A great positive experience!!! 

Many of you have asked, "What did you do in Israel and the army this year?"

 

I have arrived home from my visit to Israel and my work for Sar-El, (in service for Israel) the Israeli army. This year I had joined a small group from Philadelphia, U.S., a great bunch of hard working people. We were sent to work on a base in the northern part of Israel, an active base with the great warriors of the Golani.

A fantastic army of young people, some in training and others were training them, each one a master in his field, and each one of them a wonderful person in his her own right.

 

The few weeks that I have shared my life with the very brave young people, I was cleaning machine guns... (Yes taking them apart, cleaning them and, then assembling them back again.) When we did not have machine guns or rifles to clean we worked in a warehouse filling bags with food for field rations. Many trucks came each week to bring us the food for this purpose, lots of hard work but I can tell you that for a small group of only 13 volunteers on this base 

we were GREAT!  We were told that we did the work of over 40 people...I would like to think it is true.

 

We fell  into our (very) small beds in the late evening after a shower, dinner and then a lecture... at this point we were all very tired but so very happy for the days' accomplishments.

 

I hope that I will be able to go back to the same base again next year but... we never know where we will be sent till the very last moment. We could be sent to any part of the country...

 

Every morning we awoke at 6:00, then at 7:00 we went to the parade grounds for flag raising, followd by a short meeting with our young Madrich (an 18 or 19 year old soldier, either a man or woman assigned to us as a guide.)  The Madrich gave us the latest news in Israel and the world as of that morning...

 

Next came breakfast, several salads... all the tomatoes and cucumbers you can eat...eggs, cheese...yogurt chocolate milk... then at 8:00 or 8:30 we went to work until 12:00/30, lunch and back to work at 1:00-1:30 till 4:30 or 5:00pm.  After work back to the volunteer quarters for shower and a quick rest, dinner at 6:00pm at 7:00, followed by an 8:00 p.m. lecture in the dining hall from a visiting dignitary, or our Madrich. Subjects included Israel and its defense, the army,   Israeli history and Zionism.

 

How very proud I felt looking at our young lions, the defenders of my beloved Israel.

 

All of our evenings were very carefully planned, we gained a great deal of knowledge about the country, the people and history. And as with each visit I felt that I didn't want this great experience to end.

 

Ours was a new base, only four years old. The trees and colorful flowering bushes were also very young, they did not as yet give the much needed shade in the very hot sun...When I walked through the base an hour before dinner, I watched small groups still in the middle of training exercises. No, they do not have any set hours to sleep or eat; all of the young man are trained and worked very hard, I could see that they were in excellent condition.  How very wonderful I felt looking at the young hard working lions that are defending our homeland; as I stood looking at them I knew that my homeland is safe.

 

One afternoon at lunch time we had a lovely surprise when General Davidi, the originator of the Sar-El program in Israel, paid us a surprise visit. It was very nice to see him again. He is a wonderful man with many great stories of Israel and "the good old days".

 

Finally the last day arrived and we had to leave the base for Tel Aviv and the big celebrations of  Israel's 60th anniversary as a free Jewish nation, I was happy for the many parties, shows, dancing and music everywhere all over the country, all for free in every city. But...I was very sad to leave my young lions, my only consolation is that I will be back with them again next year, and every year after that.   

 

Each year I hope that peace will  come very soon to our small beloved Israel and that we will all be able to come to Israel as visitors; go to the beach, play in the sun, sand and the ocean,  with our friends and all the children and grandchildren for days on end...  Maybe next year?

 

Much Love and Shalom

Sahbra Anna Markus 

Calgary, Alberta Canada