weapons. We were all excited. It is an M-16 short.

Wednesday:

More clerical work. Met with the base doctor, psychologist and head of the army base. We also earned the strap for our gun that goes around our head. We had to run a lot in order to get it but now life is easier (especially eating lunch since we don’t need to hold the gun on our laps and have a hand on the handle at all times)

We also got a bag that held 6 magazines, a brush for the gun and some other things. We learned how to take the gun apart, clean it and then put it back together. Then we learned how to conduct a check to show that we don’t have any bullets in our gun. Basically, you have to point the gun in the air, cock the gun 3 times and the last time hold the cock back so the Mifaced can see into the gun and check that you don’t have any bullets.

Thursday:

Finished the clerical work. Then at night we went on a masa or journey. First, we had to load the magazines for the guns, with real bullets and then we had to put on our army vests. I was put as the radioman and had to run from the front of the line to the back of the line giving out messages to everyone from the commander. In total, I was wearing around 25k of weight. I was also the commander’s right hand man and if there was a problem on the march, I would be the first to know and have to relay the message to the Mifaced. When we finished the masa, we all got these white bands on our shoulders. This means that we are now in the special forces of the group and now the training can really begin.

Throughout the whole week, the weather has been cold, wet and raining. Hopefully next week, the weather will be better and we can finally get a chance to shoot.

Time for a new Gibbush

2009-12-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

Instead of writing the usual big blog post i do, im going to write a recap of what happened this week:
Sunday:
Sunday i needed to be back at base so i took a bus from my kibbutz to Be'er Sheave where my base is
Once I arrive to Be'er Sheeva, i had to board another bus to take me to a place where all soldiers go to meet up with their mifaceds and be taken to their main training base.
At this waiting area, i got a chance to see some of my friends in other units, such as Matti and Dave in Tzanchaniem. I then had to run back to my area (Nahal area) and met up with my Mifaced and went off to my training base.
Once i arrive i had a quick lunch and then we received our B gear which included:
Uniform B - a uniform that looks like a but is meant to be worn in the field
Shovel
rain gear
Jacket
Long pants
Water bottles

All this was put into a bag that looks like a backpack, without the comfortable straps called a tadal we were then given time off and sent to bed early

Monday:
nothing really happened in the morning At night we started Gibbush. Gibbush is a tryout to get into the special forces of the group your in. The special forces included:
Palsar - recon group
Palchan - explosives unit
Orev- anti tank
Palkit - radio unit used during time of war
In order to get into any of the special forces, you need to pass a 4 day gibbush that includes anything from running to crawling to sprinting to masas (or long marches)
the gibbush started with us being lead out of the base, to the back area and to a huge field. Right near the back entrance of the base, was the sleeping area for the gibbush, which included many tents in the shape of a Chet. There was also a long road, which leads to the base at one end and at the other are the bases shooting ranges. There is also a lot of open space, a few trees and nothing else besides rocks. The first thing we did when we got to the gibbush was stand in the open area in the center of the Chet. there we met our first commanders and given dinner which consisted of:
two cans of tuna
Corn in a can
Pineapple in a can
bread
spreads (chocolate and jelly)
Cucumbers and Tomatoes
This food all came in a box and was supposed to resemble the food a special forces group gets in the field. This was also the same meal we would get for the next four days for lunch, breakfast and dinner. The next thing we did was fill bags (the ones that you can find at gardening stores and hold dirt or moss) with sand and rocks and put the into our tadales. We were also given a big bag called a kitbag, where we put all the things originally found in our tadal. The final thing we did was take sleeping bags and thin, thin, thin pieces of foam for sleeping on. The next thing we did was stand back in the open area of the tents and got our new group and commanders. We were then told to take only our tadaliem and run to the farthest tent. We then formed a Chet and waited for the mifaced to come. Then he said "you see that rock over there, 10 seconds to form an new Chet there." Once we got far enough away for the mifaceds liking, we were told to stand in the line. Then he said, "You see that rock over there, 10 seconds to run around it and come back." we did this for a while (over an hour). Then he said, "You see the same rock, 30 seconds to crawl there and back" This again went on for a while. We started the gibbush with 330 people and at this point, we were down to 200. After we finished crawling, we were sent back to the open Chet area, where we got our new group and our new mifaceds. Then we were given numbers and new rules:
1: at all times, a hat, with our numbers, must be on our heads
2: while we sleep, we needed to have 2 guards. 1 at the entrance of the tent and 1 walking around the tent
3: no shoes allowed in the sleeping bags
we were then shown our new tents and sent to sleep

Tuesday:
After doing guard duty for 1 hour 30 min (which means i was waken up 3 times at night) we were woken up at 6 in the morning. The day looked like this:
wake up We were given a gun (m-16 long) and a vest that is used to hold water bottles, magazines of ammo and other essentials in the field.
Masa with a stretcher
masa with the tadaliem (every time we did a masa, we needed to be in two lines right behind the mifaced. If we were to far behind, we had to wake in a circle to collect everyone and restart) sprinting crawling (again for an hour and a half)
lunch
digging a whole that we had to hide in if artillery were to start hitting us
sprinting
crawling creating a hiding spot somewhere deep in the field, with what ever we could find near us (bushes, dirt, rocks)
dinner
masa sleeping
At the start of the group, we had 17 people. At the end of the day, we were down to 11

Wednesday:
Physically it was an easier day throughout the night
we still had to do guard duty. We were also woken up in the middle of the night, given 3 min. to get dress and led on a masa when we woke up, we were down to 10 people (most groups had 10, some had 7 and one had 6)
masa in the morning
breakfast
Sprinting thinking game - the scenario was that there was going to be a nuclear explosion and we had to save 4 people. the options were:
a boy who was 5
a girl who was 5
a farmer
a physicist
doctor
astronaut
a woman with the knowledge on how to rebuild the world
and many more people
the group finally decided that we were going to save the woman, the farmer, the girl who was four and the doctor.
We were then told to go running again masa lead to a big steep mountain where we had to put sand bags on our back and walk around the mountain and keep track of how many times we walk around
then we were lead to monkey bars and as a team we had to stay up on them for 5 min.
After failing five times, we were punished with sprinting
After that we were lead to an open area and told, without looking at the base, using what ever is around you rebuild the base
Lunch
once we finished that we were lead to brain game 2: we were given a log and an oil drum. The game was to cross this river. We were on one side and the water was full of mines. We had to use what we were given and cross the lake.
After failing three times, we had to run again (as punishment). This time however, we had to run in a circle, at one spot we had to do ten pushups, then sprint to another spot, do 10 sit-ups, then sprint to another part and do this jumping, pushup type thing and sprint back to the beginning. After about 15 min of this we were lead to a wire and told to dig a hole that we could go under the wire and not touch it. After what seem like forever of digging, we were told to see if we could go under the wire or not. Once no one was able to do this, we had to cover up our holes and we were lead back to our tent.
there we had dinner
After dinner we were lead on one last final big masa and then sent off to bed

Thursday:
one last night of guarding
Wake up
Masa
Breakfast
filled out a questionnaire about our selves and then we finished the gibbush with a private interview with the mifacdeem
At the end of the gibbush, we had 130 people left (although it seemed like less and when we counted at night we got 110)
Throughout the whole gibbush, we had to have two full water bottles on us. Whenever we finished the masa one way, when we came back, after sprinting or crawling, we had to drink a full water bottle or drink a full one between two people. Also throughout the gibbush, the mifacdem would always ask us if we felt healthy, wanted to drop out or if we needed a doctor. Once we finished the gibbush, we walked to the food area and ate like kings. Everything from chicken to hamburgers to pastry. We were them lead back to our groups before we started, where everyone gave us a congratulator shake and pat on the back. We then spent the rest of the day cleaning the base and getting it ready for us to leave

Friday:
we woke up early at 4 cleaned up the base some more and left the base to come home

As a gift to us for doing the gibbush, we don't need to go back to the army on Sunday and instead get to go back on Monday. That is when we finds out if we passed the gibbush and where we are going. We also found out that next week we will be starting real basic training and we will not be off next weekend. Welcome to the real army!!!

