The Beginning of the Middle

WELLLLLL

So I realize that I've been pretty inconsistent about blogging later, and I have good reason for it. Let me try to explain. It's not that I don't want to blog, far from it, its that my schedule has been incredibly inconsistent. Unfortunately, it isn't going to get any better until probably the second week of February. I'll give one good story though.

Monday January 4th was my last day of final exams. I had the Society and Politics final. It was actually pretty easy. I even got Omri Casspi into the essay I wrote about Arab (in)equality in Israel. It was pretty awesome (if you don't know who that is, google him. He's my HERO). I woke up around noon, printed out my Talmud essay, and met up with Joey in the lobby. We hopped a 19 to school. For the last month, I've had this rule not to use my iPod on the bus to and from school. I feel that I should get as much out of Jerusalem in my finals days here. Joey and I take the bus together a lot, so we just talked for the 45ish minute bus ride. We got off the bus, and make a schedule for the next hour or so. We needed to get our transcript forms completed for colleges, go to the business school to get the package the Dekalo's left there for me, and turn in our Talmud essay.

First, we walked the longer way because it was such a nice day outside. There was no rush, and we took advantage of the beautiful view of East Jerusalem and the warm sun in January (it was about 65 degrees F. Be jealous). We walked to the Rothberg library first. We had the libranians check to make sure we didn't have any overdue books. Also, Joey had Rachel's account checked out as well because she was leaving for Poland that night and didn't get a chance to go in herself. They checked all three of us out, printed some forms saying we were good, and instructed us to go upstairs to actually get our transcripts sent.

We walked up four flights of stairs (who takes the Rothberg elevator???) to room 426. There, we turned in our form. I had transcripts sent to Illinois, Indiana and three to my parents. There are five free transcripts through Rothberg, so I figured why not. My dad would probably find it funny. We thanked the women, and then asked her for directions to the business school. The directions were pretty vague, but it amounted to "go that way."

We went into the forum (middle of Hebrew U campus) and instead of going the normal way, straight, we made a right into the "school of social sciences." We wandered aimlessly until we arrived to a staircase. We knew her office was on the 4th floor, and by then we saw the word "economics" and "finance" everywhere, so we figured we were in the B-school by then. Let me tell you, Rothberg doesn't feel too much like what I think college should feel like. This school definitely did. There were a ton of students and professors walking around, lets of cool little hangout areas. We searched all around the 4th floor until we found her office hiding in a little corner. I walked in, and told her who I was. She gave me the awesome headphones my parents got for me (thanks mom!!). We thanked her, and left. Joey and I were both very happy that in our final Hebrew U experience, we finally got to see some other school besides the International School. It was great. Happy and hungry, we boared the 19 back to Jlem. After about 1 minute, I realized what we forgot. I turned to Joey and said, "we never turned in our Talmud essay." Joey's face turned from content to frustration. We hit the stop button as the overcrowded-Jerusalem bus halted to a stop at the bus stop. Why would anyone get off when the bus hasn't even left campus yet? Because two stupid Nativers forgot to turn in their essays, thats why. Well, Joey was pretty unhappy with himself. He said, "obviously you're going to forget, your memory is terrible (it's true, my memory is pretty bad. Just ask my roommatey). But, how did I forget!?" We walked the long way, not by choice this time, and made it back to room 426, the transcript room and where we were supposed to turn in our Talmud paper.

The women there was a little confused, for good reason, and we thanked her after. Our plan was to get 25 shekel pizza on King George street, then go to the Shuk to by gummies, and then return to base. Instead, we stopped at B52, a really good schwarma place in the forum. It ended up not being so bad because the schwarma was just soooooooo good.

