Some family history

I'm back on my travel blog! its summer 2007, i was in Montreal for a month doing the Explore bursary program at UQAM and now i'm in Israel to attend Lisa's brothers wedding and of course visit family. The purpose of this post however is to write down some family history for myself before i forget it because it's really amazing.

The state of Israel was formed in 1948 and my dad's parents living in Morocco at the time with their 6 children (including my dad) decided they were going to immigrate to Israel. They took a boat for France where they lived in a refugee style camp until it became feasible for them to continue on to Israel. My dad's 3 oldest siblings left first, as part of a youth movement, and were put into boarding school there. When my grandparents arrived in Israel, they lived in a tent for about a year, waiting to be placed in a home by the newly formed government, at the time dealing with the coordination of thousands of new immigrants. My grandfather was apparently very stubborn and would not be placed anywhere in the country except for Jerusalem, which was the first choice of many. From the tent city they were then moved to a shanty shack town where they remained for about 4 years, refusing to go anywhere but Jerusalem where the waiting lists were the longest. The toilets and fresh water there were blocks away from where they slept. My grandmother didn't work at the time but received money from the government to raise her kids. My grandma told me she didn't want to think of that time or it would make her cry because of all the hardships they endured. Ultimately the hardships consisted of two big events that occured during their time in the temporary housing: My grandfather died at a young age from a brain tumour, leaving my grandma alone with 7 kids. My dad's younger sister had been born about a year ago in Israel and she was the 7th. Unfortunately she too died that same year (1951-1954??) at around the age of only 1 due to the lack of medical facilities in the new country. Somehow my grandma continued on, always making sure her kids were going to school, well clothed and nourished. My dad being only about 2 years old when arriving in Israel says he never knew they were poor growing up because of the care my grandma took in raising them. He only realized later when a teenager looking back at his younger years. On the death of my grandfather, my grandma's parents and grandma (my great grandparents and great great grandmother) came to Israel from Morocco too to help my grandma out. They were not allowing many elderly or sickly people into the country at that time because they realized the importance of strengthning the country with youthful vigor due the issues that were constantly facing Israel at its young age. Due to the circumstances though, my great grandparents and great great grandmother were given an exemption and allowed to immigrate. My grandpa's parents also came to Israel from Morocco however they came as tourists and then never left.

Things started looking up when after about 4 years in the shacks my grandmother started renting a 1 bedroom apartment from the government in Jerusalem for her and the 3 children with her that weren't either married by now or still in boarding school. About 10 years later the government would offer up the apartment complex for purchase and my grandmother bought her unit where she lives to this day.

My grandma started working 2 jobs as a cleaning lady at the Dutch embassy as well as at government buildings. She also fit in Hebrew language classes to learn the country's language as she only spoke Moroccan Arabic and French at the time. She would apparently wake up at 5 in the morning (which she still did until recently or maybe even still does today, probably out of habit), make breakfast lunch and dinner for her kids, then leave to work not to return until the evening.

Another stroke of luck granted her the position of household and maintenance supervisor for the government buildings. The old supervisor had resigned and they had appointed her as the temporary supervisor until they could find someone more "qualified" eg. educated. Luckily they never did and she retained her supervisor position. Things seemed to have only gone uphill from there. All 6 of her children married and had kids of their own. she has 21 grandchildren and an exponentially larger amount of great grandchildren not to mention 1 or 2 great great grandchildren. i've never seen a family so tightly knit who care for their Alpha Mother so well (granted i'm slightly biased here). She just recently had her 90th birthday. and that's the end of the story!

Vancouver June 17, 2006

So my Israel trip was cut short 2 weeks by the death of my grandpa back home. I found out hours after it happened, and within hours i was already on a flight back home. it was so crazy and hectic how fast everything just happened. i'm happy i chose to come home though. i start painting with Studentworks on Monday. More photos have been added to previous albums, mostly Birthright trip.

