Dead sea and start of my last week

So I'm now underway on my last week here in Israel but first I want to talk about my trip to the Dead Sea at the weekend, it was an overnight trip as the journey is around a 4 hour drive through part of the West Bank and the desert, we stopped a few times along the way for sight seeing and also for Danny's (tour guide) children.

Along the way we made a stop for breakfast, stopped at a monument for soldiers that have lost their live's in that part of the desert in war which was made from old military items. We also stopped at the real Baptist site of Jesus which is just across the border in Jordan, you may remember I mentioned that Danny told me this when we visited Yardenite which claims to be "close" to the original location which obviously its only a few hundred miles close. The site had a long drive up to it then the area, all around though was fencing with signs pinned up saying Danger-Mines. After this we drove for around an hour and then I could finaly see the Dead Sea, we stopped again for lunch at a service station where danny knew everyone there, he kept telling me "we should get a photo of you on a camel" at first I thought he was joking so just kept replying by haa yeah sure. Just before we were about to set off he spoke to one of his friends and asked me if i wanted to, I said I don't mind but he said what are you scared? Truth is I actually wasn't scared about sitting on a camel but once he said that I had to show him that us Brits aren't afraid about sitting on a camel so me and his daughter both had a go on a camel ride around a service station in the middle of the desert which wasn't too bad although I wouldn't trade the use of a car for a camel. If it was a motorbike, quad bike or something with an engine I would have been on it like a shot! But I can now say I've rode a camel in the desert even if it was for a few minutes. After the camel ride we set off for what was to be around another hour in the car but didn't seem like it as during the drive on my left side I had amazing views of the Dead Sea and on the right I had all the desert mountains. Along the drive we also stopped at a nature park where the weather was very hot and they had many spring pools which look like they would be full and lovely to be in come summer time.

Real Baptist site in Jordan

View from the Nature Park.

But finally after around 6 hours of driving including stops we arrived at En Gedi which is one of the places where you can enter the dead sea to swim/float. The weather was a bit chilly and windy so we decided to just admire the views and get a few photos as we all agreed once we got out the water it would be pretty cold so we would see what its like tomorrow. Our hotel was just 5 minutes drive from here and located in Masada which had excellent views of the desert. Here is a photo of the view from the balcony and of the Dead Sea at En Gedi:

We had a couple hours rest in our rooms to shower etc after the long drive which started at 6:30am. After this we went back out in the car, we drove off road into the desert where 360degrees around us you could see you were in the middle of the desert with nothing around. We went to some caves in the desert where you could walk around and see how the weather had created it, the stone was so soft you could pull it apart by your hands, it looked like it was man made and the set for a film. The rain and wind had created swirls and patterns all over the rocks that looked amazing and like they had been done by an artist.

After this little visit we went back to the hotel as we looked like building contractors from the sand etc from the rock that was over us from climbing up the rocks and exploring but it was good fun, we also went through one of the caves which exactly had a signed saying not to enter but we went all the way through darkness out to the otherside to sunlight again.

Back at the hotel I enjoyed few english channels they had, one which had the latest european football news and the other which was called Yes comedy and had shows such as Friends and Seinfeld. We then wen't out to get dinner, it was around 9:30pm when we headed back to get our heads down for the night. In the morning we packed up our things and checked out of the hotel then headed out to do something before we left. We went to a nature trail which Danny told me usually had no water but this year because they've had what they call a good winter, meaning lots of rain there was now a flowing stream where last year they would walk. We walked a few minutes down the river without getting our feet wet before realising that we would have to walk through the water if we wanted to carry on, Danny sent his son to the car to go get the crocs, Danny let me wear his pair which were a size UK 12 and I'm usually a UK9. As you can see from the photo below I was well prepared for this day..or not.

It was a really nice walk up the river going up mini waterfalls along the way where eventaully at the top there was a larger pool and cave with a waterfall next to it, once again its hard to imagine the walk without the sound of the water or the water itself actualy being there.

Opening of the cave at the top of the walk

After we got to the top we went back the way we came, we got all the way to the car when danny realised he had lost his keys, now we had just been walking up stream in the water so they could be anywhere, we all headed back out to try and find them so i got to do the walk twice, we got all the way near the top again without finding them so at this point we were wondering what we were going to do but somehow luckily someone had found them back near the car. We then headed back to Akko with just a few stops including lunch along the way so the journey took around 4 hours this time, another stop to mention is in the middle nowhere along the way we stopped at a small fruit and veg stand as its in the middle of the fields where its grown and there were a few stands along the way. Danny told me how this is the place to buy it as its fresh and very cheap, I was wondering how much cheaper fruit and veg can really be seeing him buy a bin bag size full of carrots and many carrier bags with other vegetables, when he got back in the car he told me all of it was 15 shekels which is about £2.50. Once I got home I rested and watched some TV and that was the end of the Dead Sea trip.