From there, we made haste to the Shuk. We bought some gummies from the gummy guy. Buying gummies is fun because you put on a glove, and just reach into endless boxes of gummies, grab some, and put them into your bag. The guy weighs you bag, and you pay based on weight. It was great. I got 11 shek worth of gummies, and it'll probably last me for more than a week. :) On our way back, I spotted a fruit-smoothie bar. I really wanted a strawberry smoothie, and they prepared it for me on the spot (with orange juice.) Phenomenal. So good. We walked back to base, happy that a frustrating mistake turned into a fun adventure.

the next day, Joey (again), Ariella, Zoe (not a nativer, Ariella's friend) and I went on an adventure. We walked to the famous Jerusalem bridge, walked across it, and walked back. It may seem like a pretty lame story, but it was super fun. We just walked though almost all of downtown Jerusalem, which is sooooooooooooooo big. It was the first time in a while, as Joey pointed out, that we went walking "just to walk." Yea, we had a destination but the goal wasn't to just go over it and back. We took a few long cuts, went over it and then back over it again. Eventually, Ariella and Zoe decided to go shopping. That's lame, so Joey and I walked back to base together. It was all-in-all a three hour excursion, and super fun. It goes along with my goal of making the most of Jerusalem because before I know it, I'll probably be sitting here blogging every 5 seconds cause there will be nothing more to do in Yerucham.

Ok time to go!!! Love much

Josh

Sderot Rally for Hope!!!

Hey guys,

On Thursday, Dec 31, I attended a rally in Sdereot. The goal of this rally was to convey to the world that Hamas needs to stop firing rockets at Sdereot citizens and children immediately. I'll write about it more tomorrow, I need to go to sleep now, but check out some articles about it.

http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3828008,00.html

This one is the best, look for me, Aaron and Max in a picture!!

Here's more places the rally showed up:

1) CNN:http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/12/31/gaza.march/Protestors Rally to End Economic Blockade of Gaza
*Towards end of article

2) The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123101935.html

3) Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2009/1231/In-Israel-embattled-Sderot-comes-back-to-life-after-rocket-barrages-of-Gaza-war

4) New York Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/world/middleeast/01gaza.html
*Towards end of article

5) ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/meta/search/imageDetail?format=plain&source=http%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2Fimages%2FInternational%2Fa26d64e2-1c64-4d4c-9b35-1bcd5fa4275c

US National Public Radio (NPR):http://topics.npr.org/article/0bzU5tZdTpd9w

6) AP Photos of Rally: http://apimages.ap.org/Search.aspx?st=det&sort=date&id=MIDEAST%20ISRAEL%20PALESTINIANS&showact=events&prds=10135&intv=3d&sh=10&kwstyle=and&adte=1262277611&pagez=20&cfasstyle=AND&

7) Reuters Photos: http://www.daylife.com/photo/01Er9KQ2hz8I3

8) Jerusalem Post Video: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1194419829128&pagename=JPost%2FPage%2FVideoPlayer&videoId=1261364567946

9) Jerusalem Post articles:

1) Hundreds Protest Israel's Gaza Policies as Sderot Rally Releases Peace Balloons: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364566077&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
2) Sderot children send New Year's Message to Gaza:http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364566089&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Israeli Press Coverage

10) Israel National News:http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135296

11) YNet News: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3828052,00.html

12) Israel Channel 1 (Hebrew): http://www.news1.co.il/PageLoad.aspx?adid=5324&pageUrl=Archive/0020-D-225215-00.html?tag=21-16-31

13) YNet News (Hebrew): http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3828008,00.html

Josh

New Years!!!

Hey guys,

New Years here was pretty interesting. For the first time in my life, I didn't see snow before new years. yea its not that big of a deal but it was strange to go out from home on new years in just a Northface jacket. Adam, Seth, Tyler, Hadley, Shira, Rachel, a bunch of other people and I went out to downtown Jerusalem. Shira, Rachel, Tyler and I branched off for a little bit to meet up with Shira and Rachel's friend Mark from school. That took us until around 11. It was soooo late already! I was so used to new years with friends or family, where festivities start around 9. the fact that at 11 we made the decision to meet up with everyone was really strange to me

Around 11:15, we met up with a bunch of other Nativers. We were planning to go into Hertzl (like we always do), but it was a 40 shek entrance fee and by that time, it was almost already new years. Almost everyone showed up (besides Seffi, Gabe and Ariella who insisted on walking through Mamilla mall). Besides them, everyone and I mean EVERYONEEE was there.

