Sun, Sea, Football, Bowling & Rollerblading

Hello again to everyone reading. Lets start off where we left last time which is Monday. Monday we are at Eshkol school in the morning, one of my favourite schools. We had lessons up till 2pm of all ages mixed boys and girls. We did some heading and volleying drills followed by short matches. During breaktime once again we signed autographs, got chased around and managed to join in with the childrens football match for a short while. In the evening we went to Burla which is a youth centre type group of boys aged around 16, we did a short session with them before they played a game, this is how the guy in charge of the group wants it done, half of the session as a warm up and work on technique then the other half they get a game. All day we were by ourselves without any of our assisants from the local university who can translate some things etc.

Tuesday we went to El Manara school which the previous week we couldn't coach at because part of the goal there had cracked and it was at risk of falling so the teacher didnt want us to use the area, better to be safe than sorry. Luckily this week it had been fixed and we were back out to coach from 8am-2pm, once again nobody from the university so it was up to us to let our feet do the talking. We did turning and most of them did understand us and the standard may have been a little poor at first but after us going through the groups showing them closer they soon got the hang of it and were performing some good turns. Whilst we were in the staff room on a short break we spoke to one child called Mahmoud who had apparently hurt his foot so after a few minutes I decided to ask him if he wanted to come and play football which he replied "yes!" straght away, haha the foot can't be that bad can it? The I asked him what lesson he should have now to which he replied "geography", so I asked him if he liked Geography " no". Kept us amused during our break and I think we also kept him amused rather than sitting by himself and to little surprise later on he was in one of our classes playing football.

The evening took us to Bustan Hagalil, the diability session we have once a week for ages 18-22 years old. The weather Tuesday was really windy making it a cold day and when we got to Bustan we had noticed the wind had blew one of the goals over. We go to the centre and went inside as usually they are already outside waiting for us warming up on the pitch but when we got inside we noticed it was a bit quiet and nobody was expecting to play because of the weather, we asked if they wanted to but they kept pointing to the weather outside and didn't fancy it, so instead we sat around for a while and talked before going back home.

After getting home and checking emails etc we went to a little food place right by our house that does different meats or Falafel in pita bread. We had already been before a couple of times so I decided to have the chicken again but this time while we waited we decided to order a few falafels to try. Food once again was good and after we headed to the shop to buy an ice cream which we split in half and share, it's become a bit of a habit now, everytime we go to this food place we have to walk to the shop to buy an ice cream after. Avi one of our helpers also called us on our walk back and told us that him and his wife plus a couple of friends are going bowling if we wanted to join them, we jumped at the chance and wen't bowling for the first time in Israel. It was a good night once again to get out somewhere new. Avi, his wife, sister in law and friend went on one lane and me, Denys and Avi's friend bowled on the lane next to them. The bowling surprisingly wasn't a bad standard and always came down to the last few throws. I think we all ended up winning a game each and me and Avi's friend both threw 3 strikes in a row at the end of a game and Denys got a score of 145.

Denys, Avi, me and his friend Igal

Wednesday we were at Hertzog school which starts at 9am so an extra hour in bed for us. The weather wa back to being nice and sunny again, when we got to thr school the gym which we usually use had drilling and workmen inside so instead we used the outdoor football pitch which worked out even better as it meant we could be coaching outside in the sunshine. Once again we did heading and volleying followed by a short match at the end. On our break we went to our favourite Russian bakery again. When we got back we got back into the sessions and at the sametime next to the pitch other classes were doing rollerblading so I had a little look and when the guy asked me if I wanted a go I couldn't resist getting them on! So I joined in with the kids rollerblading for a bit and also decided to do some coaching whilst on rollerblades which the kids found amusing. Hopefully if we're outside again next week and rollerblading is going on I can get involved in some of the roller hockey. After we finished at the school we waited in the playground for Avi to come pick us up, whilst we were there we had loads of kids chasing us around and jumping on us so we joined in and got down to their level for a few minutes. When Avi got us he took Denys to go and get a haircut and a shave at his local barbers which cost 40 shekels (approx 6-7 pounds) so similar price to back home at a barbers shop. He offered to take us to lunch with some of his colleagues but because we had already ate at the bakery we were quite full so instead he dropped us back home. We then decided to take a walk to Napoleons hill which is a few minutes walk from the house, there's not alot to see there but still we can say we walked up the hill.

Mini Benayoun on the right

This has actually given me a few ideas for the younger groups we coach to keep them amused

A view of Napoleon's hill

Cactus we saw on our walk aswell as a man asleep on a bench but we thought the cactus would be more interesting

In the evening we had Mig Dalor which is an Arabic friendship house/youth centre. We had a group of children of similar age which was good, the only problem was Sameh and Yakov were there to assist us as Sameh works at the house anyway but translation was like speaking to a brick wall, we would say something expecting them to then translate but they seemed to want to stand around starring into space or talking to each other. We managed to get what we wanted to across though but translation was needed for this one as we did it where they stand in a circle pass and move then dribbling following onto overlaps, one two's etc so it was all about communication. Eventually with little help from our 'helpers' they were doing it well so we progressed into a game for around 20 minutes before finishing for the day.

Thursday we were in Weizman school which is by the sea and once again we had brilliant sunshine which always helps lift the mood for the last day of the week, sometimes the sun even goes to our heads abit I think. We kept to our main weekly topic of volleying and heading and all the sessions went well, this is another of our favourite schools and there a number of both boys and girls there who are very good.

For the evening Avi took us to the Canyon Mall to see another movie, this time we saw a movie called Son Of No one. It was an average movie and was quite slow moving so hard to get into but it did have a few twists in the storyline which keep you interested. After the movie we went to the games arcade and as Avi told us apparently he is number 1 in Israel at air hockey, like me and Denys thought how can someone be that good at air hockey!? I'ts an ongoing thing we find here in Israel, someone is always number 1 at something or knows someone who is. So I gave Avi a game not playing air hockey since I was about 10 and yep you guessed it I beat him so I guess that makes me Number 1 in Israel now (wink wink). But once again it was nice to get out to the mall and we had a really good evening with Avi with plenty of laughs.

Once again if you have got this far then thank you for reading and be sure to come back soon for an update over the weekend.