No Laughing Matter

Children who have a physical impairment or disability tend to look different. Those without disabilities like to think of ourselves as unbiased. We like to think everyone is the same. It doesn't matter how they look, we'll treat them just the same. This is not the reality, though, and we tend to favor those who are more "attractive" and treat them differently. It doesn't matter whether they are handicapped or not. In the classroom in which I work, there are three "normal" looking children, the other two clearly have eye problems (one boy has one yellow eye and one wandering eye and one of the girls has her eyes are always closed), and the last one is albino and there's a boy with, I think, William's Syndrome.

Now, I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but I do. All teachers have favorites even if they pretend that they don't. The two that are my favorite (and everyone else's) are the cutest of the bunch. I try my best to play with all the kids equally and think for the most part we all succeed in that, but I think that subconsciously I may treat one kid differently. Maybe I'm not as interactive with one kid. Or maybe my tone of voice is slightly lower. Maybe my body language gives a slightly more negative message. We all do this with people.

Maybe the fact that the other teachers and I are paying slightly more attention to the cuter ones increases their progress. Because their progress increases, they are able to continue a "normal" life. Because they are praised and played with so much, they may be more outgoing. Maybe because we might praise them more, they will have more self confidence. Isn't is sort of eerie how one moment can affect a child's life forever? So maybe the kids with physical impairments wouldn't be as successful anyway. People judge and presume. Their self confidence is not as high, their self esteem is definitely low, and since their "attractiveness" isn't as high as maybe some other kids with similar handicaps, it all adds up to not being as successful. This is a general observation and can be applied to anyone, handicapped or not. Maybe people who are more "attractive" are outgoing because they know they are more likely to get positive feedback (ie a cute kid sitting looking around may get a smile from someone) whereas more withdrawn people are afraid to act out because they will not get the same feedback (A funny looking child who looks around may not get any feedback at all)

I'm used to these kids now. I don't give a second glance to the yellow-eyed boy, but when I first met him my first reaction was "why is there pus in his eye?" This kid isn't the cleanest one either. His hair is always a mess (and hopefully he'll be turning 3 soon so that it will be cut. There's a tradition in the orthodox community not to cut a boy's hair until age 3), there's always snot running down his nose, and there's food on his face. Even if this kid came in with 20/20 vision, I think I would have been a little grossed out. As a parent, you should make sure your kid is clean. I understand that there are bad days, so I'll give you a little leeway, but seriously, wash the kid's face after breakfast.

I think that it would be interesting to look at this in more depth. To study and research the psychological outcomes of attractiveness. I know that there is some research on it. Another research topic that would be really interesting to look at is the psychological state of the residents in Sderot. We went to Sderot on Wednesday, the place where rockets are shot from Gaza. We were told that during rocket fires, you have fifteen seconds to find a shelter. The citizens in the town will find shelter, wait for the boom of the rocket, and continue on as normal. That is not a way to live life. That is not the way for a child to grow up.

Thinking about going to Sderot didn't scare me...until we got there and the Madricha warned us about "Tzeva Adom", the alarm system warning us of rockets. She said that it probably wouldn't happen because "the rockets are now infrequent. Maybe once a week." Um, yea, that's still pretty frequent in my eyes. We wouldn't be outside for that long, but just in case the alarm went off, we were to cram into the nearest bomb shelter or sandwich between the buses. When we were allowed time for lunch, everyone sort of stayed together. Usually we're together, but we'll spread out around a block or two, but here we all squished into one falafel restaurant. You could feel the compromise of our safety.

In Sderot, we heard different organizations talk, from both the right wing and the left wing. One NGO called Other Voices talks to citizens in Gaza frequently, about once a week. (The juxtapositions of frequency was just as ironic when I was there). One lady told her story and I came to realize that whether her not her story is true, it is a metaphor for the behavior of Israelis and Palestinians. Her daughter was best friends with an Arab girl (they were living in Egypt at the time) and the Arab invited everyone to her birthday party, except the daughter. The Arab mother would not allow a Jew into her home. When it came time for the daughter's birthday party, they decided to have it at a venue that was not home and the Arab mother allowed her daughter to go. Everyone is now friends and still speaks to each other. That's the short version.

We then went on a bus tour of the city, stopping first at the police station where the rockets were collected. When I first looked at them, I couldn't help but think "Oh, this happened a long time ago" History stuff. But then the tour guide noted the date written on one of the rockets. September 2010 (i don't remember the exact date). That was just last month. Conflict is still going on. I mean, duh, I knew that, but it's not the same when Sderot is still a foreign place. It was just a place I heard of from the news. A small town on the edge of Gaza. That's exactly what it is, but now that I've been there it's more real. More tangible. I have more connection with it.