Sunday was the start of my last week and I was at Rambam school where when I got there all the children were heading to a tournament where all the schools in Akko will be playing, I had already been invited to the tournament by 3 of the other schools I coach at so I asked the co-ordinator at UJIA who run the project here if I could go but never got a response. The children at Rambam were asking if I was going with them and getting excited but the P.E teacher and her friend were going with them and told me that I would be with a cover teacher. I was a bit annoyed about this as she told me before that she knows nothing about football so I didn't understand why her and her friend who also know nothing were going. Throughout the day I had the boys by myself outside and different teachers were coming to take the girls inside. It went ok but it can get a little long as nobody speaks english so you cant communicate well plus at break time there were no teachers outside but I decided to sit outside and ended up breaking up 3 fights that were going on and pulling them inside to the teachers. Sunday evening I was at Ben Gurion a friendship house where we just played some games as it was my last week, when they found out it was my last week they kept telling me to stay longer or come back next week and not to leave, the organiser there said exactly the same thing but we had a lot of fun and this was one of my favourite friendship houses, at the end I left them a couple of footballs which they were very grateful for.

Monday was a very hot day and I was at Eshkol school, one of my favourites. The children are great to work with here, always so happy and excited plus well behaved. Because it was my last week I promised them the previous week that I would let them play games so thats exactly what we did and I joined in with some of the classes with smaller numbers. Once again when I mentioned its my last week everyones heads went down and were asking why I had to leave. But I loved being at this school, at the end of the classes all the children would come up and shake my hand or show me some skills they can do with the football. A few of the children today were crying at the end of the sessions aswell which i had to tell them not to do or they may set me off!

Me and a couple of the children after one of the sessions, boy on the right is one of the happiest children I've met, always smiling and would always tell me who arsenal were playing, the scores and goalscorers. (all the children were excellent)

So that was the last day of Eshkol however I am planning to go back there this week to go to some of the classrooms to say goodbye to everyone and see the Principal as she wasn't there today plus bring them a few Arsenal things.

After the school because it was a lovely day me and Avi went to the local mall to get some ice cream and look around a few shops before ending up in the arcade, Avi wasn't happy that I beat him at basketball again and beat his top score.

Anyway thats it for now, my last update will be this weekend which will be my last and probably updated from back home in England but I will be sure to have another blog ready for my next adventure in April to Barbados doing the same kind of thing with Arsenal in the Community again.

Thank you to everyone who has got this far in reading the blog.





Another week from the Holy Land

Sunday was the start of my week at Rambam school, everything went well in the sessions apart from one class which are always a bit loud and hyper and 2 kids decided they wanted to fight each other, I was on my own and none of them understand English nor do I speak Hebrew so I had to try and break them up and keep them calm before going inside to find a teacher to sort it out. Apart from that all the other classes were fine.

Monday I was at Eshkol with Avi who helps out, a warm sunny day and I wanted to stay longer than the school day I was enjoying myself that much. We did some work on passing thorugh the gate where they pass through the cones and if they make a set amount of passes they make the gate smaller, if they miss or hit the markers then they make it bigger, we did this with both feet using inside and outside of the foot techniques, mixed in with competitions and everyone moving one side to the right when the whistle was blown, they really enjoyed it and later on during a breaktime I found out the girls and boys will be playing in the tournaement ive been invited to by other schools this Sunday which hopefully I can attend. At breaktime I coached the girls team that will be playing as they wanted to get some extra practice in before the event. After the school I went with Avi to the cinema where we watched a new movie called 'We bought a zoo' with Scarlet Johansson, quite a good movie for the family to watch, we both really enjoyed it.

Tuesday I was at El Manara school and I actually had one of mine and Denys' best friends take us, that is an annoying taxi driver who is always mad and drives in lets just say a bit of a rush, when I said El Manara to him he said no english however El Manara was not english the last time I checked! In fact he took us to this school instead of another one time so im not sure how he didn't know it, anyway I got there in the end to find out Yaqob one of the assisstants wasn't going to turn up so another day on my own in a small area and 30 kids per class who don't understand English and the teacher doesn't speak any English who has other classes going on somewhere else at the same time but once again got through it with no problems and even joined in a couple games with them which they got excited about.

