Tuesday, June-29-10
So, I think I just learned what may become an important Mda lesson. Not every shift is going to be as memorable as my last one. Today started out very similar to yesterday. Got to sleep in and then headed to the station at about 2:15pm. I know we are told not to make pre-emptive judgements, but from the beginning of the shift I had the feeling it was going to be a long night. We got to the Merkaz station (our first time here) and the receptionist told us to go around to the back, where we would find our ambulance. We walk around and surely see an ambulance with a driver and a medic in the passenger and driver seats. We go an introduce ourselves, say our names, that we will be with them this shift, and ask if the ambulance check needs to be done. What do we get in return....a ‘no’ to checking the ambulance and a that`s about it. No names, no hello, nothing. Great, I’m thinking it’s going to be a long day, but hopefully we will at least get some interesting calls. We wait around at the station for a bit, them not saying much of a word to us, and we finally get our first call. A car accident—sweet (well not sweet, but I hope you know what I mean). Get there in about 3min and see that everyone is fine. The cars aren’t damaged and after exchange plate numbers etc. the drivers of the cars end up leaving the scene before us, paperwork work of course. Next call is to an elderly man who is having trouble breathing. Get to the scene and see the he is already on oxygen at home and called because he is feeling worse than usual. Apparently for this call a נט''ן –Natan (ICU ambulance) had also been called and once they got there they ‘politely’ made it clear to us that they had the situation under control and that we could leave. So much for action. Now we’re back at the station, and yes it’s still weirdly awkward between us and the medics, when we get our next call. A transfer to the hospital. Don’t think I’ve looked at my watch so many times since I’ve arrived in Israel. It was an easy transfer (this time the building had an elevator) and now it was about 7pm (seriously still another 4 hours in this shift) and we were getting hungry. We stopped to get some sandwiches at Aroma and while eating in the car we get our next call. A lady needs help getting her shirt off. Yes, this was exactly was dispatch read, I wish I was joking. Not so much to our surprise that call got cancelled within about 1min and at least it brought some laugher into our awesome atmosphere in the ambulance. Now we’re back at the station (hoping to wait out the remainder of our shift) and we call our final call. All the way to Bat Yam. Now I realise ‘all the way’ is never far in Israel, but I still don’t understand exactly why we were the ones to respond. I guess that’s just the way it is. The call is for an elderly lady with back pain, maybe kidney stones. We arrive and learn that she was at the hospital last week and she tells us they sent her home too early. When we ask her which hospital she wants to go to she specifically states that she HAS to go to Wolfson (a hospital). Why—to get back at the doctors for sending her home early. Surely enough when we get to the hospital all of a sudden she becomes this moany and sickly patient, it was a nice performance. At this point in the day I just walked away laughing and thinking, ‘at least we don’t have to deal with her anymore’.
That would be the end of that evening shift. Although the driver & medic were painful to work with all day (they just didn’t give us any respect) they were nice enough to driver us back to our homes at the end of the night. Tomorrow is Wednesday and my day off. Really looking forward to maybe getting to the beach in the afternoon and in the evening the 11 of us stationed in Tel-Aviv are getting together for dinner, hanging out, and making our schedule for the week to come. Should be a nice break and give me some time to put this shift behind me.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Is the Whole Team Here? – כל הצוות פה?
