Day Three, Tuesday 9th April

This is Sasha reporting from Tel Aviv in the sunshine and I am going to tell you what we did on Tuesday, Day Three.

First of all, we went to the Palmach Museum where we learned about how the independent State of Israel came about and how the IDF started.  First we got an introduction by a lady in uniform and she gave us special gadgets to translate the Hebrew, which was in the movies we later watched.  After that we went into the first room where there was a film about how the Palmach started.  Then our guide showed us through another door and we raised our hands to activate our gadgets. 

It showed us their first bit which was introducing the characters which we would see in the different scenes.  The Palmach started in 1941, we think. The first scene was when they were chatting round the campfire and they were singing songs and explaining why they had joined the Palmach, We went through a couple more scenes and it really felt like you were there with them.  In each scene, it showed a different video about what was happening in each different year. 

When it was 1947 and it showed the United Nations vote to say yes to Israel being an independent state, an old lady told us a story of how she remembered it and how they all cheered in New York where she lived. But her Israeli father died before the state started in May 1948 and it was very emotional listening to her story.

We found out that the day after the vote, the Arabs started to attack and all the members of the Palmach were suddenly called up and told to fight.

After the Palmach we went to the Carmel Market and we bought . . . . .Israeli trousers!!  It took us ages to find the right ones and I imagine the mums were very bored.

After that we were all so hungry after the shopping that we looked for food in the market.  I had a chicken shwarma, which was delicious.  Others had other lovely food.

We changed into our frummy gear and went straight to the children’s home in Netanya.  We ate lunch with the girls and did some arts and crafts.  We decorated picture frames.  The children’s home made me feel very unique and self-conscious.  I think a lot of the girls felt guilty that we were eating the food of the girls in the home. 

We then went to the office and she showed us a video the girls had made.  It was really beautiful and showed the images of the girls singing a song.  When we get back to England, we are going to fund raise for them by doing a one-sie film night.

The long drive started as we went in the minibus to the children’s museum in Holon.  We were meant to be doing the ageing exhibition but for some reason the booking got mixed up but we ended up doing Dialogue in the Dark one, all about being blind.

Of course none of the girls really minded because it would still be fun and enjoyable.  First of all we were taken into a room where a lady talked to us about what we were doing and then the first group went into the darkness.  While they were doing this the second group, my group, did some activities with her, while she blindfolded us and gave us a wooden board with a felt shape on it.  We were against another person and had to race to feel what the shape was. 

Finally it was our group’s turn.  We then entered the dark.  At first it was very frightening because you couldn’t see anything and I kept crashing into walls.  Each room had a different scene, for instance, one was at the seaside and you had to climb into a boat. My favourite scene was the supermarket scene because you could smell and feel all the different vegetables. Our guide kept giving us different ones and we had to touch, feel and smell to see which one it was.  We also had to listen to music in the dark and dance.

At the end of the tour we got taken into a cafeteria, which was still in the dark and our mums had brought money so that we could buy different drinks and food to try eating in the dark. You had to work out the money by feeling the difference between the different coins.  We also got to have a question and answer session with our guides who were both blind from birth.

Then he showed us the door to outside and my group all ran out there. But then as soon as we got out there, our eyes started to sting and you couldn’t see anything at all for a bit.  We also felt very dizzy.

Unfortunately we had to go straight to dinner without changing because we had no time to go back to the hotel.  Dinner tonight was with Elkan Levy and his granddaughter Jasmine.  She lives in Tel Aviv and can speak both English and Ivrit fluently.  Over dinner we just chatted and spilled 5 glasses of water!  I had chicken shishlik which was delicious.  We were all so surprised that she finishes school at one. . . . but she does have to go to school on Sunday as well.  We had to walk home in the dark with Jasmine and that was the end of our day.