Wednesday was Herzog school followed by a trip to the zoo with avi then lunch at the mall after. The zoo was better than I thought and had everything, lama's, kangaroos, alligators, monkeys, snakes, giraffes, zebras and much more! We took a good walk around including walking with small monkeys and through the reptiles centre which I don't know why because we both agreed we hated snakes. The best part wa watching the monkeys chasing each other and also walking through the section with the smaller monkeys which just run across your feet and come right up next to you.

Early tomorrow morning I am going for my last trip with tour guide Danny Arama for a 2 night stay in the dead sea. Then I'll be back Saturday ready for my last week in Israel which will include a lot of fun and games for the schools.

Once I am back from the trip I will update the blog with details and photos.

Thanks for reading,

Joe.

Purim & Qesariyya

I now have exactly 2 weeks remaining in Israel before I board the plane back to London and I cant believe how fast time has gone, it seems like only a couple of weeks ago we were arriving at our new home and meeting everyone. But today I found out that I will be starting a new adventure on the 23rd April with two fellow gappers Danny and Sam, we will be going to Barbados for just over 2 months, its a very exciting time, as one door closes another will soon be opening.

Weather here in Israel is getting hotter and this weekend is forecast to be around 27 degrees. Wednesday an Thursdays there was no school because of a holiday called Purim, similar to halloween all the children and everyone dress up. Thursday evening I was invited to a student/teacher party of the local college at the cinema in the mall, Avi invited me as he is head of the student union at the college and helped organize the event. Im not a fan of dressing up but I thought I would, yep you guessed it went quite simplay as a footballer. We started off having a buffet talking etc, I was with Avi's friends most the time as alot of people don't speak english, but we had a laugh between us and talked about the weeks football results and goals. After we went into the cinema where they had a raffle pulling out random seat numbers, there were quite a few prizes consisiting of sounds systems, microwaves to the main prize an LCD TV. The head of the college said a few words about Purim and the college and then mentioned that there were a small group of German people studying at the college on an exchange for a few weeks followed by mentioning me from England/Arsenal. I was also lucky enough to win a prize which was a sandwich toaster so we know what I'll be eating for the last 2 weeks... After the raffle we watched a new movie called This Means War with reece Witherspoon, a good movie for the family with action and comedy.

Friday I had a tour at 10:30 with tour guide Danny Arama. It was a very nice day with blue skies and sunshine. We went to a town called Qesaryya which I was told is one of the most expensive places to live in Israel. There was an old Roman town we visited there that got destroyed during an earthquake but you can still see the remains of the houses, bath house and palace etc. A very big an impressive place, what interested me most was the old Hippodrome where many games went on including chariot racing where they would do 7 laps around the track which is massive! The stadium held around 10,000 people and the starting blocks are still there today! There is also a theatre there which they still use today for concerts.

Where the old bath house once stood (was very fancy)

Mosaic floor in one of the houses (there were so many mosaic floors!)

Part of the old stand in the Hippodrome

One end of the Hippodrome

Now a concert venue

A view looking back on the old Roman city

It's been another great week coaching football, joining in local festivities and seeing yet another amazing historical place along with beautiful scenary and also finding out where I will be going next month.

Tuesday, sun, work & beach

Today I had work at the Arabic school El Manara from 8-2. The schools fun btu quite tiring as its a small area with 30 kids and no breaks in between plus nowhere to sit down, the outside area where we teach is also next door to a secondary school so theres always noise and people hanging around, plus no gate where we coach so people just walk in. After the school Yossi phoned me and we went down to the beach in Akko for a short while, the beach was empty. I decided to have a go on the monkey bars and the gym area before playing football in the goals they have set up there, if only all gym areas had excellent weather and views then id probably go more often. We played football doing some kick ups, kicking around then as everyone does in Israel Yossi wanted to get competitive and have a penalty shoot out competition which I beat him at twice. I don't think I'll be seeing much rain in my remaining time here and jusding by the forcecast the weather is going to get a lot hotter.

Me and Yossi at the beach

Gym area

At 4pm I went to Bustan Hagalil to the disability session, unfortunatly it was very quiet there with only a few staff and a couple of people who live there as I found out everyone else had gone out to get things for their Purim party on Thursday so the session was cancelled but I still had time to talk to the few people there plus one of the workers told me it was her friends birthday and he supports Arsenal so would I make a short video to send him wishing him Happy Birthday which I of course did, he then text back saying "Thanks mate" at which point I discovered he had lived in London for 2-3 years, he shortly after called and we had a quick chat about all things London and Arsenal. I have also been invited to their Purim party at the centre, Purim is similar to Halloween with costumes etc.

