The Last 2 days from rainy Israel

Ok so the last 2 days have been pretty busy, to start off yesterday I couldn't get on because theres been so much rain we had a short powercut but the internet refused to work all night!

But anyway Wednesday morning was the start of our first day at a school called Herzog school. This is an elementary school. In the monrings we have elementary schools and in the late afternoon/evenings we work at whats called friendship houses which are for Younger to older children who are in danger or come from broken homes plus we also have a disability group.
So the first day we had to wait for a taxi to take us to the school, it was about a 5minute ride as everythings nearby in Akko. Whilst waiting there was a car quite literally being picked up and moved. We werent sure its because the Garbage truck couldnt get through or maybe thats just how traffic wardens are over here? Unfortunatly I didnt have my camera ready quick enough for when they actually lifted the car of the ground with their hands!

After this we got in the taxi and set off for our first day at our first school. When we got there we sat in the staff room and met Yakob and Yossi who are 2 out of 4 guys from a local university who will be coming to some schools with us to help out with some translation etc. We also met a teacher at the school who comes from New York originally. Anothing thing to mention which was quite funny to see is at all the schools the children are allowed to walk into the staff room and offices etc quite freely. After this we went to the sportshall to pick up some equipment and get ready for the first classes.
When the kids came in they were very excited and ready to get started. We played some fun warm up games and competitions with them before letting them have 10 minutes for a couple of matches at the end, followed by them swarming us as the end to sign autographs and write things in English for them.

After the school sessions we went back home, made some lunch and got ready to meet Yossi who picked up us to take us to the afternoon session which was at a friendship house called Migdalor. This is an Arabic friendship house. We have a mixture of Jewish and Arabic schools and friendship houses. During the lift with Yossi I noticed he has exactly the same taste in music as me! He also has a dvd screen in his car so we were watching the music videos. There were a couple foreign songs that we both also knew but because of this Denys automatically assumed they were Hebrew songs so was quite shocked when I said "oo I love this song". When we got to Migdalor we met the children and walked a short distancve to an outside football pitch. Even though it was raining the kids were ready to go and couldnt wait, which is excellent considering most people here dont want to be out in the rain and the schools wont let pupils out in the rain for sport. The children were mixed ages and once again were well behaved and really enjoyed themselves, we could have been there all night if it didnt get dark! Even after the session they kept wanting me to race with them so we did this for a short while then decided to race back to the Friendship house which is similar to a youth centre. One boy called Goulan (not sure on correct spelling) didnt want to let go of me or Denys before and after the session. We carried on after for around an hour playing table tennis with the guy in charge at the centre plus Yossi and Yakob.

It was quite late when we got back so we decided to take a walk around Akko to find somewhere to eat but it proved quite difficult as there wasn't too many places and alot of places were closed. We found one place though which turned out to be a good find. The sign was in Hebrew so we dont know what its called but it had redlights and a bull on the front so from now on its know as The Redbull to us. Here we had Hummus along with some others things and fresh Lemonade before walking home in the rain!

Thursday or Tuesday as its more commonly known as in Israel (as everyone seems to mix them both up) we went to Weitzman school which is right by the sea. Because of the rain we couldnt go outside so had to help another teacher inside with classes but in future we will have our own classes outside. We also saw some games from a different teacher and were discussing ideas of our own to adapt to football and maybe change some things. Once again as soon as we walked through the schools entrance all the children were happy to see us shaking our hands, high fiving and asking for autographs! We also atteacted a massive crowd outside the principals door. Its great to see the children so happy and ready to learn. We met Nissim the sports teacher who took us to some classrooms so we could introduce ourselves before the lessons where they would then walk to the sportshall. During a volleyball lesson we saw 2 boys who were obviously encouraging others and giving advice and tactics also but not wanting to play much themselves so we nicknamed them Arsene and pat ( Arsene Wenger & Pat Rice).

Little Wenger and Rice

                                                                              Yossi

Unfortunatly our afternoon sessions were cancelled as there was thunder and lightning and the rain just wouldn't stop but judging by the forecast the rain should be gone by next week. During the afternoon one of our contacts Haim came by the house to drop off some equipment, much more than we expected but not going to comlain with that, we now have around 45 footballs plus a bunch of cones and bibs.

Just some of the equipment!

 So not much else to report on for now but we are ready for our first weekend as weekends are Friday & Saturday, work Sunday.

O and one more thing to mention, I have picked up on a couple of Hebrew words, once again not sure on the correct spelling but so far I have listuvev which means turn and Makoway which is like saying mate.