i can gather all the news i need on the weather report

actually, that’s a lie. israeli politics are going wild this week. sharon has decided to leave likud and form a new party bringing the country to early elections (probably in march). and peretz, the new underdog labor leader with his socially conscious politics, certainly brings a different flavor to the standard poo-poo platter of israeli prime minister candidates. early elections seem to have become a trend here over the past decade or so. it adds to the atmosphere of political (social, economic) instability but perhaps its better than having just one fool in charge for 8 years. regardless, political analysis is not my field of expertise, so suffice it to say, i’m waiting to see what this change in the wind will bring.

up north, not far from where i spent last weekend visiting cousins, the fragile 5-month calm between hezbollah in southern lebanon and the israeli army ended in rocket fire and retaliations- a reminder that quiet is not peace and that whoever is elected will have his hands full.

on a much lighter note, while i am generally happy and busy in this crazy land, there are moments (possibly exacerbated by feasts of turkey and brown-bashing on foxnews) when i hanker for certain people and places of times past. it may be that hearing from friends across oceans only fuels my nostalgia, but it is worth it and their words are worth sharing. here is a collection of favorite excepts from recent emails that have made me nearly pee my pants:

“the guys in the office are listening to ace of base right now. and singing along. oh man. if it isn't bollywood music then it's usher and if it isn't usher, it's ace of base.”

“Thank you for the weather report, Weatherwoman Hannah. It helped indeed. Basically I'll bring my lederhosen and be good to go.”

“by the way, the sex in this Congressional office is great, but it's mostly with people who have medicare issues. The illegal immigrants are usually snorting crack with the office pet (a turtle named max).”

“Napoleon Dynamite is such a funny movie. When I first saw it, I was like "what the heck is funny about these stupid people," but it kind of revolves in your mind again and again and every time you remember something from it, it just cracks you up. I think we should talk about one day when we are stoned.”

“i think there are squirrels in our roof - maybe raccoons, and i'm pretty sure they stole my new toothbrush.”

“speaking of brown, matt recently got his yearbook, and it is great! the pictures of everybody are SO UNBELIEVABLY BAD!! i don't think i saw one good picture of any of our friends, at least in the back part with all the portraits. i foresee a future moment, when i am being celebrated at the end of a staggering successful government career, and at the height of the party as the speeches are being made in my honor in the fancy 5-star hotel ballroom, someone (probably you) starts into a what-he-was-like-then power point show of my life, and my brown university year book portrait gets plastered up onto the screen, 50 times larger than life, and that moment will be the worst moment of my entire life, worse than when my wife leaves me, worse than when i am personally responsible for a miscalculation that starts a bloody war. having people see my yearbook picture will be the worst moment.”

these quotes are anonymous because they were replicated without permission and they may or may not be taken out of context. if you’re not quoted and think you should be, then maybe you should write me more emails. and a prize for anyone who can correctly identify all of the authors.

in lieu of words, some belated pictures (courtesy of other people's digital cameras) from jordan.

recruitment

on a windy monday morning i woke up at the crack of dawn. literally, the sky outside my window went from dark to light during the 15 minutes it took me to drag myself out of bed, throw on some clothes and pack my wallet, notebook and an apple in a bag.

at 6am i was waiting at the bus stop with zohar, fareed and hassan. 3 buses and 2.5 hours later we had met up with renana and arrived at the denmark high school in west jerusalem where the weather was rainy and cold. the security guard at the gate of the school made us wait, shivering in our wet shoes, while he eyed fareed and hassan with suspicion and radioed the office to see if we had permission to be admitted.

once given this security clearance we entered the school where we were ushered into the teachers lounge to dry off, warm up and be warned that there are some difficult students/classes. when zohar noted that the soda machine in the hallway was protected by iron bars, we started to wonder what kind of kids we were about to meet.

these 4 (out of 6) commune volunteers were on a routine recruitment trip to talk to high school students around the country about sadaka reut and try to enlist potential participants for the arab-jewish youth groups, and i had tagged alone for the ride. after 15 or so minutes in the teachers lounge the 9 o’clock song rang (israeli schools get little ditties rather than bells) and it was time for us to give our shpiel in the classrooms.

originally on the phone, we had been told we could talk to 12 classes- all of the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th graders. but once we were there they remembered monday is a bad day schedule-wise and actually, there were only a few classes available. in the end we spoke to just 3 classes, received a decent dose of high school student bravado mostly in the form of snide or sarcastic comments, watched one kid get kicked out of class and got the name and phone number of one young man (out of almost 50 students we spoke to) who was possibly interested in joining the jerusalem arab-jewish dialogue group.

just over an hour after our arrival at the school, we left and began making our way back to yafo on another 3 buses. we treated ourselves to pastries at the central bus station and by noon we were back in the office. even two days later, im still not really sure how to evaluate the success of the trip.

now that the holidays (jewish and muslim) are over, things have kicked into overdrive at work. in addition to recruitment trips all over the country, some projects are actually starting and everyone is planning and programming in a frenzy. my work at al-rabita finally began this week as well and i am co-teaching an english class designed to help high school students prepare for their bagrut (matriculation exams). the other teacher is going to take care of grammar and that fun stuff so i get to do conversation and be the token american. the program is sponsored by the u.s. embassy and it is supposed to cover american “culture and values” in addition to language. so somehow ive ended up working (albeit indirectly) for the government.

and speaking of americans, bill clinton is scheduled to speak this saturday at kikar rabin (rabin square) in tel aviv as part of country-wide commemorations for the 10^th anniversary of rabin’s assassination. i dont think this country ever rests.