Ok so times going quite quick and we have already just finished another weekend! To start with Thursday we had Weitzman school which is right by the sea and has some nice views from the classroom. Thursday was a really nice day, warm with blue skies and sun. We coached outside from 8am-2pm with Avi who also came to help translate etc. He told us how alot of children recognise him at the schools and he even met one of his old school teachers at the school, he also showed us a couple of tricks he had in his bag which hopefully he'll teach me soon, me and Denys then decided to do some magic with the camera. We had a short break and decided to go and get a drink and something to eat, we found a Russian bakery which was fairly cheap and had great pastries with a variety of fillings from potato to chocolate and apple, will definatly be going back next week on the short break for more! later on the P.E teacher told us how the boys had recently won a Basketball tournament and the girls came 3rd so the whole school gathered for a trophy presentation in the playground, we did notice that he was wheeling out a big speaker and microphone during one of the lessons but didnt ask what for, we were also called up to the podium to say a few words about what we were doing and answer some questions from the children.
Before the ceremony
The boys and girls teams with their trohpies and medals
Denys and Avi
Where did that sneaky magician go?
In the evening we had 2 friendship houses scheduled from 5-9pm. The first one we only had around 8 people who weren't very interested in the coaching and just wanted to play games, like we told them if they only want to play games then they can get a ball and play anywhere, hopefully next week we'll have some younger children who would enjoy and benefit from the training more. Friendship houses can also be tough with older children as we don't understand the language and if we need to put something across to them then it also gets lost in translation.
The session from 7:30-9pm was cancelled as we arrived to the pitches but both pitches were taken, we found out you cant book the pitch so you just turn up and hope nobody is there, we met Effi the guy in charge of the group and he drove us to another pitch nearby with the same set up but that was also taken so after alot of time driving round in the car eventually they decided to cancel it till next week when hopefully one of the pitches will be free again.
Friday was a bit of a dead day we just stayed in and rested before going to Uri Buri Restaurant later on where we had the same tasting session as last week so we got our favourite caramelised fish and other dishes again, just like last time the food was excellent and we're looking forward to next weeks!
Saturday we woke up to excellent sunshine again! We met Danny at 11:30 who took us on another tour, this time we wen't to The Sea Of Galilee (which is actually a lake) and Capharnaum (City of Jesus). We took a short drive from one Church to another which all had special things to do with the Bible such as where Jesus walked on water, where he fed 5000 people with only 2 fish and 5 loafs of bread, each place and had something to do with the miracles he performed. We also saw one of the old towns with parts of the houses that were left built from volcanic rock. I forgot to mention along the way we also stopped off for a quick drink and bite to eat where we sat outside with fabulous views of the sea, very peaceful and quiet, something you dont get if you stop off for a drink on the M25!
Where we stopped off for a drink
Inside an Orthodox church
Looking out to the sea
We then headed to Nazareth, on the way we stopped at a Lebanese restaurant which had great meat, we hada nice meal then set off on our way again. We finally got to Nazareth, the place where Jesus grew up. We went to an orthodox church then to a huge Catholic church which is built on top of the remains of an old Crusader church. it is believed by both religions that in one of these churches is where the Archangel Gabriel appeared and told Mary of her preganancy and the future of the child she would have. The Catholic church is huge and looks more like a castle from the outside, inside and out they also have many mosaics from different countries around the world.
Entrance to the church
The Grotto of the Annunciation under the Basilica is said to be the site where the Archangel Gabriel appeared and told Mary of her pregnancy and the future of the child she would have.
Obviously from today we had loads of pictures so I've just picked out a few but it was a great day and we visited alot of historic places. We did visit the Orthodox church where its also believed the Angel appeared to tell Mary of her preganancy but my camera battery had died by the time we got there so Danny took some on his phone, the Church was actually closed when we got there but Danny spoke to the guy in charge there and managed to arrange it so only we were allowed in for a few minutes to take a look around, once again it was very decorative inside.
Once again thank you for reading and follow the blog for more future updates.
