What a Week!!!

This whole week went by way way way too fast!  I can’t believe I’ve already taught my first week of English classes….and I didn’t die…  I think what makes this time so easy for me is the fact that I truly love what I do. I know I joke about the occasional roach or snake sighting, but it’s all part of the job (if you can even call it that).  What I prefer to call this is my niche. Everyone out there has something that they are really keen at doing and have just a natural knack for. Now, I’m not going so far as to say I’m the best at what I do, actually on the contrary, I think I have a very long way to go in order to be the kind of person I desire to become. But, this is a very nice start I must say!

The first thing I love about my time in Israel are the people.  You can have loads of money, status, power, but if you don’t have the vital relationships, which house your inner being and allow your true self to shine through, what quality of life do you actually have?  People bring out you.  The specific relationships each person has with another bring out the raw parts of their own being, whether that being is sarcastic, genuine, loving, cold, adorable, devious, or what have you…it’s all you.  The ideal person of course is the one that gets down to the authentic you….the you you.  That particular person is a difficult one to find, one might think, some people search their whole lives to find that the only true person who knows them the best is God.  But, I say to you this, God did not make us in the likeness of himself to only be known by Him. No.  So, should we blame God for not creating enough people to choose who to peel back our onion layers to.  I say no to that as well.  It’s up to us to be authentic, to be vulnerable, to let someone see you in not the best light, to be human.  Obviously easier said then done, but rest assured, once you battle this demon inside to always be perfect all the time and actually let the “I really didn’t feel like taking a shower today, so I just sprayed an extra squirt of bodysplash on” person show through, you will kick yourself for not doing it sooner.

Why do I bring this up? This, what may seem like an anomaly of a thought, because sometimes the easiest people to be yourself around are perfect strangers.  Now I’m not saying you have to go the woman standing in front of you at the grocery store and tell her your life’s story and your childrens’ stories, and how your husband hates his job, or how you can never make the same apple pie your grandma used to make and it just kills you….Unless you have a minimum of twenty cats this is not an appropriate vulnerability exercise.  All I’m saying is recognize a good deed, or share a moment with an acquaintance from work who secretly gets on your nerves, or go out of your way to make someone laugh, or help someone through a rough time.  Befriend a stranger and you have no idea what may happen; that stranger or acquaintance may become a friend for life or be slightly impacted by something you did or said.

The easiest people I find it is to be myself around are two kinds of people. One, my family and very close friends, because it really doesn’t matter how much of a goof you look in front of them because they will love you anyways. Two, strangers because you will most likely only see them once in your entire life.  Or, there is the dreaded category three: acquaintances, but those people you may never see again, or they may become a friend for life….so really what do you have to lose?  The men in the shelter are not shy about talking to me eventhough they’ve only known me two weeks.  Vitaly, whom I thought I would never get more than two words out of if I were lucky and I saw a pig fly out of my window, now raises his hands, tries to be the first in line to use the computer, and repeatedly shakes my hand to say “Hi, my name is Vitaly. How are you today?”  He puts himself out there, in the open, naked and vulnerable.  It’s admirable to say the least.  Vitaly is an alcoholic, and the only reason I know that is because the first sentence he typed on Microsoft Word was, “I don’t drink vodka anymore.” And, I don’t know if that was a courageous thing for him or not, but I don’t know many people who would sit down in front of a perfect stranger and type, “I don’t look at porn anymore” or “I don’t cheat on my husband anymore.”

I realize there are two ways of looking at that act.  Some counselors will say if you write it or type it you’re thinking about it, which to a certain degree I do validate.  However, there is another side to the coin, which is showing how number one, this person is able to identify they have or had a problem, and two, be able to be held accountable of this problem by not allowing themselves to partake anymore.  Accountability, this is exactly what we need more of.  If we had accountability we wouldn’t have bred this mentality “Oh, no matter what I’ll have someone to take care of me”……and yes, that was a jab at our newly proposed healthcare policy.  I’m sorry I don’t wish to pay for someone else’s healthcare insurance who wears nicer clothes than I do, and has a playstation3 thingy and a Gucci purse, but because their insurance card says Medicaid, this means they are privey to me paying for their lovely visit to the ER because Timmy over here decided it would be a fun idea to jump on top of the glass coffee table, and because mommy doesn’t watch Timmy because she obviously has more important things to do than be a parent, I should be held accountable of Timmy’s unforeseen misfortune...right?!!?!??!  (ugh….I know I just got on my soap box, but promise me if I was there in person talking with you right now it could have been much worse, and there is no amount of Pinot Noir in Napa Valley that could calm me down)  Point is if we had shelters for people who just can’t prioritize their money we might be able to decrease the homeless rate nationally and internationally right there.

But back to the guys….tomorrow I’m going to give them their first quiz, examining how much information they were able to retain from last week's lesson.  I also gave them a writing assignment I thought would be interesting for both them to do and for me to read.  I wanted to get an idea of what their writing style is like as well as give them a platform to tell me more about themselves, and indirectly you as well.  Because Passover is soon approaching (Monday the 29^th), I told them to write about a time in their lives where they did not listen to God, and what was the result of that action?  This was suppose to parallel the tale of Pharaoh not heeding Moses’ warning from God to let the Jewish slaves go.  As a result to Pharaoh’s disobedience, God bestowed upon Egypt many plagues, and of course the last being the most drastic, killing all of the first-born Egyptian sons.  Needless to say, I’m excited to receive these writing assignments, and now pose the question to all of you. If you would like to write me about your thoughts please feel free to send me an email at richter.tikva@gmail.com. I promise not to name names, but I am curious.  Next blog I'll reveal a time that I did not listen to God when he was calling me to do something.

Wishes, hopes, and dreams. Today we did the feeding in the park.  I want so bad for the women of Tel Aviv to have a shelter to go to.  It just really scares me to think girls as young as 14 or 15 thrust into a world of sex-trafficking and made to partake in awful and unsafe acts in exchange for money, which they don’t even get to keep most of it.  Everything that we would shield our daughters, sisters, nieces, and granddaughters from, these women have to endure on a daily basis. It becomes a perpetual hole that just keeps digging itself deeper and deeper until the debt is so large, it’s nearly impossible to see an end to this inferno.  I am of the belief you can’t help those who don’t want to help themselves, and I think that is why I love working at the Men' shelter, but what about those who cry out, but can’t be heard?  What about the women of Tel Aviv-Yafo?  I’m sure they have voices, and I know everytime they step in that line to get food, that is a cry, but where do they go?  Gene is always saying to me, “when you’re not ok, tell me, because everytime I ask you if you’re cold or if you’re hungry, you always say you’re ok.”  In comparison to these women, these girls, I am ok, I’m more than ok….after this I get to go home to a family that loves me and a warm bed and food.  Where do the women of Tel Aviv go?  I wish and I hope someday I will have that answer….I wish someday I’ll be able to say to the Women's Shelter, to their home.