2025-03 Israel

Israel 4,

Mar. 22-23, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

I went back to my hotel, had a quick shower and went down for the 6:00 wine, soup and light refreshments party. I met a few new people who are doing different things here. There are many ways to volunteer here and make yourself useful. Everyone had a different story as how they had spent the last week.

I walked around downtown Tel Aviv for an hour or two eventually meandering down to my favourite watering hole overlooking the beach. The young waitress recognized me from last year and the fact that I write a blog. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast so I ordered some nachos and beer, real comfort food. It’s warmed up this evening allowing me to sit comfortably on the terrace under the warm-up lights.

We have been under rocket attack for the last few days. Although I personally have not experienced it, some of the other volunteers heard the sirens and have taken cover in the shelters. The rockets are coming from Hamas in Gaza, from Hezbollah in the north and from the Houthis everywhere. They all blame the Israelis for starting the renewed fighting. Is it possible that they sincerely believe the nonsense that they spout.

There was a big demonstration tonight and some of the volunteers went to see what it was all about. I went to a demonstration last year which was the first demonstration that I have ever participated in. I am very allergic to that sort of thing, preferring to write my own opinion in my blog and hoping that I will have enough of a following to make a difference. Who am I kidding? We will see how my book will be received in the near future when I return.

‘Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile.’

I was up at 6:00 this morning to get ready for the day. I split my belongings into 2 parts, the stuff that I really need and the rest which I won’t need until the following week. Breakfast was great as usual. I counted 37 different dishes of fruits, vegetables, fish, cereals, bagels and croissants. They even have a first class cappuccino machine. The breakfast room and common room have a dozen round tables and chairs and a living room next to it. You are welcome to sit at any table, introduce yourself and get involved in the conversation. It’s like summer camp only better as we all have a common purpose. All of the clientele are doing some sort of volunteering. Many are with Sar-El, volunteering on IDF bases. Others are doing daily trips to farms to pick fruits and vegetables. Others are helping in food distribution in Tel Aviv for people who are less fortunate than ourselves. When you speak to the volunteers and ask them why they are here, they all have the same common response. After Oct. 7, when we saw what they did to Israel, we all felt deep down in our hearts that we had to do our part to help Israel in her time of need. 30% of volunteers who come here are not Jewish. Some are religious, others are secular with a few atheists like myself.

We all put our luggage onto a prearranged van. You can tell the first timers from the veterans. We know beforehand that they give us army uniforms that you must wear at all times so extra clothes are not necessary. You can leave extra baggage in the hotel. No sooner than we got into the van, the sirens went off. We had 30 seconds to return to the hotel and go down into the safe room in the basement. The room was OK but it was standing room only for 20 people. We stayed the mandatory 10 minutes until ‘all clear’. I am happy that we didn’t have to be in there for 2 or 3 hours which can occur if we are under sustained rocket fire. I don’t know who fired the rocket but I do know that it was taken out by the iron dome probably over the sea.

The drive to the IDF base took about 2 hours. Tel-Aviv traffic is terrible and it took some time to leave the city. Eventually, we were in the countryside, continuing down into the Negev just south of Beersheba. I slept most of the way as I was up late last night writing my blog at a bar on the beach. We were introduced to our leaders called ‘madrihots’. They are lovely girls, 18 and 22 years of age. Their enthusiasm was contagious and they put us all at ease and really ‘broke the ice’. We were given our rooms at random. I have 3 room mates, a father and son team from Oregon and a fellow who was in the US army for most of his career.

Lunch was excellent, 20 different dishes to choose from. Apparently the kitchen was recently renovated and the cuisine has much improved. After lunch we got our IDF uniforms. I love it. Our uniforms are big and somewhat oversized. Our madrihots uniforms have obviously been tapered and fitted. I guess that is the advantage of being in the army. I will know that next time around.

We were then introduced to our warehouse managers. They are also very enthusiastic and welcoming. We took before and after pictures. We then danced Israeli style dancing to Israeli music for 10-15 minutes. I remembered the steps from my Bar Mitzvah days. I was also invited to many Greek weddings and christenings and was taught to do Greek dancing there. The steps are very similar. Our base is trucking base. We have 1437 trucks here. Many have to be cleaned, put in shape and repaired. Our job today was to disassemble large, heavy bags containing sleeping bag, uniforms of various sizes and jacket. We then sorted the merchandise, separating the useable ones from the damaged ones and then repacking the bags. All this work is accompanied by loud music to make the day and the work go faster.

We had 2 hours off before supper. Most of the volunteers took the time off to relax. That is a word that I don’t quite know how to spell, so I went for a 50 minute, 7 km run. That was my first run since October when I did the World Championship Triathlon in Spain. It wasn’t too bad as I had my ear pods on and listened to Crosby, Stills and Nash. I will see how I feel tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will be up at 7:00, breakfast at 7:30, flag raising at 8:30 and work from 9:00 to 12:30. I signed up to be with the Krav Maga group. We are 16 in the group, with an even mix of guys and girls. Krav Maga is an Israeli defence method of defending yourself if you are attacked. It is not a sport. When I applied to be in the group, they would not accept me because of my age. I had to write all sorts of stuff saying that I am a triathlete, play hockey and am a ski instructor. Eventually they accepted me after getting a medical certificate and signing a waiver. We will be starting our first session tomorrow afternoon and will do it 1.5 to 2 days a week.

This evening we had a meeting with our madrihots who explained how the base works. We then had to give a little blurb about ourselves. We are mixed group of Canadians, Americans, Estonians, Peruvians and French people. I started my blurb off by saying that I graduated McGill in 1970 and took a year off to go travelling. “ I don’t think that any of you were born then”. Except for 1 or 2 others, I was correct. This is a very young group compared to other groups that I have been in. The average age appears to be 40 to 50 probably due to the Krav Maga option.

I travelled on a motorcycle for 6 months around Europe until the bike was stolen in Italy. I then hitch hiked for 6 months, skiing for 2 months and working on a kibbutz in Israel. That was my first introduction to Israel. I was cold, I was hungry, I was lonely. It was the best year of my life.

If some one had told me on Oct 6, 2023 that at 74 year of age, that I would be going to war, I would have thought that they were crazy. On Oct. 7, 2023 I made the decision to volunteer to go to Israel. The rest is history.

Love,

Brian

I travelled on a motorcycle for 6 months around Europe until the bike was stolen in Italy. I hitche