GADNA

Last week I pretty much just relaxed a lot, because I finished my finals and I had nothing to do. Shabbat was just a lot of sleeping, and on Saturday my friend Michelle and I laid out blankets and read in the park. Then, on Sunday, we left for Israel Experience Week. Some people went to Poland, some people trained to be first aid respondents for Magen David Adom, some went to volunteer in Haifa, some did an archaeological dig in the North, and the rest did Gadna. If you don't already know, Gadna is a 5 day long army experience for teenagers around my age. Here is what I did all week on Gadna (Keep in mind that no one showered from Sunday-Tuesday):

Day 1-Sunday:
-Nativers split into 3 groups. I was in group 9!
-got our uniforms, sleeping bags, and blankets
-opening ceremony with the samelet and MM (two high ranking officials in Gadna)
-3 hour long kitchen duty (you get a different duty every day)

Day 2-Monday:
-wake up: 5:30 a.m.
-field day!
-learned how to army crawl
-learned how to run away from a grenade
-built secret hideouts
-talked with the MM about weapon safety
-class with our mifakedet on being Jewish vs. being Israeli
-current events with mifakedet (commander)
-talk with MM about different army programs
-duty: sweeping dirt out of the street

Day 3-Tuesday:
-wake up: 5:45 a.m.
-flag ceremony
-gun lessons:M16! (safety, assembly and disassembly, behavior in the shooting range)
-relay race against another group
-scavenger hunt run by the MM
-lesson with mifekedet on the purity of the weapon, one of the values of the IDF
-got officials to sign our paper
-lesson with mifakedet on different rankings, symbols, and beret colors in the army
-current events with mifakedet
-no duty!

Day 4-Wednesday:
-shooting range!
-shot an M16!!!!
-army games
-lesson with mifakedet about the Israeli flag and Hatikva
-lesson with MM about Antebbe
-army style exercise with the samelet
-duty: cleaning the M16s with oil

Day 5- Thursday:
-cleaned up tents
-returned uniforms
-found out that our mifakedet was only 19

A few things that apply to every day:
-sha'atash: an hour or so before bed to do whatever we want
-my job was to take attendence every time the group met after a break and to receive the mifakedet
-we always had to march everywhere in 2 lines, stand in 3 lines shaped like a box missing a side whenever we stood still, and answer "ken ha mifakedet" or "lo ha mifakedet" for everything
-mifakedet of tzevet 9 was amazing!! We loved her

This was SUCH an amazing week. I am very tired and sick, but I don't have time to think about that because in an hour I'm leaving for the airport to go to ITALY!!!!!!

Happy winter break (for me)!

-Sarah