Tel Aviv June 9th

Yesterday was huge! i found a volunteer position at Latet, an Israeli humanitarian aid organization, so spent most of the day at their office walking distance from Freeman's place. The office was a riot! Great young crew of people that work there, some were doing some arts and crafts for a volunteer appreciation event coming up, then at one point everyone broke out into Happy Birthday for someones 30th birthday and we all got cake.

After that in the evening i went to my first hebrew class at Ulpan Gordon. It's going to be quite useful.

Last night we had a big night as Freeman's roommate Seth got back from the the army, hit up some bars and clubs in the Lilem Bloom area.

2 things i've learnt in the past few days: Firstly, apparently a lot of girls in the army spend more than a month's salary (they don't get paid much for the mandatory service) to get their army issued pants and shirt custom tailored so they look better in uniform. i'm not complaining. Secondly, Freeman's place at night is only 2 blocks away from transvestite central of Tel Aviv!

Pictures

Tel Aviv June 7th

So i am starting hebrew classes twice a week starting this Thursday evening and am now looking for one more little thing like a volunteer placement to take up just a bit more time. I haven't been getting bored yet though as there's been tons of random Canadians that were on birthright trips i've been hanging out with as well as Freeman's various friends.

The past few days have been fun, nothing really worth noting except for Sunday night which ended up being one of the most random and debaucherous nights ever, which is crazy consistering all the action took place in one location and only involved 5 people, yet the ramifications reached much further. it was like straight out of a movie, i can't go into it here, but you may ask, and i might tell.

What i miss about Vancouver is that smoking isn't allowed pretty much anywhere. What i'll miss about here is that you can drink on the streets in public, and even leave the bar, walk across the street to a corner store, buy a shot of something for cheap, then head back into the bar.

Tel Aviv June 4th

I woke up at 6:30 this morning hoping to start hebrew classes today, but turns out i gotta take a test first to see what level i'm at and the earliest i can do that is at 5 tomorrow. ah well, i've got some free time today to relax. Went for a run this morning at 8:30 and it was already way too hot!

Yesterday was eventful. did a run on the beach with Freeman and his friend Gil from the army. Met some ladies, gave out my number twice, one will call, the other won't lol got some expert workout advice from an old muscular man with deffinately not enough fat on his body, and another guy Elan that was sitting under the same wooden hut as us with his wife and kid gave us advice the whole day on how to pick up women. he thought exactly like freeman it was scary! Last night one of Freeman's friends Oren, myself, and 2 Canadian girls we just met at the bar at dinner went for drinks and chilled. i love how easy its been to meet other travellers, like as soon as you hear english or french, you're like hey! we have so much in common! even if it only ends up being the shared language. but i can see how easy it'd be to get stuck in the ex-pat bubble.

In other news, fortunately one half of Borhan's watermelon he's storing at Freeman's without approval has mysteriously dissapeared, although we're waiting for it to dissapear entirely as neither Freeman nor i like watermelon's or their devious plans to conquer the world.

Pictures!

Tel Aviv June 3rd

The past 2 days i've been living the life. Partying hard at night, waking up at 12 and spending the rest of the day at the beach! This lifestyle will end tomorrow though when i get up early to check out hebrew classes. i'll probably be learning hebrew intensively 5 days a week for the next month. i need to be productive so this will be good.

Last night was awesome! after a dinner of terds on rice Freeman and I crammed 15 people into Freeman's tiny apartment in Tel Aviv. The place is so small my bed doubles as a couch, the computer seat and the table as we're eating breakfast on it right now. Its a really nice place though. afterwards we went bar hopping, had a great night, talking to various people in english and hebrew, although my hebrew doesn't get me very far at all lol once we got kicked out of Lima Lima's at the end of the night for playing with the DJ equipment we retired to the pad in sketchy South Tel Aviv. There's hardly any hebrew speaking Israeli's in Freeman's building, its mostly philipino's and russian's, makes for an interesting dynamic.

i've been getting a great taste of both the hebrew speaking community here mostly through Freeman's army friends, as well as the anglo community (thats what they call themselves). theres like quite the niche of english speakers here, there's even a tel aviv anglo yahoo group. anyway we're off to the beach. lehitraot. oh! btw, look up hadag nachash , great Israeli hip hop.

