It is still really hot here. So hot, Jiries and I decided to risk going to the beach on Saturday because we couldn't stand the heat here anymore. I say 'risk' because Saturday is the holy day of rest for the Jewish people, so no one works, and what's a better thing to do on your day off than go to the beach? We went to Ashkelon, which is about 1 kilometer from Gaza (a beach we have been to several times before), and it wasn't too crowded, but there were definitely a lot more people there than normal. There are a few tent-like structures that are set up on the beach for shade, and we set up our beach stuff under one that already had a few people under it. There were two older girls (Mariam and Rebecca), one younger girl (I can't remember her name, actually it was impossible to pronounce), and two guys (Dave and Danny, more showed up eventually), all about my age or a little younger. They were of African descent and right away Jiries noticed that they weren't speaking Hebrew.
Eventually a conversation evolved when they asked me where I was from. One of the guys spoke English pretty well, Dave, but sometimes he had a hard time expressing himself. He told me that they were speaking their native language from Ethiopia, which is where most of them were born, however a few of them were born in Israel. Dave told me that his parents left Ethiopia to go to Israel in 1991, and when I asked why he said it was because the Bible says the Jewish people belong in Israel. Later when I spoke with another young guy, he said his parents left because the Jewish people were treated badly by the Muslims in Ethiopia. Once they got to Israel, they learned Hebrew and started a new life.
Dave is 21 years old, just like me, and he is in the IDF, the Israeli Defense Force, for his 3rd year. Before the military he worked in a circus as an acrobat, but all Israeli men have to serve a mandatory 3 years in the IDF and women serve 2. Dave told me his miltiary unit was sent to patrol the border with Egypt, and he really didn't like his job so he switched to become a chef (for the IDF) instead. He admitted he doesn't like being in the military, but he said Israel is a small country and everyone has to be in the IDF, so there is no choice. He said when he was on border patrol he got used to listening to the sound of bombs every day and it no longer scared him, but he still didn't like it.
The Ethiopian Israelis were pretty funny; except for Dave, the rest of them only knew a few choice words that they informed me, and I could tell, were from rap songs they heard on MTV. I won't write what they said here, because its definitely not appropriate, but my jaw pretty much dropped when I heard the things they called each other in English. They saw my reaction and howled with laughter. They loved asking me about New York City and the parties at American universities that they see in the movies and they mentioned that the parties in Tel Aviv are great too, just in case I was wondering. I asked Dave about Jaffa, the Arab city adjacent to Tel Aviv, and he said that no, Jaffa was no good. Its all terrorists. I asked why. He said you know, lots of Muslims. I asked him if he had been to Bethlehem, where it is mostly Christians. He said No, it is all terrorists there too. The Christians are ok though. But still terrorists in Bethlehem.
The conversation topic switched abruptly so I didn't have the chance to press him for more, plus we were all having fun and I didn't want to ruin the mood. The girls were smoking hookah and the guys were drinking beer, and even though there was a major langage barrier we were still sharing a lot of laughs. We discovered Rebecca knew some Spanish, so her and Jiries talked for a bit because he speaks fluent Spanish. Danny, one of the guys, put on Rebecca's skirt and wore it the whole day. The girls nearly died laughing. We went swimming together and had splash fights and buried Dave in the sand. Mariam was especially nice, but she spoke very little English so we didn't talk much, and instead we pointed and laughed and swam around in the sea.
After a while they left but Jiries and I stayed until the sun went down. The beach still had lots of people on it, and there were many people swimming even after the sun set.
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