Waiting On The World To Change

Currently listening to this song and reflecting on life while writing a paper for my "Jewish Settlements in Israel pre-1948" class.

Going Gray

Today as a friend was giving me a neck massage since I had a headache (yes, I know, I have amazing caring friends), she found something that did not belong. A gray hair, well, silver actually. Don't worry, it is no longer attached to my head. I still try to insist that it is because I am turning blond from the intense Middle-Eastern sun.

But, honestly, I am not that surprised. This place, coupled with nursing, has been the most emotionally stressful experience I have ever had. I don't even know how to adequately explain it, examples will have to suffice.

Example 1 - this place. This past Sunday the Penn nurses were on an Arab bus on our way to Old City to experience a Purim celebration with our professor. We were pulled over by a group of Israel Police Officers. Everyone had to produce a passport or ID (which by the way, you don't need to ride a bus). He took one man off of the bus. We waited while 3 officers searched, interrogated, and just took their precious time with this man. Eventually the man came back to the bus to get his little son. The police interrogated and stood around some more. Eventually the man told the bus driver to leave, and him and his son piled into the Police Car. Such disturbing pointless intimidation tactics. Such racism. Such hate. And all we could do was watch.

Example 2 - nursing. I saw my first death. It affected me so much more than I thought it would. Especially considering that she was not even my patient. I knew nothing about this little 4 year old girl other than her medical condition, which I will not share. I watched almost an entire resuscitation attempt. It was fine as long as we were discussing technical skills applied and the physiology of the girl's condition. Somehow 45 minutes into watching the trauma put on this tiny body it hit me, and I had to leave. 15 minutes later they called it. I get shivers just writing about it. I cried. I keep thinking about it. I know it is better, that she was in no state to live, but I was there while she died. And all I could do was watch.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Clowns. Some fear them, some love them, but few think to go to school to become one. Not to mention to become a specialized clown. But in countries outside of the United States, apparently that idea is not so far fetched. Medical clowns are a staple in the Pediatric Hospital of Hadassah (and I've been told most other countries). They go through a Medical Clown College of some sort to become certified, legit Medical Clowns. The work they do is truly amazing. A child's laughter is the most beautiful thing, and I've never seen a clown fail.

The Work had to begin eventually

We have now completed 2 weeks of nursing classes. And I still have no idea what is going on. Our schedule is different day by day, week by week. Often I look at the schedule the night before so I know when and where I need to be the next day. It is too varied to keep track of, and too overwhelming to really look at. Taking Pediatrics and Obstetric courses simultaneously is enough to make anyone crazy, squeezing them into 2.5 months is something else. Not to mention an additional night class at Rothberg International School. One thing that seems to be consistent is a 6am wake up time. Our nursing classes and clinicals are an hour bus commute away from our dorms. I’m not quite sure who engineered that one.

My clinical this past week was at Alyn Pediatric Rehabilitation Hospital . This is truly an amazing facility. Each child has such individualized care. They design each kid a specific chair to mold to their body and provide the support they need, as well as corsets, braces, casts, and anything else. There is multidisciplinary care including occupational therapy, school, hydrotherapy, nutrition, and of course nursing care. Even the kids that have no hope in regaining function, they make sure to exercise the abilities they do have as not to lose them. Every faculty member knew every child. It truly appeared to be a cross-cultural family operation. Political and cultural views were put aside to work together for these children.

Next week my clinical will be at the PICU at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem. We split into groups of 1 or 2 and do two days at each location. This has its benefits: we have very personalized attention and are able to gather a taste of different floors and facilities. However, the negative seems to outweigh the positive for this setup. We are not allowed to do anything. We are not with a specific clinical instructor, and therefore can't work under someone else's license. It is frustrating. We were thrown into our Medical-Surgical and Geriatric rotations last semester and gained so many skills, but are not able to practice or improve them.

The lectures on the other hand, are much better than at Penn. With a class of 5 students it is much more relaxed, personalized, and gives leeway for more interesting stories and information applicable to Israel. You also get to know your professors very well. Oh, and best of all, class pauses when you need a bathroom break.

The Best Laid Plans...

February 21-23
…are no plans at all. We decided to make the most of our last free weekend before intense nursing classes began. What better way than to go to a warm sunny beach on the Red Sea. We found a hotel for cheap in Eilat the night before, made our reservations, got on the bus after our Hebrew Finals and were on our way. Five hours later, at 11pm we arrived at our hotel, only to find that we “misunderstood” the price, and in fact they were going to charge us double the amount they quoted to us on the phone. Through a little struggle and a phone call to the manager they finally agreed to cancel the reservation without charging the credit card the full amount.

So, here we were, 8 girls, 1 boy, wandering Eilat at 11pm without a place to sleep. Pretty comical really, but it gets better. We decided to go back to the bus station, because we saw a couple hostels around. While walking through the station we ran into a group of boys from Spain who also needed a place to stay. The group of us was wandering up toward the hostels when we were approached by a woman saying “place to stay, very cheap.” We bargained with her for a little bit just for fun, but after she became pushy we realized it was just a bit too sketchy. The Spanish boys went with another man in a Jeep. We continued on our way...

While we split up to inquire about different hostels about open beds and pricing, the woman drove by and honked, then she stopped up by the other group and started bargaining again. She was going to give us 10 shekels less per person for two nights. We had to convince our friend that $2.50 was not worth risking our lives.

