Israel Project Weeks 4-5: 04/14 - 04/20

For my third and final week of volunteering with Sar-El, I was sent to a base in Eilat called Uvda. Eilat is the southernmost city in Israel, and in my case, it required a 5 hour bus ride through the Negev desert. Given that Iran had just attacked Israel that night, the world was holding its breath in anticipation of an Israeli retaliation and further escalation of the conflict. My mom was advising me not to go to Eilat out of fear that the roads leading there would be bombed because there is important military infrastructure there. Despite my mom’s concern for my safety, I went to Eilat anyways. Our Madrichot gave us the tour of the base and introduced us to some of the IDF officers on base, notably the head chef, Ramiro. Ramiro will be important later. While doing the tour, we noticed that a warehouse near the flagpole was half destroyed because an Iranian drone had struck it the week prior.

The next day, we did a lot of work in the kitchen: cleaning dishes, floors, and refrigerators, sorting and unpacking boxes of food, and taking out trash. When we weren’t working, we were hanging out with the IDF soldiers as they competed to see how far they could kick a water bottle or strike a match on someone’s freshly-shaved beard. During lunch that day, Yael, one of our Madrichot, told us that we were her last Sar-El group after a year and a half of being a Madricha. Yael was born in Columbia, but at 17 years old, she decided to make Aliyah (move to Israel and become an Israeli citizen) alone, and she joined the IDF at 18. She also told us that in a few weeks her service with the IDF would end, and she had planned a party, which she had invited her parents and friends to but had to get canceled due to last minute circumstances. Immediately, we, collectively as volunteers, decided that we were going to throw her a party to celebrate her service. Later that day, we told Ramiro our plans, and he worked to get a cake on base. Fast forward to Wednesday, during our lunch break, we quietly set up the party. Once it was set up, we waited for her to come down to begin the activity that she had planned for us. When she came, she was greeted by a surprise party, complete with cakes, snacks, and soda. I even made her an imitation of the certificate that Sar-El volunteers receive at the end of each week, thanking her for her service.

There were two instances where I had to run to the bomb shelter. One night after dinner, I was lying down in the volunteer bedroom when I heard a whooshing sound, a boom that shook the room, and then confused screams. We all in that room looked at each other silently with wide eyes until I said, “I wasn’t the only one who heard that, right?” There were no alerts or sirens, but to be safe, and since we weren’t sure what exactly had happened, a few volunteers and I went to the bomb shelter for a few minutes. We learned that the Houthis had launched a drone from Yemen and that the Iron Dome intercepted it directly over the base. Some other volunteers told me they actually saw the interception because they were sitting outside when it happened. The second time was just after lunch, and we were taking a break before resuming work, when the loudspeakers on base started screaming “!אמת! אמת” (emet, meaning truth), which is the signal that the alert is not a drill. Everyone else in the room seemed a little confused as if they didn’t catch what the loudspeaker said, until I said “guys, emet, we gotta go to the shelter, let’s go.” We all went to the bomb shelter where we all squeezed in with volunteers and other soldiers for about two minutes, until the loudspeaker said the alert was over. What confused us was that there were no sirens. We later learned that the alert was sounded because someone had wandered onto the base who wasn’t supposed to be there.

At Uvda, I also befriended another cat, a black kitten whose name translated to Stupid. This guy’s behavior backs up that name because he had no survival instincts. I picked him up by the belly the second I saw him and he did nothing but purr and fall asleep. Other notable events that week included: swimming in the Red Sea, befriending other random stray cats, staying the weekend alone in a hotel in Eilat because I got sick, and going to the beach.