So that is where im upto for now, the weather was like a summers day today and the evening was just as nice so I sat outside the apartment for a while and also had a chat with one of the Americans living next door to me, here working & studying archaeology. I'm going to watch the Arsenal vs Ac Milan game tonight, it's a big gap but nothing to lose so lets hope for a decent performance and maybe even a 5-0 victory.

Trip to River Jordan & Jordan border

Friday I had another scheduled tour with Danny Arama our tour guide here in Israel, we went to the River Jordan, first of we stopped to get lunch as he picked me up at 12:30 so we were both a bit hungry, we tried a new restaurant in Akko which was very good and had generous portions so we were both full before setting off on the road. Once again along the drive I saw some great scenary including the drive up a mountain which we stopped half way up to look at the view, once again in the week there was alot of rain and snow in the north of Israel, Danny still couldn/t believe how much water we saw on the sides of the roads and how full of water everything was as its never usually like that, because there was more snow there were many mountains covered in snow which was another thing he said he had never seen before, so something thats so familiar to us in England is much needed and appreciated in Israel.

We stopped off at Yardenite which I had already been to but in the dark so it was nice to appreciate the place in the daytime. It's "close" to where Jesus was baptised along the Jordan River hoever Danny told me that it's nowhere near as he was baptised in the Jordan side of the river so the place is set up for tourists to visit rather than having to cross the border but nonetheless its a beautiful part of the river where it is.

We then took a drive to the Jordan border and actually drove along the actual border where the electric fence is that seperates Jordan from Israel, it's all set on the mountains but you can see some houses etc on the Jordan side plus some look out towers. From the mountain you could also see the Jordan River which originally used to be the border seperating Jordan from Israel and the bridge that was blew up that went over the river, this all changed and an electric fence was put up after the 6 day war. So I have now been to the Lebanon, Syria and Jordan borders in Israel.

Jordan border, river and bridge

Saturday I went with Danny into the old town of Acre to go to a shop and buy a couple of souvenirs, I was happy that I managed to get a silver and copper plate of Jerusalem as when I was in Jerusalem there wasnt any decent souvenirs, just the usual commercial type stuff.  After that I went back home to have some lunch before watching the Liverpool vs Arsenal game which kicked off 2:45pm here. Another great result for Arsenal with Van Persie scoring 2 goals to win the game 2-1, sitting in 4th with Chelsea and Spurs yet to play, the weekend ended up perfect for Arsenal with Chelsea loing to West Brom, Spurs getting thrashed by a not so good United side 3-1 and Newcastle drawing in their derby with Sunderland, only 4 points behind Spurs now and is all to play for.

Sunday I had Rambam school in the morning followed by Ben Gurion in the evening. It was another day of rain stop and start however the school has an indoor gym and an hour before the afternoon session the rain stopped, the session is on concrete and was a little bit slippery in places but everyone still wanted to play so it went ahead.

Monday I was at Eshkol school, one of my favourites, a few of the kids were talking about the recent Arsenal results and they of course love Van Persie. I decided to do a warm up with them where they are in groups of 4 in a square and tuck a bib into their shorts and the person who gets the other persons bib first wins while the other 2 people count to ten, if theres no winner then its a draw and the other 2 then go, alternating rounf every so often so everyone gets a go against the other, we then moved onto a game where they use the same squares and go 2 on 2 where one person runs out puts their foot on the cone and throws the ball to their partner for a header to try and score against the other teams goal, we did competaitions where there's a top grid and the winners move up, losers down and the winning team on the top grid at the end are the champions, they love when it moves into competition and there were some really good tactics and techniques used between boys and girls.

This week I also have 1 or 2 days off because of a holiday called Purim which I understand is similar to Hallowen with dressing up and everything. Today the school had a theme where the children go to school in pyjamas and a lot of them came with slippers and blankets also plus alot of the boys had multi coloured hair, unfortunatly my camera was dead so couldn't get any photos today.

After the school I went to get my hair cut before the evening session and that is where we are upto now. The weather is also back to being hot and sunny again, I think this is how its going to be for the remainder of my stay in Israel and its only going to keep getting hotter.

Once again if you have got this far then thank you for reading and I'll be back soon to update you again, only two weeks left in Israel this Friday - time has flown by!

