It has been a long three weeks since I last wrote. Im sorry! I can write a long list of excuses why I haven't been consistent with writing every week but what would that really prove? The past three weeks flew by faster than you can say "Ha'kol Sababa!" This hebrew slang translates into "Everything is chill!" A phrase I have heard on repeat from almost everyone I have come in contact with. This is the mentality that everyone has! They accept what is going on around them and use it to appreciate the moment. Its truly beautiful.
Week SEVEN -
I greeted the week with a huge hug from my dad! I have to give this guy a shout out, traveling abroad with a child less than two years old would seem like a big hassle, but he with the help of his wife made it look easy. He came to Israel on business and it just so happens that I am here! We spent a sentimental Shabbat listening to old Soviet stories told by all of these close childhood friends. [My parents and the family I am staying with knew have known each other almost as many years as they have been alive] I hope that my generation and the ones to follow will have such a need to keep connected throughout the years. Years of life count down but the number of friends you have should not.
Also during this week, I started a pretty cool part time job! My host father, who's name is Alex, started an engineering firm specializing in fabrication of electric motors. Now i'm not talking about a little motor that powers a fan in a spray bottle, Im talking about high voltage industrial drone motors, just to name one of their projects without giving away too much information. I assist all of the different engineers with whatever task their time is too precious to lose over. I am learning a lot about mechanical and electrical engineering and seeing first hand how 9th grade algebra is actually used in real life!
Week EIGHT -
Let me start by saying this: I have forgotten what the word "BORED" means! My weekdays were filled to the brim with work with Alex in the engineering lab. My evenings are either spent with newly made friends, trying to study hebrew, unwinding on Facetime with Maria, and most common of all, falling asleep to an Israeli movie that I can't understand. For a brief second I actually forget why I came to Israel in the first place, but not for long.
I was asked to supply extra documents in my drafting process that support my parents Judaism. I need this conformation to obtain a 2 year army visa. At the time of their leaving the former Soviet Union, many families faked documents to try to get out of the strongly antisemitic country that it used to be. Can you guess who the scapegoats were? Jews. Everyone wanted to be a Jew when Gorbachev opened the boarders for Jews to leave the country. My family was one of the real Jewish families that left Russia in 1990. Now fast forward 26 years and here I am. I am trying to emigrate to Israel but something is stopping me. The legitimacy of my Judaism, rather my parents Judaism.
A week before the deadline for the April draft, I get handed a paper from the IDF officer that I report to asking me to supply these possibly faked birth certificates, marriage licenses of my parents and grandparents to a secret organization that checks them in which ever secret way they do it. Great! I will finally be able to say I am 100% Jewish! But not everything is "Sababa."
No one told me this little step takes up to a month.
Week NINE -
It is now less than a week away from the deadline and I have not heard back from the organization. I don't even know if they received my documents. But I continue my work and hope for the best. At this point everything is out of my hands. I cant do anything other than wait, patiently.
I call my officer to inform him that the everything is in the works and to see if I could get an extension. He gives me until Thursday of that week.
By Wednesday it is clear it won't be done in time. At this point I have come to terms with not making the April draft. The next one is in August, they come around three times a year.
Everything happens for a reason, right? Why does this shit always happen to me? How do I end up the only one that had this step out of the group of draftees for April? Maybe I am not ready yet. I believe our decisions and outcomes are not really ours, we are just puppets that think we can control what happens in life, but actually the decisions are already made for us before we can even think about it.
The important thing to do is to keep my head up, smile, and not let this roadblock block my road :)
When I left the states I never thought I would run into such problems so I kept a relaxed attitude about all of the formalities. I learned the unpleasant way that relaxed is not how Israel survives, and neither should I.
My first big curve on my path, I hate straight lines anyways.
Whats next?
Gud Shabos, Gud Shabos, Gud Shabos
Ha'kol Sababa
3.6.2016