Coby and I..We Came Together

Around a half a year ago I decided I wanted to Join the Israeli Defense Force. There were a few things that inspired me to do this. I used to help out the IDF by running basketball tournaments to raise money. My father is very involved with them. He and a group of people used to travel to Israel all the time to help the soldiers give them gifts and so on, even if the trip was only one day long they all went. I thought it was such a good thing that they were doing and I wanted to help out. The best way that I thought I could help out the most was to join the Israeli army.
Finally after months of planning and preparing for my trip the day finally came. My flight to Israel was August 19th 2010 at 10:15am. I took a flight connecting through Canada. I arrived on a Friday morning around 11am. It was one of the hottest days of the year that day. I got picked up from the airport by my mothers cousin Ofer, and went straight to his apartment in Herzlia and then to the beach. I had Friday night dinner with them and was home on Saturday settling in.
Sunday morning I woke up and went to the Bus Station to meet my friend Coby who came with me to Israel with the same goal and idea. We took a bus to meet the group of volunteer workers that were going to an Army Base called Tzheelim. We got there and after we got out uniform went straight to work.
They had us emptying out sheds and organizing them which I liked because I get the organizational skills from my mother. The next day we cleaned guns, and opened up really heavy camouflage tarps and folded them again. We did anything we could to make life easier for the soldiers. The beds we sleep in are 3ft by 6ft on hard metal springs with a mattress that's about 1 inch think.
The room has no air conditioning and is extremely hot. The showers are dirty and the toilets are worse. There are bugs everywhere you go. None of this bothers me because I wanted to be here to help.
We did some traveling around the country with the group. We got off on Thursday and went back home. It is now Friday and I still can't believe I'm here.
The draft date for the Army is October 24th. I will be doing volunteer work for one more week and then I will be in a program called Aish Machal. The program teaches you a better understanding of hebrew, some learning, survival skills, training with paint ball guns and get you into shape. It prepares you phyically and mentally for the army. It is six weeks long and they help you with all the paper work and everything you need since its a little harder for an Lone Soldier( someone from outside the country that is joining the IDF). I will be adding posts to this blog as much as I can Shabbat Shalom.
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