I've never seen so many people in downtown Jerusalem before! There were literally hundreds and hundreds of people! It's tourist season so it was veryyyy crowded.

We walked to the bottom of Ben Yahudia street, and instead of the normal "Rabbi Nachman" van there blasting music, there was a DJ booth and a Rabbi Nachman guy DJing through some speakers. it was alike a mini dance club in the middle of the street. it was awesome

Today, I had my Silicon Wadi final. It was soooo much writing. It was a 5 question exam, but some of the questions had multiple parts. You know how that goes. Afterward, Joey, Aaron, Jesse and I decided to walk back to base. Mount Scopus isn't in Jerusalem, its right outside. It was a fantastic 58 minute and 47 second walk (I timed it). I'll post pic's later.

NBA Finals tonight!!! Get stoked.

For all that were at IC, hope it was amazing!!

Josh

Week Update: Dec 20-26

Hi!

Wow, I haven't written in while! It's been a veryy long time. Sorry about that.

Nothing too exciting has happened in the last 11 days. Lets see....

I spent the last Shabbat on base with Seffi. His grandma and uncle were in town so I went to dinner with them. The next day, I just hung around base. I went to Shira Hadasha in the morning with some people. Standard services, nothing extra special. The Shabbat was pretty fun, and I can't really think right now of anything extra special that took place. I just chilled with a bunch of people that were on base.

The week was pretty standard. Classes were long, and the fact that finals week is looming has been on my mind frequently. I had my first final on Friday, in Ulpan. It was pretty easy, which scares me more because when something is easy it means i may have overlooked something. So hopefully I did well.

The Goldklang family (Mom's brother's family, so first cousins) finally arrived on Wednesday night. Their flight was cancelled and they arrived here 2 days late. Lame. We went out to dinner on Wednesday night at HaShamen, the best Shawarma place in all of Jerusalem (and probably the world.) to my family: sorry I didn't take you there when you were here. I didn't know about it yet :( They loved dinner, and after dinner they went back to the Mamilla hotel to crash. I went out for the normal Nativ Wednesday night hangouts. I wanted my cousin Matt, a sophomore in high school, to come with me to meet the Nativers, but Uncle Bob and Aunt Mia were being super mean and didn't let him go. It was probably a good decision in hinesight because I didn't get to sleep until very late (mostly because I went back to base early to catch up with my good friend Amy on skype) and because I woke up early to get to the Mamilla Hotel at 7:45 AM the next morning for breakfast.

Thursday, I joined a group of about 50 people from mostly the San Diego area to Masada for Ari Lew's Bar-Mitzvah. I know this family through the Goldklangs. It was super nice of them to let me join them on Thursday on the bus, touring Masada, etc. The service was a nice reform service. It reminded me a lot of Solel back home, actually. We were greeted immideately after getting off the bus (I slept on the ride literally the entire 2 hours) by two Rabbi Nachman guys. They had HUGE shofars slung over their backs and bongos tethered around their shoulders. They played a little tune for us on the Shofars before rockin' out on the bongos the entire way up the cable car ride and walking across Masada. (Masada is a super big, historical and important moutain/plateau. Look it up if you don't know about it. cool story.)

After Masada, we went to the Ein Gedi restaurant for lunch. It was no Frank Sinatra lunch from Hebrew U, but hey I can admit Frank has spoiled me a little bit. After lunch, at which all the kids (Matt, Cole, the Lew kids, and a bunch of other random kids) were scaring the 20 cats away from our table, we boarded the bus and went back to Jerusalem. I got back around 4. I hung out with the cousins a little bit more, and then headed back to base to get ready for the night. Thursday night was serious. Serious studying for Ulpan the next morning. Allrighttt.

