My Experience in SAR-EL

By William Howard

   In February, 2003, I found the Sar-el website by accident but, after reading it, decided that Israel was where I wanted to spend my vacation. I had not been to Israel in 20 years and was looking forward to going back.  After being accepted for the Sar-el program, I spent 2 weeks in early July of 2003 at a military base southeast of  Tel Aviv. I was there with volunteers from 8 different countries and we lived, ate, and worked with soldiers of Israel's army. The volunteers ranged in age from late teens to middle seventies and were about equally divided between male/female and Jewish/Christian.  My job was refurbishing communications equipment for tanks, trucks, jeeps, etc.  Our madrichas, 2 young female IDF soldiers, worked hard to organize activities and guest speakers for us in the evenings after work. They helped to make our experience as comfortable as possible.

    It was great being able to live, work, and eat with the legendary IDF. After my first meal in the mess hall, I could not get over how young the soldiers all looked. Since Israel and the U.S. are similar in that they are comprised of people of various nationalities, it could have been a mess hall on an American military base.   

    I was in Tel Aviv on the Fourth of July, America's independence day. However, with all of the U.S. flags flying, one would have thought he was in the U.S.  I thought it was wonderful to be in a country that actually liked and respected us. This is in stark contrast to seeing the U.S. flag being desecrated in other countries throughout the Middle East. What a great people and a great country!  I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Israel and experience with Sar-el and plan on returning in the future.  

William Howard