the dirty dirty.. (of israel)

Look at me... So adventurous. Who would have thought?

After a 4:30 am wake up, only to find out that we had been lied to about the time to make sure we were at the bus stop on time, and then waiting an hour for the bus, we made it to the Negev.

Well, sort-of. We made it to a bus stop in the Negev.

After an hour "lunch" break (at 9 am), and enough time for 5 busses full of Oranim kids to run to the bathroom, we separated into groups for the advance and easy hike.

Again, feeling adventurous, we opted for the advanced. I figured after rock climbing in Indiana, this couldn't be that hard?

So I put on my hiking shoes (thanks grandma and pa!) and quickly fell in love with our tour guy Ron, a complete CRAZY man who seems to belong PERFECTLY in the wilderness, given plenty of room to spin circles. I only wish there were video tapes of this man and his ways, because I cannot even begin to explain.

Well, the hike was a joke. We were instantly wondering how easy the "easy" hike must have been (we later found out it was literally an hour of walking).

We hiked downward, using man-made "ladders" on some rocks. And about 5 hours later we made it out.

It was beautiful. We spent a lot of time hiking in complete shade, had way to many water breaks, and clearly, way to many pee breaks. But none the less, it was beautiful.

Then we got to get back on a bus, yes, we were sandy, sweaty, and gross, and head to Eilat. But not of course before stopping at an ice cream shop. Wonderful.

We spent the rest of the day sleeping, and Randy, an old YJ friend living in Eilat through another Oranim program, quickly came and met us at the hotel. My entire group loved him, and we spent the night getting our own tour of Eilats night life by an Eilat resident!

Saturday we spent the day in the water. Wanting to be away from everyone, we went to the rocky area, and everyone quickly had bloody feet, even one kid stepping on a (insert name of prickly thing that I have forgotten).

Realizing that was a horrible idea, we gathered our things and moved to a new area to finish the day snorkeling. AMAZING. I absolutely love fishes. I will defiantly have to swallow my fear and eventually become scuba certified, which is another thing I can do in Eilat.

We woke up early Sunday morning and quickly left the hotel. But not before I managed to leave half my things and not be able to brush my teeth because the water and electricity in the hotel had gone off.

Feeling tired and off, Erica and I decided to switch to the easy hike. Since, for some ODD reason, Oranim had scheduled us to hike again.

But it worked out well. Erica and I were given the chance to meet new people, and get a completely different view.

I'm pretty sure everyone fell asleep quickly after we got back to our original busses to return home.

Unfortunately here is where our fun weekend in Eilat turned sour. And because I am blogging about my entire experience in Israel, I must continue to write.

It was not until the following day that we found out the events that had happened after returning to Ramla.

It was 9 am Monday, and we were meeting at the house to go on a tour. Nir, Allisabeth and Nicole walked in, and we quickly noticed Hila was missing.

And this is the story we heard:

Being afraid of getting dehydrated, Hila had spent most of the weekend drinking gallons of water. And since Hila is petite as can be, she is very fragile.

Upon the bus ride home she began feeling sick, and by the time she and her roommates had arrived back to the apartment, she had begun speaking gibberish.

Allisabeth and Nicole walked her to the clinic, where the doctors, speaking mostly hebrew, basically said come back tomorrow.

It was then Hila became to seize, bleeding from her biting her tongue, and then laying completely still. She was rushed in an ambulance to the hospital, where they induced a coma, where she laid for 3 days.

Thankfully, that was the worst of it. After spending a couple more days in the hospital under watch, she was released and has return back to us and is better then ever.

We are all so thankful that no permanent damage happened, and that besides a couple minor level off-beats, she is perfectly healthy, and soon will be continuing with group activities and programs.

Hila is lucky. She has family members living in Israel, and her mother was quick to fly over. I could only imagine having to go through that alone, and Hila is still brave as can be.

She has spent the past two weeks resting and we are told she will be beginning volunteering soon. And I'm sure she will love it as much as we all do. After all, the reason I haven't been rambling as much is because I have simply been spending all my time wondering the city of Ramla, helping out when needed.

But do not worry, I will continue to make sure every detail and aspect is covered.

Until then...