Jerusalem again, May 29th, 2006

So 2 nights (Saturday) ago Todd Karen and i went to Tel Aviv for the night for one lastt night of partying and reunion with all the people onn my birthright trip that were still inn Israel, it was good times.

Funny story, this girl Michelle from the trip saw someone wearing a Toronto Canada tshirt earlier that day and had yelled, hey! i'm from Toronto! the guy turns around and says hey! i'm from Israel! haha

On Sunday, apart from being hungover we went to the beach for the day. i got burnt. boo. so random though, at one point me dave and dean are walking down the beach and 3 middle aged portugese women wanted a picture with us, so we got in there picture, and then 2 Israeli girls were walking by and we brouht them into the picture too. i really want that picture!

some more observations:
- everyone has cellphones! its such a cellphone culture
- people are more direct and blunt here compared to Canada. one of those cultural differences i really like. people are more sarcastic and friendly too i find which makes for the feeling of getting comfortable with people much faster which i like.

moving in with Freeman in TA in 2 days!

Pictures

Jerusalem May 25th, 2006

Last night was the beginning of Jerusalem day, and my myself, karen, todd, my dad, aunt Nitza, cousin moran, cousin elad and his gf lian saw Sarit Hadad live in concert for free! (she's an Israeli pop singer).

In other news someone i know has been approached by the Israeli secret service and just completed the first series of tests this past weekend. thats pretty cool.

Some pictures from my trip:
http://www.canadaisraelexperience.com/photogallery.aspx?command=ShowAlbum&param=167

some family pictures from after the trip

Jerusalem May 23rd, 2006

Well the organized Birthright trip ended yesterday and i'm now back in Jerusalem at my Uncle Motti's place using the internet. Its been such a crazy 10 days. we've done so much! here's a list of some of the highlights:

- clubbing in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
- Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. was very moving.
- camel riding in the desert. camels are so funny looking!
- planting a tree
- floating in the dead sea
- taking part in an actual archeological dig site
- camping 2 nights, one in a bedouin camp, the other in a campground in the desert
- doing a military exercise the night in the desert with the 7 Israeli's that accompanied us for 5 days
- many hikes all over Israel. one of them included a British geologist informing us of the area which was interesting. another involved getting up at 4am to catch the sunrise atop Massada.
- many discussions and debates with each other and Israeli's about the purpose and history of the state of Israel, the holocaust, moral issues, etc.
-rapelling down a waterfall
-rafting down the Jordan river

I'd say maybe thats about half of what we did! our days were so packed with activities, we were always soo tired, but of course it was worth it. The 7 Israeli's that were with us for 5 days are our age and its just so amazing what different lives they live, having to go to the army for 3 years when they turn 18.

Oron (or Pinto as he's called) is in Shesh Shesh Tesha (669, rescue unit) told us a story for example of how one mission involved helicoptering for 1-2 hours into Gaza (thats alot of gas btw) to save a Palestinian boy who had just been shot by an Israeli soldier just before he was about to throw a molotov cocktail at an Israeli jeep containing 4 people. they saved the boy so thats great, but this kid was about to kill 4 of his friends! and its not like he had any choice in the matter anyway, he is just given orders. Its just crazy how while we're going to univeristy and partying, people our age living in another developped democratic country have to deal with these issues.

Our guide Aviad was awesome too, told some funny stories. one was, apparently, a few years ago he was doing a birthright trip and when they went to the dead sea, 2 people in the group decided it'd be a great idea to have sex in the dead sea. Now its so salty and contains so many minerals and who knows what else that even the smallest cut stings, it would really hurt to pee, and having sex would just be a terrible idea! so the girl comes running out, runs to the medic, says ahh! it burns! and the medic didn't know what to do, so he told her to get a popsicle haha

Any way i could go on, but i'll end here. the highlight of the trip for me i think was the people, met some great friends all over Canada, and just had an amazing fun packed week and a half.