To start with I just want to say we were rudely awoken by a bomb blast! There was a massive bang followed by the whole house shaking for a few seconds, immediately I looked outside the window thinking it could be thunder but it was bright outside. A few minutes later there was another bang but seemed further away. A few days ago we heard the sound of machine guns so we're thinking/hoping that its a nearby training camp or something. We're also used to seeing soldiers walking around the streets with machine guns now aswell, something you don't see everyday back home.
Today we had our morning session at Hertzog school, I'ts another religious school and we only coach boys as the school is one school but is seperated with two building, one for boys and one for girls so they don't mix. We met our fourth person who is assisting us with translation etc, his name is Avi and is also Jewish so we have two jewish and two arabic students helping us. Our evening session at Mig Dalor was cancelled because the centre had an organised trip somewhere so nobody was going to be there. This means we can relax before a long last day of the week tomorrow which finishes at 9pm, then our weekend begins!
After Hertzong Avi dropped us back home so we could shower and change then he came to pick us up again and drove about 15minutes to a big shopping centre there where we had lunch before going to see a movie. Walking round Avi seemed to know pretty much everyone working in different shops. He mentioned how he can get us discount in most of the shops and we also can go to the cinema free anytime we want as he knows the manager there and just to mention his name. So we went to the cinema and of course with Avi it's free entry. We watched Contraband which is an action movie with Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale. I won't give much of the movie away for those who want to see it but I'd high recommend it, we all agreed at the end that we really enjoyed it and because it was int he daytime the cinema was empty and really comfortable.
Whilst we were watching the Arsenal vs Manchester United game this week we found out that our photo we had with Yossi Benayoun before we left was in the community section of the programme. We now also have that picture.
Denys, Yossi Benayoun, Alan Sefton and me at the training ground
While im adding this post in I also thought I'd share a picture of our whole group back in London at the Emirates stadium. One of the best groups of people I have worked with and I look forward to seeing most of you back in London soon for catch ups!
Denys 4th from left back row, me 3rd in from right front row ( I know I don't look happy because I was up at around 4:30am to drive up from Bournemouth to London and got caught in traffic so was in a rush and had no breakfast!)
Arsenal Gappers judo session
Me and Paul who I coached with at Haverstock School
We have coaches now in many different countries, here are some links to other blogs from other countries for those of you who are interested in reading their experiences so far.
Friday we woke up to brilliant sunshine and blue skies! We decided to stay at home for a short while before going to the shop to stock up on some food and drink for the week. After this we took a walk down to the old town of Akko which is about a 10-15minute walk where we went to a fish restaurant called Uri Buri, we get a free meal here once a week which has been arranged by Alan Sefton, head of Arsenal in the community, a massive thank you for this deal and we are looking forward to spending more time at the restaurant. We had a tasting session which involved many plates of all different kinds of dishes, the plates just kept on coming out and we were wondering when it would stop until the waitress asked us if we wanted more or dessert, as we were pretty full by then we of course opted for dessert which was a mixture of handmade desserts. The food was excellent and we can see why its known as the best restaurant in Akko by all the locals, we also agreed on our favourite dish which we cant remember which type of fish it was but it was caramelised, we look forward to our next visit to try some of the different dishes and keep up the standard of every dish being superb. We then took a walk around the town and the market taking various photos of around the area ( Might want to skip some photos if you are a vegetarian). After that we went home to relax and Yossi and his girlfriend came to pick us up later on, we then drove to Hen's house (Yossi's girlfriend) and I played soem fifa on the xbox against her brother, Arsenal vs Manchester United, me being Arsenal of course, it was 1-1 before Denys and Yossi took over at half time and it all went downhill for both sides. Eventually we left the house and went to a bar called Escobar which everyone is Israel calls a dance bar. When we got inside everyone was sitting around 2 large bar areas so me and Denys joked how it was more of a sit down bar. But we met some more of Yossi and Hen's friends and enjoyed some food etc, we also celebrated my birthday which was on the Wednesday, All in all another great night with equally great people.
