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Tuesday 26 October 2010

This morning's surprise

This morning I went to visit a small group of soldiers at the outpost of Sde Boaz to arrange a goodbye party for them for tomorrow evening. This outpost gets 5 soldiers a week on guard duty and they live in a small trailer. The Soldiers rotate almost every week. Since this is such a small group of soldiers and they are pretty isolated, it a great place to bring groups of students to visit. The soldiers are absolutely elated to know that they are not forgotten and they have a chance to really bond with the students who visit them , as they sit and talk one on one.

Often the groups of soldiers are female which is even more special for groups of students at girls schools here in Israel, and I try to bring the girls to visit on wednesday evenings, to throw a goodbye party for the soldiers who are leaving on Thursday morning to a different post.

Ironically, today when I went to arrange tomorrow evening's visit, I was surprised to find out 2 things. One, that there was a black out in the local area and the soldiers did not have a way to warm their lunches, which is the main meal of their day. The second was that instead of Female soldiers, this group was male and that the army has started to alternate 2 weeks of female soldiers with one week of male soldiers. Although this doesnt really make a difference to me, it is useful in knowing which groups of students to bring when.

What was so special about today was that I was at the right place at the right time. With our hospitality trailer and generator, I was able to make hot grilled cheese sandwiches for the soldiers lunch. It felt so good to do something that simple and make such a huge difference. Come join me next time!


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