Finally Pictures! although many didn't burn correctly onto CD so i'll only get those when i'm back in Canada and get pics off people's facebooks etc

Jerusalem, Israel, May 14, 2006

Wow, its the 3rd day of the Birthright Israel adventure trip i'm on and its been so packed with sightseeing and partying and new people and good times. I still can't believe its free! and i can't believe 40 of us Canadians were strangers a few days ago and now we're all travel buddies!

Today we hiked through an ancient underground aqeduct with water up to our knees, it was so cool! also did other random sightseeing of the ancient city and learnt about its history and other various Jewish propaganda. Despite the trip's clear intentions, its actually very objective with the information and history we learn.

Only in Israel;
Does a waiter almost trip over someone's army-issue m-16 rifle at dinner and not think twice about it.
Do people on the job (such as our tour guide) not only have his cell phone on, but answer calls midway through talking to us.
Does an armed guard come clubbing with us with his rifle slung over his shoulder.
Do you have to pay for a bag of mud (granted its dead sea therapeutic mud but still)
Can a 4 year old kid with a water gun get away with spraying random people as they walk by on a crowded street!

Speaking of which we went clubbing last night on Ben-Yehuda street and Hebrew hip hop is really cool.

Singapore

arrived back in Singapore and checked in to the Little India Guesthouse having a scrumptious indian food dinner at a local restaurant where most people ate with their hands. The following day hung out with chris's Singaporean friends Azri, George, NC and many others on the beach. They all did or do either gymnastics, tricking or parkour, so after some frisbee they all started doing flips and jump kicks on the sand and into the water, was really cool to watch. Then Azri, who's a gymnastics teacher, started teaching me how to do a backflip. Was all fun and thrilling until i sprained my ankle attempting. Chris also screwed up his knee playing frisbee earlier so between the two of us, both limping, it was the most hilarious sight that evening when joey chris and i walked home given you could tell everyone in the street was laughing at us lol Before we walked home though NC invited us to his place for dinner which was delicious indian food, obviously de-spiced for us, but flavourful nonetheless.

Pics!

Bangkok

after a long bus ride we arrived at poipet today, a thai-cambodian border crossing. we exited cambodia, walked across no man's land with its big casinos and resorts and entered thailand, leaving behind a place where if your skin is white you're never left in peace by beggars anywhere. it is sad, but i don't think giving money to everybody that asked was going to solve anything in the long run.

tried on my $135CAD custom made cashmere suit today, its looking good. i'm really gonna miss SEAsia prices once i'm home.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Today we arrived by bus into Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia, and the 5th worst city in the world to live (according to the Economist Intelligence Unit). Its hard to imagine that less than 10 years ago the following price tags were on the following items in the open markets or brothels here:

landmine: $15USD
12 year old prostitute: $2USD
big bag of marijuana: $20USD
(these statistics from another book i just read; Off the Rails in Phnom Penh. told you i was reading alot)

We just finished watching The killing Fields at our guest house with familiar Vancouver aromas wifting by. Cambodia so far has been absolutely mind boggling and eye opening. everyone knows about poverty and war but seeing it and its effects first hand is really surreal. its been a great experience so far.

Really looking forward to seeing friends and family back home, its a feeling that began the last few days in Australia when friends and acquaintances started saying goodbye. it hasn't been hampering the fun and learning in South East Asia but its interesting when it started and it'll be interesting to monitor feelings of homesickness vs travel bug for the next few weeks and months. internet connections are too slow here to upload pictures so that'll come later.

Pics finally uploaded!

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Crossing the border into Cambodia was like walking into a new world. some noteworthy sights or events:

-gas stations were small stands on the side of the road with oldschool glass coke bottles filled with gasoline for sale.

