Y-E-R-U-CH-A-M

Shabbat in Yerucham was SO much fun!  We left Friday morning and got to this Midrasha that also has a youth hostel in it around 12.  We all hung out for a while, played soccer, talked, ate lunch- really chill.  We all got ready for Shabbat, did kabbalat shabbat and dinner and all that, and then had some sessions.  The first one was this lady telling us all about her life in Yerucham.  She kind of just tried to prepare us for what we would be dealing with- people in Yerucham have been shafted by the government in many ways, so it is not always going to be easy with them.  She told us that we shouldn't think of ourselves as a gift to them, and we shouldn't necessarily expect any gratitude for the volunteer work we will be doing- we should basically just take it for what it is.  The second session was with this Moroccan guy named Charlie who sang piyutim with us.  It was really fun.  They were traditional songs and people got solos or sang in groups, but everyone sang and had fun.  We all hung around and talked Friday night, some people played ping pong or foosball, and then we went to bed.

Saturday morning we went to services at 1 of 2 shuls in Yerucham.  It was Sephardic, and services were really short.  After services we had another session where we learned about God and Tikkun Olam and some other stuff, and then walked back to our youth hostel and had lunch.  After lunch, pretty much everyone napped, and then we took a walking tour of Yerucham.  It's a really small town, but kind of cute, and I'm looking forward to living there.  We also got to see some of the apartments we are going to be living in!  They aren't the nicest things I've ever seen, but they're decent, and I think we'll be able to make the best of it and have an amazing time living there.  After the walking tour we did mincha, ate dinner, and then pretty much packed up and left.  When we got back I went out to Waffle Bar for a real dinner (the food they gave us was ehhhhh), and that brings us to now!!

Shavua tov!

-Sarah