Denys at Uri Buri (Our favourite dish on the left)
We found another Cannon (COYG)
A walk through the market
Saturday we went on our first scheduled tour with our guide Danny. He picked us up at 10am on what was another excellent sunny day and we headed down to Old Akko for our tour. We had already walked around the town but not done any tours or anything. We had our own private tour with Danny who is a key figure in the town and knows everything and everyone. We found out so much information including Akko is older than Jerusalem! We went underground through the Templars tunnel and other various locations, amazing to find out about the crusaders, the Ottomans and the Muslims who have been in the town over the years and also when Napoleon was trying to invade the city. Just seeing the buildings and being in the tunnels that have so much history it makes you think/wonder what it would have been like back then, walking in the footsteps.
Me and Danny
In the bath house
Templars Tunnel
Sunday we were at the start of another week and started at the closest school to our house which is Rambam, when we arrived at the school we noticed something we didnt see the previous week which is that right next to the playground on the same premises there is a police station which is unusual to see. We met Reut the P.E teacher who brought our first class, through the day we worked on dribbling. Afterwards we went to Zippee's house to watch Super Sunday, Manchester City vs Tottenham which had a great 10 minutes of goals but eventually City won with a last minute penalty followed by Arsenal vs Manchester United, after this and the Swansea result I'm beginning to think it may be an unlucky place to watch Arsenal as we also heard her son celebrating the Manchester United goal from his bedroom. After the match we Zippee had planned a dinner for us with some other people who are staying here which includes 3 Italians who are working at a palace restoring the roof and an American woman who is here at university studying Hebrew. It was nice to meet the other people and talk about all different things from each others countries plus find out more things from Zippee and her husband about Israel, we left to go to bed around 9:45pm as Denys was feeling a bit ill.
Police station next to the playground at Rambam school
Monday morning and Denys was still feeling sick so I left to go to Eshkol school with Yossi. We did traffic lights for the warm up where a green cone is go, red stop and we add another colour which could be any kind of command for example jogging on the spot, another favourite with the children then we moved on to dribbling once again followed by matches. The classes are mixed between boys and girls, once again all the children are happy to see us at the school and we are greeted by big smiles and screaming kids shaking our hands and high fiving us. Another thing is in England when making teams nobody wants to wear bibs/vests whereas as soon as I get ready to create teams for games people are begging you to put them on the team wearing bibs!
Me and Yossi then went to check back on Denys before going to his house to make some lunch and then after Yossi told me how he has an English test tomorrow so I helped him with some English work and revision. Later on we went to our evening session but when we got there we found out they had an organised game against another youth centre so we stayed and watch. It was a very close match and in the end went to extra time, our team won in extra time 5-4 so a good result.
Tuesday we had our only Arabic school we teach at called El Manara. We coach here from 8am-2pm, the P.E teacher speaks no English but luckily Denys can talk Russian with him, we found out that the classes we have aren't set P.E lessons, they are just taken out of random lessons to come and play football so the numbers can range from 12-30+ children. After the session we got lunch and had about an hours rest at home before taking a taxi to Bustan Hagalil which is a Disability centre that we coach at. We spoke to the manager who is American but grew up in Israel and found out more about the centre, we found out that all pupils are aged between 18-22 and have all been to school so are intelligent etc. We had a great session here and really enjoy it because they love their football and enjoy the warm up games. We also join in with them aswell as some of the helpers their. Most of the pupils speak decent english aswell as the workers who range from local people, American and German. Most of the workers don't play football so its fun for everyone to join in. Becuse of us joining in we didnt get to take any pictures but hopefully we'll remember to next week.
