Ben Yakir :)

Last Wednesday evening, after an incredibly hectic day of packing and loading buses and saying temporary goodbyes, Becca, Arielle, Aliza, and I arrived at Ben Yakir, our location for the next three months. We were greeted by one of the seven sherut leumi (national service) girls, an English speaker who was assigned to help us get comfortable. I was pleasantly surprised by our rooms here--they're apartment-ish-style, with mini kitchens, internet access, and a cable TV in each. We unpacked our bags and bags of luggage, and then ventured to the hader ochel for our first Ben Yakir dinner.

That dinner was an experience, to say the least. In one sentence, I have never felt like such a celebrity. We immediately stood out as the new American girls, and it seemed as if all the kids couldn't stop staring and whispering. There was so much excitement and we were right at the center of it all. It was a strange feeling, to be so noticed by everyone like that, but a good one. It was a small but exhilarating glimpse of what was to come, of how much influence we would have here and how much our presence would really be felt. We also got a slightly less exciting glimpse of the food quality (which ranks slightly above edible, if we're lucky), and quickly realized the necessity of our built-in kitchens and small yearcourse food stipend.

We've now been here for nearly a week, and each day has been an entirely new and worthwhile experience in itself; Each day I go to sleep thinking I've accomplished or learned at least something, whether it be about a certain boy's background, about the boys as a community, about the mentality of growing up in a broken home or of trying to integrate into Israeli society after making aliyah from Ethiopia, or Russia, or wherever. It turns out that the village isn't actually an Ethiopian Youth Village, but rather a religious youth village for boys with difficult home situations, and boys that have had trouble in school for one reason or another. It just happens that 80 percent of the kids here are Ethiopian. Most have just made aliyah four or five years ago, and though their Hebrew is for the most part fluent, they still have strong Amharik accents and naturally speak Amharik when they talk to each other. I tried having one of the boys teach me a bit of the language the other day--it didn't work out so well. The words are just so different and so utterly foreign in structure and sound from English words, that it was hard from me to even repeat the phrase "how are you" in something that comes close to resembling Amharik.

The other day, our supervisor here, Dorit, assigned us to our groups. The boys are split up into groups by their age (it's a small village-- around 20 boys in each grade). In the afternoons, we've been hanging out with the boys and helping them with their English (and sometimes math) homework. I was assigned to the 10th and 11th graders, but since they often mix with the kids from the oldest group, I've also gotten to know the 12th graders pretty well. It's a bit of a strange dynamic, the boys being practically my age, if not my age (many of them were held back one or two grades after making aliyah). It's worked out, though, for the most part, because my role isn't actually defined as a "madricha." I'm not expected to discipline them, nor am I supposed to. I'm there to serve as a sort-of "older sister," or just as a friend. An English-speaking, American, female friend. Which is all very rare and exciting to them. Soon, in the mornings, we'll be tutoring English in the middle school. This year, they weren't able to find any English teachers, so I'm excited to really make a contribution. Some of the boys don't even know the English alphabet. We'll really be starting from square one. Meanwhile, we've been learning SO much Hebrew. We're forced to speak it all day, except when speaking to each other, because hardly anyone here can carry on a conversation in English. It's been really good practice and I can feel myself becoming more fluent. I still need to work on my accent, though...

Today, being the first day of Hannukah, was a fun day. In the afternoon, we had a chugim festival, where we were treated to performances of the capoara, Tae Kwan Doe, and Hip Hop classes. Then, after dinner, we had a "sivivonada," which basically consisted of playing dreidel and winning candy. Or losing candy. Or stealing candy from others' bags. So much fun. Becca, Arielle, Aliza, and I came back to our rooms sugar high, and we had ourselves a balloon-filled dance party to some good oldies courtesy of the Backstreet Boys and Five. It was a good time.

I'll post pictures of the boys later. For now, lyla tov. Or boker tov, or whatever.