Vomit and other pleasing stories

One thing that translates exactly the same from Israel to the U.S. is what a nursing student’s scope of practice is. It is like there is a sign posted to my head that everyone can see that says, “Need a sponge bath? Giving sponge baths is my favorite activity!” or “Is that vomit on the ground? I’ll clean it up!” We normally get a lot of dirty work. Cleaning up vomit is character building at least, right?

On a better note, kids are cute all around the world. Today was our first day of Pediatric clinical and hanging out with kids 12 and younger is SO much fun. Sometimes when I get bogged down with lectures and sitting all day I think I don’t want to be a nurse, then the next day I’m in clinical and I have a blast. It is funny how the actual schooling of nursing is the most boring.

I hit my 2-month mark here in two days! Time has flown by so fast, it is crazy! After this week we have 2 weeks off for Passover and then April will already be here. I finally finalized my Passover plans: I’m going on a hiking trip from the Mediterranean to the dead sea over the first weekend, going to my roommate’s family Seder on a Kibbutz, and then I am going to Romania for a week (couch surfing and the likes).

Everything that has happened here has turned out way better than I could ever wished or asked for. I am really lucky. I am now looking at staying here for the summer- maybe trying to get an internship or volunteering job in the West bank. On Sunday I went to church in Bethlehem again and hung out with a friend from church, it made me have a hunch that I might end up there for the summer. Anyways, we went to the church of the milk grotto-, which is holy to a bunch of different sects of Christianity (I had never heard of this story or site growing, so I don’t think Mormons think about it the same way). It is a church that is considered holy because while Mary was trying to flee to Egypt because of King Herod’s decree to kill all babies under two, she was breastfeeding and leaked some milk on a rock nearby. Now it is a place that some women think will bring them fertility or healthy lactation. 

Picture of Mary breastfeeding. I could see it being used as a PSA for breastfeeding

Bethlehem

This weekend I also went to a screening of a movie called “5 Broken Cameras”. It is about a man who lives in a town in the West Bank that is right next to the dividing line between the West Bank and Israel. It is all about his and his community’s struggle to peacefully protest the building of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank (It is illegal for Israeli’s to go into the West Bank, let alone build houses there) and to stop the building of the “security fence” which is really a concrete wall. The creator of the movie goes through 5 cameras, all of which are destroyed by Israeli soldiers at protests. It was a really interesting view of the conflict that I hadn’t ever seen before. I think it is so important to see both sides, no matter what community you were born into. Of course, we all need to take the information we receive with a grain of salt. It is important to try to see something for yourself and not someone else’s depiction of what is going on. After the movie there was a Skype Question/Answer session in with the creator Emad Burnat. After the whole gathering was over a bunch of kids from my program got together and talked about it. It was constructive and enlightening to see how both sides viewed the film.  Here is the link to the trailer- the movie gave me a lot to think about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XID_UuxiGxM

Room-wide Skype with Eman Burnat

The checkpoints to get to the West Bank are really kind of eerie. I know it is different, but it reminds me a lot of the Berlin Wall.  Palestinians are not allowed to go into Israel/Jerusalem without a permit, which will very rarely be given. The security at the checkpoints is also really intimidating. All soldiers at the checkpoints have huge guns. I am spoiled because I can get through checkpoints so easily because of my American passport, most people do not have that privilege or ability.

View from the International School at Hebrew University. If you look hard enough you can see the wall, about 2/3 of the way up in the center of the photo

It is hard. So many people associate being critical of Israel with being anti-Semitic. I hope this is never how I am perceived. I came here with very neutral thoughts and I am trying to see both sides, which includes seeing depictions of both sides. By no means am I anti-Semitic. I feel very Pro-everyone and anti-hate, I just wish people could listen to each other.

Obama is coming to Jerusalem on Wednesday; he is also going to Ramallah in the West Bank. I am really interested to see what will happen. Hebrew University gave away three free tickets in a raffle to hear him speak For security measures, every street that he will be driven on will be closed and security checked for at least an hour before he travels on them. It's gonna get interesting!