I did a week long program on an Israeli army base called Gadna. Gadna is the program that Israeli high schoolers do to give them a taste of army life because most of them will have to serve for a few years when they graduate. It was really hard, but also very rewarding and fun. We dressed as soldiers, lived in barraks and spent the entire week running, doing push-ups, learning about how the army functions and how to behave in combat situations. I was chosen by my Mifakedet (commander) to be alef minelot, which basically means the right hand man. I was responsible for my group (the girls of the ulpan), for their behavior and for enforcing the expectations, as well as responsible for their well being. It was my job to make sure all the girls had everything they needed and to speak to the mifakedet or the samelet (the commander ahead of the mifakedet) if anything was wrong or missing or broken. At the end of the week my commander asked me if I knew why she had picked me. She said that when I spoke everyone listened and wanted to hear what I would say, she said it was a beautiful thing to see. I think that is one of the nicest things that has ever been said to me, and I really really appreciated it.

Besides all the army suff, we also had a couple of really interesting moderated discussions. We talked about what it meant to have a weapon, and how it becomes an extension of yourself, and so you are responsible for everything concerning it. If you lose your weapon or it gets stolen while in the army you can go to jail for up to 7 years. They used the same line as the NRA "guns don't kill people, people kill people" but meant it in a different, and much more sensible way.

We also talked about what the most important thing to us was. Not like your family or something tangiable, but really what you need to survive. People gave incredibly interesting answers, and because it was towards the end of the week, we had really bonded as a group and people who are usually very reserved and quiet spoke about things that they cared deeply about. One of the Japanese guys on the Ulpan, Eliyahu, was born with some sort of disease or birth defect and has little to no muscle on his lower legs. He has braces on his legs and often walks with a cane. At the beginning of Gadna I couldn't figure out why he was there, he had trouble walking and I couldn't imagine how he would manage the week. He was incredible. Even though he always got places last, he ran as best he could and he did all the exorcises and never quit. He was so inspiring, and it was great to see that everyone at one point or another helpled him out. He said the most important thing to him was God because he couldn't walk until he was 6 years old and all the doctors said he would never be able to. Through God he was able to find the strength to walk and everyday God helps him overcome every obstacle.


We were at camp Jow-Ara...here we are posing next to the entrance on the last day just before we left (note our wide smiles of satisfaction and pride)



We were always either in 2 lines or in "chet formation" We lined up like the letter chet.


We did sooo many push-ups. It was very very hard at first to always have to run from place to place and do push-ups and sit ups and planks, but by the end of the week I could do it all, and that was an incredible feeling.


we did push-ups everywhere...


We were in "sevat shalosh-essrey" or unit 13. It was combined guys and girls, but we slept seperately. There were only 4 girls, so we had extra space and it didn't smell nearly as bad as the boys barraks.


unfortunately there was no heat, so we were really cold. (this is the saddest picture of Hannah I have ever seen)



We did a day of in the field training. We covered ourselves in mud as camoflouge. We learned the different ways the soldiers did things depending on if they were doing urban combat (like in Gaza) or combat in fields and woods (like in Lebanon). There were different crawls and types of walks. The crawls were so hard and painful because they were over rocks and potholes and it was raining. We did granade drills and leanred the different signals soldiers use to communicate when they have to be silent in battle. The day was so exhausting and difficult, but I can't even express how good it felt when we were done and I was muddy and wet and exhausted and knew that I had completed every difficult thing put in front of me.



There was a competition between the Sevats to see who could prepare the most appealing plate with the rations given to us (canned tuna, canned fruit salad, a little bit of frsh fruit/veggies and bread)


this was our presentation





On the second to last day Nava (house mother) Karen (director of ulpan) and Limor (one of the teachers) came and brought us pasteries and chocolate milk and other delicious and very welcome sweets.


The second to last day we did a series of exorcises and games to test the things we had learned, and our ability to function as a group.
We had to race the other groups to cary the log around a curcuit as many times as possible in a certain amount of time, switching people every circuit.


relay races carrying strechers with jerry cans full of water to weigh them down


and relay races where you had to dissasemble and re-assemble an M-16



On the last day we went to the firing range and shot M16s


At the end we got to take off out uniforms, and our commanders came, told us their names and spoke to us in a non-commander capacity. Our Mifakedet, Rafaella, was incredible. She was so poised and so good as motivating us without being too harsh. She was incredibly mature for being only NINETEEN!

Sebastion and I were the two Alef minelot (him for the guys, me for the girls). This is our Samelet, the commander above our mifakedek that we reported to.


The girls with our Mifakedet, Rafaella


Sevat 13!!!!



There are a million more stories and great things we got to do, midnight hikes where we pretended we were moving into enemy territory and had to walk silently and crawl and make it back to the base safely and other great discussions, but this is already wicked long. The last thing is, our group won the award of Sevat Achi Tov (the best unit) because we worked so hard. :)