pizatsta, two broken tents, and an M-16: five days of the "Israeli army"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBY2WVBmTcY

GADNA: Israeli army boot camp for teens. It was hell throughout most of the week, but at the end and looking back on it I have very fond memories. One of those things that you forget how miserable you were while it was happening. The sad thing was, that 1. the food was better than the food at the chava, 2. I got more sleep there and we had 5:15 wake up, and 3. I showered once wait twice in five days of wearing the same uniform.
We had to count down through every task we did. The mifaked (commander) would give us a certain amount of time to do a task, almost always much too short and make us yell out how much time we had until we reached zero. At zero, we would have to be standing in the shape of a chet with our hands behind our backs. Our heels had to touch and toes out (first position for all you dancers) and if we wanted to move at all (itching, touching your hair, yawn, etc) you had to step out of the chet to do so. If we made a mistake, or were late, or did anything wrong for that matter, we were punished. Punishment usually meant running a lot or doing push ups. We were in the field on Tuesday and spent the entire day running, doing pizatsta (a tactic to get to the ground quickly), playing camoflauge games, and doing indian crawling ( I still have a nasty bruise). After a few hours of hell, we walked to a seperate area for our lesson with the mamem. He spoke about gun safety and the parts of a gun while we shielded our eyes from the sandstorm. At one point, I stuck my whole face underneath my uniform to prevent sand from getting in my mouth, eyes, and nose. We looked at each other with worry wondering if they were still planning on making us run back to the base. Sand was literally everywhere and they told us to pull down a sand shield that was connected to our hats. We lined up in two rows for them to count us and she punched our shoulder (a little too hard) as she did so. They handed out two flags, one was the Pluga flag... a flag representing their base and the other was the Israeli flag. She handed the Israeli flag to me. Great, this meant we were still running. The somelet had to scream for everyone to hear her over the storm, but we got the gist of what she said. We were still running... this is a part of the army. We do what we have to do no matter the circumstances. We will do this with pride, and we will do this well, yada yada yada. I just didn't want to get blown away. After a few minutes, we were off. All 68 of us + mifaked/mifadets ran through the bleak desert. The flag flapped wildly in the air, which made it difficult to run, but we had the biggest adrenaline rush. A little while later we were commanded to stop and face the flat desert scenery. The somelet asked us what we saw. She got a few answers though-- sand, telephone poles, nothing. We decided it looked pretty dead. The somelet explained that just a few miles up the road, a kibbutz owns a fishery. "There is always life in the Negev," she said. It was something that really stuck with me. Yes, this desolate desert land is also used to give life to fish... but it also gave life to our group TRY. If I were anywhere else I would have complained the entire way or given up or cried, but instead, I was a part of the living or the spirited in the desert. We cheered and sang and encouraged each other and truly made the best out of a bad situation. This in essence is giving life to the Negev. This is what Israeli soldiers died for-- an enthusiastic young Jewish nation, and that's what we gave them as we hollered and sang the entire way home.

On return to the base, we arrived to find one of the tents completely destroyed with a huge piece of an electrical pole lying down the middle. 1. scary, 2. dangerous, and 3. annoying to fix. It was pouring rain at this point, and my tent still didn't get the light fixed. We put our belongings in the middle of the tent and ran to our group's boy tent. We were soaked. Wind shook the tent violently and we huddled together to keep warm. I know this sounds like some cheesy disney channel movie..like cadet kelly or something, but it happened, promise. Suzanne and Ben started singing and we all joined in as we clutched each other and shielded each other from the weather. אַחֵינוּ כָּל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל, הַנְּתוּנִים בְּצָרָה וּבַשִּׁבְיָה, הָעוֹמְדִים בֵּין בַּיָּם וּבֵין בַּיַּבָּשָׁה, הַמָּקוֹם יְרַחֵם עֲלֵיהֶם, וְיוֹצִיאֵם מִצָּרָה לִרְוָחָה, "וּמֵאֲפֵלָה לְאוֹרָה, וּמִשִּׁעְבּוּד לִגְאֻלָּה, הַשְׁתָּא בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב, וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן. This translates to "Our brothers the whole house of Israel, who are in distress and captivity, who wander over sea and over land -- may God have mercy on them, and bring them from distress to comfort, from darkness to light, from slavery to redemption, now, swiftly, and soon. And let us say: Amen." We didn't choose this song because of it's meaning, but when i looked up the translation, I find it so fitting. Sure, GADNA was trying, and difficult at times, but it's not real. If things got really bad, we would bus home. Unfortunately, real soldier do not have it this easy as you all know. Soldier like Gilad Shalit are being held captive god knows where and having god knows what happen to them. We went on singing for about twenty minutes until the mifaked came back in. We sat on the beds in a semi circle facing him. He looked very serious and held up an Israeli flag. He asked us what it meant to us. I told him that I felt more connected to it than I do to the American flag. Almost everyone agreed. We talked about it for a while, then talked about Jewish symbols. I could barely see the people around me because it was so dark and the wind and rain continued to violently shake the tent. He asked what we would die for. Some people said Israel.. I don't really know what I would die for. I think it's something that you have to be in the situation to know. Someone told him that they think it's a better question to ask what we would live for. I think I live for experiences like these. I live for bettering myself and using that to help and teach other people.