First days in the army

2009-11-27T07:21:00.000-08:00

It seems like only yesterday that I landed in the country of Israel.

This week was my first week in the army. It started out on Wednesday. The first stop on anyone who joins the army is the Backum in Tel Aviv. The Backum is the place where you get to pick up your Uniform A, a bag with goodies (including gun oil, zip ties, a sewing kit and many other things). You also get green shirts, shorts, underwear and a jacket. This all is put into a big green bag.

In the backum, we also got a new round of shots for the flu and hepatitis A. The whole process took over 5 hours.

From the Backum, I went to my new home. A base in the south called Basis Nahal (since I am in the Nahal brigade.) There we met our Mifaced (commander). He led us to our sleeping quarters (which are huge tents outside in the field.) There, in a big open area between all the tents, we were given the rules, such as we always had to be in uniform, what to do when and how to call our commanders. We were also broken into smaller groups of Tzevet. My tzevet is tzevet 15. We were then given time to find a spot for ourselves and our bags, a cot to sleep on and a sleeping bag. In the Nahal Brigade, there are 1 other Garin Tzabar kids so we all wanted to stay together. For that reason, most of my tent is full with people from Garin Tzabar and my Tzevet. We were then given one hour to do what we like and then we went to bed.

On Day 2, we woke up at 7, which is amazing because we were actually given 7 hours to sleep and usually in basic training, people are only allowed 6. When we woke up, we had to change back into our madim A and we were sent to breakfast which consisted of chocolate milk, and egg and Israeli salad. From there we were taken to a storage area and given our new Uniforms, madim B. The difference between A and B is that B is meant to be worn during all basic training when we are physically active and uniform A is meant to be worn only on official parades or when we get off the base. We were also given a new jacket, bag, long pants, a shovel and robber clothing meant to be worn when it rains and snows (yes, apparently it snows at our base.)

From there we were led to lunch and spent most of the day sitting around, having private interview with the mifaced, social works for the army and the doctor. We were also led into a big auditorium and shown a video about the unit we are now in.

On day 3, (today) we woke up at 4 in the morning and had to do another bar-or or physical fitness test. The test includes running 2k, 76 push-ups and 86sit-ups. The whole purpose of this is to see how fit we are before we go into the army. I did pretty well and only time will tell if I improve or not.

We were then allowed to leave the base at around 11 in the morning. It was really frustrating because we were told that we would be allowed to leave earlier at 8. We were also constantly lead onto a bus and right before we got on, we were told to stand in a Chet (Hebrew letter that looks like a square without one of the sides) and we had to listen to some important official talk to us. At the end of everything, we were allowed to go on buses and sent to the main bus station in Be'er Sheva (the nearest major city to us) and sent on our way to where we were going.

Next week schedule looks like this:

1) Arrive at base no later the 10 am (this is hard for the people up north, but don’t worry, there is a bus that leaves at 5 in the morning to Be'er Sheva)

2) Sunday is another sitting around day doing nothing

3) Monday night starts the gibush to get into elite units in Nahal and it goes for 3 days. It is compiled of sprints, crawling and other things)

4) Gibush for 3 days

5) Get off next Friday and given an extra day off since we had gibush (this means we need to be back on base on Monday, instead of Sunday.

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and enjoyed all the turkey.

Finally, some pictures

2009-11-16T04:39:00.001-08:00

Picture: Gadna

Left to right:

Simon; Matti; Shmookler; Me

Pictures from the Tank excursive we saw:

http://cayalbodedstory.blogspot.com/2009/10/remeberance.html

Picture: Matysiahu Concert:

http://cayalbodedstory.blogspot.com/2009/10/wow-what-week.html

Pictures: Ehud Banya (Bottom) and Shalom HaNoch (top) in concert

http://cayalbodedstory.blogspot.com/2009/09/working-land.html

Working time

2009-11-16T03:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Matti and I were sitting around at breakfast and were really board. We decided that we wanted to work for the kibbutz. So, we went to David, our Garin father and asked him if we would be able to work. He said yes and asked us where we would like. Without thinking twice, we both said the Refet or cow shed. The refet on the kibbutz is huge, with five areas for the cows that are going to be milked (3 times a day). There are also areas for the bulls (male cows and not real bulls) and an area for the baby cows. The final area of the refet is for the maternity cows and cows that are only a year old. Like any cow shed, the place of course smells, but you get used to it in a few hours. The really interesting thing about the refet is that all the sheds are spread out and they way you move them from place to place is through gates and fences, that can be rearranged within seconds to lead to a new place all together. Within, 30 min. we found ourselves in boots and following Hanrich, a kid our age, who works on the kibbutz and is from South Africa, leading us around and showing us what he does in a regular day.

The first thing we did was empty troughs. The way you do that is by taking out all the water, scrapping the sides clean and then refilling it with new water. The next thing we did was heard cows, from their homes to the milking area. This is the most interesting thing I've done in a while. The rules are that you cannot run after the cow or they will run away. You also can’t lead the cows, but must walk from the back. The other rule is that if the cows walk by a trough, they are allowed to drink and we can’t rush them because they are the merchandise. The next thing we did, after having a quick food break in the main office. There are some rules to follow however before you can enter the main office. The main rule is that your boots need to be clean. You can achieve this by taking a hose and spraying your shoes all over. After a quick meal we herded the rest of the cows (there are 5 areas where the cows lived and at this point we already had done 3). Then we went to lunch.

After lunch, Matti, Ben, Tomar, Alon and I decided that we wanted to go see a movie. We ended up going to Haifa to see the movie 2012. The movie is all about the 2012 apocalypse that is supposed to happen. The movie was good, but very Hollywood. The reason why we went to see that movie was because Ben is a big believer in the 2012 apocalypse and believes that the movie was an accurate portrayal of what will happen to us in 2012.

This morning, at 5:30, Matti and I work up to go to work. The day started with me and Heinrich having to capture a cow in order to move her to another home. We tried three times; each time the cow ran by one of us and off to the other side of the stable until finally the two of us and another man named Kenny helped us. The next thing we did was clean more troughs and cow poop from some of the floors. Then it was off to breakfast. When we came back, we (Matti, Heinrich and I) had to help round up two more cows and take them to the maternity area because they were 3 weeks away from giving birth. As we were finishing up the morning, by stacking towels (used to clean the utters from the cows after milking), Moma, our boss, comes in and tells us one of the cows are about to give birth and asked us if we would like to watch. Without a second thought, the three of us ran out and went to see. The whole birth took over 45 min. but in the end, we got to welcome a new baby boy calf into the world. All of us can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring us.

Gibush

2009-11-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven’t written in a while.

I have been training all week for a gibush or a tryout for tzanchaniem (paratroopers)

That meant that I was running, doing pushups and sit-ups.