Monday, June-28-10
It’s about 1 something in the morning and I just walked in from my most amazing shift yet. My day began as usual, except this time a little (well a lot) later since my shift was only at 3pm. When I arrived at the station I was pleasantly surprised to see how relaxed and organised it was. Moriel and I were told our driver and once we met him we knew it was going to be a good shift, he just seemed so nice. So we left the main station for the Yafo station, where we were technically stationed for the day (we never did get there) and on our way we got our first call. A chainsaw accident. We’re racing through the traffic and then on the way the way we pass a four car collision! What a start to the shift. With permission from dispatch we pull over to make sure no one is seriously hurt, and once we determined that was the case we were back in the ambulance and off to the chainsaw accident. I’m getting all excited and we are trying to find the address. Hop out of the ambulance check around and nothing. Can’t find it, the address makes no sense and when we call dispatch they cancel the call. Seriously, cancel a chainsaw accident but whatever not my call. Within 5min we get our next call. A transfer. Seriously, after that adrenalin rush that’s the last thing we all wanted but I guess that’s all part of the job. We arrive and discover that this apartment building has no elevator and what floor have we been called to, the top (5th) floor. Great. Upon entering the house we realise that this is not going to be easy. It’s a 83y/o woman who weighs about 250-300lb (115-135kg) and she is not going to be doing 4 flights of stairs anytime soon. We call for another team, and with 5 of us transferring the patient we eventually get down the stairs, drenched in sweat. It’s about 1.5hrs from the beginning to the end of the call, at that point I was really wishing that we had found that chainsaw accident. The next call was bit later, after stopping to fill up our oxygen tank at the station. It was for a little boy who had fell and hit his head. In the end he was fine but what made this call great was seeing all the reactions. The father was tearing up, the patient was continuously crying, and the paramedic was great. A pair of gloves turned into a balloon with a face drawn on and the boy went from tears to laugher in seconds. We took him to the hospital as protocol/precaution and we all left that call smiling and relieved that it wasn’t a true “head trauma” like dispatch had originally read. About now it was about 6hrs into the shift and we were starting to get hungry. Looking for a shawarma place (obviously) we got about our 3rd or was it 4th call, who knows. Dispatch read, unconscious female. Moriel and I both turn and say, “this definitely beats eating”. We go with sirens blaring, arrive in no time, grab the lifepack, ambu bag, and oxygen and begin the assessment. First thing we do (yes, besides safety), check for consciousness. Do the trapezius squeeze and wow a response. Seeming lifeless is now moaning in pain, but it’s a responsive so it’s a good thing. We doing a few vitals and determine her BP is beyond low. She just has a systolic of about 80 and we can’t find a diastolic. Loaded her up and took her to the hospital, definitely suspect drugs are involved in that one. After this we are starving and get our much needed shawarma. Not 3min after finishing eating we get a call—attempted suicide. I cannot believe it, I’m definitely doing more evenings if these are the kinds of calls evening shifts get. We get to the place, are looking around and then dispatch says it’s cancelled. Again, seriously? Our driver can’t believe it, but dispatch confirms. Nothing we can do. Now begins the final and beyond epic call of the evening. We are called to the scene of a fight or what was a fight. The victim is there with his parents and friend standing and talking to the police. Apparently two guys tried to stab him and hit him with a pipe. Anyways, he seemed fine. Completely coherent, talking to the police saying what happened and all that appeared to be injured was a cut above his one ear. We take vital signs as usual and they are normal. We ask if he wants to go to the hospital and he says he will go, because his hearing is not normal, but not with us since he wants to finish with the police first. Okay, there is nothing really for us to do, but before we leave we have to complete some paperwork. As per usual. So we’re just hanging around, getting his phone number, putting the equipment away etc. and all of a sudden his buddy yells HELP ME HELP! The guy has begun seizing and is now totally unresponsive. I can’t believe we were actually about to leave. He is lowered to the ground and the driver and I begin to assess the patient while the other two on our team go for the stretcher. The driver calls for an Air Way and the Ambu so I figure he’s not breathing and we are bound for CPR. I guess he resumed breathing just then and had a pulse so we decided to get him onto the bed and to the hospital asap. Just before driving off our driver yells, “Is the whole team here? – כל הצוות פה?“. That was probably one of the my best moments of the day, that in the middle of all the caos the driver (awesome guy) took a second to make sure his team was good, it was a nice feeling. Now, in the back of the ambulance it is just Moriel, myself, and another volunteer. But we manage. The driver was giving instruction the entire time, but this guy was totally unresponsive, eyes rolled back and all. All the equipment is flying everywhere and I could barely remain upright, kneeling on the floor next to the patient. We inserted an AW (though it didn’t stay in for long), gave oxygen, tried to suction his month a bit, monitored BP, and were always checking for pulse. That was probably the weirdest part for me. I was keeping his AW open and with my fingers checking for pulse. The problem is when practicing on someone there is always a pulse and for me checking knowing there might not be one, and that he could code any minute was defiantly a weird position to be in. We arrived at the hospital, running him in, transferred him over and stepped back. WOW, was all the came to mind. After the emergency team had tended to him we go back in and learned that is was a drug overdose! NO WAY. The guy must have been completely high the entire time talking to us and we had no idea. I’m sure it was a combination of the pipe beating and the drugs, but still! I guess it’s true to never trust a patient.
