Somewhere in Midbar Negev

Date: 16 August, 2010

Day one on the base: Finally I'm getting the dry heat.

I'm on a base in the Negev desert where the daytime highs are in the high 30's Celsius with broken overcast consisting of F-15's,16's A-4's and Apaches. That's about all I can say about the base. Like most of southern Israel we're in rocket range of Gaza so any other landmarks are a big No-No.

The barracks are an improvement over my previous volunteer mission. There are no bunk beds and the barracks are not pre-fab. Like the previous base, we have no air conditioning, but we do have working fans. My roommates and I managed to snag two. We are also in possession of the better part of a case of toilet paper. Most of the volunteers are repeats so we are somewhat accomplished scroungers. That said, I still couldn't get a pair of good fitting trousers. Mine are too big in the waist, and a couple inches two short.

The base does have a room with public internet computers, but the hours are kind of sporadic and it is usually kind of busy. I managed to get on for half an hour last night.

The volunteer group is much younger, than my previous experience. Our oldest volunteer is 30, the youngest 20. There are a couple who already made Aliya or are in the process. Most interesting to me, there are women on this group. I don't really see anything developing with any of them- at least not on the volunteer mission. To be honest, the presence of young, single attractive, Jewish women makes this at times feel a bit like a youth group trip. Some of us, like myself are looking to find someone and that might make things interesting later on.

So far work has been excellent. We did some warehouse organization, but the highlight of the day was loading equipment onto a couple TOMAT. TOMAT is an Israeli acronym for something along the lines of, “Self-propelled artillery piece.” In this case, a Made in the USA M-109 Paladin. If anything starts going down soon, these will likely be moving out to drop steel rain on some very bad people. And I helped. Tov meod.

Date: 18 August 2010
Week one of Sar-El is drawing to a close.

As I said before, I'm somewhere in the Negev Desert. (Midbar Negev) I just found out that we're well withing rocket and artillery range of Gaza. That's really not to remarkable considering the range of the things and the size of the country.

The work has alternated between being intensely physical and engaging to being quite dull. The only stuff I can really talk about at the moment are the dull parts. The base we're on is mainly a reserve logistics base for armor. The soldiers here maintain and equip tanks, APC's and self propelled artillery so that in the event of a war the crews can go right to the vehicles, fire them up and go.

Several of the group are leaving after this week. Most are returning volunteers who completed a program immediately prior to this. One of our Mardichot (leaders) is leaving as well. She's going on leave. It's kind of hard to figure out how I feel about all of the people, especially the Madricha who's leaving us. Tal is a really nice girl and incredible perceptive, but at the same time seems a bit immature. I can't quite put my finger on why. Maybe it's that she seems to have a way with guys who aren't me.

This weekend I'm going to Jerusalem for a family visit and the obligatory visits to the holy places. I feel almost like I can skip going to the Western Wall, “Been there, done that,” you know? Except for one thing. I have a new cousin. A baby girl named Aviva. She should get her name on a note in the Wall. There is also family to visit and a beer fest/concert in German Colony. (It's either that or finding a pub and downing a few [too many] Gin and Tonics.)

Getting there and back will have me using the Israeli bus system, which is infinitely more complicated than the rail system. I could use the soldiers hostel in Jerusalem. I stayed there two years ago, but I really want someplace air conditioned. One of my bunkmates knows a couple hostels but he will likely be staying with some of his more religious friends. I'll probably be meeting some fiends on Saturday, but if that falls through I'll spend the day at the Israel Museum. It's air conditioned and recently remodeled. I can easily spend the day there. I think this is one of the times I am most anxious about. The idea that I can get around the city to build confidence-”Been there, done that.” I just don't want to do it alone. I really hate feeling like an outsider and I'm hoping that I'll be able to fall in with some good people. Or at least fall in with some fun ones.