The old saying goes that as time goes by some things never change. This has never rung more true that this past weekend that I spent in the tiny town of Yerucham here in Israel. For those who have forgotten I spent 6 months volunteering in the community of Yerucham 2 years ago when I was on Nativ. I had the opportunity to go back after my 2 year absence to go and visit one of my friends that is on Nativ now as well as my host family that adopted me when I was there. I left Jerusalem on the direct bus to Yerucham Thursday evening around 8 to get there a little at 10:30 since it is a wonderfully long drive(compared to everywhere else). As the bus passed land markers on route I couldn’t help but remember all the times that I used to take this bus to and from my home at the time. When I made that last left to approach the town I could feel all the good times that I had come back to me and my heart fluttered a little. I arrived on Zvi Borenstein and got off the bus to a quiet evening in the small town. I began to walk around and remember my day to day life that seemed like a lifetime ago. Of course I would then run into people I knew. The kids when I volunteered at the local high school were now graduating or in the army. One of my kids Eli was sitting at the pizza parlor and we got to catch up. Then another student Izabella was hanging out with some friends and I learned what has been going on in her life for the past 2 years. It seemed like nothing had changed since I left except time. Then when David Helfand was finished with his MADA shift I met up with him and his Nativ friends who were celebrating a friend’s birthday. It was nice to see them have the same great times that I had.
For meals I made sure to see the people that made my stay incredible. I went to the house of Asi and Iris Shoham, the kindest family in all of Israel. They took me and Roxy in when we were on Nativ having Shabbat meals with us and giving us a place to come to whenever we needed. At the time their children were adorable young one aged between 6 months and 13. Now that 2 years had gone by it seemed like they were not children anymore. The oldest Diaya is 15 and likes a teenager, Yaera is not 12 and just celebrated her bat mitzvah at Masada, Tzur is the only boy( I should say young man) at age 7, Klil is a vibrant 4 year old that talks up a storm, the baby at the time Regev is now 2 ½ and runs the house. The whole experience of being there made me feel as though I had not left and just returned back for my usual visit. At first I got the stares of who are you but then once memory(and pictures) kicked in then they all remember and treated me like I was family again. It was such a great evening that I never wanted it to end but when 11:30 rolled around the kids had to get to bed. David and I went back home to get some rest. The next day I was able to go to lunch at Hila Melker’s house(she was another one of my students now in the army). Her father is the ambulance driver for David which was a funny coincidence. We went there and had a great time. We showed up and the whole family was there and excited to see us. Hila threw me a huge hug and was so happy I came back to visit. We had some authentic Sephardic food which was so tasty(even though it made david sick). We spoke all Hebrew and once again I was happy with my grasp of the language and progress I have made. Then we went home for naps and seudat shleshit. It was a peaceful Shabbat that made me so appreciative and gave me the impressions that I can always come back to this town that was so important to me. That evening I had ot get back to Jerusalem and took the bus back to get home. It was an amazing weekend had that I truly cherished and was just sad I had not done it before. I hope that this summer when I have a free weekend I can go with Roxy back there.