Yesterday was the gibush.

We woke up at 5 in the morning to take a bus to Tel Hashomar, the place where we become soldiers. From the main gate, we were lead to a large play area, where we got to see the competition for the gibush. There were over 2o0 people. Many of the people were from Micvah Alon (the army's Ulpan program.) The rest were from either Garin Tzabar (my program) or from outsides areas. The only thing that connected all of us in the gibush was that it was for Oliem Hadasheim or new immigrants. In the play area, we had to fill out paperwork, such as medical information, parent info and rate ourselves on how happy we are, how much determination we have and other factors.

We were then split up into our groups. The groups contained anywhere from 26 to 30 people. We were then taken to an area full of open tents. We had to place our bags down and we were sent to the doctors to get a quick physical. The doctors really only really checked our pulse and took our temp. Then we were broken up to another group of 40 and given a new number. My number was 160. Then we were lead back to the tent area and told to stretch. Finally, the group was lead to the perimeter fence and we had to run 2k for the bar or test (or the first physical fitness test for the gibush). We had to run on sand and dirt for 2k under 10 min. Once we were done, we were all given madim or uniforms and new numbers. We were then told to stand in a circle and wait. During the waiting time, the mifaced or commander pulled aside two people. The rest of us were sent off to dinner of hotdogs and mash potatoes. The reason why the people were pulled aside was because they didn’t run the2k under 10 min and were therefore not thought to be physical enough to pass the gibush. We saw the guys gain at dinner, and after a quick goodbye, we were sent back to the tent area to wait. During this whole time, we also had to drink between 5-6 liters of water.

After a quick wait, we were given another new group and a new number. Mine was 26. This was going to be my group for sprinting in the morning. We were then sent off to bed. The time was 8.

At 3 in the morning, we were all woken up. At night we slept in the tents on military cots. The problem with Garin Tzabar is that we weren’t told what to bring and so none of us (26 who remained) didn’t have sleeping bags. As a result, we all got scaves (a thick wool blanket which has been known to give people scaves.) Anyway, in the morning, we had to fold up the beds and take the mattresses and blankets over to an area. We then had to stand in the waiting area and wait for the mifaced to arrive. Once they did, we were led out into a field, where we were told to sprint up to a tire, around it and back to the starting point. After about 8 of these, the mifaced then told us that the first 5 people would need to stand at the side, while the rest of us would stand in the center and wait. While we were waiting, anther mifaced would write down their number and save it. The point of the day was to come in the top 5 as many times as you can and if you did it a lot of times it means that you are physically fit and would probably make it to the unit. We then had to run around the tire 2, 3 and 6 times. On one of the 1 times and one the 3 times, I came in first.

The next sprint we did was with an alunca or stretcher. The point of this race was that the first four back would take the alunca, lift it up and run again, while the rest of us would only run there and back 2 times with nothing. I got the alunca 1 out of 6 times. The next race we did was crawling on our hands and knees. This was hard, because we never really practiced this and so it was hard to do. After crawling, we had mind games. One was where we were given new numbers and without talking or looking, we had to stand in a formation in our new numerical order. Of course, we failed and so we were punished by doing sprints. The next mind game was where we were given a long pole and an old oil drum. We had to use these objects to get across the "river filled with minds" and if anything touched the water it would exploded. We tried the game three times, each time failing and punished with sprinting. Of course everything was timed. Drinking water, sprinting, the games and everything. If we went over the time, we were given a punishment. If we did something wrong, we were punished.

The final physical thing we did was a masa or a journey that was 3k long. During this masa, we had to run with an alunca, jerry cans and sand bags. Everyone had to hold the alunca at least once and at least one bag. The whole time we rotated so that meant I got the alunca 3 or 4 times and the bag 2.

The next part of the gibush was an interview. The reason for this is because they know that everyone is not physically equal, and so they might be more mentally smart. So we had an interview. My interview went really well, because both of the people asking me question went scuba diving. So when I said I do scuba diving, they both looked at me and smiled and we had a whole conversation on it. It went really well.

After the gibush, me and Matti (the only other kid from my kibbutz) returned home and have been here ever since.

We won’t find out the results for another 10 days but we both feel confident that we passed and are now tzanchanim soldiers.

Remeberance

2009-10-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 14th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin death. For those that don’t know, Rabin was leaving a parade, when Yigal Amir shot Rabin and killed him.
In honor to remember his death, the armed forces do a demonstration and invite schools from around the area (11th and 12th graders) to see them. This gives the kids a chance to see some units and ask them questions. (This is similar to what we did: http://cayalbodedstory.blogspot.com/2009/09/practice-makes-perfect.html)

The day started off hearing the story of a soldier, who fought in the Yom Kippur war. From there, we went to a mountain to over look the battle field and even see into Syria. It was a very beautiful site and if there weren’t burned out tanks and old guns, you wouldn’t believe that there had been a war.

From there we went to hear one of Israel’s deputies who also fought in the war. Again, the talk overlooked a mountain into Syria.
The day went pretty much the same with breaks here and there but most of the time it was a history lesson, looking out into the mountains and seeing the beautiful landscape. The conclusion to the day however, was the highlight. We went to an army base where tanks and infantry were doing a combined training excursive. The training started out with artillery fire and then out of nowhere, 3 huge tanks come up and start driving and shooting. (real shells with explosions and sound) then the machines guns went off and all of a sudden we see 8 soldiers coming out of the tanks and running into ditches set up to look like a Syrian battle field. During the whole excursive, we got to hear the orders given to the soldiers inside the tanks and hear what they said. At one point a tank says that they have been hit and a huge explosion happens. Of course this was then followed by more tanks shooting and the soldiers coming out. At the end of the excursive, the soldiers got out of the tanks and we got to talk to them. It was a lot of fun and makes me really looking forward to the army.

The last trip

2009-10-22T12:18:00.000-07:00

The saying time flies when you’re having fun often popped into my head this last week. You see, this week we, as a Garin went to Eilat. Eilat is a beautiful city on the southernmost tip in Israel. This was to be the final trip for the group as a whole. Starting Monday, some of group (2 girls) starts the army. It is still surprising that already two months have gone by, and that now the time is upon us to enter.
As for our trip, it was non-stop fun from beginning to end. We started our trip Tuesday. There is nothing like have a bus for 32 kids and a 6 hour bus ride. One the way to Eilat, we stopped at the chocolate milk headquarters of Israel. There, there is a huge variety of different chocolate milks (regular, dark, vanilla, banana, etc.) There is also a wide verity of ice cream flavors. Of course when you walk in, you feel like a little kid and want to try them all, and we almost did that.
From the chocolate milk factory, we went straight to Eilat. The hostel we stayed at was very nice, but small. The whole place was for us and there is nothing better than 9 male guys squeezed into one room. The room was actually very big and there was enough space. The hostel was also a 15 min walk from the beach front and of course, once our bags were down we all raced off to go to the beach. The only other place where I have seen such clear and beautiful blue water was in curacao. The next day, we took a tour of Eilat by the water front on a boat ride. It was interesting to see Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt all around us.
The highlight of the trip for me was the scuba diving I did. Eilat has a great many areas to scuba dive and of course as a diver I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. It was such a beautiful underwater scene. I saw so many fish, that I have never seen anywhere else that I can’t wait to go back and go down again. If you are ever in Eilat, I strongly recommend going down under the sea to see such a unique and awesome sight.