Return of the rain

This week saw the return of the rain again after quite a long run of hot days and sunshine. It started off ok and Sunday and Monday coached at Rambam and Eshkol school working on 1 on 1 attacking/defending. I got my key points across to them which for defending were sideways on, on your toes and trying to push the attacker out wide away from the goal and arms out for balance. For attacking to keep the ball close and as they all like Barcelona that this is the time to try any Messi like tricks if they have any in their locker. For a warm up they did some coaches command followed by knee tag. Last week everyone was talking about the Ac Milan vs Arsenal game but this week I had a handful of kids coming up to me telling me about the Arsenal vs Tottenham game 5-2, that’s more like it! Monday at Eshkol school during one of the classes a message went over the tannoy in Hebrew of course so I didn’t know what it was but the whole class stopped to listen. I found out that it was to do with earthquake practice so the whole school had to go and meet at the front entrance.

Monday afternoon I went to the cinema with Avi, we finally saw Safe House which is a new release, we always saw the trailers before other movies and really wanted to see it so finally we did. It has Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. It’s about a young CIA agent who is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house. But when the safe house is attacked, he finds himself on the run with his charge.

Tuesday was another hot day coaching at El Manara school which is the only Arabic school I coach at and 1 of 3 Arabic Junior schools in Akko. The teacher speaks very little English there and for the 30 minutes he said to come inside and eat, it’s a happy day. I wondered what he meant happy day but I said ok and followed him, he took me to a classroom full of children sitting around the outside, I soon figured out it was someones birthday. They had a table in the middle of the room with cake, drinks and sweets and everyone was sat around the edge of the room with the birthday boy sitting at the front of the class with a plastic crown on. I found out he loves football and Manchester United so was happy that I was there to celebrate his birthday with him. We soon all stood around the cake and sang happy birthday whilst clapping, the cake didn’t have candles but had 4 large more like fireworks/crackers that go off for around 30 seconds. Afterwards we sat back down whilst the teacher went around the class picking students to give him birthday wishes, one boy wished that he would get married.

Tuesday evening was when the rain started coming today heavily, this meant that the Tuesday afternoon session was cancelled. Wednesday morning it was still raining but the school I was at today does have a large indoor gym so me and Avi went along to find out that there are builders working on something in the gym so another cancellation. Around midday me and Avi went to a town nearby called Nahariyya which has a nice promenade by the sea and many high street shops, the town was also bombed by Lebanon in 2006 but it’s a very nice town with a lot more shops and bars etc than Akko. We went to a new restaurant there and both had steak, a very nice restaurant with excellent food and friendly service. Afterwards I went back home and shortly after Esti (woman in charge of the programme at UJIA) came to see how things were and take some receipts and also bring the piece of paper for the allowance to buy food at the local supermarket. By this time the rain still hadn’t stopped and Sameh phoned to tell me that the afternoon session at Mig Dalor had also been cancelled because of rain.

Wednesday evening there was an u19 game at the Akko stadium between Israel and Italy which we were going to go to but once again we decided not to because of the heavy rain so instead we went to Avi’s parents house in Akko to watch the international friendly game between Israel and Ukraine, some of his friends who I’ve met before also came to watch the game. It was quite a good game with 2 penalties and some good chances but in the end Ukraine won 3-2. I also had a few arguments/debates, one of which was what was the best league in the world, I had to say the premier league and another was apparently England have no good players so I had to go through them all with them starting with Joe Hart in goal, I told them we have plenty of good players just they can’t seem to player together.

Thursday I woke up to heavy rain again leaving Weizman school to be cancelled. So after a few weeks of nice weather this week has seen rain and left the last half of the week all pretty much cancelled. Hopefully this will be the last of the rain as I now only have 3 weeks remaining in Israel.

Israel Video

Just a quick update, I forgot to mention on Wednesday at Mig Dalor the friendship house I was greeted by all the kids telling me "Ac Milan four zero Arsenal lose". It felt like being back home in London at the school but its all good banter as there are kids there in Liverpool shirts, Chelsea shorts and from time to time the odd Haifa shirt or shorts. Today (Sunday) I was at Rambam school with Sameh one of the assisstants from the local college here. He also works at Mig Dalor part time, not doing football but being inside with the children talking to them etc. He told me today how the children are what they call 'problem children' but when we play football with them he noticed they are alot calmer and happier and his manager there told him the exact same thing, so thats always a big positive to hear.

Today I am going to watch the first half of the North London derby, Arsenal vs Tottenham then head out to Ben Gurion youth centre for work, Yosi another of the local assisstants will be coming to help out there.

If you’ve read the previous post already then you know that Friday I went on my tour so on Saturday I found myself at a bit of a loose end but it was actually quite nice to sleep in a bit later and have a relaxing day. I spent some time talking to friends and family on skype etc then kept an eye on the football and rugby scores. In the evening I decided to have a go at making a video of my time so far here in Israel, I didn’t have many video clips so put together what I could with some photos mixed in.

Anyway here it is, I hope you enjoy it: