What a great week it has been since moving and settling into Yerucham. It has been full of smiles, giggles, good HOMEMADE food, bonding and relaxing. I am so thrilled about the way that this past week has gone and I can't wait for the rest of the time in Yerucham to be as fun filled as this past week.
I started working on Monday at the religious elementary school in Yerucham, Kol Yakkov. I am working with five other Nativers and we are all teaching English to 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders. It is quite harder then I expected. Imagine that you don't speak your native language of English, and you are having people try and help you learn English but you are unable to communicate with them because you speak a different language, its tough. My Hebrew teacher in high school would probably tell you that my Hebrew is near fluent and that I speak and write very well for an American. It is extremely hard for me not to speak Hebrew to the kids to help them understand what it is that they are learning in English class. I know that I have only been teaching English at Kol Yakkov for a week now, but I am not the largest fan of the English Program that they have at the school. I feel that the English program just force feeds the kids the language, but they don't understand what is that they are learning. I can't say that I have been 100% truthful about not knowing Hebrew, like the teachers want us to be, but I also feel that when I do speak in Hebrew to explain things to the kids, it helps them understand what it is that they are learning and they have a better chance of wanted to learn more in the future.
Since I only work from about 8:15 in the morning to about 1:35 in the afternoon, my afternoons and evenings have been free. I have been playing soccer in the park with friends as well as starting to run again which is enjoyable. We have also been doing a lot of bonding with in the apartment and within the boys in the group. We had our first of hopefully many Mens Pasta Nights. That was really fun cause we all got together and cooked and then ate different pastas together. It was a great bonding experience. Also, every night at 9 we have started to say Maariv at Affikim, our base shul. It has been a fun 15 minute activity to end the day. At first it was just us Nativers who went, but now that the people know about it we are starting to get a little more of the people of Yerucham which is great. Yerucham is just an awesome place to be living. On Wednesday night, Ilana and I went to our host family for the evening. You never know what to expect when you go to an Israelis house for dinner that is not Shabbat. We walk in and we sit down at the table and all of a sudden we have dough in our hands making our meal of pita. Fresh pita is so incredible. We ate it with Hummus(which I still don't eat), cream cheese, butter, cottage cheese, eggplant spread and other tasty treats. It was such a good evening. The kids are adorable, the pita was yummy, and it was a break from cooking for myself or the apartment.
Anyways, the week came to an end on Thursday afternoon when I had my USY on Wheels interview for my summer job. The interview went well and I think I did fairly well. I then hopped in the car with Elkana, the assistant director of Nativ, and Aviva who works with USY and we headed to Jerusalem where I met up with a bunch of friends. I am spending Shabbat with my friend Seth at my friend Elan's apartment. We are having dinner with Jules and Yehidis Gutin and then lunch with some friends that I was at the Yeshiva with. It is set to be a nice and relaxing Shabbat. Motzei Shabbat I will head back to Yerucham for another great week of work and then at the end of next week, PURIM!!
Shababt Shalomt to all and a Refuah Shelemah/Speedy Recovery to my Aunt Susan, Sarah bat Basha!!!
David
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