Property of Tzahal

2009-10-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

Today was the day when we would stop being citizens of Israel and finally become soldiers and property of Tzahal. This meant that we had to go to the bacum in order to become soldiers, get injections and other soldierly things.
The day started at 7:00, when we all went from the kibbutz to Tiberius for another meeting with the Tzav Reshon people. Luckily I was not called and only a few people were.
From there, we went to the Bacum located in Tel Hashomar, Tel Aviv. This is where every teenager in Israel about to become a soldier goes.
Tel Hashomar is just like another military base, with guards, soldiers and Mifacedet. There are many trailer style buildings and real structures with pictures of Soldiers. We were called off the bus and had to stand in two lines. There we handed in our Tiudat Ziut (or ID cards) and followed the Mifacedet to a dining hall, where we were served lunch. I am always impressed with the amount of power Garin Tzabar has because they were able to "reserve" the Bacum just for us and no one else.
After lunch, we were led to a video screen, where we saw a promotional video of some of the units in the army. From there we were led into a big hall, where we were told to wait our turns.
The Next part of the Bacum reminded me a lot of a police station. We were led to a room, where two soldiers sat behind a desk taking pictures of us. One picture was a regular picture of our face. The second picture was a full body shot, from the side. Then we were led to a room, where soldiers took pictures of our teeth. Then we were led to a fingerprint room, where our finger prints and palm prints were taken on a computer. We were then led to another room, where a MRI/dentist type of machine took an x-ray of our mouth. The whole reason why the army is so interested in our mouth and fingerprints is because if something (G-d forbid) goes wrong, at least the army can identify us with the pictures and x-rays.
After the police part of the Bacum was over, we were led to the questionnaire part of the Bacum.
Here we were given a chart with all our medical information. We then had a quick questionnaire part where we were questioned about our bank accounts and again (G-d Forbid) something should happen to us, who do we leave al our money too.
The final part of the Bacum was the medical part.
Here, doctors gave us two shot (one for tetanus and one for melengitus.) the next part was taking a blood sample for DNA reasons.
From the medical part, we were given our shlat. The shlat is a card that says now you are in the army and that if you want to take a bus anywhere in the country, it will only be 9 shekels (a big help because I pay 39, one way, to go to Jerusalem.) We were also given our dog tags. On the dog tags our written our name and our new name (a numerical number.)
The only thing we weren’t given at the bacum was our uniforms. The reason for this is because every branch of the army has their own uniforms. The infantry and tanks are given dark green and the navy and air force are given light green. The other difference is the boots. Some unit get red boots and some get black. For this reason, that we don’t know where we are going yet, we weren’t given our uniforms.
However, all in all, it was a great day and now I am part of the Israeli Army. Now there is no going back.

wow what a week

2009-10-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not writing in a while. I’ve been under a lot of pressure. What a rollercoaster ride.
The week started off with Hazat Garin. That is when we introduce the Garin to the kibbutz members. We also tell the kibbutz what our new Garin name is. Our Garin is called Garin Gidon, based on the bible story.
For the Hazat Garin, the Garin is in charge of making dinner and entertainment. My job was to be in the play (yah one liners) and help make the movie. I was the editor in chief and basically once we were done filming, I locked myself into the editing studio (the madrichs house) and edited the movie for two days.
As the show reached its halfway mark, it started raining and we had to cancel the show. It was really upsetting because we had put so much work. Oh well.
The high point of the week however was Wednesday night, when I got to go to Jerusalem and see Matysiahu in concert. The show was amazing and so much fun. There is nothing like seeing him in Israel, right in front of the old city. From the concert, four friends and I rented 2 rooms in a hostel and had a night on the town.
Then Came the most relaxing weekend I have had in a while. I slept like a baby and only remember waking up for food and watching some movies.

The highlights in the week coming up are:
1) Going to the backum to get our uniforms
2 going to Wingate (an army base) to meet Barak's assistant (the 2nd head of the army)

Hope everyone back home had a great Chag and a great week and I promise to write more this week.

Free Day

2009-09-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

Today is Yom Sayarot. The day when all the boys who want to can go and tryout for a tryout in one of the elite special forces of Israel. (These units included 669, Matcal, Sheldag and others) by this I mean they get to try out for one day and if they make it, they are invited for the real tryout for the unit they want.
The tryout is comprised of running 2km under a certain time. Pushups and sit-ups, going to sleep. Waking up at a very early hour and then running some more. Throughout the whole thing, the boys sit in their groups and talk about topics picked by their commanders. The topics can be about anything and it is used to see who is the leader of the group, who talks and who doesn’t and who hijacks the conversation.
However, not everyone wants a Sayarot unit, just like me. I want to be a paramedic.
So, since I didn’t go to Yom Sayarot (as well as two other guys) the day was ours for the taking. The girls were given a schedule, since they weren’t going anyway, and the three boys were told that we can do whatever we wanted. I chose to use the day to take care of some much needed work.
I started e day going with my host father to a field to pick palm tree leaves or the roof of the kibbutz sukkah. Together, along with some other kids, we picked over 400 leaves. Once we brought our forest back to the kibbutz, I left to go and take care of driver’s forums in Haifa. The ride was 40 min (one way) and the paper work only took me 5 min to fill out. In Israel, when an Oleyh wants to convert his license, he needs to go to the DMV of Israel and gets a temporary license. With this license, he needs to schedule a driver’s Ed lesson (only one) and you can take the road test and get a full lance.
The Israeli DMV is a very nice building with nice people, unlike the DMV in the states, where no one helps you out and if you’re in the wrong line, you’re in trouble.
Here however there is an information desk when you first walk in and you are told where to go. The whole process was nice and went by painlessly.
From Haifa, I went back on the bus to Afula and took care of some more bank work. I know am finally all done with paperwork (thank G-d).
Tomorrow, the day is still ours, since the guys are still in tryouts. However, since they will be done with their tryout at about 9 in the morning, the whole Garin will go to Mircaz Canada. The Mircaz is like an indoor amusement park with a waterslide, skating ring and also a shooting range downstairs. I’m so excited and I can’t wait to hear from the guys how great was.

Working the land

2009-09-22T10:41:00.001-07:00

It’s been a very relaxing weekend for me, here in Israel.
I think I last left off on last week Thursday. That night, we went to a concert featuring Ehud Bani and Shalom Hanoch. The concert started at 9:30 and ended around 3:30 in the morning. It was a lot of fun, because the stadium wasn’t far from the kibbutz and was also built into the side of mountain.
Even though I only got 4 hours of sleep, it was a very awesome concert and I would do it again in a hart beat.
In the morning, we went to Afula to give out apples and honey to soldiers and people at the bus station. It was a very moving experience and while most of the soldiers did not take, the ones who did were very grateful and we were overcome with joy.
From there it was off to our free weekend. It is amazing all the different walks of life that one can find in Israel. An example of this was when I was on the bus going to Jerusalem. There, I met some women who were from New Zealand and were here because they wanted to see Israel. I believe that they were evangelical Christians and on the 1 1/2 hour bus ride, we got to know each other well. As I’m getting off, the women wanted to know my name, so that they could pray for me. In return, they gave me there name and where they live and invited me over to their house when I get out of army.
The free weekend is always fun. There is nothing greater than going to see family and spending time with them.
Once we got back from our relaxing weekend, it was time to get down to business and make some money. Ever since we got here, we haven’t really been working. It’s been a regular schedule of waking up at 8, going to Ulpan and then piulot at night.
Lately however, we had to pull our weight around and help out in the field, by picking olives. It’s a lot of fun to do. Basically you lay down a tarp under a tree and then you rake the tree till all the olives fall down. Then you take the tarp and fallen olives and place them into boxes to be taken back.
Once they get back to the kibbutz, the olive boxes are weighted and placed into a big barrel, filled with water. There they will stay for a month and then they will be eaten by the kibbutz people.
So far we have picked over 400 kilos of olives. The kibbutz buys the 1 kilo for 4.5 shekels or for $1.50 if the exchange rate is good. That means that we have picked over 1,000 Shekels.
We are also in charge of a dinner one night for the whole kibbutz. This included food and entertainment. This is where all our money is going.
We are going to put on a show and a movie that we are making for entertainment. As for food, we are planning to make Mexican food, which included nachos and steak. This is why we have been working so hard for the past few days.

