Sar-El Volunteers for Israel

Thoughts from Billy Mann about Sar-El (Oct. 2006)...

I felt very safe during the whole trip. (In fact I feel the most

dangerous part of my trip was driving to and from the airport in the

USA.)

I was under the protection of the armed IDF soldiers and felt safe

everywhere I went.

I really had a very good 3 weeks in Israel!

I worked hard but enjoyed the work and the people of Israel are great!

I believe I got to see the big picture of the situation in Israel both

the good and the "not so good". In other words Sar-El showed me the

true situation. This I appreciate very much!

The work I enjoyed most was sorting cartridge magazines, cleaning

weapons, loading armored personnel carriers, tanks, and mobile

artillery.

The base personnel was very friendly, answered all my questions, and I

had very free access to most of the base.

The food was good and very healthy.

The tours were very informative and I particularly liked hearing Ellen

W. Horowitz's point of view. I like to hear "both sides of the story"

and Ellen did that very well with no "candy coating" of her feelings.

I also enjoyed very much getting to work with the civilians at the

rocket damage buildings and doing repair work.

The madrichcot are great including those not assigned to me that I met

on tours and in civilian life in the cities.

I must say your organization does a good job of picking these young

women. Every madricha I met was "top notch" and very intelligent.

The store merchants, hotel clerks, taxi drivers, tour guides and

civilians were very nice to me.

The citizens of Tel Aviv were very helpful giving directions to me, a

stranger. I appreciate the kindness of the people of Israel to

strangers. I attended a Shabbat dinner in Jerusalem and though I am a

gentile I was very politely treated.

Since getting back to the USA, I have been "talking up" Sar-El to

everyone I meet. I hope to get more people involved in helping Israel.

I am happy to talk to everyone about my personal experiences in Israel.

I hope to come back and see you again.

Shalom,

Billy Mann

Email billym5@hotmail.com

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