A letter to friends and family

My dear family and friends,

This is my tenth visit to Israel and my third time volunteering.

Our day goes like this:

breakfast at 7 am

Flag raising, news briefing

work

lunch at 12

work

dinner at 6

afterwards lectures, or movies or social time.

We live in simple barracks, 4- 6 people in the room, air-conditioning,

shower and toilet in separate house, one has to walk.

We eat in a huge dining room together with soldiers and officers,

plenty of vegetables, fruits, Mediterranean dishes, buffet style.

I was at Tel Hashomer medical supply base, so we sort and pack

medical supplies in very big, heavy medical knapsacks for

paramedics and doctors who carry it on their back while on the front line.

The knapsack has a lot of pockets of different sizes, folding

and unfolding it is an art in itself.

Volunteers work quickly, efficiently, and with a lot of love, being useful.

The people I met are from so many countries:

South Africa, US, Canada, UK, Denmark, Holland,

thousands of French and Russians from Russia. In our

group the oldest was 90 years old, the youngest

14 who came with her father. Out of 36 volunteers

12 were not born Jews, some converted, some have not,

people are so nice, so spiritual, so interesting,

taking time , buying tickets to come and help Israel.

On August 9th in Jerusalem we celebrated the 25th

anniversary of this organization, Sar El.

It was such an emotional and beautiful convention

attended by thousands of volunteers from all over the world.

It took place in 4 languages- Hebrew, English, French and Russian,

15 000 volunteers came during the organization's 25 years, Jews and non Jews,

with so much love and support for Israel.

Everything was organized so well, on a very high level.

There is so much history and so much modernity in Israel, it's the

100th smallest country on earth, only 60 years old. It is

the only democracy in the Middle East, but contributes so much

to the welfare of the world and what we use in our everyday life:

medicine, technology, energy, security and it goes on and on,

it is truly a marvel of our time.

Inna Bakker