We ended up finding a beautiful hostel. The man who owned it has traveled all over the world, is an architect/designer, and designed his hostel. He even has the “nicest house in Israel” to rent out, and he was not exaggerating. Nestled into our room we had an intense 2 hour conversation (that prompted my previous post) and called it a night.

The first day was very relaxed. We wondered around the beach shopping at different stands. It was gorgeous. A sea with the bluest water I have ever seen, surrounded by looming mountains. We meandered up the jetty to see if there were any boat rides on the Red Sea that seemed appealing. We were invited onto a man’s boat to explore. To our surprise to was a beautiful pirate ship (okay, some might call it a sailing ship)! The cruise left the next morning, so we signed right up! For 125 Shekels (about $35) we got a 4 hour cruise to the border of Israel/Egypt and Jordan/Sinai, delicious Israeli BBQ lunch, time to jump off the ship into the Sea with a rope swing, and relax or dance while music played. It was truly a vacation and an adventure. And of course it turned out so much better than if it was planned.

Words

I now give you a break from our regularly scheduled broadcasting to bring you some thoughts on religion and politics. Studying abroad is not all fun and games (although a lot of it is). A lot of it is about meeting new people, and examining your own thoughts and beliefs. I have been challenged on all accounts here. Not only am I in the minority, as I have mentioned before, because I am not Jewish. I am in the minority, because I am not Christian, or religious at all for that matter. In fact, here, I am almost alone.

My Christian friends here consider themselves socially liberal. However, they exclude in this issues that they consider religious issues. These religious issues (gay marriage and abortion, for example) are very much ones that I would include as social issues. As it turns out a lot of these differences in opinions are simply a matter of twisting words. I consider it a vote "for the women's right to choose" whereas others consider it a vote "for abortion, for murder." I think of marriage as "legal rights granted to two people who love each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together" while others see it as "a union between a man and a women under God." It is all nit-picky definitions. I am not going to go extensively into my views and reasons now as it is emotionally wearing for me. Who can look at my two friends who are completely in love, and tell them they should not/cannot be together? or that it is a sin to love someone?

As far as foreign policies go, I have always been on the fence. Obviously genocides and oppression are never okay. But on less severe issues, I feel like a government is often reflective of a culture. Can we ever really tell a people to change a culture we do not understand?

Words are so important to any politician. They can make or break a campaign. The words "Yes We Can" have made all the difference for Borack Obama. And I'm not going to lie, they are extremely inspirational. Although he was not my first choice, nor my second for the democratic nomination, his speaking skills are phenomenal. This (apart from his politics) is one of the reasons I detest President George W. Bush. I believe a president should be a great speaker (even if it is just presenting speeches written for them). I personally want a President who can express himself eloquently, and much better than I can.
Despite the ambiguity of words, and being challenged on the beliefs I currently stand alone in, I have learned how passionately I feel about issues and people. To the point of tears. It is not easy to be alone. But if we don't have strength, what do we have?

Under the Desert Sun

February 15-16, 2008
Large group trips really aren’t my thing, especially when the crowd resembles that of freshmen during New Student Orientation (NSO). That said, I can’t complain too much for another free trip, this time for a whole weekend to Mitzpe Ramon.

The original itinerary of a 4 hour hike was adjusted due to risk of floods in the desert. I for one was extremely disappointed, but I can’t say the same for most of the girls on the trip. Instead we rode the buses from site to site, got out, wandered around, listened to the tour guide say a few words, and got back into the bus. Enjoyable enough, just not what I had anticipated.

We checked into our hostel (which by the way I was very impressed with for a hostel - Each bunk room had its own bathroom and shower). While most people went to Shabbat services a small group of us decided to explore. The town of Mitzpe Ramon is located right on the edge of the cliff of the crater. It is absolutely breathtaking. We climbed up a hill with a camel shaped viewing area on top and watched the sunset over the desert.

Saturday was much more enjoyable. We woke up bright and early to head off into the desert for archery. Not the typical archery, but a sport closely resembling Frisbee golf. It is actually quite ingenious. As the owner told us, he wanted to replace golf with this form of archery. It takes the same skill, concentration, and focus, but you can play on the natural terrain. Golf wastes so many resources solely trying to maintain the grass. Good luck actually making that happen. It was a great experience and we all had a blast briefly learning technique and then just trying over and over with different distanced targets hiking across the desert.

A bathroom break led us to discover that this archery place was a hidden gem. Inside the fence was an open air shelter with a kitchen, and an abundance of mattresses and blankets. Inside were students just sitting, smoking hookah, drinking tea, and playing the guitar. It costs 80 shekels to spend a night on the floor, which is a little expensive seeing how the hostel was 90, but the atmosphere was amazing. We sat and chatted for awhile before returning to our group to carve sandstone.

After lunch 2 of us decided to diverge from the group “hike” and go for a real hike of our own. The view from the top of the crater was amazing, but we wanted to find a way to get down into it. After a little exploration we found a trail leading down the cliff. Hands down this was the highlight of my weekend. Nothing compares to the desert. It is the most relaxing, serene experience. It was the sound of utter silence. A picture looks as if you cut out our heads and pasted it on a background. You feel insignificant as the cliff walls surround you and you are in the middle of a vast open crater. The joy and awe I felt at that moment is inexplicable.