We stopped at an outlook and saw Gaza. This is the only place where I took a person picture. One of myself only to prove that I was there. Everywhere else on the trip, I did not think such pictures were appropriate. I think that it would have been ok if those who were in the pictures weren't being so laxed about the situation, but I don't think that it's a laughing matter to have to have so many bomb shelters within a certain amount of feet. It's not funny or a happy situation that there are thousands of rockets laying in the police station. Later when we went to Gush Katif, a settlement in Nitzan also by Gaza, people were taking satirical pictures inside the bomb shelters. I think that you do have to create jokes out of the situation, but for our group, I do not think that was appropriate. We all come from a place where was is distant. We haven't been in Israel long enough to start making jokes. I mean, at any point in the day those bomb shelters could go from beautiful graffitied concrete to saving our lives.

http://picasaweb.google.com/112163354927968040752/Sderot?authkey=Gv1sRgCL7Lv8CYw861vQE#

All Work and no Play...Oh Wait

My internship started last week at a preschool called Gan Eliyah. There are four classrooms. One class is babies, though they range from 8 months to 2 years. Those on the older side have more developmental problem than seeing problems while the babies are more developmentally on track except for the processes affected from their eyes. The second classroom is ~2 to 3 years old. In this class, all the kids are basically developmentally normal, but they have seeing problems. They can walk and talk and comprehend which is better when it comes to a relationship with the child. The third classroom is also 1-3 year olds, but the have developmental problems as well as seeing problems. The fourth classroom is a kindergarten, the kids are 4 or 5 and the majority of them are normal. There are 2 kids who are completely blind and 2 or 3 kids who are partially seeing-impaired. These kids, since they're older, can talk and play, etc.

The first day in a new classroom is always hard. You don't know the kids. They don't know you. With babies, it especially hard to form a relationship because they don't talk at all and they mostly sleep the whole day. The older kids are speaking Hebrew and they speak slow enough so I can understand, but not always clear enough. Plus, they are still learning the language themselves and when they mispronounce a word that sounds like a real word, I just stand there thinking "what are you saying???". One of the girls in the Gan said to me "You don't speak well." Well, thanks for boosting my confidence. Also in the Gan are two kids that speak English and I don't think they knew that I also spoke English and when I said something to them they were baffled. Since they are the only two that speak English, they pride themselves on it and don't like that I know what they are saying. The boy, however, gave in when I helped him find his shoe which was in the chest of dress up toys. The girl still has yet to say something nice to me.

My schedule was very erratic last week since my supervisor didn't really know when she needed me, but she made a set schedule for me. I'm working 4 days a week, including Sundays and Fridays. Most Israelis work Sundays, but not Fridays. So, my days off are Wednesday and Thursday, when no one else has a day off and I'm the only one in the Kfar Studentim (where I live). It will give me time to go to the shuk and clean which as of I now, I desperately need to do, there just won't be anyone to go with. I'm going to try to ask for one of the weekend days off instead of one of the weekday ones.

Also, instead of being in all 4 classrooms in the course of a week, I am now with one room, the 1-3 year olds. The kids are so adorable, one of them reminds me of my sister when she had glasses. (Sorry Leah). His parents are American so if I get frustrated with him, I can just speak in English. Although, he has not been a problem at all. He's very sweet. Another girl is just learning to speak and her favorite word is "Todah", but she mostly just says "dah". This got me thinking about the psychological process of learning. "Dah" is the easiest cluster to say, but in America we assume it's "dada" and we praise the child or repeat "Dada, daddy, etc." In Israel "Dah" is short for "Todah", but even if the child say "Dada" it sounds like "Todah" and the child is praised for that word instead. The cutest girl in the class (I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but she's also the baby of the class so there's the justification) has the wide eyes and she is just about to walk. By the end of November, she will definitely be walking and standing on her own. There's one boy who is partially blind and fussy. There's 2 other boys in the class, but I don't know what's wrong with them. Most of the kids in the class have an astigmatism in their eyes and/or have a lazy eye.

My internship is basically the only thing I'm doing because after being out of my apartment for 12 hours, I don't feel like going out or doing anything. I also don't have weekends off (yet) so whenever I'm chilling with friends, I'm usually about to fall asleep. What I'm saying is don't expect any interesting posts or pictures for a few weeks. I think we have a seminar in a few weeks in Sderot and one in Ein Gedi so you can expect pictures then.