So that was the end of my night. Looking back I already feel that I have some experience after only three shifts and I’m already finding it addicting. I really enjoyed this shift, especially my team and the calls. At the end we all exchanged numbers and made plans to work together again later on in the week. Although the evening shift made my entire day Mda and really nothing else, I have no complaints-can’t wait for tomorrow’s, this time trying out a different Tel Aviv station, Merkaz.
It’s about 1 something in the morning and I just walked in from my most amazing shift yet. My day began as usual, except this time a little (well a lot) later since my shift was only at 3pm. When I arrived at the station I was pleasantly surprised to see how relaxed and organised it was. Moriel and I were told our driver and once we met him we knew it was going to be a good shift, he just seemed so nice. So we left the main station for the Yafo station, where we were technically stationed for the day (we never did get there) and on our way we got our first call. A chainsaw accident. We’re racing through the traffic and then on the way the way we pass a four car collision! What a start to the shift. With permission from dispatch we pull over to make sure no one is seriously hurt, and once we determined that was the case we were back in the ambulance and off to the chainsaw accident. I’m getting all excited and we are trying to find the address. Hop out of the ambulance check around and nothing. Can’t find it, the address makes no sense and when we call dispatch they cancel the call. Seriously, cancel a chainsaw accident but whatever not my call. Within 5min we get our next call. A transfer. Seriously, after that adrenalin rush that’s the last thing we all wanted but I guess that’s all part of the job. We arrive and discover that this apartment building has no elevator and what floor have we been called to, the top (5th) floor. Great. Upon entering the house we realise that this is not going to be easy. It’s a 83y/o woman who weighs about 250-300lb (115-135kg) and she is not going to be doing 4 flights of stairs anytime soon. We call for another team, and with 5 of us transferring the patient we eventually get down the stairs, drenched in sweat. It’s about 1.5hrs from the beginning to the end of the call, at that point I was really wishing that we had found that chainsaw accident. The next call was bit later, after stopping to fill up our oxygen tank at the station. It was for a little boy who had fell and hit his head. In the end he was fine but what made this call great was seeing all the reactions. The father was tearing up, the patient was continuously crying, and the paramedic was great. A pair of gloves turned into a balloon with a face drawn on and the boy went from tears to laugher in seconds. We took him to the hospital as protocol/precaution and we all left that call smiling and relieved that it wasn’t a true “head trauma” like dispatch had originally read. About now it was about 6hrs into the shift and we were starting to get hungry. Looking for a shawarma place (obviously) we got about our 3rd or was it 4th call, who knows. Dispatch read, unconscious female. Moriel and I both turn and say, “this definitely beats eating”. We go with sirens blaring, arrive in no time, grab the lifepack, ambu bag, and oxygen and begin the assessment. First thing we do (yes, besides safety), check for consciousness. Do the trapezius squeeze and wow a response. Seeming lifeless is now moaning in pain, but it’s a responsive so it’s a good thing. We doing a few vitals and determine her BP is beyond low. She just has a systolic of about 80 and we can’t find a diastolic. Loaded her up and took her to the hospital, definitely suspect drugs are involved in that one. After this we are starving and get our much needed shawarma. Not 3min after finishing eating we get a call—attempted suicide. I cannot believe it, I’m definitely doing more evenings if these are the kinds of calls evening shifts get. We get to the place, are looking around and then dispatch says it’s cancelled. Again, seriously? Our driver can’t believe it, but dispatch confirms. Nothing we can do. Now begins the final and beyond epic call of the evening. We are called to the scene of a fight or what was a fight. The victim is there with his parents and friend standing and talking to the police. Apparently two guys tried to stab him and hit him with a pipe. Anyways, he seemed fine. Completely coherent, talking to the police saying what happened and all that appeared to be injured was a cut above his one ear. We take vital signs as usual and they are normal. We ask if he wants to go to the hospital and he says he will go, because his hearing is not normal, but not with us since he wants to finish with the police first. Okay, there is nothing really for us to do, but before we leave we have to complete some paperwork. As per usual. So we’re just hanging around, getting his phone number, putting the equipment away etc. and all of a sudden his buddy yells HELP ME HELP! The guy has begun seizing and is now totally unresponsive. I can’t believe we were actually about to leave. He is lowered to the ground and the driver and I begin to assess the patient while the other two on our team go for the stretcher. The driver calls for an Air Way and the Ambu so I figure he’s not breathing and we are bound for CPR. I guess he resumed breathing just then and had a pulse so we decided to get him onto the bed and to the hospital asap. Just before driving off our driver yells, “Is the whole team here? – כל הצוות פה?“. That was probably one of the my best moments of the day, that in the middle of all the caos the driver (awesome guy) took a second to make sure his team was good, it was a nice feeling. Now, in the back of the ambulance it is just Moriel, myself, and another volunteer. But we manage. The driver was giving instruction the entire time, but this guy was totally unresponsive, eyes rolled back and all. All the equipment is flying everywhere and I could barely remain upright, kneeling on the floor next to the patient. We inserted an AW (though it didn’t stay in for long), gave oxygen, tried to suction his month a bit, monitored BP, and were always checking for pulse. That was probably the weirdest part for me. I was keeping his AW open and with my fingers checking for pulse. The problem is when practicing on someone there is always a pulse and for me checking knowing there might not be one, and that he could code any minute was defiantly a weird position to be in. We arrived at the hospital, running him in, transferred him over and stepped back. WOW, was all the came to mind. After the emergency team had tended to him we go back in and learned that is was a drug overdose! NO WAY. The guy must have been completely high the entire time talking to us and we had no idea. I’m sure it was a combination of the pipe beating and the drugs, but still! I guess it’s true to never trust a patient.