-Huge hotel resorts manned by the Cambodian elite were right next to shantytown shacks inhabited by people who own nothing more than the clothes on their back, their handmade hut and maybe a cow or some chickens. I was absolutely shocked by the poverty, and this is after having been adjusted to poverty in thailand, so it was incredible. This country has just recently emerged from civil war, torture and political supression for multiple decades and although its all good now, the past is inescapable. Holly and i went for a walk in the evening when we got into town and along the tourist strip were accosted by people almost every second! first a tuk tuk driver asking if we want a ride, then a man with no legs on the ground asking for money, then a another tuk tuk driver for a ride somewhere, then a restaurant owner to come into his restaurant, then a boy on crutches missing one leg begging for money, another tuk tuk driver, another kid holding a baby, another restaurant owner, it was so overwhelming! and what was even more overwhelming was the realization that we took it in such stride because of what we've been used to now in thailand and vietnam; persistent haggling to buy something or begging for money. i bluntly told a young boy with no leg to get lost! once i put myself back in the north american mindset, i can't believe it!

Dec. 11: today was incredible! instead of doing the usual hiring a guide for the day, holly chris joey and i decided to rent bikes and see the real Cambodia; the town and surrounding outskirts by ourselves. first we found a soccer field with a bunch of local kids playing and raced some little girls on our bikes lol then we biked for awhile into the suburbs until we were the only white people for miles and basically plumped ourselves down in someones house for some beer while talking to the only guy, rod, 24 years old, that spoke english out of the 20 or so men women and children hanging out (its sunday so no one had school or anything) rod lived by himself in a little hut he'd built for himself and went to school during the day and taught english at 6pm to kids in the evening. (btw they had a beer poster up so we asked if they were selling, which they were and then asked if it was alright if we drank it there) on the way back home we stopped at another small food vender type place which as usual was someones house with some food and drink to buy out front, and met pani, a 16 year old boy who has no parents, lives with his aunt and pays 3000 riel per day to go to a private english school to learn english. he was so cool, really enjoyed practicing his english with us and took us to see some ruins similar to Angkor Wat, except that hardly any tourists know about them so it was free, and after talking to some local boys at the temple, found out that we had been the only people to go there today. so cool! we then went to pani's aunt's place which was a restaurant for dinner.

Today we went to Angkor Wat. its very touristy with a hefty $20USD entry fee but it was really spectacular. such huge buildings and monuments with the finest details and stories carved into the stone. It was quite humbling because you realise no matter how grand your civilisation, one day it'll be a tourist trap for future generations.

Pics!

Bang to the Kok

Back in Bangkok, great to see Ian and Lydia again, partied for Ian's birthday meeting some cool Israelis and Aussies along the way. The following morning the plan was to go visit a random Canadian in the Bangkok prison but everyone else didn't get up and as much as i would've done it alone, the night before was very late due to a long talk about human evolution, among other topics, so i was too tired. besides that all we've done is shop! good old Bangkok shopping.

Pics!

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The past 2 days have been spent in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh city. Some highlights include:

- seeing and crawling through the Cu Chi tunnels, really brought history 12 to life.
- the war remants museum
- going for dinner both nights with Holly's contacts here, really cool people in their mid-20's, (Nga, Long, Phu, Anh) great local perspective on things
- getting driven around the bustling city on the back of a petite vietnamese girl's motorbike

Siagon is visibly more communist than Hanoi, it was interesting to see Vietnamese flags everywhere and banners saying roughly; work hard, be proud of your country etc. In other news, i've been doing alot of reading. read A Brief History of Time last week by Stephen Hawking, and just finished The Damage Done by Warren Fellows. its written by and about an australian who survived in a thai prison for drug trafficking. Wow, it is so disturbing and amazing. i've never read of so many and such atrocious conditions and torture that humans subject other humans to, but after 12 years and repeated suicide attempts he did finally get out and write a book and i recommend it. That is all for now.

Mo Hai Baht, YO!

Pics finally uploaded!