Norman heard about Sarel an organisation encouraging volunteers worldwide to spend some time working in hospitals or Israeli Defence Force bases in Israel and thought it would be a great way to make a first visit to Israel.  Having persuaded Margaret it was a good idea and once accepted by the UK Office, we flew to Tel Aviv in May.  We spent 28 May to 14 June with Sarel and 15 June to 25 June touring by ourselves.  

We were based near Tel Aviv and worked at packing medical supplies.  The work was never boring because there was always someone interesting to talk to whether another volunteer or the soldiers or the workshop leaders. There were about 45 volunteers of various nationalities from US, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Finland, New Zealand, Australia, mostly Jews but also about 9 Christian supporters of Israel.  It was a very large group as there was a rush on preparing medical supplies.  The youngest was 14 and the oldest 87.

Norman had some professional snorers in his dormitory and found there are two good solutions to coping: earplugs or get used to it.  The bad solutions are murder or a nervous breakdown.  He doesn’t like earplugs (Margaret swears by them), toyed with the bad solutions and got used to it. 

The food was truly wonderful, in particular lunch comprised about 20 different vegetables, 2 meat dishes and fruit. 

The madrichot took us on tours to Yitzhak Rabin square and the Palmach museum (wonderful fictional reconstruction of the 1948 war of independence) and to the town of Zichron Yaakov resettled by Romanian Jews in the 19^th century.  At weekends we went on tours organised through Pamela Lazarus to Jerusalem, Masada, the Galilee and Golan.   

At flag raising on our last day we and other leaving volunteers received our Sarel certificates, T shirts, little badges and a round of applause.  We were very sad to be leaving.  We had a wonderful time.  We met lot of new people and the madrichot (Aviva, Natalie, Esmerag and Karla) were truly marvellous in looking after and organising us all.  During our time both General Davidi and the camp sub-commander gave us volunteers talks and we really felt the gratitude towards us.  Not least we got to know Israel and the Israelis.  We will be returning to Sarel! 

After leaving Sarel we went camping and hiking in the Yehudiya nature reserve in the Golan and camped by Lake Galilee.

 

Norman & Margaret Conroy