The next day, I was with the cousins again. We were in Mitzpe Ramon, rappelling down the same cliff I did with the family only three weeks before. We also had a cool camel ride through a small part of the desert. We ended in Tel-Aviv. I took a sherut back to Jerusalem. This taxi driver was actually even cooler than the "I'll help you with studying for you ulpan midterm tomorrow" taxi driver. I spoke in Hebrew the entire ride, one full hour. I didn't even feel that constrained with my ability to speak and I understood basically everything he said. It was crazy. We talked about many things. First, about why I was in Tel-Aviv, what I'm doing in jerusalem. Then about Hebrew U, and Nativ, and Israel, and America. Then about Coldplay and The Who, then about his family, then about my day with Mada. He thought that was really cool. It was a very quick hour car ride, and he gave me his number so if I was ever going to do that ride again I could call him. Taxi drivers like to do that, i've learned. To an American, it may sound a little creepy. But here it feels completely normal. I really like the inherent trust between people that exists here.

OK, now sitting in Silicon reviewing for the test next week. It's gonna be SOOOOOO HARD. Wow, I think its over. its exactly 3pm. This class ends at 4. NEW RECORD!!

Miss all of you. Talk soon

Josh

Closed Shabbat in Yerucham

Hey everyone-

I'm sitting in Silicon right now. Adam and I will soon be presenting our proposal to bring Build-A-Bear Workshop to Israel. Sounds good right?

Lets talk Yerucham (or as they spelled it Yeroham). We (the Kehilah track) woke up early on Friday morning. We departed base in Jerusalem around 10:30, and arrived in Yerucham around 12. Right after arriving, we dropped all our stuff off in our rooms at the hostel and loaded the bus again. We got to choose our rooms, and I roomed with Seffi, Joey and Tyler. Solid room. The bus took us to the Yerucham forest. There's a forest in Yerucham, aka the middle of the desert. Crazy, right? The forest was really nice. We enjoyed lunch there. The staff bought Holy Bagel for us back in Jerusalem. After eating, Tyler took out his frisbee and we played catch. Adam, Asaf and Noah quickly joined us. After lunch, our tour guide led us to the Yerucham pond. (now back at Beit Nativ). The pond was reallyyy cool. I hope that our houses/apartments aren't that far away from it because it would be a really cool hang out spot when we are there. The bus driver decided not to come back for us, so the staff got a mini-bus which took 12 people at a time to shuttle us back to get ready for Shabbat. We arrived with about an hour to prepare.

Shabbat was pretty boring, honestly. We had a lot of sessions with random important people that were talking a lot about Yerucham. They told us stories of how Yerucham got started. What I realized is that Yerucham is basically a top-notch developmental town in the negev. There are stores (a falafel store, a pizza store, a super sol, and a store called "Ha Makom" aka "The Place." I think they could have come up with a more inventive name), streets (there's one main street) and a bunch of parks (the slides are HUGE). I'm excited. On Saturday, we walked around Yerucham and saw one of the houses that we could potentially live in. It was a pretty run down house, but it also fits 10 people and looked pretty spacious. There also was a electric piano just sitting on the porch in front of it. So hopefully Tyler and I can get it to work. That would be great to play when we record the album. That night, we went to a community concert. At first, I wasn't liking the concert because the band was really bad. But then I realized that this concert wasn't for good music. It was supposed to bring the community together. I was sitting with Adam in the middle, and about halfway though the first part of the concert, we got up and started to dance. Nativ was about 1/3 of everyone in the concert hall. At first it was a little awkward, but during the second half when we were all expecting the bad music, Adina, Jonny, Jesse and Asaf joined in the fun. Adam and I went up to the back row to dance with them. Check the picture below.

The next day, we checked out of the hostel and said goodbye to Yerucham. We then visited the Ben Gurion museum. That was pretty boring, and most people fell asleep during the lecturer. We finished off the day with a great but short hike. The trip to Yerucham was really fun!

I also happened to work on the video on both bus rides (2 hours both ways). Speaking of that, we showed it at erev Nativ the other night and everyone really liked it! I'll post it soon, probably closer to when IC starts because I don't want people seeing it before then...

I'll post some pics from the weekend.

OK I think I'm actually all caught up now. Talk soon!

Josh

Seffi (my roommatey) and I hanging on a pole outside of the concert.

the Yerucham Lake

The hike

dancing during the concert

Jesse, Adina, Jonny, Asaf and me (adam was cut out of the picture)

Mada 2nd Post

Hey everyone--

Sorry I couldn't finish the post before. Talmud class doesn't wait for bloggers :)

Again, you probably shouldn't read if you don't like graphic detail.