So that was the end of my night. Looking back I already feel that I have some experience after only three shifts and I’m already finding it addicting. I really enjoyed this shift, especially my team and the calls. At the end we all exchanged numbers and made plans to work together again later on in the week. Although the evening shift made my entire day Mda and really nothing else, I have no complaints-can’t wait for tomorrow’s, this time trying out a different Tel Aviv station, Merkaz.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Just Chilling at Ichilov
Sunday, June-27-10
Today was my second shift as a מד''א chulnikit. Started out as per usual. Woke up at 5:45am, got dressed, made a sandwich for lunch, and headed to catch the bus—which this time was a success! Caught the 26 in perfect timing and arrived to the station within 10min. Good start to the morning I’d say. Then the chaos began. There is a woman whose job at the station (as part of her National Service I believe) is partly to organise the volunteers and pair them with drivers at the beginning of each shift. For whatever reason she was having an unorganised day and for starters, the driver Moriel and I were paired with decided to chill at his home for a bit and two other girls from our course were told by this lady to wait for a minute so she could find out their ambulance number. She then decided to leave without ever returning with their ambulance number so in the end the four of us were all stuck around with nothing to do. By the way, that really doesn’t sit well after having got up at 5:45am to be there early for our shifts. Anyways, we found someone to help us and after an hour or so of World Cup watching our driver decided to come to the station. Problem solved, well not quite. Apparently no one told him there were two of us and he didn’t have room for us both. Just then a paramedic passed and asked the problem. He offered to take one of us (me) on his ambulance and that was the beginning of my most awesome day to come. The paramedic was on a נט''ן (Natan-Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance) as opposed to the regular ambulance which I would normally be working on. Being on the נט''ן is a completely difference experience and being only my second shift it was unbelievable. On the נט''ן paramedics have the ability to administer drugs, intubate etc. so they often get the more urgent (i.e. exciting) calls.
My calls for the day were as follows;
1. Dispatch reads, unconscious possibly homeless man, could be diseased. We leave the station, jump into the ambulance, flick the sirens on and head off. I look up at the computer/GPS screen which sits between the driver and passenger seats and see that the location is really really close to us. Look down to grab some gloves off the box on the floor and BAM. I go flying out of my seat and into the front of the ambulance. Lesson learned. Seatbelt first next time. Apparently someone parked on the road didn’t see us coming and opened their door. Anyways we get to the call and surely there is a homeless man lying on a bench. We wake him up and ask him what’s wrong. He says his stomach hurts. Well judging by the 26oz bottle of vodka next to him and a bottle of Prigat no wonder his stomach hurts. We ask him if he even wants to go to the hospital, he says no, and that’s the end of that. I was left thinking, really נט''ן’s still get calls like that...
2. Dispatch reads, elderly man who fell at home. Non urgent. This call was very typical. We get to his house, it’s soon evident that he has broken something around his upper leg/hip, quick transfer to the stretch and off to the hospital. We get to Ichilov Hospital (the main hospital in TA) and I see at least four people from my course. It was so nice to see everyone and chat about our calls. We normally have a bit less than 30min once we get to the hospital before leaving again.
