Better Late Than Never

So probably about a month ago my sister pointed out that I have been to six countries in six months. I was rather surprised by this and proceeded to use my available fingers to help calculate whether this was in fact possible (Peru, Germany, Belgium, Israel, Egypt, Kenya). It turned out to be the case and while I probably should have started this six months ago, I figured better late than never.

So right now I am in Nairobi, Kenya. And before arriving here I spent two and half weeks traveling throughout Israel, then four days in Cairo, Egypt, and finally arrived in Kenya on January 5th (after a short layover in Khartoum, Sudan that I was unaware was scheduled to take place). Birthright was responsible for my trip to Israel. I'm sure most of you have heard about the program or have had friends that participated in it. For those of you who haven't, it's a free 10-day trip to Israel for anyone who is Jewish. Not even all Jewish, even those halfers out there. It's funded by Jewish organizations all over the U.S., wealthy Jews (probably doctors or lawyers), and the country of Israel itself. They pay for all your airfare, room & board, two meals a day, and for all of the activities and tours. Too good of an opportunity to pass up. There were 40 kids on the trip, ages 20 to 26. They were mostly from LA with the exception of a handful of us from the Bay Area. The trips fly out of two major Jew capitals of the U.S., LA and New York... In addition to the 40 participants, there were 2 staff members. One was a 24 year old girl who had been on one of these trips a year ago and a 26/27 year old guy who has lead 7 trips, all paid for each time (once you've been on the trip, you can come back as a staff member, all paid for again. And apparently you can do it as many times as you want). We had an official tour guide named Boaz, a 40-something year old Israeli who whenever we went out would be the first one with a drink in his hand on the dance floor. 

He once managed to tackle a girl he was dancing with at one particular club resulting in a huge cut down his nose. Regardless of how late we stayed out till and how much we drank the night before, somehow he would always have a ridiculous amount of energy at 7:00am every morning, putting all of us whom are 20 years younger to shame. We also had a guard/medic. She was a cute 24 year old Israeli girl named Hadar who carried a rifle 24/7. She was never allowed to put it down. We'd be out at a club and she'd be on the dance floor with the rifle on her back, every once and a while tapping the barrel to the ground, depending on the difficulty of her dance move. 

While she wasn't one of the Birthright participants, supposed to mostly be on guard and provide first aid, she definitely became one of us. She was really fun and put up with my constant attempts to hold her gun, mostly when she took it off to shed a layer. We also had a bus driver named Gershon, a portly little russian man who spoke very little English, but whatever we managed to understand was hilarious. His comedic timing on the buses loud speaker was impeccable.

On the 5th day of the trip 8 soldiers from the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) joined us, all being from the Navy. This by far was the best part of the trip. While the sites we saw were beautiful, getting to hang out with Israeli soldiers that were our same age was a priceless 

experience. It was 3 girls and 5 guys, all very energetic and fun. They met up with us at a Kibbutz we were staying in, wearing their military uniforms. This was protocol and they had to wear it as they were technically still on duty. We all thought it was cool, however they couldn't wait to change out of them and look more like us. In Israel, everyone joins the army at 18. Girls for 2 years and guys for 3. Birthright has been going on for a while now, and they always bring a group of soldiers on each of the trips. After that first day they're not in uniform, it's more of a vacation from the army for them and a chance to have fun with some Jewish Americans. Apparently they look forward to the 5 days with Birthright for the entire 2 or 3 years they serve. They definitely show it as their enthusiasm for being with us and seeing all the sites was contagious. They were constantly throwing their arms around each other belting out songs in Hebrew and coming up with funny dances. It was definitely sad to say out goodbyes, but we all exchanged info and tried our best to persuade each other to visit again.

When we were in Jerusalem on the morning of December 27th, the last day of the official Birthright trip, one of the soldiers received news of Israel's bombing of Gaza. We hadn't seen the news yet, but spent a couple hours after breakfast crammed into a couple hotel rooms glued to the TV. It was kind of a surreal feeling knowing that it was all happening so close, Gaza being about 40 miles away. You see this type of thing on the news and it doesn't quite effect you as much and you may go on with your day without thinking about it again. But being there was different. We had heard earlier, what we later found out to be jets flying over where we were. There was kind of a split reaction from the soldiers. Some were excited; passionate about fighting back after years and years of rockets being fired into southern Israel daily. Others were concerned of the retaliation of Hamas, and thought now we're just going to see even more rockets and suicide bombings. For them it meant they may be sent to fight along with all their friends. One of the girl soldiers was from Beersheba, a town in southern Israel that had been hit by several rockets.

After the Birthright group left, I stayed back in Tel Aviv with a few friends until New Year's day. It was a bit nerve-wracking watching the conflict escalate and hear of more and more rockets hitting cities further away from Gaza and closer to Tel Aviv. Everyone was sure however that no rocket could hit Tel Aviv, so it felt safe for the most part. Suicide bombing attacks were my main concern so I tried to stay away from large public areas as much as I could. Hadar, the guard/medic, is from Ashdod, another town that had been hit by rockets which is 18.5 miles from Tel Aviv. Apparently that is the farthest Hamas has ever reached with their rockets. When the first one hit and alarms sounded throughout the city, she drove the 25 minutes with a friend to hang out with us in Tel Aviv until it calmed down a bit.