Tu B'Shvat, Volunteering in Lod, just the beginning

Sunday, my move to Lod, met my new group, the German Hachshara, they're really nice and I'm really enjoying their company in Lod. The rest of day we spent sitting in the living room in the dark, because there was no electricity because our youth movement didn't bother to pay the bill so the electricity got turned off. After we got the electricity back on I went to the boys' house to say hi and they invited me for dinner, where I found quite a cooking drama, we couldn't get the gas stove to work, and every time we tried using the electric plug in stove it turned the electricity off in the house. I managed to fix their stove after about 3 hours of this drama and then we made dinner. Monday, we had a Bnei Akiva event called the Ve'eda, basically over a weekend every few years members from different year programs from Bnei Akiva come together to make decisions about where Bnei Akiva should go from now, so Monday we had a day in Haifa,the city was voted to be a new focus for Bnei Akiva's volunteering work, youth groups etc. We toured the Technion (Israel institute for Technology), met the mayor of Haifa and had a couple of lectures with top technology companies that have bases in Haifa, and some of employees who have made Aliyah. After a very long day in Haifa, we finally went home to Lod to get some sleep. Tuesday, the first day of work, volunteering in a special needs school in Lod, it's hard, demanding volunteer work but very rewarding. The kids have a variety of needs from autism to down's syndrome, they're very sweet and always smiling. I find it difficult to work with my class with an age group of 18-21 it's hard to see people your age who can't do some things that we take for granted everyday of our lives. It really humbles you, as well as the fact that the students at this school are so happy even though they have a disability but its because they are unaware of it in a way that they are different or have a disability. Tuesday through Thursday, from 8:30am to 12:45am we did our work with our class, we basically work during our shifts helping the students solve puzzles, do assignments, like coloring pictures and writing in Hebrew, these are things we do simply but we always take for granted it makes me really happy to be able to help do things that children do all over the world the teachers at this school have a difficult job, but it is a job that is so important to be done in every community in the world. Thursday evening as well as Wednesday evening we celebrated Tu B'Shvat by eating lots of dried fruit and drinking 4 cups of wine, I didn't really know that there was such a thing as a Seder Tu B'Shvat so it was a true learning experience. Friday through Sunday I spent Shabbat in Rishon LeZiyyon with family.