Layla Navan/ White Night in Tel Aviv
After my fifth day of cleaning the convent Garden and weeds, I had the opportunity to go to a training in Natani, Friday morning, for a program called Football for Peace. They teach peace values to children from Israeli and Palestinian communities in Israel. I went to hang out with my friend Tali Thursday evening after a day of cutting weeds in the courtyard in front of the Gulbenkian museum, of the convent and cutting tall beige wheat like grass the size of my hips with a larger pair of scissors.
I met Tali in Tel Aviv in front of a Natural Foods Market, where I finally found ground Flax seeds, which were a health item I’ve been looking for the past month. We walked around Tel Aviv from 12- 5 am, during what is known as White Night, in Hebrew it is called Layla Navan, which is a yearly event of life music shows throughout Tel Aviv.
It felt like most of the city’s young people weren’t asleep, we wandered by men sleeping on benches, high school students dancing to house music, as it played on their head phones, which could be rented for 30 sheckles, in order to not disturb the communities where thousands of drunk young people were convening in the streets. The night is fresh and warms, there’s an electricity in the air that warms my heart as the occasional cooling breeze blows into my skin.
As 430 am, as the light begins to shine between palm trees overlooking the Mediterranean and Tali and we wandered the streets trying to find a taxi that will actually stop for us, but each one was taken. The one taxi that does stop, as soon as I get up from the stairs where I was semi-sleeping I let out a strong sigh and stretched and the cab driver just drove away, he probably thought I was another drunken guy. So we walked downtown to the board walk, where the buses started, since I’d be more likely to get into one if I grabbed if right at the beginning of its route.
I step onto the line for the bus, but it’s so immensely Israeli and long and a bit disorderly that even by pushing my way into it, I know that it will be impossible to enter. So I see some guys stretching the back door open and hoards of people jumping through one by one through the door . Tali sai d “don’t’ go,” but I know that if I wanted to get on this bus I’d have to become a bit more Israeli and assertive about getting on, so I jumped onto it, and the bus eventually started rolling forwards towards the Takanat Merkozeet, Central Bus Station.
on the way, I watched a few guys hanging from the bar on the ceiling and there were just as many people standing as sitting, all talking loudly . Some guy s in the back started clapping and singing about how the drivers mother is a whore, and the driver stopped the bus one time, and waited for ten minutes, Some guys jumped off from the back and walked ahead of the bus. Some girl from the front of the bus screamed something in Hebrew, which I think meant the driver wanted people to pay, since most people just jumped on for a free ride.
Than he drove two more blocks, during which some of the guys who had gotten off earlier, ran along side the bus and hung from one side of the window, and all of a sudden the bus stopped, and he just walked out to have a cigarette, I looked around and some him pacing back and forth, he eventually disappeared and was nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile the guys in back of the bus who screamed profanities about the drivers mother came to the front of the bus, and played Israeli house music on the drivers speakers so the whole bus ringing with the sound of Israeli House dance music, a few Arab Jewish guys started to dance and clap alternating hands high in the air, and some were dancing on the seats. Some people were laughing on the bus including myself, at the fact of actually witnessing a bus revolution underway, I was curious if the bus would start rolling away to the sea soon or who knows where.
I waited in the bus for half an hour and eventually left, realizing that the bus driver may be very well gone for good. I walked around Rothschild street for an hour until I reached the Bus station in South Tel Aviv. I felt like I was entering an African Refugee camp / an Israeli night club. I grab the bus to Natania, a city 30 minutes north of Tel Aviv, and end up sitting on the floor, because there aren’t any seats left. I don’t really care, I close my eyes to sleep until I hear the driver call out Wingate, and I wander out to the Wingate institute, a sporting school and facility for sports instructors, unsure of what to expect next.
Foot Ball for Peace
Football for Peace is values based football program that uses the medium of this sport to create interpersonal skills between children from Arab and Israeli communities that may not regularly interact with each other if it wasn’t for this program. I found out about it two weeks ago and was told I could volunteer for it. It supported by the EU and British Council, and most of the coaches are either Israeli or Palestinian, and some of the coaches are from Europe as well. I was the only American there.
We learned various athletic games, that enable children to interact with each as they normally would do, and then after every few activities, we take small reflection break, and see what Teachable moments there were, which basically means, what really worked well in the game and what could have been improved upon. And also to clap our hands for anyone who may have helped others during the game or shown compassion in some way. In this was children can begin to learn the values of Trust, Responsibility, Respect and Inclusion and Equity through practical exercises and reflection.
It was a great opportunity to also meet more Arab and Israeli youth from the region. This week I will be a counselor for the camp in Jerusalem, at the Hebrew University. There are around 10 camp site throughout the country, that are doing similar work. I‘ll let you know how it goes.
Haifa Trip
I decided to go to Haifa after my trip to Wingate institute to see two Clark Friends, Tali and Tara. Before I found them, since neither of them were answering their cell phones when I arrived to Tara is working at the Bahia international center and Tali is working for an American company in Tel Aviv. It was great to reconnect with Clarkies, and reminisce.
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