So Thursday is our new Friday having Friday and Saturday as our weekend so another week is nearly completed. Yesterday we were back at the first school we went to called Hertzog. We only have boys classes here in a large indoor gym which is usually used for basketball games as it has a seating area and an electronic scoreboard which always displays the wrong time, in fact we don't know why but since we've been here every schoolk we have been to and alot of places never have the right time on the clocks and most of them have stopped especially in the school staff rooms which you would think would be important to have the right time if not put a little forward, Hertzog even has 2 clocks next to each other with the wrong time in their staff room! The session we did went well, the classes only last around 30mins which is the shortest we have here most are 45 minutes to an hour at the schools and dont include another 15 minutes to get changed as they dont have to change into P.E kit or anything, they play in what they are wearing on the day. We played domes and dishes where you work in teams turning the cones over and the first team to complete it and are back in a straight line shouting Arsenal win. We did it without a football for them to get used to it then introduced a football into it with coaching points which were keeping your head up to avoid collisions and close ball control, we then got into some short games. Between short breaks I decided to try and kick the football into the basketball hope which after a few minutes I did, another breaktime goal achieved haha. During the break some of the children came into the gym and started singing a Michel Telo song which is very popular here, its Yossi's ringtone and I heard the song a couple weeks before coming here otherwise I would of had no clue. He's Brazilian and I think because he has blonde hair and so do I I've been told a few times that I look like him (I don't). We've also had a few children asking if me and Denys are brothers.
Michel Telo
For lunch we went with Yossi to the old town of Akko which is part of the tourist area and right by the sea. It was a really nice warm and sunny day so we went to a Hummus restaurant, wasn't my favourite as there was no meat either so after I got some small kind of sweet things as I wasn't too hungry and we sat by the sea for a while and relaxed on the rocks. Walking back through the market area we saw stalls selling things from Barcelona beanie hats to fish stalls with small sharks. We also saw a bit of an argument breaking out where the police were called in and there was a small gathering of people, it seemed to be something out of nothing because one guy put some of his stock on the pavement which didn't belong to him. Afterwards we went home to relax for a short while before the evning session at Mig Dalor. Because it was a nice days I decided to go outside with an ice lolly and do some kick ups, just out the back of the house I found a square lawn area which was perfect. After about 30 minutes in the sun it was time to go to Mig Dalor to coach until its dark as theres no lights at the facility. Once again we decided to start out with domes and dishes with progressions and then used 2 pitches for some games. Sameh and Yakov were there to help out, they are both friends so know each other well and Sameh has also been working at Mig Dalor so knows everyone there. We do the warm ups a few times so they can see and even join in then we get both of them to take one of the warm ups one time. Even they love the games and get competitive against each other. We were greeted by the manager of the house who stayed and watched for a short while and told us that he was happy with the work we were doing, we usually stay behind and play table tennis with him and the others, he's the champion there at table tennis but me and Denys are going to start playing properly soon and show him how its done...
Hold your horses Yakov I never said go.
Thumbs up Sameh
Later in the evening we were invited to go to one of Yossi's friends house to watch the Real Madrid vs Barcelona game. Because everywhere I go people tell me they support Barcelona and Arsenal I now tell them I support Arsenal and Real Madrid. We thought we would go and watch game as after all Barcelona is Israels national team (wink wink) and we could support Real Madrid whilst everyone else was supporting Barcelona. Madrid went 1-0 up through Ronaldo but then in the second half ended up losing 2-1 so Yossi was very happy sitting there in his Barcelona scarf and slippers. Me and Denys both agreed we would show them a proper football game when Arsenal play Manchester United this weekend, come on you Gunners!!
Thurdays our last day of the week we were at Weitzman school, it was nice and sunny when we left but as soon as we got there it started raining and the wind picked up so we were inside again with Nissim the P.E teacher at the school. We did some warm ups and games in lessons plus also joined in playing some of the games whilst the kids at the side kept chanting ARS-E-NAL ARS-E-NAL! We finished a bit earlier than scheduled because there was no way we would be able to go out and coach outside because of the rain. We also always found the gym quite cold and realised its because on one side the windows near the top of the roof are always open, because of this today the wind was blowing all the rain and hail stones were coming inside causing 1 half of the gym to be very wet and slippery making it dangerous so we got the benches to use as a barrier, so we only had half of the gym to use and did some passing, heading etc in pairs followed by a 1 on 1 game with 2 small goals as it was a very small class of only 8 people, it's small because this is a class that has not so well behaved children who need more attention but they are always fine with us and enjoy their football.
