New Years and Karmiel

Exhausted and no where near unpacked Bec and I decided on the "go with the flow" approach to New Years plans. We spent the day in Tel Aviv catching up with friends and family. I got to see Jesse and the J'Burgh group visiting Israel for a bit and despite having no plans we ended up going with my cousin Shai to see his roommate DJ at a rave in central Tel Aviv. The music was incredible and we danced the night away. There was no lavish countdown, no one really caring that the year was changing at a specific minute. So, from across the room as my watch hit midnight I found my best friend in Israel and we smiled...Happy New Year!

After a few days to relax and seperate our things from a giant pile of sharing (this took forever) we packed up our bags and headed to Jerusalem for our Part II orientation. Some speakers and instructions and meals later we boarded seperate buses and I headed up to Karmiel.

The first few weeks in Karmiel have been incredible. Busy. But incredible. Karmiel is in the north central region of Israel and is a small city of about 50,000 people surrounded by small communities and gorgeous mountainous scenery.

A short tour of our apartment in the Mercaz Klitah (absorption center) in Karmiel

OTZMA has split up into small groups around the country and I'm here with friends Jeff Hast and Michael Schwartz. Here's what Jeff turned in for our weekly "Sunday Letter":

"It has been an amazing and very long first week in the Karmiel-Misgav region. After settling down, unpacking and organizing 'Mercaz Klitah: Part Two," a very exciting and jam packed couple days of volunteer orientation and being wonderfully hosted by friends in Rehovot and Haifa, we came back to Karmiel ready for the busy week ahead of volunteering and a visit by a group from the Pittsburgh federation. Our volunteer experiences have been incredible so far and we have so many opportunities throughout the region. Twice a week, we volunteer at a kibbutz outside of Karmiel, called Kishorit, a kibbutz for adults with special needs. Words cannot describe how remarkable and beautiful the place is in just thirteen years of existence. Nikki volunteers in the laundry room, providing all the members of the community with clean clothes; Michael with the horses cleaning out stables, grooming them and taking them out for exercise; and myself in the bakery helping to make enough bread for the community's daily consumption, as well as cookies, crackers and other tasty desserts. Above all, we get to interact with the members of this amazing community and share with them as much as they share and teach us. It's like one of the members said to me on our first day before lunch, "The worst part about Kishorit is leaving and the best part is coming back." We also volunteer twice a week at a local high school, Psagot, tutoring 11th and 12th graders English...we went into six different classrooms playing 'Ask the Americans Anything You Want' and had discussions from everything from OTZMA, guessing Michael's correct age (no one was ever right, we heard a lot of 18 and 19), to differences in teenagers in Israel and America. We also do evening English homework help with children in the fifth and sixth grades. This doesn't even include the eventual volunteering at the local youth center, the two days a week at a Kfar Yeladim, a foster care village, and the possibility of doing something with the Bedouin community.

Another highlight of the week was waking up and bright up and early before 6am to go on a early morning mountain bike ride through the Misgav region which features, with help of the P2K relationship between Karmiel/Misgav and Pittsburgh, a 23km beautiful bike trail. We went with our guide and one of the members of the visiting Pittsburgh federation. Needless to say, as sore as we are now after the 3 1/2 hour ride, it was an amazing first-week experience as we biked through the trails, muddy fields, riding behind cows and biking and while watching the sunrise. But, yes we are very sore. We also had the opportunity tonight to meet members of the partnership committees from Israel and Pittsburgh as well as teenagers who will be part a ceremony delegation going to the states in April, run by my host mother. Our extremely talented Nikki was front and center, singing and playing guitar during the dinner and proceeding presentation.

All in all it has been an incredibly busy first week here from volunteering, exploring, biking, shuk-ing, settling down in our new home while taking some ridiculous videos...and as the old wise man, Michael Schwartz says, 'Od Sivuv!'"

So with that...Shavua Tov! A good and wonderful week to all!