OK so I ended with the riot/broken nose guy. Cool. We get a call for another man who had fallen. We rush to his house. When we get there, I took the ambu bag and oxygen tank. Alex took the chair. Yitzack and Shira took the papers and such. We get to the entrance to their apartment and his son is waiting there calling for us. We entered the apartment and saw a man recinding against the bottom of a couch. There were a ton of blankets/sheets/pillows all around him. We took his BP and talked to him about what happened. He said he didn't remember much, but he wasn't feeling well. He was drifting in and out of consciousness. His pupils were extrememly dialated. His blood pressure was rapid and weak. He didn't remember much. Any guesses? Seziure. We got him dressed, and of course against his wishes got him into the chair and out the door. Yitzack and Alex carried him into the ambulance. We transfered him into the bed. We didn't feel he needed to be carried from one to the other, and neither did he. When he stood up, he almost immediately fell down. I caught him before he hit the street. He would have hit it hard. We got him in, flipped on the emergency lights and drove quickly to Terem again. In the drive, he started to become more and more conscious. By the time we got there, he was putting coherent sentences together and didn't even need us to wheel him in the bed into the hospital. When he got to the front desk, he made a huge deal that he was fine and he didn't want to be there. He made Shira call his son, who he thought was his brother, to talk to him in English. The guy wouldn't let her talk in Hebrew for some reason. We left shortly after.

We then got a call for a guy named Danny. Apparently he calls all the time. We get to the house, I start to get the things and get out when Yitzack says "don't worry, he'll get in himself." We saw him walk out of the house, lock the door, walk up the stairs, open the back door of the ambulance, say hello and ask for the classical music station. We brought him to Terem, and he was immediately brought back to his house. It was pretty funny.

He then called again an hour later, and we got him again. This time, he was standing on the corner of the street and fell asleep in the ambulance ride to Terem. He loved the classical music station.

The next guy was the scary one. We get a call for a dehydrated man. I thought "this shouldn't be too hard." Little did I know. He was an 88 year old, ultra-orthodox man. He was sitting on his bed when we went into his room. He skin wasn't pale. It wasn't very pale. It was chalk white. Chalk on a chalkboard white. There were a ton of red/purple/black bloches all over his skin. And his feet were about 3 time as big as they should be. They were both deep purple and extremelyyyyyyy swollen. When I saw them, Yitzack quickly said in a calm voice, and English, "don't react." I tried my best not to. I looked at his arms, shoulders and hands. He literally was skin and bones. You've seen pictures of the starving people in Africa? Try seeing it in real life. He literally looked like a skeleton that was being held somehow by his skin. Yitzack and the helper of the house had to help get him into his diaper before dressing him with new pants and socks. After about 30 minutes with this guy, who ever 5 minutes would say "tzit-tzit kippah, tzit-tzit kippah," we got him into the chair. I took one arm and Alex took the other while transfering him from his bed to our chair. I actually thought his arm was goign to break off when I lifted him. I didn't see any muscle, or veins, or blood running, or anything. His arms were icy, icy cold. He felt like he had just gotten out of a freezer, it was that cold. We had to drive without the emergency lights because he couldn't have taken the sharp turns and such.

When we got him to Terem and transfered him from our bed to the real one, we found that his pants were absolutely soaked and dripped a lot of liquid onto the floor during the transfer. I wondered, "soaked with what?" I looked at the ground between the beds. I looked at the trail we left through the whole hospital. It was a light red color. Blood. He has completely soaked his pants in blood. Our bed was absolutely drenched in it. It took 20 minutes for Yitzack, Alex and I to clean it off. He soaked the sheet cover and the blanket so much that we needed to take a garbage bag from the hospital and leave them in the bag until we got back to the station. This was by far the most traumatizing call of the day. It was also the last.

There's my story. Hope you all enjoyed.

