VFI 2018
Report from. Israel. Volunteering on the. Army base 7 Th time
My dear family and friends around the world
Now I am volunteering on the. Army base in Gush. Etzion. I took a lot of photos of our life and work here.
All volunteers met at the. Ben. Gurion airport by coordinator of. Sar. El organization which started in 1982 during the. Lebanon war as a way to help. Israel to do maintenance work on the. Army bases, it became an international organization ——VFI- volunteers for. Israel.
Google!!!!
At the airport were groups from. Norway, Finland, Russia and a lot of returning volunteers,
4 loaded buses.
Pamela- coordinator who made an. Aliyah from. Chicago many years ago is doing a great professional job distributing people to different bases according to the requests,
4000 volunteers from all over the world came just in the last year.
You see photo of me and her at the airport.
Our English speaking group is international
11 people from 6 countries. US. UK. Australia. Canada. Switzerland. Austria,
9Jews 2. Christians. Mostly are very active professional retirees.
I met 2 people with whom I volunteered before.
Sar. El also has programs for students and young people.
Very friendly, warm, spiritual humorous atmosphere full of love and support for. Israel,
You see photo of our daily schedule .
Breakfast , flag raising emotional ceremony and after singing. Hatikva, they gave us text in. English and. Hebrew so we can sing,
Than work, at this base we did paintings of rooms and doors every day ,
I painted all the doors and you see it on photos.
This is a hard physical work and I appreciate it now much more .
You see photos of us dancing on the way to lunch-belly dancing.
Photos of dining room, we eat together with soldiers -boys and girls 18-20 years old,
All of them have weapons with them all the time,most of them have handsome and beautiful faces and their families came to. Israel from all over the world, huge melting pot.
They serve great varieties of vegetables,
chicken,meat , fish, pasta , eggs,
All delicious and healthy , sometimes too spicy for me personally but not for others.
Every evening after dinner we have activities, lectures about. Israel, structure of. Army, you see photo of names of different parts of the. Army on the floors., history, geography but no politics and religion conversations to keep peace and pleasant aura in the group, no arguing.
We have 2 girls soldiers - liaison. Madrichot
Between the. Army and. Volunteers
19 and 20 years old like my oldest grandson. Max
They are so sweet.
So nice to us and take care of every detail daily.
We are in age of their parents and grandparents and they are full of responsibilities and training as soldiers in the. Army
Happy, smiling,efficient, nothing is a problem .
Amazing. Israeli youth
IDF-Israeli DEFENCE forces is the only army in the world which gives a chance to disable people to participate in the society and to have an honor to be part of the. Army and to do the job according to their abilities
You see photos of a young guys putting green plastic around shoes to protect them from paint and painting walls as we do.
A lot of autistic soldiers are doing a very good jobs on the computers.
You see photo of me getting certificate of volunteering # 7.
We live in the primitive barracks, everything is basics but it does not matter to any of us who comes back again and again doing something bigger than yourself because it is a country of miracles in every step of the way,blooming, helping the world, leading in economy ,developments ,agriculture, water supply
science, medicine and. Nobel laureates per capita in spite of the world hate and fight .
Listening to different people from different countries we get interesting info,
for example in. Switzerland like in. US
37-38% of population have weapons but no killings, the volunteer from. Zurich told that he is a member of a shooting group and last accident in this group was 50 years ago.
Having weapons is not a problem in this country.
We are in. Judea. , beautiful nature, hills, local people came to us telling that most people here
Jews , Arabs , Christians live peacefully together, working together, shopping in the same places and having a good life but
It is not in the. Media because it does not sell,
But the terrorists , killings are always in the. Media because it sells the best.
We learn about newest technology for soldiers- bullet prove modern light and comfortable vests which save their lives and supporters can buy it and donate to individual combat soldier.
I think it is a great thing to do ,
Very effective individual charity to save a soldier life.
I wish I can volunteer longer but I have time limitation because I have to get back to work .
Love to all of you,
Get the information and try this great spiritual experience .
Inna?????????click on photos