Reality Check

When you go to a country, you see the glorified sites. You may see people and their culture, but you don't actually know how their daily lives are affected by the politics, ecomony, religion, and geography. You can know the history and the people inside out, but until you hear the personal account in the place they actually were, you really don't know what life is like.

This week, Career-Israel took us to the Golan Heights. I have been here before. Twice. I know that it was during the Six Day War and Yom Kippur War in the 1960s and 1970s that Israel captured and then defended this territory. I know that this was the 3rd territory that She was fighting in the 60s. I know that Hezbollah is across the border in Lebanon. I know that war was fought. I know that people died. None of this felt as real as it did this week.

On Wednesday, we drove up to Misgav Am, a kibbutz on the ceasefire line between Israel and Lebanon. The guide there gave a brief history of the Six Day War as well as a personal history so that when we asked him questions, we would know where he was coming from.  He is a 70 year old man originally from Ohio. He made Aliyah 50 years ago and served in the army as a paratrooper during the multiple wars that Israel was involved in. He is currently a farmer on a Kibbutz enjoying his warrior life. He talked about how in 2006 he was in the Kibbutz, trying to stay alive. How the missiles just missed the Kibbutz because Lebanon didn't know the exact location of the kibbutz and didn't want to undershoot for fear of hitting their own land. When we were finally allowed to ask questions, he prefaced that he has strong opinions and that if we wanted to argue that was for the bus, not for here.  I actually agreed with most of what he had to say, unlike a lot of the program which goes to show how Right the people on the program are. In addition to Misgav Am, we went to a cemetery where the highest and best soldiers are buried. Right outside the cemetery walls, were 3 memorials for 3 fallen soldiers who had been in the North in 2006. These people became real to me not only after seeing their pictures, but also when the tour guide mentioned that she is best friend's with the cousin of the soldier that died.

On Thursday we went hiking through some old Syrian bunkers. The Israeli knew which bunkers were Syrian because there was a spy. Eli Cohen was born in Syria, but lived most of his childhood in Egypt hence able to pull off being Arab when necessary, as it was in his Israeli-CIA job. The Syrians, at this point, still had control of Golan and it was a hot, humid, and sticky place to set up base camps. Being the "generous" man that he is, Eli Cohen gave the Syrian army Eucalyptus trees so that they would be more comfortable. Now, Israel was able to tell where the Syrians were located so when it came to the Six Day War, Israel knew exactly where to bomb. The Golan heights was won is is as we know it today, Mines and all. During the Six Day War, Syria could see Israel coming so they threw mines everywhere hoping that if Israel captured the land, they at least wouldn't be able to use it. However, they never marked where they are and every so often, there will be a cow in the field that will suddenly blow up. It was obvious as hiked, why Golan was and is such optimal territory. After the hike, we drove to a look out of the Syrian-Israeli border where our tour guide gave us a short history of the Yom Kippur war. He told us about the "surprise" attack Syria planned and Israel had no way of contacting the reserves because there was no radio or tv waves on this day. At the site, there was a group of Israeli soldiers who were being lectured about the samething, but by someone who was actually there. We listened for a few moments, but because he was speaking Hebrew, it was difficult to understand him. After hearing the full story of the Yom Kippur War and then the tour guide pointing out that, there, a few feet in front of us was someone who fought through the whole experience into perspective.

Now that I've been here a month, I've had a chance to re-immerse myself into Israeli culture. I've spoken with Israelis about real issues. What you don't realize is that war is not in the forefront of the Israeli mind, but it's not in the back either. This trip showed the reality of what Israel is. I love that Tel Aviv is the most secular city in Israel and the Jerusalem is the most religious, but Golan is the reality of what Israel is. In America, war is so distant. Physically, it is across an ocean. Emotionally, not many of us know someone who is currently in the army. On average, I doubt that many Americans encounter soldiers. To us, war is something of the past, of my grandparents' generation. The fact that war is such a prominent subject in Israel doesn't deter me from Israel. In fact, it just makes my connection even stronger. Look at what this tiny country can do. Look at how small the army is, at the patriotism. Forgetting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, everyone here feels such pride and passion for their nationality and heritage.