On the way home we decided to get some food and decided to try a bakery which Zippee told us about because we had already had some birthday cake at the school. The smell of the bakery was too tempting and they had lot of different cakes and breads inside. We each filled a bag with different things and paid at the counter before heating up what we had bought in the microwave. It was mainly pastry, doughnuts and croissants etc filled with cheese or chocolate and was very tasty.
Denys waiting for his food to heat up
Inside the bakery
Because it was raining again our Thursday sessions were cancelled and me, Denys and Yossi took a drive to the Jordan River as it was The Epiphany which is celebrated on January 19th by the Orthodox Church, it marks the baptism of Jesus. Believing that on this day water becomes holy and is imbued with special powers, some brave Russians cut holes in the ice of lakes and rivers - including the Moscow River - to bathe in the freezing water. The drive there was around an hour and on the way we saw amazing scenary of the mountains with houses up on top of them and then a drive alongside the lake, there was alot more greenery than we expected. One more thing to mention is Yossi's driving at times, I think the picture says it all.
We arrived at Yardenit which is the Baptismal site on the Jordan River all set up for walking into the river with steps and rails etc plus a tourist hotspot with a big gift shop, restaurant and various other shops. We arrived at 5:30 and the baptism's stopped at 5 but that didnt stop us from walking down to the river and washing our faces in the river washing away our sins and Denys filled a bottle with the Holy Water.
The river
Washing away our sins
After we had visited Yardenit we drove back to a nearby town that had many hotels, restaurants, shops and bars. We took a walk around before finally deciding to go to a steak house called El Rancho's. Me and Denys shared a mixed grill which was excellent, all the food we had was great.
In the town
Had to get a photo by the Cannon (Gunners)
Tomorrow (Saturday) we have our first scheduled tour with our tour guide Danny so I'll update tomorrow as we don't know what the tour is yet but are both looking forward to it., we have scheduled tours on a Friday or Saturday mostly every other week. Once again thank you for reading and I'll be writing very soon with the next update.
Ok so a bit to update you on. First of all we have to get used to our weeks now starting on a Sunday so when its Monday we think its Tuesday and so on. Sunday we started at Rambam school which is a Jewish school and very religous so we've been told. Its the closest school to our house so we took a short walk of around 5-8 minutes. When we got there we met Reut who is the P.E teacher at the school and walked over to the gym to start our lessons, all went well and we had lessons with all ages mixed boys and girls. We also had quite a few children mentioning Barcelona and Messi to us so we had to tell them Arsenal and Robin Van Persie. During one lesson the children started chanting Arsenal then they started chanting our names! Its great to know they appreciate us being there and are always happy to see us.
Sunday late afternoon we worked at one of the youth centre type places called Mig Dalor where the children were very happy to see us again. Luckily on Sunday we finish a bit earlier so we got back just in time to catch the Swansea vs Arsenal game which we watched in Zippee's house but after the result I don't want to say much more about that apart from Zippee gave us coke, beers and popcorn during the game and we both agreed that because we had been working all day and it was dark out it felt more like a Monday night game rather than a Sunday afternoon kick off.
Monday we went to a school called Eshkol, when we were shown around all the schools ont he first day we got here this was the first school we saw and is the 2nd nearest to our house so once again we walked to the school which is around a 10 minute walk. Another thing to mention is when we woke up it was warm and sunny again like on our first day. Finally a day without constat rain so we were very happy. Although when we got to the school the teachers had big jackets on telling us it was very cold, more like a summers day to us! We focused on passing drills for both boys and girls and changed it for different ages and abilities. I decided to join in at break time with a match the children were playing and ended up getting mobbed for autographs! I then managed to get back to the staff room where Denys was and we had a load of screaming children outside the door waiting for us, we also had some children asking us to sign their footballs. Afterwards we went back out to carry on with the lessons. It was quite funny during one game as we had the girls play a short match first followed by the boys but when the girls were playing 2 of the boys were sat there pretending they were playing fifa with a running commentary which I have never seen before. All the sessions went great and we outside from 8am-2pm in the sun with a clear blue sky, happy days. When we finished we had a huge crowd again wanting autographs and photos, I made a mistake of putting a smiley face on one for some reason so then everyone wanted me to draw a smiley face, rookie error. In between lessons the few spare minutes we had we stood 2 bottles of water at the top of the little concrete type stand/seating area and began to try and knock them off 1 go at a time, I was pretty happy I managed to get both of them down, oo the simple things we do between lessons to keep us amused.
