Destination Arad

So I finally made it to Arad.

Our building is one of the largest in the city of 25,000. I'll be tutoring emigrants, Russian and Ethiopian and local disadvantaged children as well as Bedouins in English.

The city itself is far more green than I expected; situated in the northern area of the Negev, it is pure desert. I have yet to see a cloud here (granted I arrived yesterday on September 2nd) but I am told they are not common. Only the haze of dust just above the ground and below its hills are. Strange considering the city is known for its extremely clean air; asthmatics worldwide used to come for treatment in the city.

The green is only within the city... you can even see where the vegetation stops and apparent sterility of the desert begins. I'll be training the Fremen within me yet, here.

There's only six of us, not including our director in our group for Project Ten. Currently five, as one of us lost their passport so is delayed. He might get here tonight. Maybe not.

We are the first cohort from MASA to work in the city, so will be constructing its program from the ground up.

I traveled from Mata to Jerusalem and then Tel Aviv and then Ben Guiron airport just outside of the city.

I got there around 10:30 a.m., limping the way. Gotta love the angry dogs in Israel.

I met Loriline, the first volunteer who had arrived at 3 .a.m. and then waited around in airport while the others gradually showed and we met the rest of the MASA staff. We left around six when our final arrival came, taking a train to Beer Sheva, and then a taxi-bus to Arad. A long day to say in the least. I traveled through most of Israel, first west toward the Mediterranean, and then East to the Dead Sea which Arad is only twenty-ish kilometers from.

A few things struck me in this journey; mainly the mindset. I met a nice elderly man on the way to the airport, who helped me with my bag, speaking with me about the Aliyah process and how it could mean I could receive a free education for my Master's degree, Or in Israel, what they refer to as Level Two upper education. I'll be most likely pursuing archaeology, with a focus on Egyptian and Nuraghe ancient history.

But what surprised me was his surprise racism. We spoke a little about my dog attack as he noticed my mild limp. What was strange was his assumption the dog's owners were Palestinian and from the perceived irresponsibility of its ownership. He actually said the Arabs are no better than the dog that attacked me.

Talk about drive-by racism I hadn't expected. Just a reminder to me of why I had come to this country.

The group is pretty neat; we're all from the U.S., three of us from relatively nearby. One is from Maryland, near where I had been living in the beginning of 2015, while the other hailed from south of me from north Carolina. It's kind of surprising there are Jews there, you just never heard about them.

We toured the city, going on a scavenger hunt. My team ended up winning as we got everything done, including the Hora dance. I'll try to upload the video once I get it. It's kind of strange how much dancing I've done in Israel in the last two months-- considering I have never done it in my entire life outside of slow dancing back in Middle and High School.

We had a brief orientation, but what was surprising was the amount of safety precautions, especially about idle bags.

Weirdly just a few hours later I had to deal with that firsthand.

You see, abandoned bags here are quite dangerous, and the police have to come retrieve them and then blow them up somewhere else.

I ended up finding a bag and had to report it to the staff, and while they are waiting to see if they need to call the police for retrieval, it is a sharp reminder how far I am from home. When you see an abandoned bag on the ground back home it's just garbage-- here it is life-threatening potentially.

And that is very different to me.

Of course I am sure the bag is garbage. And I am sure I won't get hurt, er, anymore than I have here already. But it's still eye-opening to be faced by such a different culture.

Wish me luck, I'll be keeping you all up to date on my journey through Israel.