After our talk, the boys tent pretty much completely colapsed and another group's tent collapsed as well. We ran to salvage our things and took cover in the dining hall. We were told that we would sleep there and continued to set up the room for the night. It was mass chaos with everyone, their things, the mattresses, blankets, sleeping bags, and the fact that we were all soaking wet. Finally things were relatively well set up and we collapsed and slept beautifully... until 5:15 wake-up that is.

Wednesday-- Nothing much to tell... we had a LOT of classes relating to guns and gun safety and how to shoot and behave in a shooting range. Other than that, we did a bunch of chores, ate meals, oh! and visited the house of Ben-Gurion. I slept through most of the lectures. That night we sat in a circle and he asked us what our mothers would say if they saw us right now. I answered that she would tell me to take a shower. Most people's responses sounded a lot like that. Suzanne asked him what his mother would say. He told us that it wasn't appropriate to ask him anything personal, but said that he could probably answer that on the last day.

Thursday-- Shooting range day. We're in the home stretch. We woke up happy knowing that we would only wake up once more in this tent and it would be to pack up and leave. Hallelujah! We had more gun classes and more chores. After lunch, we loaded the buses and drove to the shooting range. We got out and waited for our turn to shoot. I was getting increasingly nervous as I heard group 1's shots go off. It was VERY loud and I started feeling very unsure and unprepared to handle such a large and dangerous weapon. Group one finished and it was our turn to go. We walked into the range and sat in akshev with our backs facing the targets. Each command led us one step closer to shooting. We placed the head phones on to block out most of the sound. Then we laid down, put in the magazine, turned the gun on semi-automatic, loaded the weapon, and waited for them to kick our foot to tell us when to go. The shouted EISH which means fire, and kicked my foot and I shot 10 times. It was a really intense experience. I don't know whether I liked it or didn't like it. I think it was more a feeling of power and the fact that I never want to have that kind of power again. We loaded the bus again, ate dinner, then fell asleep for the last time in our crooked cots and dirt infested sleeping bags.

Thursday: We woke up smiling and in good spirits. Today was the last day. We organized the tents, cleaned the bathrooms, ate breakfast, cleaned the campus and head off to closing ceremonies. They were held at Ben-Gurion's grave and we stood for about an hour in akshev. I would have been a lot more annoyed about it, but it was the last day so I really didn't mind. We walked back, turned in our uniforms, cleaned the bathrooms AGAIN, ate our lunch of meat sticks and pita and met for the last time with our mifaked. The entire week he'd been stern and demanding of us. Never did he crack a smile, laugh or do anything that consisted of having a personality. We walked over and sat down in front of him in a chet. He stood in silence for about three minutes then continued to speak. My name is Peleg and I grew up in a kibbutz up North. Then the most miraculous, unexpected thing happened. He smiled. We all looked at each other and smiled... confused and unsure. Our commander of five days went from being just commander, to person. He told us that we could ask him questions. He told us his favorite movies, and that he had a girlfriend named Yael. We learned about his CD collection and the times when he wanted to laugh at us the most. We went from smiling to laughing hysterically. Each group and their leader experienced the same weird break through around us and the entire campus was filled with joy. As he wrote down his name for us to look him up on facebook, someone remembered the question of what our mothers would say. They perked up and asked "What would your mother say if they could see you right now?"

He said she would be very proud.