The signed ball
Denys with some of the students
Penalty shoot-out
Warm up tag
Me with some students from Eshkol
A view of Eshkol school (not the best I know)
After we finished the school we walked back and decided to try the schnitzel place that everyone kept telling us about, it was excellent we got a huge baguette filled with hummus, lettuce, tomato and schnitzel for 22 Shekels (just under 3 pounds), so we sat outside and enjoyed lunch in the sun. Later on we had another friendship house called Mifratz Schlomo. This was an hour and a half session but unfortunatly when we got there they took us for a short walk to a dark school playground where we would coach but we both agreed we couldn't do it as it was very dark and we didnt think it would be safe enough to have children playing football and running around when its not very visible. So we went back and just played some games on the small grass area they had there before going to a different house 7-9 to take a session with older teenagers, then back home to bed ready for the next school the following morning.
A view on the walk back home
The Schnitzel shop where we had lunch
Tuesday we had an arabic school called El manara, this is quite a new school in Akko and the only arabic school we coach at. When we got there it was raining so there was no football, instead we went to a small room where the teacher would bring in around 8 children and we'd introduce ourselves and tell them what we are doing at the school and how long we will be there etc. Luckily after about an hour or two the rain stopped so we got outside to do our coaching session. We had 2 guys from the local university helping us Sameh and Yakov who are also arabic so they would help translate some English but we still like to use zenglish words so the children also learn some English aswell as football. We are meant to have 4 people who help us but so far we have only met 3 and dont think there is a 4th. During breaktimes we stayed out and played 2 on 2, 1 touch each including the short full pitch which is the sixe of a 5-6 aside pitch. All the children watched whilst on their breaktime and chanted ARSENAL over and over again which helped me and Denys on to victory against Sameh and Yakov. Once again the kids were great during the sessions and would listen and progress well so we got into matches at the end of each session. Its growing a trend now as we kept hearing Barcelona but do have the same amount of Arsenal fans aswell, most like Arsenal and Barcelona. At the end of school we got crowded again by loads of children asking for autographs and to sign their hands. I was also given various bits of paper with things in English about Arsenal and telling me they love me!
One of the notes
In the afternoon we had a session at Bustan Hagalil which is a boarding school for people with learning dissabilities. The boys were on a day out in Tel Aviv so we had just the girls and a couple of boys who were there today. We did some warm up games with them and passed and threw the ball around calling peoples names for an ice breaker to get to know each other. We started of with the traffic lights game and kept it simple stop and go then progressed to a game which everyone enjoyed. A stray dog decided to keep coming up and stealing our stack of cones then when we marked out an area decided it wnted the ones we had layed out! In England the wind likes to take the cones, in Israel its dogs coming out of nowhere, luckily after 5-10 minutes it got bored and decided to go off somewhere else. Most of the students spoke quite good english aswell along with other works and volunteers which include two women from America and Germany. We stayed outside till around 5:30 when it got dark then went inside to talk and play some other games. Yossi our friend from the local university was also with us and dropped us off at the Schnitzel shop on the way home before going to his teams football training which he has invited me and Denys to come along too, so when we have some time we are looking forward to going along.
The schnitzel baguette
So we have now been to each different school we will be at everyday and also all the locations we will be at in the evenings. Thank you for reading and keep following or checking back for more updates and pictures.
