My Adventures to Gedera and Rehovot!
Hey Everyone,
It's Diane again reporting live from ENP! Today, I'll be talking about my first time volunteering at the Youth Center in Gedera as well as a "mission" at the Rehovot Youth Center (I will explain "mission" in a bit...).
On Tuesday May 11, I made my way from Jerusalem to the city of Gedera to volunteer with the Ethiopian-Israeli youth. It was my first time coming in to volunteer at Gedera and I was pretty excited. All in all, I had a great time at Gedera. When I arrived, I met four soldiers who were also volunteering at the youth center. They introduced themselves to me and gave me a grand tour of the center. There was a room where one soldier was giving math lessons to a group of students. In another room, there were kids watching TV and playing pool. Then, there was the computer room! (my favorite room). This was a popular room for the kids. They were listening to music videos, playing online computer games, and chatting online with their friends. I found out that the some of the favorite music artists of the girls there were Chris Brown and Justin Bieber (if you don't know who these people are, you need to get up-to-date with your pop culture!!). It was a very social and friendly environment.
Now...onto the "mission" at Rehovot: rewinding back to Thursday May 6, 2010
First of all, "missions" are groups of donors, potential donors, and/or supporters from Jewish communities in the US who come to visit ENP projects. In the late afternoon on a Thursday about 40 Americans from all over the US came to visit the Youth Outreach Center in Rehovot. My job at this event was to take pictures and record what was going on. Shortly after the group arrived, everyone participated in a traditional Ethiopian dance lesson. Everyone made a big circle and Dega, the dance instructor, stood in the middle. Every once in a while she would pull a few brave people into the middle of the circle so that they could "show off" their dance moves. At first, most of the people that went into the middle seemed a little embarrassed, but after they showed off their dance moves, everyone returning from the middle had a big smile on their face.
Afterward, everyone broke up into three groups so that the American visitors could talk one-on-one with the Ethiopian-Israeli youth. Below is one of the questions that I observed being asked to the Ethiopian-Israeli youth by an American visitor:
Question: "What kind of experience have the Ethiopian Jews had since coming to Israel?”
Answer: "Sometimes there are racist people that make it hard for us, but in general it is okay. This is a fulfillment of our parents’ dream."
At the very end of the mission, a choir made up of 4 girls from the ENP youth center sang for everyone. The girls in the choir wrote their own lyrics to the song. The song is about a girl who is trying to reach a dream, and in the end finally does.
That's it for today, over and out! And I hope everyone had a great Shavuot! :)
It's Diane again reporting live from ENP! Today, I'll be talking about my first time volunteering at the Youth Center in Gedera as well as a "mission" at the Rehovot Youth Center (I will explain "mission" in a bit...).
On Tuesday May 11, I made my way from Jerusalem to the city of Gedera to volunteer with the Ethiopian-Israeli youth. It was my first time coming in to volunteer at Gedera and I was pretty excited. All in all, I had a great time at Gedera. When I arrived, I met four soldiers who were also volunteering at the youth center. They introduced themselves to me and gave me a grand tour of the center. There was a room where one soldier was giving math lessons to a group of students. In another room, there were kids watching TV and playing pool. Then, there was the computer room! (my favorite room). This was a popular room for the kids. They were listening to music videos, playing online computer games, and chatting online with their friends. I found out that the some of the favorite music artists of the girls there were Chris Brown and Justin Bieber (if you don't know who these people are, you need to get up-to-date with your pop culture!!). It was a very social and friendly environment.
Now...onto the "mission" at Rehovot: rewinding back to Thursday May 6, 2010
First of all, "missions" are groups of donors, potential donors, and/or supporters from Jewish communities in the US who come to visit ENP projects. In the late afternoon on a Thursday about 40 Americans from all over the US came to visit the Youth Outreach Center in Rehovot. My job at this event was to take pictures and record what was going on. Shortly after the group arrived, everyone participated in a traditional Ethiopian dance lesson. Everyone made a big circle and Dega, the dance instructor, stood in the middle. Every once in a while she would pull a few brave people into the middle of the circle so that they could "show off" their dance moves. At first, most of the people that went into the middle seemed a little embarrassed, but after they showed off their dance moves, everyone returning from the middle had a big smile on their face.
Afterward, everyone broke up into three groups so that the American visitors could talk one-on-one with the Ethiopian-Israeli youth. Below is one of the questions that I observed being asked to the Ethiopian-Israeli youth by an American visitor:
Question: "What kind of experience have the Ethiopian Jews had since coming to Israel?”
Answer: "Sometimes there are racist people that make it hard for us, but in general it is okay. This is a fulfillment of our parents’ dream."
At the very end of the mission, a choir made up of 4 girls from the ENP youth center sang for everyone. The girls in the choir wrote their own lyrics to the song. The song is about a girl who is trying to reach a dream, and in the end finally does.
That's it for today, over and out! And I hope everyone had a great Shavuot! :)
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