10 ½ hours after leaving JFK, we arrive at Ben Gurion Airport to be greeted by Momo, president of Oranim Educational Initiatives. After we get our bear hugs and welcome hats, we’re off to the Café for Momo’s favorite iced coffee and [middle-eastern style] danishes. We meet Erez and Chavva [our mother] at the arrival area in the terminal. At this point, the two girls from our group join us at the airport [since they were both already in Israel] and we meet three people from the high school: Elana [the principal] and Shlomi and Ushrit [the students making our documentary].

After quick introductions, we’re off to the bus for a quick drive over to our palace house. They found us a sweet house in probably the nicest part of Ramla. All of our neighbors are rich – fenced in yards with keypad gates and alarms on the houses. Many have marble floors inside, and even outside on their stairs and patios. Back to our house. Large living room, complete with one couch, two chairs, and a TV. Wait – the TV does not work and YES (satellite) isn’t hooked up yet. Off to the kitchen, a table to seat eight (but our group is ten) and some common kitchen stuff: microwave, toaster oven, and hot pot. They got us dishes and glasses, but clearly not enough. There is only one setting which won’t work with some of the roommates keeping kosher. The rest of the house is pretty standard… two showers, three toilets, and five bed rooms. Only four of the five have air condition, and one of those four the air condition doesn’t even work. The last room, well, they’ll get a fan. Only thing I didn’t mention about the house was the attic which is huge, and the bunker (bomb shelter) that is completely full of stuff from the owner. Don’t worry, my bedroom is completely made of concrete – we’ll use that if we really need to.

Later on this evening (Monday August 7^th) we walk over to Kadima. Kadima could best be described as a Big Brothers Big Sisters or a Y. Its a place where the youth go to after school for help with homework and activities to keep them busy. Since Ramla is a large immigrant community, Kadima was set up to support the youth of the city. We’ll probably be volunteering here, helping the kids with their English. Click here to see a clip of the show we sat in on.

The evening concluded with a Momo talk. In true Oranim tradition, Momo gave us his thoughts about the program, about our return to Israel, and most importantly, the current situation in the north. We went over safety and security, as well as what he expects of us.

Overall, this was a long first day.