he war he war he will kill for you

ooooooooooooook. this morning was really nice, save for waking up super early. we were picked up in a sheruit and driven to the ministry of agriculture in israel and the site of the greenhouse project, which happens to be located in ramla. they welcomed us with tea and coffee and showed us a film about the research and technological advancements made for agriculture there. it was very informative actually, i learned a lot about the agriculture industry in israel. afterwards, they (don't remember names other than segev right now, oops). since i was so tired, i found my mind wandering, but luckily was able to bring it back. thanks college lessons! i seriously don't know what i would have done if i couldn't figured out how to re-focus on something after i lost concentration. BUT, it would be nice to be able to concentrate on said thing for longer than 10 minutes in the first place. go figure. after the movie, they walked us out to the field and the plot where the kids tend the fields. it was really great, out in the open. they even let us take eggplants home! i think i'll really enjoy working the field with these kids, even though their issues are way more difficult than anything i've ever faced. and i'm very lucky that nothing too fucked up has happened to me. but i wonder if it's for this reason that i'm unable or insensitive to these things in other people, namely the ones we're here to help. but i know i want to help. and i'm willing to. i'm just weird, that's all.

on the way to the TV station after we got dropped off, jade, al, alon, and i walked to boaz pizza and ordered this delectible treat called ziva boaz with cheese and eggplant and dreaminess inside. i want that again. later actually, jade went back and boaz himself offered us all jobs there. it was sweet for him to offer, but i barely have time to brush my teeth!

once we got to the TV station, karen asked us to film a story in the school attached to the tv building so that we could get some practice editing footage. i took the camera and al was the lead anchor-ish person. we basically ran around the school filming anyone and everyone, walking into a classroom. getting kicked out of a classroom. all in a day's work. we even ran into some new peruvian immigrants, so i could exercise my piss poor spanish on them, which now is even more piss poor because all i can think of is hebrew words. lovely. but i did notice that i opened up behind the camera a bit and wasn't really afraid to film people as i am to take their picture. its interesting. something to ponder. we also got started editing. we're not great at it, considering the way i filmed (no bueno). but at least i'll know how to do it next time. we finished up so that we could get back to the house in time to get picked up for work. and i talked to gammy too. she made me smile.

the boys had a job for me today, as i was to take headshots for momo and another dude in the office. did that, called people for ISC. i also realized after an interesting interaction with an interviewee that i need to get over the fear of looking like a fool. this made me think about the kids at kadima, and how i probably care too much about what they think, so i should just say fuck it and talk to them and hug them even if they think i'm strange. this fear is what stops me in a lot of things. no good. on the way home, i really just listenened to yaacov talk about his wife and kids. he was married at 21 and had kids at 23. he says that it's nice to be a young father and grandfather, but that it was very hard. i like that guy. it was really nice to just listen to him because his life is so much different than the way mine is turning out to be. anyway, we got home and went to bed because we had to wake up to be interviewed by segev at elem for the greenhouse project.

this morning, we woke up too late to go to the shook before our interviews, so we basically just got upped and go'd. the interview was very short, they just wanted to know more about us. i told them that i really was excited about the project and realized how important and therapeutic physical labor can be especially for someone who may have so much emotional pain built up in the muscles from abuse, or anger, etc. it was nice to use my psychology degree for something other than the dust collector on my desk at home. :)

al and i left and walked to the shook, thankfully it was open, to get fruit and wine to make sangria. we were going to have the house to ourselves, so we decided to have a little wine party before yom kippur. we bargained the whole way down the shook, even snagging some cheap but DREAMY at the end. at home, we started developing out own sangria recipe which is now amazing:

2 apples
2 oranges
2 peaches
1 mango
2 bottles of white wine
sprite
mango/passionfruit juice
sugar

you can imagine, i'm sure. it's the best thing ever. just chop all the fruit, add the wine and the juice and VOILA. yummy. naama's brother came over to fix the drain. he's a cool guy, very funny. and one hell of a plumber. just as we were relaxing, alon and jade came a knocking because they couldn't get to their host family's before sundown after all. during yom kippur, the entire country shuts down. no cars on the street at all and apparently all the kids play in the streets until really late because no cars drive at all. no tv stations work. its crazy. i almost thought they'd shut the phones and internet off. so jade, al, alon, and i basically just hung out. we watched ridiculous videos and did some things :) the sangria is delicious BTW. anyway, we are going to bed now. I FUCKING GET TO SLEEP IN TOMORROW! don't have to do ANYTHING until naama picks us up so we can walk to the synagogue with her to hear the shofar! i'm so excited. and alli's never heard it. so that's bomb.

welp. ze u (that's all). marissa if you're reading this, i love you little bug. i'm nostalgic today. i just remembered college and that i miss it and looked at photos from my goodbye party and started missing them too. i miss dallas. and being a little girl. :( love everyone. i'm homesick right now. i'll be ok tomorrow. goodnight.

love,

sally