Wednesday after the lecture at Misgav Am, half the group went to an Arab high school to speak with the students there. 100 Jews. 100 Arabs. We were given questions to ask each other so that we could keep the conversation going. Everyone had a different experience. The girls I talked to kept their answers relatively light, but when asked the question "do you believe in G-d?" one of the Jews said "maybe yes, maybe no. I don't know." They were in disbelief. They couldn't grasp the concept that G-d does not have an affect on every little thing we do. One of the 16 year olds said that G-d is everywhere and everything to her. After about 20 minutes, we were asked to switch groups. The exact wording was "...non-Israelis will move to the opposite side of the room." As the facilitator continued with directions, everyone began to pick up their belongings. By everyone, I mean both Jews and the Arabs. This was then clarified by saying "our visitors". That whole moment, though, was very interesting, especially since the next question was "do you know all the words to Hatikva?" These 11th and 12th graders were interesting to talk with. We didn't have to talk about the questions we were given so we talked about music, the village we were in, what they were doing after high school, etc.

The week in Golan was fun, but intense not only because of the whole subject of war, but also because it was time to say goodbye to my friends in Tel Aviv. Now that I'm in Jerusalem, I will not be able to see my closest friends from the program as often as I did. There's only 30 of us in Jerusalem and while I'm sure we'll all become good friends, we have all made our core group of friends who all happen to live in Tel Aviv.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/112163354927968040752/GolanHeights?authkey=Gv1sRgCLXMhK3poZj_nAE#

Only In Israel

Only in Israel do they have signs at the beach that say "No Swimming" and people swim anyway.

Only in Israel do the lifeguards announce their departure from the beach, saying that it is dangerous to swim at night without a life guard

Only in Israel do they end such an announcement with "Chag Sukkot Sameach, Shabbat Shalom, Shana Tova Oomitooka, Gmar Chatima Tova."

Because the holiday of Sukkot began last Wednesday night, we had no Ulpan until Sunday. Almost everything is shut down for the weekend, so what do we do? We somehow manage to spend 4 hours on the beach a day. I have no idea how the time goes by so quickly. Seriously, I'm pretty sure, the world goes faster or something. The past few days, I have been there for the sunset and it is absolutely gorgeous. The colors and opaqueness are different everyday, as is the sunset itself. In the US, the whole sky changes colors, but here, only where the is does the sky change. If I look up, the sky is blue, but if I look straight ahead, pinks and purples fill the sky. This week, we also have from Wednesday to Saturday off because of Simchat Torah. My roommate and I went to Ki Kar Rabin (Rabin Square). There was a concert and people dancing obviously having a lot of fun, but we only stayed for a little while because the musicians kept blowing a fuse.

On Sunday, the madrichim took us to Yafo again. Apparently there was a miscommunication between the Hebrew teachers and the madrichim so I went on the same exact tour as I did the week before. There were two benefits though. One was that we went a little before sunset and seeing Yafo at night is so pretty. The other benefit was that they fed us. For free. We went to "Doctor Shakshuka" for dinner where we were surrounded by bread, tahini and other dipping sauces, couscous with soupy stew, and of course shakshuka. Shakshuka is an Israeli dish with tomatoes as the main ingredient. Every version differs depending on how you like it, but no matter what, there are eggs on top of the tomato sauce. I actually made some last week and it came out delicious! Being overstuffed and with the bus not leaving for another hour, a bunch of us decided to walk back to our apartment complex. It was a nice night out and a quick walk back. For part of the way, we strolled along the beach and the other part we walked through the empty shuk. It was a little sketchy, but also kind of cool. When you go to the shuk it's a bustle of people haggling  pushing each other out of the way. The smell of salmon and pomegranates fill the air. With the empty shuk, the smell of fish wafted through the air, but it was dead silent and filled with stray cats instead of religious older ladies.

My ulpan class is not just my program, but also a fine arts program called Betzalel. One of the people in my class was performing at a coffee shop on Tuesday and it also happened to be his birthday. He plays piano so he played a few songs in Hebrew and a few in French (he's from Paris) and then a bunch in English. Nothing brings people together like belting out the Beatles and Michael Jackson.

Recently in the afternoons, a group of us have been playing soccer in the park behind our apartment complex. There is been one Israeli boy who has been hanging around as we play so we invited him in. Yesterday, he was on my team and as we sat out (there were 3 teams) I had a real conversation in Hebrew. Woohoo. Never mind that it wasn't that long, but my Hebrew skills are definitely improving.

Also, and hopefully this works, here are pictures. I know there are some people you know, but I didn't know how to delete them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=112163354927968040752&target=ALBUM&id=5522652659463816321&locked=true&authkey=Gv1sRgCKDp8YGUje6nnAE&feat=email