Hi,
Off to work we go – breakfast and a taxi ride to community service. Most of us are tutoring English in schools and others are working in the rehab center. Each of us has different, but rewarding experiences. Marcia Bercov describes here experience:
“It started early this morning with a walk to Balfour School to meet with students there and help them with their English studies. During a typical morning, three small groups of students, Grades 4 to 6, join us in the library for some informal conversation along with reading and study from their workbooks. I am always amazed at the students, their English skills and their own personal stories. Some have parents who come from English speaking countries, and are very comfortable with the language. The students come from a variety of countries, such as South Africa, France, and Argentina. They have so many and varied talents. Many swim or play sports like soccer or tennis. Some do gymnastics or dance, some sing in a choir, and others play musical instruments including violin, saxophone, clarinet and piano. Many have travelled abroad, or have family or friends in the U.S. or Canada. I always like to take an atlas to show the students where Edmonton is, and tell them a little about our city. But what they like best of all is seeing pictures of winter, like people skating in Hawrelak Park or the one of a large snowman complete with carrot nose, scarf and black stovepipe hat. He was found just around the corner from our house early in January. The children are always full of surprises, and today one asked me the English words for the following, which she demonstrated very well – sneeze, cough, hiccup, yawn and burp!”
Our afternoons are spent touring “off the beaten” track historical sites and small museums. We really relish these unusual places. They are full of wonderful art, history and stories describing life of the pioneers and early settlers who built the country.
This past week, we visited HaAretz Museum …which in addition to special exhibitions on 100 years of Tel Aviv …have a wonderful gift shop…always time to shop or at least – a look! A visit to Ashkelon National Park, along the lovely coastline – south of Tel Aviv, took us to excavations from the days of the Phoenicians, Romans, Persians and other layers of civilizations. The Park is quite large and on the sunny day that we were there – was filled with hundreds of children enjoying a school outing! Their voices were like music to our ears!
The Reuben Rubin Museum which was once the home of Rubin – is a real gem (located in center of Tel Aviv). A special exhibit of Israeli artists was featured watermelons as the theme. Our guide gave us a new perspective on the interpretation of the artists’ works.
Another day, we traveled a few miles – still in Tel Aviv – to Mikva Yisrael – Israel’s first agriculture school.
Enjoy our tour as you view the pictures.
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Shabbat Shalom to all of you.
CAARI 2010