TUESDAY OCOTBER 7TH-MORE DUSTY WAREHOUSE WORK

This has been a slightly different day.  We learned yesterday from some of the soldiers that there would be a 5K and a 10K race (not for us, for the Air Force personell).  We learned at breakfast that it would also include a 36.6 mile bike race.  Our excitement was quelled by the news that we would be working as usual.  Me and two of my roommates were assigned to work in some warehouse spaces near the runway where the race was going.  The roads were blocked off so we had to walk.  We passed a sort of an outdoor aircraft museum.  

The above photo is of a Russian built jet flown by an Egyptian pilot that was shot down by an Israeli pilot in the 1956 war known as the Sinai campaign.  The plane did not crash here.  A placque said that the pilot bailed out and the airplane crashed into the sea where it was recovered by the Israelis.

 Here are my roommates, Sidney and Ken with our supervisor Max or Maxim.  Max was born is Israel of Russian parents and has a distinctive Russian accent.  

 This exhibit is an early anti-aircraft missle used by the Israelis.

Regarding the foot and bicycle races, as we approached our worksite we passed the starting line as the bicyclists were just starting.

 There were about 300 cyclists all riding the same make and model off road bikes.  That seems a bit strange until I learned that the Air Force supplied the bikes and the helmets.

We didn't get to see the footraces as we sorted chemical weapon defense kits in a warehouse we had already done a lot of cleaning and sorting.  

We walked to lunch because the roads on the base were still blocked and it's always nice to have air conditioning and food at the same place.  Sidney and I walked back to the room and  I encountered this photogenic cat.

The cats here seem to all be healthy and well fed.  There are a lot of mice around and the kitchen staff puts out leftovers for them.

I was asleep in no time except we only had about 40 minutes and we had to walk to the afternoon work assignment.  More warehouse work primarily to bundle the empty kit bags from the chemical weapon defense kits and stack them neatly on the shelves that we had previously cleaned.  Yaniv told us to work slow, but even with that order being followed closely we finished in about an hour.  Our Madricha Sarah and another Madricha named Ilana, who is a Scottish-Israeli, were nearby and we all walked to a classroom where we met a pilot who flies the American F-16 fighter jet for the Israeli Air Force.  He told us about his job and had a film taken from a camera inside the cockpit of the airplane that showed scenes of very low flying, in air refueling, and flying in formation. A photo of our group which has shrunk to 9 and the pilot will appear in this blog in the next day or so.  You will notice he's not facing the camera.  The pilots are not to be photographed because they are such valuable assets to the State of Israel and Israel being so small that Israeli's enemies would love to kidnap or kill a pilot so it's important that their names (he only told us his first name) and faces are not made available to the public.

At dinner I took the last of the things I brought to give to the soldiers.  I had some SPF 50 sunscreen but I couldn't give it away because the Air Force provides it.  I had several zip lock bags of herbal tea and that went very fast as did toothbrushes and soap and shampoo.  The soldiers were so appreciative because they don't get paid very much and when they would thank me I would say "you protect Israel and the Israeli People and I'll do whatever I can to help you".  The following pictures are from the mess hall.  

You may have noticed that the soldier in the lower photo has an M-16 rifle hanging by his side.  This is a common sight with many men and women soldiers having weapons with them wherever they go.  Many are assigned to carry their weapons wherrever they go on the weekends so you see many armed soldiers on the buses and trains.  The effect is to make everyone feel even more safe, and for the terrorists who may be inside Israel to know that there are armed soldiers all over Israel ready to react to any threat.

After dinner we had a program where our Madrichot (our leaders) taught us about Israel's "lone soldiers".  Lone soldiers are young people, either Israelis or citizens of other countries who do not have family in Israel.  The Israel Defense Force and the people of Israel want to show their appreciation to these brave young people who make a great sacrifice to fight for Israel, so special consideration and benefits are available to them.  Israel is probably the only country in the World which has  7,000 lone soldiers in its' army.

That's it for today, tomorrow will be our last full day of work and we'll get packed Wedensday night in anticipation of the end of our Sar-El service on Thursday.  I'm tired and it's after 9PM.