-Josh

First day of Magen David Adom

Hey everyone---

A lot has happened in the last few days, so it might take me a few posts to write it all. Remember when I said I was done with the IC video? Well..... not really. I think over the last 5 days I've put in probably over 8 hours. I racked those up doing some editing with Ian, then I worked a lot during the closed Shabbat in Yerucham (which I'll cover later) on the bus rides. Plus last night Ian and I got 2 hours in finalizing the music. It's a lot, but it looks great. I'll post it soon.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 10th 2009: A day that I will never forget. Well, I hope not. Before we get to Thursday, lets talk Wednesday. Wednesday, I'm sitting right over there (in the library of Hebrew U, where I'm currently writing this), and I text Nadiv, the staff for Kibbutz. When we finished Mada training, he asked us when we were going to start volunteering in Jerusalem. Everyone gave him an answer. Most people didn't have a desire to volunteer until second semester in Yerucham. I told him that, he said I needed to choose a time while in Jerusalem, so I told him I would on Thursday's after freshman writing ends. I texting him saying "how do I volunteer tomorrow?" he responded with a few phone numbers of Mada staff members saying I should call them.

First, I called Almong. She told me to call Arei. I called Arei. He didnt answer, but called me back an hour later. He told me to call Boaz. I called Boaz. Boaz didn't answer. I waited another hour, and called Boaz back. Still no answer. I called Almong back, and she told me I should talk to Arei again. I called Arei back. No answer. I waited a little longer and called him and Boaz again. Neither answered. I went to Talmud and ISP, waiting for a call. Nothing. I get back home and get a call from Arei around 7:30. He says "I'll call Boaz and call you back in 10 minutes to see if you can volunteer tomorrow morning." Perfect! It took long enough for these guys to get it together. I go to dinner and go out with some Nativers. Before I know it, its 9. Arei hasn't called. I call him and he says "don't worry, I'll text you when I get through to him."

11:30- no call. I call Arei, and he doesn't answer. I call again and still no answer. I call Nadiv and he says "if you go and they say no, at least your making a statement that they are disorganized and they need to get it together. if you go then you might be able to volunteer. if you don't go, then you definitely won't volunteer. Worst comes to worst, you come back to base and go back to sleep." I thought about it while walking back to base. The morning shift starts at 7 AM, so I would need to get up at 6!!!! Thats so early!! Especially for a Thursday morning. I set an alarm for 6 that night, but still didn't know if I would actually get up and go.

I woke up at 6 when my alarm went off, and laid in bed for about 15 minutes deliberating whether to risk it or not. Eventually I decided to get up and call my family to see what I should do. I stepped out of my room to make the call. It was warm, the sky was a little overcast but still nice. It was quiet in the hallway, but the window cracked open so I could faintly hear the traffic on Agron street while I made the call. There was no answer. There was a gust of wind and the window open all the way. The fresh Jerusalem air was delicious. I put my phone away, and got into the shower. When I got out, around 6:30, I realized that I had no breakfast. Breakfast at Agron didn't open until 7, so I was stuck with whatever was around my room. I remember that I bought soup for myself when I was sick a few weeks ago. Ramen would have to do. I got changed into my jeans, Indiana hoodie and the white Mada shirt over it. I took the ramen and went downstairs to the hot water dispenser that we aren't supposed to use. Whatever, that's a dumb rule.

I caught a cab at 6:40, giving myself plenty of time to get to the station. I arrived at 6:49. I walked in to see two people sitting on some chairs in the main lobby. They were wearing sweet blue Mada jackets and pants. I said hello and sat down. There was a boy and a girl. The girl said something to me in Hebrew. I made out the words volunteer, you, now and hi. I tried to say that I am a volunteer and it was my first time. I couldn't really figure it out that early in the morning. The boy then turned to me and said in English, "oh its your first time? that's so exciting. I'm Alex and this is Noa." Phew. Someone spoke English. I started talking with Alex and learned that he's been living in Israel for a little over a year. He is in the army. He is going to be a medic, so he's getting a month of Mada work in (as a medic, not a volunteer) before going back to the army. He is from Georgia, the country not the state. After talking with him for about 10 minutes as random people were coming over and saying hello, the drivers walked in. One woman asked Alex to be in her ambulance. I told Alex before that that we should be together. I didn't know if anyone else spoke English and I really don't like being behind the language barrier. Especially on my first day of Mada. He said it was a good idea, but unfourtunately it didn't work out. A man named Yitzack walked in and asked in perfect English if I wanted to be in his ambulance. I quickly agreed. Noa also agreed. She is also an army medic getting training in Mada. She didn't speak any English.

