Yerucham: Shabbat, first days of volunteering, Yom Nativ

Our first few days in Yerucham were insane. We got here last Wednesday, unloaded our bags from the truck, and spent the rest of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday unpacking, cleaning, food shopping, having meetings about our volunteering, and pretty much just organizing ourselves and setting up a life in Yerucham. Friday night, after services at the closest shul called Afikim Ba Negev, we all got assigned host homes for dinner. Mine was lovely! We were in pairs, and I was with my friend Eliana. They were vegetarian, but the food was still really good, and they had 5 cute kids. Saturday we had lunch as a group and then Saturday night we had another meeting where they told us exactly where we would be volunteering, and we started work on Sunday. I work in a gan called Gan Tamar. The kids are 5 and 6. Most are really cute, but there are a few really wild/rough boys. The way it worked Sunday and Monday was I was pretty much outside with the kids all day, while the teacher called in 5-10 kids at a time for small group lessons. There are 30 kids in the class. What these boys would do is line up at the fence of the gan (the gate is locked), say, "ready?", and then all climb the fence at the same time. It's like vertical whack-a-mole for me, trying to get them all down. It's crazy.

Today we had our first Yom Nativ. On Tuesday's we don't volunteer. We plan activities and do them. Today we just talked to Yossi, the director, and gave him feedback about first semester, and then talked about future Yemei Nativ. There are 8 that we have to plan, so we brainstormed ideas and then 5 people were assigned to plan each one. My day is Purim, so that should be lots of fun! We also cleaned out a local bomb shelter that is going to become a hang out place for us.

Tonight for dinner I cooked for the first time since we got here (we have to food shop and make our own meals-but we take turns cooking)! I made chicken and broccoli stir fry and rice- it was a hit! And my friend Kesha made baked apples for desert.

That's all for now! You should all come visit Yerucham. It's special here.

-Sarah