Purim!!!!!

              Much has changed since my last post, and it may surprise many to know that I am now back on Ketura, and after all of the back and forth balancing act, I decided to head back to re-insert myself where I left off, coming back to the Machon with all the others after our shared semester break. Then again, it may not surprise many people who have had more personal interactions with me thus far in my Israel journey – on the blog I have tried to put my public face forward and give an insight into the wonderful things that have been going on, and thus have tried to make it more a personal writing project than a personal diary, and keep the messiness off the page. I’ll only allude to it now, as a supplication to the audience for patience and understanding as I half stumble my way through, and to for this moment accept another change of plans at face value. I finished up with SACH and said goodbye to the kids, which was quite heartbreaking. They all came out with me to wait for the taxi, and while we waited I made the mistake of putting one of them up on my shoulders. The taxi waited for an extra five minutes while each little one got their fair turn running around 8 feet off the ground.
                  Back to the Machon, I’ve also changed projects and supervisors, and will now be working on issues of environmental and public health in the region. Should be very, very interesting! More on the specifics as it progresses. That out of the way…

PURIM!!!!!

Yes, Purim is here in Israel, the Carnival of Jewish holidays during which it is a virtual commandment to inebriate yourself to the point where you don’t know who you are, where you are, or what is right and wrong. This commandment is paralleled by many shifting meanings and identities throughout the Megilla, the book that contains the story of Purim, which supposedly happened around the middle of the first Millennium BC in Persia. It’s definitely of the Jewish “they tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat” holiday archetype, only it’s a little more like “they tried to kill us, we won, let’s dress up, get Schwasted and dance all night.” In Israel Purim is kind of like Halloween and Carnival rolled into one, and they take it very, very seriously. And I’m not one to argue.
               At the Machon, I’ve been attempting to step up my theatre initiatives. Last semester’s drama club met a couple of times, and it was a fun break from studying, but I want to expand the breadth of it to include some work during the Peace Building and Environmental Leadership activities, and to potentially even put together a little theatrical presentation at the end of the semester. We’ve started out strong, putting on an audience participation-based storytelling/improv show of the Purim story, including many classic improv games, and hopefully we’ll get into the swing of it this semester.
               And finally, rain down here in the Arava, by all accounts quite rare, has become old news, with another big storm coming in the past couple of days, causing flooding and power outages. My theory is that, just like winter rolled in on the physical winds of change, pretty soon we’ll be back splashing in the pool and panting like dogs in the noonday sun. Here’s hoping.
               And finally finally, shout out to the Canadian Olympic team!!!  What's that?  More Gold Medals than any other country thus far?  Boo Yah!