Final week at [name of base].
The group is now down to six. All guys. I'm now the oldest person in the group by one year. Despite the age range of ten years we've bonded much more in the last couple days than the previous larger group ever did. I attribute it to the shared appreciation of dick and fart jokes. Although, when it comes to movies these pishers have a lot to learn. The stink palm in Mallrats? The campfire scene from Blazing Saddles? All lost on youth.
Additionally with one exception the group is made of people who have made aliya or are considering it. The fact that this trip is in many ways a fact finding trip to see if I want to move here has been sort of an open secret and the 600 pound gorilla in the room when talking to my parents. I'm still very much undecided. I spent part of the morning's work talking with a Canadian volunteer who's more or less in the same situation. Nothing much came of it, but it was nice to talk to someone who shares the same dilemma. He's also located fairly close to me so we'll probably meet up after we both get home. He even makes fun of the same regional television commercials. Yes, six thousand miles from home and I'm ripping on Fuccillo car commercials. “Come into Fuccillo motors for this beautiful, pre-owned Magach-7 main battle tank! It's HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE!!!!!!!!!!!”
The work situation has also gotten better. Whereas before, there wasn't really all that much to do, now we have soldiers pulling rank in order to get volunteers. It's kind of funny, and it does ensure a variety of work. For example today I helped unload and store camouflage nets (Made in USA complete with NSN code.) and fire extinguishers, then cleaned gun parts at the armory and finished up the day putting protective storage covers on tanks. Not surprisingly the covers are referred to as “condoms.” Well, they're rubber and they do go over a big, rigid gun...
Tomorrow is a half day of work followed by an excursion to an as yet undisclosed location. The smart Shekels are on the Israeli Air Force Museum in Beer Sheba. It's fairly close by which fits with the time table, and the fact that unlike last week's trip to the Dead Sea and Ein Geidi our madrichot have not been issued weapons.
After this week I am to a certain extent in the weeds. As in, I will have damn little idea what is going on. Sar-El is on break until after Rosh Hashanna. Ron, myself and a couple other people will be going down to Eilat for a couple days of real vacationing. Other than that I don't have any clue. Ron's father is trying to find me a Machzor (High Holidays prayer book) with English translations, but either way it's going to be real hard for me to follow along.
Last weekend I actually went on a date. I was a double date with Ron, his girlfriend and her older sister who is my age. It was a good time although Ron and I cut it a bit short, him because of exhaustion and me because I had to haul ass to Beer Sheba in the morning. I was also fighting a minor head cold. We went out to a pasta place in Haifa. It was a nice time and I'm hoping to do something this weekend. The really funny thing is that her family lives on a kibbutz which I stayed on for a weekend with my youth group trip. Funny how life and history works out. The few things I remember from that weekend are the beautiful sunsets, the beach and the fact that I saw more stars from that beach than I ever had before. Who knows, maybe I'll get to do some more stargazing.
One thing Sar-El madrichot should be trained on which they are apparently not is how to deal with some of the hazards of volunteer housing. Tonight there was much girlish screaming and gnashing of teeth over a cockroach in the women's bathroom which is only being used by the madrichot. One of the pishers ended up dispatching it with a fire extinguisher. Not by crushing the roach, no, he discharged the roach in a spray of dry fire retardant. The door was closed a whoosh heard and a blast of powder from the crack under the door. Needless to say, everything was covered and the powder hung in the air for several minutes. After getting a cough inducing mouthful I went out to the parade ground/rec area to play some Frisbee. One of my errant throws managed to take out a decent sized beetle on landing. Starship Troopers references were made and the night was good.
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