At 7, Noa and I went out to the ambulance to begin checking it. We spend literally 45 minutes checking to make sure all the supplies were there. She explained the purpose of everything to me in Hebrew. I caught about half of it. Then, Yitzack and a woman named Shira got into the front two seats. Shira went over the checklist with us. Her English was also perfect. I was soooo relieved. Shira took the lists and us to the warehouse. There, a man named Boaz gave us towels and blankets (the missing items in the Ambulance). I believe its the same Boaz, but I'm not sure. We got into the Ambulance, Yitzack turned it on and we started to drive. I thought to myself, "we're already going?" We got onto a main road, and he flipped on the sirens! They were realllyyy loud. We then drove through some intersections, went on the wrong side of the road, crossed over some barriers, went over the sidewalk onto main streets and sped like no other before going back to HQ. It was just a test run. Wow.

Noa showed me her office in HQ, and we got Cariot (a yummy cereal) to snack on while on shift. Right as we walked through the main area, we hear "Ambulance Shira, Ambulance Shira!" Yitzack comes running through yelling "Bo, Bo!" (Come, Come!) We get into the Ambulance and start to race through Jerusalem. Yitzack, Shira and Noa were all talking in Hebrew, and from what I understood.... OK I didn't really understand anything. There was a women and a baby. Something bad happened.

We arrived to the apartment and Shira said, "take the AMBU bag and oxygen tank" to Noa and I. I grabbed the bag and she took the tank. We went up the stairs to the apartment. Yitzack knocked on the door and said "Magen David!" A women opened the door. Sitting on the couch was another women, about 35, holding a baby. She looked very pale. They spoke mostly Hebrew, but a little English. Noa asked if I wanted to take the blood pressure. I wasn't ready for that on my first call, so I said she should do it. We took her BP, then the babies. We took both of them into the ambulance. I found out that she fainted while holding the baby, and the baby hit its head when hitting the ground. We turned on the lights and sped to Terem Hospital, right outside Jerusalem. We got them into the hospital, did the paperwork, etc. She was fine. A little dehydrated, pale, but nothing serious. The baby was also fine. We said goodbye, and instead of going to the ambulance, we went to the connected mall to get some food. It was already 10 o'clock. We grabbed some food and got back into the ambulance. I would consider this a pretty easy way to start my Mada experience.

WARNING: The information that follows is probably going to be graphic. So if you're easily grossed out don't read it.

The next call we recieved sounded much more urgent than the previous one. We quickly turned on our lights and sped onto the highway. Shira told us there was a riot at an Arab school in an Arab town outside of Jerusalem. We got to a side road after about 20 minutes of speed racing, Yitzack slowed down and turned off the siren. I asked why we stopped. He said that we weren't allowed to go any further without a police escort, so we were waiting for them. I'm sorry if you're all getting super excited for this story, because its a little anti-climatic. Instead of the police bringing us to the riot, they were bringing the patients out of the school to us. A dark, tall Arab man got into our ambulance once the police opened the back doors. His face all very bloody. His nose was obviously not in the correct place. He had blood all over his shirts and his hands. He fell into the bed. We strapped him in, and asked what happend while the others took his vitals. He told us that there was a test being given today, and the students didn't want to take it. One of his 10th grade students punched him in the face. His Hebrew was good. After about 3 minutes, he started heaving. Shira quickly took out a vomit bag, and he started throwing up blood. Every bump we hit, he moaned in pain. He threw up some more. He asked if that was normal. Shira told him there probably was some internal bleeding but nothing too serious. We took him to Terem as well.

That's all I can write now. I finish up the 4 other calls later.

Josh