La!

Today was my first day of volunteering in Arad. I work at the pre-school ("gan" in Hebrew) for children of Sudanese refugees. Arad has a growing Sudanese population; the Israeli government has offered refuge for people fleeing the Sudan, particularly the Darfur region, due to the ongoing genocide. The gan itself is essentially a single room: four bare walls, one small couch, two cots and a rug on a linoleum floor. There is a simple kitchen: microwave, sink, and, to my surprise, two refrigerators. The refrigerators shocked me most; the children and the woman who runs the daycare are not Jewish, so having two fridges (one for meat and one for dairy) seemed strange. In my first ten minutes there, I discovered that the second refrigerator functions as shelves for shoes (the kids run around in socks or barefoot), jackets and a very small collection of coloring supplies. Watching them trot to the second refrigerator and stuff their fraying coats and tiny Crocs inside was heartbreaking.

Children in the gan range in age from 6 months to about 5 or 6 years old. They all speak Arabic (as does Aboba, the woman who runs the gan, which is also her home) and two or three of them speak elementary Hebrew (about as much as I do). They love to color, but then crayons end up in their mouths or up their noses, and the few dolls and toys they do have can become the sources of arguments, hitting, crying and overall frustration. Luckily, there is a television in the gan; from 9am to 3pm, endless cartoons in Arabic entertain children who aren't otherwise occupied (they would rather make a jungle gym out of me or the other volunteers, run around in the park, or try to bite my painted fingernails which apparently look like candy). I must say, watching Spongebob in Arabic is an experience; Squidward's accent is about as convincing as mine.

Since most of the children only speak and understand Arabic, I decided to learn some basic words ("Nam" means Yes, "La" is No, "Salaam," like "Shalom" in Hebrew, means Hello). I really do wish I had a shekel for every time I had to say "La" today. I guess pulling my hair and untying (and then trying to eat) my shoelaces are appealing activities. My response? La!

Despite the craziness and being completely physically and emotionally draining, the children are absolutely adorable. They only want to be picked up, held and loved. Most are content to sit in my lap simply because it means they aren't sitting by themselves. Their favorite part of the day? Yogurt! Aboba hands each of us a yogurt or pudding container and a spoon, and the children come running at us, mouths open. The smart ones make rounds: they get a spoonful from one of us (everything in the gan is communal: yogurt, utensils, juice cups, etc) and then come running to someone else. This continues until the containers have been wiped clean of any and all remaining yogurt. Then, of course, cleaning up twelve faces full of sticky pudding (none of whom actually want to be cleaned) is a challenge. It's in these moments that I'm glad the gan is essentially confined to a single room; they can't go very far.

In addition to playing with the children all day, we are also responsible for spackling and repainting the backyard of the gan. It's three walls, which currently sport chipping paint and cracked concrete, a mess of dirty lawn furniture and a clothesline for Aboba's laundry. After purchasing more spackle and building materials (at Home Center, of course!) we are ready to begin our gan improvement project. I love the smell of primer in the morning (especially when it's cold enough outside for a winter coat, gloves and a scarf... in ISRAEL!)

Tomorrow is another long, tiring day with the kiddies! That's all for now - more soon!

Love and La!
Elana