Community Service Project and Flag Football

Hello everyone,
We hope you are all staying nice and warm back home. We are still experiencing beautiful days here, but the evenings are very chilly. We still have the windows open during the day, but close up the apartment at night. We are waiting for the buckets of rain everyone has prepared us for as we approach a Jerusalem "winter." (note: I started this entry on Saturday and I am finishing it on Sunday and it is cold, windy, nasty and rainy! Serves me right for speaking too soon!)

Every HUC student (and their spouse if they so chose) must participate in a community service project this year. The school gave them many choices at the beginning of the year and Matt selected wonderful project. We are traveling every Tuesday evening to the town of Mivasseret to spend time with Ethiopian familes in the absorbtion center. These families have left behind their lives in Ethiopia and made Aliyah, for better opportunites in Israel. They don't know the language or culture and are given approximately two years to stay in the absorbtion center, learn all they can and then they must move out, find a place to live, get a job and make a life for their families. Moreover, the topic of conversion is particularly controversial. Some of the Ethiopian families are Christian and some are Jewish. However, the Israeli government does not acknowledge their Judaism, therefore forcing them to go through a conversion as well.

Our project mostly deals with spending time with the children. They are so adorable! Although we were assigned a family who has 4 children, there hasn't been a week so far where we haven't had at least 6-10 kids to entertain! As soon as we get to the home, all the neighborhood kids come over too! We bring toys and games for them to play with and try our best to communicate. The children are learning Hebrew in school, but no English. Matt can communicate with them very well and he translates everything for me. It is much more difficult to have dialogue with the parents. They speak in broken Hebrew (which they have been learning in an ulpan), but often times revert back to Ethiopian and we don't understand what they are saying. We are enjoying this opportunity so much and it is quite a learning experience. Seeing the smiles on the faces of these children is all we need to know we are making a difference.

On another note - look out OSU, the HUC Runnin' Rabbis are in the house! Matt has joined the flag football team! He plays every Tuesday evening (after Mivasseret) at a field very close to our house. They had their first game last week - followed by their first practice today! hmm... seems a little out-of-order, right? Matt scored the team's only touchdown, but hey, they have a great time and can only get better!

Finally, some very cute pictures of Mitzi. She still brings a smile to our faces every day. She is such a character and always surprises us with such funny antics.

Love,
Erin, Matt & Mitzi