Days by the Sea ימים ליד את הים

This is the cozy little street I’ve been living on for the last lunar cycle. It’s in a little village called Pardesiyya, just about a 15 minute drive from the city of Netanya. Looks like Israeli California, no?

So while the leaves began to fall and the days grew shorter, I was able to find some time to head down to the beach and soak up the sun, scope out the fishes, and swim around doing my best to be like one.

In the time I had between beach days and trips farther north, I had more than my share of work to do. The reason for me being in Netanya, of all places in Israel, is to volunteer with an organization called Abundant Bread of Salvation. The nature of the mission is to help those in need, particularly holocaust survivors. We operate a soup kitchen as well as a distribution centre for foodstuffs and dry goods. There’s lots of cleaning, serving, and administrative jobs to be done. So I work a lot, swim when I can, and get plenty of opportunity to practice speaking Hebrew.

On top of that, I've been moving furniture, building bunk beds, and doing some landscaping. Landscaping, or maybe I should say yard work, isn't what it is in Canada. You see, in Israel we don't mow the lawn - we sweep it! Behold, some fine Israeli astroturf!

The city of Netanya is kind of like a toned down version of Tel Aviv. There’s a lot of street art painted on buildings, a public piano in the centre of downtown, group art sessions near the beach, and several different dance groups practicing in the public square throughout the week. 

Let’s take a walk from the distribution centre to the beach. In the next set of pictures you can get a feel for the vibe here. I walked out one afternoon to capture some photos for you, beginning with the shuk. There’s shuks all over Israel, which are basically permanent outdoor markets. Foods are generally cheaper than you can find in the supermarkets, especially if you have the knack for haggling.

Which I don’t.

But the prices at the shuk in Netanya are pretty good to begin with, so I don’t worry about it much.

What’s cool about the shopkeepers is that they’ll sing the prices of their foods. It’s also fun to listen to the old ladies argue with the shopkeeps. Putting up a fight is inherently middle eastern. Not such an easy thing for a polite Canadian to get used to, and sometimes there’s no fight to be had, as not every shopkeeper is going to bend on price, and some of them only bend to certain people. Relationships matter. Who knew?

After passing the shuk there’s a quick walk for about a block and then we’re onto Herzl st. There’s a lot places in Israel named after Theodore Herzl. Go figure. Anyway, this leads us to the centre of Netanya, where hundreds of kids play in the street, dozens of cats litter the sidewalks, and murals cover the buildings. This big colourful monstrosity is one of the first things one sees after walking out of the central bus station. I pass it nearly everyday.

The corner that the big colourful building is on is where we turn and walk down Herzl. The next set of pics are what we see on our way to the beach!

You can kind of see the change in tone of the pictures as we get closer to the water. They get a little bit more family friendly, less urban graffiti style. This picture of the kids fishing is very near a large open area where there’s dancing a lot of the time. 

One evening after Shabbat a group of us met up for some outdoor dancing as Brian, head of Abundant Bread of Salvation, is a lifelong Israeli folk dancer. I had seen some of the Israeli folk dancing before, but this time I managed to get in there and make a good fool of myself. There’s a lot of steps, kicking, singing along, and raising hands in the air - a really impressive sight to see when there’s a couple hundred people in unison! I’m no skilled dancer, and this ain’t no mosh pit, but I certainly bumped into enough people to make it feel that way...

There were a couple nice Jewish mamas who were happy to show me what to do. One of them was trying to guide me in the backwards steps, and after some not-so-clear communication she exclaimed ‘move your tushi!’

Lots of awkward fun.

Before we walk down to the beach let’s turn around and gaze back towards the square and the city, which are hiding behind the pointy water fountain and the palm trees:

Did I mention there are lots of cats here? Everywhere in Israel, actually. The story is that there was a big problem with rats because of all the garbage (seriously, there’s a real problem with trash. Recycling hasn’t really come to Israel yet. Not in any real capacity, anyway), so a bunch of cats were brought in to deal with the rat problem.


People like to feed the cats, so they gather by the beach as well as the trash cans. The sounds they make at night is creepy beyond belief. One night when I was in Jerusalem watching over the front desk of the hostel I actually shut the windows and locked the door because the cats out there sounded demon possessed! No joke! They make some evil child like noises, like they ate some small babies and the babies are still crying out from inside their adorable furry graves.

Let’s get a nicer picture in our minds, shall we? How about the sunset before Shabbat on the beautiful Netanya coastline! Can you see the heads of surfers waiting in the water? They managed to get some pretty good waves that evening.


As I mentioned, the volunteer work I’m doing here is mainly with holocost survivors. During the first week of my stay there were a few young German guys who came to help out. These were the first Germans I’ve met (maybe in my life?) who were practicing Christians. Really solid guys. During one of the distribution days one of the survivors was feeling ill, so much so that he wasn’t able to walk out of the centre. Two of the Germans came to his aid and carried him arm in arm out to a car that was waiting to take him to the hospital. Once in the car, one of the Germans rode with him to help him out on the other side of the ride.

I didn’t quite grasp the levity of the situation at first, but someone else pointed out the poetry of the moment; that young men from the country that tried to annihilate him and his people were now carrying him, and standing fast to serve and to bless him.

Hallelujah

Brian lives a life dedicated to blessing others, and his existence and ability to continue is nothing short of the grace of God. His only pursuit is the organization, which also supports orphanages and single mothers. He lives modestly, taking only what he needs, what he can recycle, and what he’s given.

Check out Abundant Bread at

www.abundantbread.com

On Shabbat mornings we would make our way up to Haifa, as that’s where Brian’s Kehillath is. There are so many kids there! Israeli culture is very life and family centric. So much so that one of the first questions anyone asks is “are you married? Why not?” It’s like all the women here act as if they’re Jewish mothers or something!

...oh, wait...

 ..right.

After Kehillath this week a few of us volunteers went out to the old port city of Akko. Here’s us, with Brian on the bike. (A young slick Arab guy was happy to let us crawl all over his wheels, and even captured the shot for us!)

Akko is a very old city. References to the city show up as early as Pharaoh Tutenkhamen, if not earlier. The city remained functional and intact up until the Mamluk reign, at which point they destroyed the city in order to stop Crusaders from continuing to keep a foothold there. For them, the Crusaders, Akko was an important stronghold and primary entrance point for pilgrims.

Nowadays the old city is inhabited mainly by Muslims, whereas the surrounding area is a Jewish majority with a mix of Muslim, Christian, and Bahai communities. Like many places in Israel, the old houses are in great need of repair, while newer buildings continue to pop up.

The big attractions here are of course the ancient ruins, and the opportunity to eat at one of the restaurants built on top of them. 

You can see a couple of people standing on the edge of the wall in the above photo. It’s a popular spot to jump off into the water. I brought my bathing suit, but as it was getting late we decided to ride on a tiny boat and view the ruins from the sea. 

As we stepped off the boat and walked through the markets, night began to fall, bringing an end to the Sabbath. So we left the gorgeous shades of the Akko evening and headed back to life in Netanya.