Nothing like some R and R

2009-09-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to tell Aviv, for some much needed R and R. It is always fun to go see Tel Aviv, the city that is within a bubble.
The first stop on the tour was the Yitzhak Rabin memorial park. This is the spot where Rabin was murdered back in 1995. At the park there are spots on the floor where one can see where Rabin was standing, his bodyguards and also the Murderer, Yigal Amir.
From there, we went to the old city of Yafo. While it was not my first time taking a tour of the old city, with its tight and long corridors, I was never able to get over the feeling only a few years ago, Napoleon had one taken the same route.
From there it was time for some lunch and shopping at the shook. There is nothing on earth that can compare to the shook. There is so much to see, smell, taste and buy that one cannot imagine it all.
From the shook, we went to the Palmach Museum. The Palmach was the first Special Forces branch of the Israeli army. If you have not yet gone to the museum, I suggest you go. It is not like a normal museum. There are a lot of videos and you follow the story of 6 soldiers.
From there we went to the mall for some dinner and then back home. All in all, the day was a lot of fun, and a great ways to recharge the batteries.

Another Meeting

2009-09-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

Life has slowly started to take on a routine. For example, everyday, I wake up at 7:30, got o breakfast; go to Hebrew class, then lunch and then piulas at 5 and 8. The night time is usually when we have free time but that to seem to be routine (basically all free time is used for either running, swimming or hanging out with friends)
However, some things are not so routine. For example, when the army comes by for a meeting. Today we had one of the un-routine days. The meeting today was on what do we want to do in the army and why did we come. We then had a meeting with a different soldier, where they basically checked up on our Hebrew and made sure that we are enjoying the kibbutz.
Besides have a conversation, we also had to fill out a questionnaire. The questions were not usual questions. They were filling in the blank questions about life, such as: "the boy gets mad when...., a good father..... I want ....."
It was basically three pages of questions. It was also timed. 20 min to answer 60 questions. I remember doing a similar test with my college counselor to find out what college was good for me. Funny how the army and college seems t be closer and closer every day.
After the questions, there was an application form that we had to fill out. the application was for an elite unit and included both medical questions as well as spatial tests and questions about how do we work in a team, what are some positive and negative attributes and other questions along these lines.
When all was said and done, we went back to our routine schedule. The night piulas tonight was to bake cookies for our host families. While there’s nothing wrong with cookies, Israelis need to learn about toll house or Pillsbury cookies and how to make them sweet.
Tomorrow we are going to Tel Aviv. WE are going to stop at all the museums and supposedly end our day at the shook to buy some things. Hope no one gets robbed again.

Practice makes perfect

2009-09-10T23:35:00.000-07:00

Yom Sayarot is coming up soon (less than three weeks). During Yom Sayarot, everybody who wants to get into an elite Special Forces unit tries out. The day is comprised of a lot of sprinting and also a lot of running and heavy lifting. Only the best of the best make it.
Since everyone wants to be the best, we are no different. This is why; yesterday we woke up at 4 in the morning and went to a beach. There we practiced sprinting up and down a sand dune. After that, we ran with a stretcher and water cans up and down the sand dunes again. It was like this for three hours. Talk about fun.

Of course the rest f the day was relaxing and interesting. After finishing the mock Yom Sayarot, we went to the beach. There is nothing more fun than working hard in the morning, and then swimming in the afternoon.
From the beach, we went to an army base in Tel Aviv, where we got to meet with some units to hear what exactly they do. It was set up as a college fair, where different units had different booths set up and each had a rep. there that you could talk to. It was interesting to hear about the different units, but it only makes the chose harder because everything sounds so good.

Of course something had to go wrong in the day and that turned out to be that from the base we were allowed to go to our free Shabot. For me that means going to Jerusalem. That meant that i would have to take a bus from the army base, into the tel aviv bus stations and from there take a bus to Jerusalem. Then I take a bus to the moshav where my grandparents live. The problem was no the traveling, but just leaving the base. Every bus that was going to Tel Aviv was packed. A bunch of people had to keep going from bus to bus, until we found a bus that would take a detour from where they were going and would take us.
As if this wasn’t so bad, I also lost my wallet on one of the buses. Luckily the driver realized this and quickly chased me down honking. I thought that I had forgotten to pay him and when I went to reach for my wallet, he opens up the door and says "forgot something?"
This is one reason why I love Israel. Where else would a bus driver go out of his way, act like a crazy person all to return a wallet of someone he doesn’t know?

Trips

2009-09-06T06:35:00.001-07:00

On Thursday last week, the Garin went on a little trip.

We went up north to go kayaking in the Yarden River. It was a lot of fun. The best part was that while there was a sign that said no swimming, no one listened and we played a game called capture the boat.

Basically people jump from boat to boat, trying to throw other people in the water. At one point in the river, we all jumped out and swam for a little, enjoying the cool water.

Besides the water fun, we also went hiking. There are so many breath taking views from the top of the mountains in the north. It is also easier to understand how close we are to Syria and other neighboring countries, since we often went right to the boarder, which was only a 5 min drive from where we were staying.

Then at night, we slept at Sasa. Sasa is a kibbutz up in the north that is also hosting a Garin. Their Garin is from LA and they were all really cool people.

In the morning, we left Sasa and went to Acco to see the old ruins.

Of course no trip is complete without a little bit of trouble and of course, we were no exception.

While walking through the Arab shook, one of our soldiers was robbed. He had left his wallet in his back pocket and while we were waiting on line for some humus, he felt a hand there. He turned around to see someone staring right at him. After a few short milliseconds, the guy started running away. Of course, a Garin group of 20 kids chased the man down. This of course attracted a lot of attention and the man got away.

After the interesting time at Acco, the Garin went to Rosh Hanikra. Rosh Hanikra has the most amazing caverns, with water in them, in Israel. Rosh Hanikra also happened to be the Israeli border with Lebanon. It was interesting to see the sign on the wall that said Israel this way, Beirut that way.

After Rosh Hanikra it was time to go home. Once we arrived to the kibbutz, we quickly got ready for Shabot. This Shabot actually turned into a fun and exciting Shabot for me and two other friends. You would think that after coming back from a hike and trip that we would all be tired, but this was not the case. My two friends and I snuck out of the kibbutz and we went hiking all the way to a mountain that is not far from the kibbutz. The mountain is called Har Gilboa. There we made a camp fire, talked and slept under the stars. In the morning, we walked back to the kibbutz and slept (since sleeping on rocks isn’t exactly the most comforting bed.)

A sigh of relief

2009-08-31T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today was our first meeting with the army.
We went to a building where everyone must go in order to find out your physical profile, your Hebrew level and also have a psychometric test.
When we first got there, we were all given cards that had our id number on them and had to be scanned at each step of the way.
My first stop was the doctor, where I was given an eye exam and also got my weight and height checked. I then had to pee in a cup to see if I had blood in my urine. From there I went into a smaller waiting room where I waited for the doctor. After a quick physical, I was given the score of 97. This is the highest score you can get and it means I am fit enough to go into any unit. The reason why I didn’t get 100 is because it is impossible to get 100. (One rumor is because we have been circumcised and girls don’t get 100s)
From there I went test #2, the Hebrew test. Here I was asked questions, such as my father’s name, mothers age, brothers name, where they were born, how old I am. Then I was given a test in Hebrew speaking. I had o describe the last movie I saw. Unable to think of anything, I quickly went to my favorite movie, the batman returns (I’ve seen it 10 times in theaters sadly) and thus told the whole plot of the movie. Then I was given a reading and writing test.
Once that was done, I went to stage 3, which was the psychometric. This is a basic IQ test, where we were given shapes and had to say how they were related, or what shape comes next in the pattern. The whole test was given on a computer and was timed.
The whole test took maybe 4 hours and brought back dreaded memories of the SATs.
After I was done with the test, I threw up my hands in cheer and ran to the city of Tevaria, which was only a 5 min. walk from where the test was given. There I proceeded to eat my heart’s content in shwarma.
By the time everyone was done with the test, it was already 6 at night and we quickly rushed back to the kibbutz, where our new phones were waiting for us.
While I’m happy the test is done and over with, there are new rules for me to follow. I am now considered army property and as such I can no longer leave Israel. I also can’t get a tattoo (sorry mom, I guess I’ll have to wait to get that tattoo you always wanted.)
I also applied for help from the army since I am a Chial Boded or lone soldier.
Hopefully it is as smooth sailing from here and there is no more stressful test :)

Tzav Reshon

2009-08-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

Today was anything but a relaxing Sunday.
Unlike in the states, where Sunday is viewed as a day to wake up late, eat pancakes and do nothing, here in Israel it is a regular working day.
Everyone who went out on Shabot over the weekend had to come back last night in order to be here today.
The day started out much like any other day did. We had Ulpan, where we learned new things. Then at 1, we had to go to the post office in order to get our health insurance. Here in Israel, things are more complicated than in the states. (I actually have a funny joke with some of my Garin friends, that when we are done with the army, we are going to open up a bank and other things and bring American efficiency to the area.)
While the post office did not take long, people who didn’t need to be there were and this made everyone get upset because we had to leave so fast that we missed lunch. While this doesn’t seem so bad, here on the kibbutz lunch is viewed as dinner or the biggest meal where chicken or meat is served.
The other reason why everyone is on edge is because tomorrow is tzav reshon. This is our first army test. Basically it consists of a physical check, a basic IQ test (where we need to look at shapes and complete the pattern) and an interview with the psychologist. Tzav reson is also where we get to find out what units we are able to go into. It is very stressful for everyone because we all want to get into a good unit and we are all afraid of being told something we don’t want to here. Hopefully we are all over thinking this thing and it turns out to be not bad at all.
Hope everyone had a good weekend.

What a week

2009-08-28T04:15:00.000-07:00

Last week was Gadna week. Gadna is a program for 11th graders in Israel to experience what the army will be like for them.
When we first got there, we met our Mifacedet (commander). We then we told that we have 10 seconds to get our things inside our rooms and line up outside. We were told to do this three times, since the rooms kept getting messed up. When we finally got our rooms (all the way on the other side of the base, which is a five min walk away from everything) we were given our new clothing, which consisted of green pants, green shirt and a green belt. We were then given 10 min to run to our new house and change into our army clothing. After that we were basically led on a tour of the camp and told what we were allowed to do and not. At night, we had a ceremony where we got our rankings and told what group we were in. I was a regular soldier, like everyone else and was in the yellow group. (There was a blue group and red group) a group was made up of many different tzvets (smaller groups).
The next day was another basic army day. We learned the 9 rules about guns, such as don’t point it at anyone; it’s not a toy, so on and so on. Afterward, we were given two guns (which where cemented closed and without bullets) and we had to walk around with them and treat them as if they were real. Besides doing army running, pushups, making formations, Day two we also started doing guard duty. It was only 30 min, but we had to guard our room so no one would steal anything important. It was fun to do because during this time, I met other Garin kids and relaxed (since I didn’t have to run or anything.)
The third day was a lot of fun. On the fourth day we had a field day. We were marched from our base, down to the bottom of a hill and we were taught what it’s like to be a soldier out in the field. We learned how to camouflage ourselves with dirt, twigs, and other things. We also learned how to crawl, and what to do if there was a grenade thrown at us. Besides learning what soldiers do in the field, we also learned how they eat. (Mostly tuna or beans out of cans)
On the fourth day, we did a gibush. Basically, we got a taste of what it is like when we go for try out for the units. We had to run with a stretcher and we learned more about the different units in the army. We also got to meet with some soldiers from different units and talk to them about their experience in the army. At night we had our closing ceremony, where we had to give back our ranks and a person from each group was nominated for an award.
The last day was sad but also a lot of fun. We got to shoot real m16 guns. We also got to talk to our Mifacedet as if she was a regular person. It turned out that she was only 18 years old. It was a lot of fun. From Gadna, we went back to the kibbutz for a night party, since it was the birthday of one of the old Garin people.
Then came Shabot, which was very relaxing. Hope the next week is s fun as the last week was!

Getting ready for the real thing

2009-08-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

Another week has come and gone already.
Surprisingly nothing new happened. The only really fun thing last week was Friday, when we finally did some work. Our job was to go around and paint every wooden thing with turpentine (the paint to protect the wood.) for two hours; we were under the hot sun, painting playgrounds and benches.
Then we had Shabot, which was relaxing as usual. There was a party given by the young kids of the kibbutz to welcome us here.
Ulpan has also been the same. Learning more and more each day.

The exciting thing this week is Gadna. Gadna is army for kids in 11th grade in Israel. It is a chance for them to experience the army before they go. They go through basic things like marching, pretending there is a terrorist attack and shooting. However, for us it is going to be a test drive of what it will be like in three months. Gadna is also a week long. This means that I won’t be writing anything new for the next week since we aren’t allowed to take anything worth of value, such as IPOD, money and laptop.
We will be doing Gadna in the North, to a Golani base.
While we are all excited to go and give it a try, it will be hard.
Since Gadna is for students and young children, a lot will be different then what it’s like in the real army. For instance, we have to sleep 7 hours a day, instead of 6. We will also be served 3 meals a day, like the real army and we will have an hour for ourselves after "training" like in the real army. We will also be wearing real army uniforms and carry around a gun (the only thing is that the Gun doesn’t actually shoot. All the shooting will be done on the 4th day when we get to go to a shooting range.)
I hope it’s everything we want it to be.

Getting adopted

2009-08-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

Family is the most important thing in the world. True that your friends are always there for you, but Family can bail you out of any situation.
With this being said, today we met our new families. By doing Garin Tzabar, one of the nice things is that we are given a family that we can go to for food, housing, or just have a mother or father figure to talk to while we are here.
My family is originally from Argentina (Bonus on the Spanish). They moved to the kibbutz three years ago. They also have three of the cuties and funniest kids ever. (Two girls and one boy. see mom, I finally have sisters.) They have one dog and many fish. The kids ages are between 6-10. The family is the best. Today, I got to finally eat a home cooked meal and then we went on a drive to Afula. The adopted family then went to Beer Sheva for 5 days. They said I could go with them next time, if my Commander lets me.
The families all live on the kibbutz and each family was parried with a kid from Garin, based on their personalities and if they wanted a gain kid. All the families are perfect and no one has complained about them.
While these families can never and will never replace our real families, it reminds us of them and they are great people, here to help us out of every situation that might occur.

Comparing Israeli system to American System

2009-08-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

So I know I am now Israeli and have to get used to the way of life. However, like most Israeli's I know, I now get to complain about the country I live in. the first problem I have took place on Sunday.
Sunday we got to leave the kibbutz and go to our real family houses (Grandparents, siblings and other family members). The only way to get to where we wanted to go was by bus.
In America, when you want to take a bus, you wait at the station or bus stop, see what number bus you need, when it’s coming and then you’re on the bus. While on the bus, you can buy either a one day ticket or a monthly pass.
In Israel however, this is not really the case. Here, Egged, the bus company, has one major stop in Afula and in most places. The busses all come at what time they feel like. (My bus was supposed to come at 11:15 and ended up showing up at 12:30. I was also the only one going to Jerusalem and was the last one to leave the bus stop)
The second thing is that on Israeli busses, people must sit down and can’t stand up. The first bus that came to station couldn’t fit everyone who waited at the station and we were told to wait another 10 min. for a bus that could fit the rest of us who wanted to go to Jerusalem.)
The Third difference is that if you want to place things on the bus, you place them on the bottom of the bus and not near you (I got away with placing my bag and laptop case, but my clothing and stuff had to go on the bottom.)
Finally, I could only buy a round trip ticket on the bus and not a monthly pass (good thing though cause I only get off the kibbutz twice a month.)

However, once I got the whole mess sorted out and finally reached my destination, I had a pretty good weekend. It was very relaxing and I enjoyed the much needed rest.

However, today, when I had to return back to the kibbutz, the mess started again. The bus station in Jerusalem is twice as big as the one in Afula. Because of that, it is twice as hard to figure out. The bus station had only one person who was working information. Otherwise there is a board that shows which platform the bus is leaving from and at what time. The bus I wanted wasn’t there. So I had to go wait in line at the information place. (This is another different but this can be good. I have never really taken a bus in the city alone, I have done the subway and that is worst. There is really no one there to help you and often times if you don’t know where you are going, you can’t get there at all.) In Israel however, this is not the case. The information lady and mostly anyone around you are willing to help you out. This goes for soldiers or any regular person.
It wouldn’t be much fun if the ride went according to plan. Therefore, I witness my first crash in Israel. It is not something I want to repeat. Basically, a white car tried to cut off the bus so he went through three lanes on the highway and instead of slowing down, hit the guard rail and flipped. The bus stopped a few feet later and the bus driver went to check on the bus. I wanted to get off the bus and check on the car, but not knowing the Israeli laws; I decided against it and stayed put. (I hate that about American society, I was afraid I would be sued for trying to help out and since I’m knew, I wouldn’t be able to do anything.)

Once I got back to the Kibbutz, the whole Garin went to the bank to open an account. This was when I discovered another big difference in American society and Israeli’s. In America, when someone wants to open a bank account, it takes 5 min. You sign some papers and put in a password and that it. Here however, it takes 45 min. You sign so many papers with your signature, that by the time your down, your hands hurt. You also don’t get a bank card right away. I have to wait for Thursday to get mine.

The final difference I realize is how to get a drivers license. In America first you go to the dreaded place known as the DMV, wait in line for hours and then maybe, only on a good day, you get your licensee.
In Israel however, I first had to go get my eyes checked. Now I have to get a physical to make sure I’m in a healthy state to drive. Then I sign up for lessons and go for the test, which can take place only after a certain amount of practice courses, which should be some time soon.

Water, Watereverywhere and not a drop to spare

2009-08-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up at 6:30. The reason for this is because we went on a little trip. Since Israel is a dry area, there is a stream that helps move water from one area of country to another. There are sections of the river that are open to swimming. The whole Garin went tubing down the river. If you have ever been on a lazy river ride, this is very similar. It was fun to go down and see 36 people all on black tubes going down a river. From there, we went to a lookout area where we got to see for miles around. It was interesting because we got to see where exactly everything is in the north in relation to us (such as Palestine, Jen’in and Jordan.) While taking in the view, we also got to finally take in some bbq food. There's nothing so good as hotdogs and chicken.
From there we went back to Afula to see the shook of the village. It is not as big as the ones in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. While there was nothing for me to buy, it was still fun to hear all the different people try to sell me things.
From there we went back to the kibbutz for another late night pool party. While we did have a fun filled day, we are all happy that tomorrow is our first free Shabbat. I am planning to spend it in Jerusalem with my cousins and grandparents.

Update on status

2009-08-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

Today we woke up and went to Ulpan like we usually do. However, unlike most days Ulpan ended early because today we were all going to update our status.
Before today I was only registered as a new immigrant, without any help and without any source of income. However today that changed. The religious Garin, along with my Garin went to the Miclat Ha'cleta. The building is located in Tevaria (the nearest city to us). The building looks like any other building from the outside, however inside there are pictures of soldiers in all different units.
If you have ever been to the DMV, then you are familiar with waiting on pointless lines for no reason. For us it was mainly the same thing. Because I had not yet received my Tiuda Zaut (ID card) I had to wait on one line to get it. Then I had to go wait on another line to make sure everything was correct on it. Then, I had to go wait on another line to fill out paper work ab0ut myself.
After everyone was done, with waiting on line, we all went to the city for dinner. It’s amazing how much I missed pizza.
When we got back to the kibbutz, we met with some of the old members of Garin, who also live on the kibbutz. One of the old members works in Orkez (a dog unit). The other two were teachers, in Tanks and Artillery.
Tomorrow, we need to wake up early because we are going to go swim in a river. I hope to post pictures soon about our Garin so everyone can see what it’s like here.

Time for school

2009-08-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

After our first week of having only lectures, it is time for us to get down and start learning the language of the Hebrew Man. By this I mean, that it’s time for us to start our Ulpan classes.
Yesterday, after taking a 4 hour course, we were put into our groups of Hebrew. The test is like a placement test. We sat in a room and took a reading test. We then had to answer questions based on the reading. One of our stories was on JK Rowling and another was on Roni Klien (the soldier who jumped on a grenade and saved his soldiers). We then had a personal interview with the teachers of the Ulpan, where we were asked questions, such as our name, age, where we lived, where our Hebrew comes from and so on. After this came the Army Hebrew test. We were giving passages to read and again had to answer questions. We were also told to change sentences from singular to plural, past to present and so on.
In the afternoon, we were given free time to do whatever we wanted. Then at night we had an activity about the army. We were all given a question and had to answer it by doing things such as writing out the answer with our bodies, arranging ourselves in a certain order or doing something else funny.

Today, we started our Ulpan. I'm placed in a great class. There are 9 of us and right now we are learning how to conjugate verbs. We also worked on our reading and writing. It was fun to do. We were also told that we will be doing Gadna in two weeks. Gadna is army training for 11th graders. They go through basic army courses and see what it’s like to serve. We were also told that this week we would have a free weekend. This means that we are allowed to leave the Kibbutz and go to our family houses. I can’t wait to go and see my family (by family I mean grandparents and cousins).
Tonight, the Kibbutz is going t open up the pub for us. We are all so excited because we have never gone before and everyone here is 18 and over so are legally allowed to drink. Hope I don’t wake up tomorrow with a headache. That wouldn’t be too good for school :).

Getting ready for another week.

2009-08-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

Well, the first official week here in Israel has ended. It went by faster then I thought it would. Yesterday was Shabbat. Everything in Israel comes to a complete stand-still when it’s Shabbat. Unlike the US, where Saturday is just another day, here in Israel everything stops (including buses, stores and many more things). This left me nothing to do, but swim and hang out with the fellow Garin members.
After walking for a few miles and meeting some nice Bedouins, I got to eat the best homemade pita and chocolate spread ever. After that, it was off to a fun swim, where we fought for the inflatable raft and raced each other.
Then in the afternoon we went on a long hike. We got to learn some of the history of the kibbutz and we also got to play pretend soldiers. Two of our leaders are army soldiers that are helping us learn more about the army. After we walked down the side of a mountain, the two leaders went into an abandoned house, while a third leader told us to wait. We were then told that the two army men were going to be Hamas terrorist, and we needed to infiltrate the house and try to kill them by stealing bottles around the house. The catch was that if they shown a light on us, we were "dead".
After trying unsuccessfully the first time, we eventually crawled, rolled and sneaked to the house and got the bottles. We then made a fire and relaxed.
On the way back home to our caravans, I tripped and fell. I’m the first one to bleed from our Garin.
:(
Today was more lectures. We met the head of the kibbutz, who told us more about the kibbutz and how it started. We then talked to the head of the Col-Bo (the local store in the kibbutz). We were also given our bank account numbers. This means I can finally buy things here in Israel.
We ended the day with a march around the kibbutz and saw how big this place really is.

New Rooms, New Family

2009-08-06T15:36:00.000-07:00

After spending a few days at grandma's house and a long ceremony, where many different army personnel and government officials, gave long speeches about how happy and proud of us they are, it was time to say goodbye to our love ones and move to our new kibbutz.
As I said before, my Kibbutz is Kibbutz Yisre'el. It is only 10 kilometers outside Jen'in, but luckily nothing ever happens. The Kibbutz is nice and big with a pool, common eating area, 3 factories (one does robot pool cleaning, one makes the holes in the motherboards for computer chips, and one makes electric heating for floors of rooms) and living area for 500+ people.
The entire Garin group is in the back of the kibbutz, living in caravans. There are four people to a caravan, two per side, a small kitchen area and a bathroom. There is also two different hang out areas for us. One is outside and has many couches and tables to sit and smoke hookah in. The second area is an indoor area, also with couches but has a TV, wifi and a playstation 2. Luckily, since I’m living near the second hang out area, I get wifi in my room.

While my roommate is nice and a pleasure to have and the other two guys are also easy to get along with and fun to be with, the caravan is not home and I do miss my family. Even though we talk on Skype a lot and video chat, I still wish that they were here with me.
The other feeling I have is college. This living style and openness, where we can go into girls’ room, stay up late and not have many restrictions, makes me feel like I’m in college. It will be fun to see how the rest of my time here plays out.
In the morning, I have to learn the rules of the kibbutz and then I’m off to meet two commanders of one of the army brigades. Tomorrow is also Shabbat, where everyone in the kibbutz comes together and we all celebrate the day of rest.

Finally Home

2009-08-04T05:35:00.000-07:00

Good Afternoon.

After a relaxing flight of 10 hours, I finally arrived at the holyland. This flight was nothing like any other flight I have been on. There is nothing quite the same as being a plane full of fellow soldiers and people making Alyiah. (It actually was a record flight because 55 soldiers-to-be were on the flight, the most to date.)

When we left JFK, we had a moving ceremony where we said goodbye to our parents and friends, then we were on the flight. When we landed, we were welcomed by various people, soldiers and officials, including Bibi Netanyahu and Noam Sharansky at Israel's old terminal. This means that the whole terminal was for us and no other flight. It was a very moving ceremony, where strangers came up to us, hugged us and wished us luck on our journey.

Once the ceremony was over, we got our first taste of Israeli Beauracracy. We had to go upstairs to the back of the terminal and register our names in order for us become citizens. Since the flight was run through Nefesh Be Nefesh, and all the lone soldiers are on Garin Tzabar, there was no communication between the two groups and as such, we were told to do things in a different order, depending on who told us what. Once everything was worked out, we were then lead to the luggage claim, where there were two belts of luggage going at the same time. Once the whole mess was worked out, we were finally allowed to leave and off I went, with my father and grandparents to my grandparent’s house.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2009-08-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

Well the time has come. Tomorrow is the day we leave to Israel.
The flight will be made up of only poeple who are making Alyiha. This means that instead of going on a regular 12 hour fligh, where i would sleep 10 hours, the flight will be a party.
There is a ceremony for us at both ends of the flight.
While in NY, there is a going away ceremony where anyone can come and say goodbye to us. Then when we land, there is a welcome home ceremony, where it is not uncome for a big leader, such as the prime minister, Bibi, or even Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's forign minister.

After the five seminars, i love my group. We really mesh well together.

As excited as i am to go, i am sad to leave my friends. It is hard to say goodbye to the people that have made you laugh for the last 13 years. I know that they will go on to do great things but at the same time, there is a part of me that wants time to stop so that i can hang out with them one more day and joke around and not have a care in the world.
It is equally as hard to say goodbye to a brother whom you share everything with and the parents whom you can go to at anytime of the day and talk to with. However, with the power of technology, I know that i will be able to keep in touch with them and it will be as if i never left.

In the beginning

2009-08-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

Hello to all who are checking out this blog.
My name is Yechiel. A long time ago, before i can remember, my grandparents moved from Bogota, Colombia, to Israel. The reason for the move was because two of my uncles and my aunt were in living Israel and it was going to be easier for my grandparents to live near my uncles and aunt. Along with my uncles, aunt and grandparents, I have many cousins living in Israel as well.
Ever since that time, I have been visiting Israel once or twice a year. One of the visits, i remember my cousin going to the army. Everyone was so proud of him but also nervous as well. I always looked up to this cousin and i was so proud of him.
Ever since that time, I have wanted to join the army and become more zionistic, so i spent most of my free time learning about Israeli history. Ever since then, I have fallen in love with the land of Israel and everything it stands for. A land that is ours, after years of persecution is a miracle.
Now the time has come for me to join. Last year, I discovered a program called Garin Tzabar (http://www.masaisrael.org/Masa/English/Programs/Tzofim+Garin+Tzabar.htm)
The program takes youths from around the world and helps them make Aliyah and join Tzahal. Since most of the volunteers are from the US, the Garin program breaks up the US into three regions (the east coast, west coast and center.)
Since i live in New York, I am from the east coast. There are 32 people in my Garin. Before we leave for Israel, there are five seminars, where we meet one another and talk about why we want to join. After the five seminars, which usually takes a year, we then go to Israel and live on a kibbutz together. During the first three months on the Kibbutz, we do Ulpan and then comes the enlistment date and we all enlist. Since all the members of the group are considered "lone soldiers" since their mothers and fathers are not in Israel, the members of the group become like a family and a support group.
When it comes time to enlist, we all take he test together and then go off onto different units.