Friendship and Basketball

I am a bit over half-way through my week of being an attaché for the German basketball team from the University of Constance in southern Germany!

(I was told that I would look more like an authentic attaché if I were wearing glasses)

I cannot show a lot of pictures because at least one of the teams that is here cannot be photographed. But it has been a very interesting experience thus far! We have two more days of games, then we'll spend a day touring in Jerusalem before everyone heads back to their home countries.

The first night we had a masked "speed dating" event to help all the participants get to know different people.

A couple of nights later we had a boat cruise on the Red Sea. There were water sports and swimming and the amazing thing was that we could see Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and even Saudi Arabia all at the same time! (In this photo you can only see Egypt and Israel though, oh and a plane flying into Eilat at sunset)

I believe that all of the participants are having an absolute blast!!! There has been a lot of dancing and music. In fact, I think the music has brought these groups together even more than Basketball.

I hope that these interactions make a difference. I hope that this isn't just an excuse for a holiday by the sea with no take-away. I hope that relationships are built across divides. Not just relationships that last a week, but relationships that continue long into the future. These are my hopes as I look towards the last couple days of the tournament.

How Busy Could I Possibly Be?

Oh, so, so busy!!!

I accidentally/unavoidably have overbooked myself until August. How could I help but do so when incredible opportunities were presented to me! I regret nothing!

What I originally would have been working on are final projects/exams for 7 classes. That translates to a 15 minute presentation (done!), one final exam (July 1st), 5 papers whose total will be at least 48 pages of writing (I've turned in 3 of those papers which is 25 of those pages...actually 31 pages though). So, I'm doing fairly well at completing my obligatory tasks.

Now to discuss the extra-curricular ones:

Continuing with FluenTLV events

I need to complete 17 more hours of translation work for a scholarship that I got

I'm going to Eilat for 8 days with The Friendship Games as a Hebrew/English liaison for one of the teams. Hopefully I'll be able to work on my remaining papers in the midst of basketball games and various trips/activities that they have planned for us! I feel so gratified that my Hebrew is opening these types of doors for me!

A few days after I get back from Eilat, one of my friends from Tanzania is coming to visit me for 8 days!!!

On July 15th, the same day that all of my assignments are due, I leave for the States! Not for a relaxing visit but to work for Jerusalem Peacebuilders as a camp counselor in Vermont for 2 weeks! I will be working with Israelis from Muslim, Jewish, and Christian backgrounds.

I am a bit overwhelmed, not just because of how much I need to get done, but because of the incredible opportunities I have this summer to work directly in conflict resolution programs!

I will probably consume too much coffee in the coming weeks and I hope they are all as beautiful as this one I had the other day:

So, here's to possibly the craziest, busiest, most intense 6 weeks of my life! I'm looking forward to it!

The Greatest Violence

I have lived in Israel for almost 2.5 years. I first lived here in 2005/6, the 2nd Intifada had recently ended, Israel was pulling out of Gaza, and a few weeks after I left war broke out with Lebanon
This time, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, there have been weekly demonstrations along the fence in Gaza, and gunshots can regularly be heard along the Syrian border.
Despite the reality of the conflict happening in and around Israel, I have never personally experienced it or even felt its affects. While most people from this region have been affected by this conflict, I don't think my experience of feeling distant from it is abnormal.
Western media reports on the conflict that surrounds this area because the conflict is what they find "sexy". They don't report on the hundreds of NGOs and programs that build relationships across the demographic divides and they don't report on the day to day mundane and normal interactions between Jews and Muslims.

Something else that they won't report on is the greatest amount of violence that I have personally witnessed here in Israel. I spent Saturday at the beach with my friend Alana and towards the end of the day a man started yelling loudly at another man. The altercation led to the yeller running at the other man, punching him, and repeatedly slapping him across the head. A bystander quickly reacted by running at and tackling the attacker. Once the two men were separated the man who was attacked said, "but he's my brother!" This whole interaction had been a fight between brothers. Tempers raged, they reacted emotionally, but also defended each other. They walked off together shortly thereafter with arms around each other. All of that transpired in about 5 minutes.

Alana summed it up well when she said, "that is Israel in 5 minutes".

I seems as though Western media reports on the 1 minute in which the yelling, hitting, and tackling occurs. It ignores the 4 other minutes in which brothers are enjoying each other and repairing their relationship.