3. Dispatch reads, elderly women, history of heart problems, pain down her leg. We go with sirens this time and get there pretty quickly. Although she doesn’t seem to be in any real distress the paramedic decides to put on some heart leads along with the vitals. He reads the monitor and says A. Fib. The driver pulls over the ambulance and hops in the back. They started iv’s, pushed some sort of drug and did an ECG all in about 1.5min. The driver hops back up to the front and we rush of to the hospital, sirens, horns and all. Once we arrive, again at Ichilov we transfer our patient and on my way out once again I see more Mda Chulniks. Looks like this is going to become our meeting place!
4. 4th and what would be the final call of the day. Dispatch reads, man unconscious at the Central Bus Station a regular ambulance as already responded and they need a נט''ן (us). This time we run to the ambulance (we were back at the station) and I remember my lesson from the morning and did my seatbelt. The CBS is a bit far from us and the driver, well drives with full emergency manner. This was unlike any siren driving I had already experience. We crossed traffic, jumped on the highway, and made it there in about 5min. We arrive to an unconscious man lying on the floor of the bus, who then begins to seize. Eventually we get him onto the stretcher and into the נט''ן and before we know it he is seizing again. The paramedics rush to open iv’s and get anti-seizure drugs going (I’m supposing) while we (myself and another volunteer from the army) are holding him down between the paramedics inserting the needles and preparing the next ones. He seizes about 3 times while in the ambulance and is totally out of it. Once again the driver headed back to the hospital in complete emergency style, an experience in itself, trying to get things done while in the back while racing through traffic. After we transfer him to the hospital, of course I ran into some more Mda Chul people, and by this time near the end of our shifts we all had stories to share.
That call would be the end of my very eventful second shift. I still cannot believe I got to be on a נט''ן on only my second shift. After, we headed back to the station where I met up with the girls from the morning and we headed out for some lunch at Aroma. Caught the bus immediately again which was so nice and headed back to the apartment. Finished the evening with a run and some eggys for dinner. Looking forward to getting to sleep in a bit since I have my first afternoon shift tomorrow (3pm start), I just hope I can make it to 11pm without my nap.
p.s. wow that was longer then I intended.
Love Shabbas is in Israel
Saturday, June-26-10
Today is Saturday. Definitely my favourite day of the week in this country. For someone reading who isn’t too familiar with Israel, from Friday late afternoon to Saturday evening this country stops. Stores are closed, there are no buses, and Saturday afternoon there is nothing better for me to do than sleep in and head to the beach. I love it! So that is exactly what I did. Had a great day at the חוף (Chof-beach) and came back to shower and get straight into pjs. Opted not to go out tonight since I have a 7:00am shift tomorrow (remember here the week starts on Sunday). It’s definitely going to be interesting trying to figure out how to schedule lots of shifts and still being able to do stuff, but hopefully after this week I’ll see what times I like etc. I’ve already decided (I think) that I won’t be doing an evening shift (ends at 11pm) followed by a morning (starts at 7am) but who knows. I did schedule a double for Thursday afternoon/night, but more about that later. Time to make a lunch for tomorrow (looks like the time to eat is in the ambulance) and head to bed, well I’ll try. Wow is it ever hard to get to bed early in the summer.
First Shift!
Friday, June 25-10
Today was our first shift! It began with waking up at 5:45am. I thought it would be harder to wake up, but I think I was just too excited to be that tired. We tried to catch the bus since we now had our new bus cards but had no luck. Unlike the system at home they don’t tell you what time the bus is going to be at certain stops only when it leaves the beginning station, so it’s really unpredictable. Hopefully we’ll figure it out for Sunday morning but today we took a taxi since we didn’t want to be late on our first day. When we arrived we met our driver for the day and began the ambulance checks. It was exciting being t in the ambulance and going through all the bags and cupboards, restocking etc. At about 7:15am we were off. I thought we would be getting a call any minute, but I wow was I wrong. Today we were actually scheduled to be stationed in Jaffa so we drove around a bit and ended up at the Jaffa “station”. It’s more like an apartment where the ambulances that are on call in Jaffa can chill until they are called out. Waiting at the main Tel Aviv station, where we left from in the morning would be a little too far. Little did I know it was going to be a slow morning. Two and a half hours went by with no call for us, only for the נט''ן the Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance. Finally we got our first call. We headed to the ambulance and began following the GPS computer thing. To my surprise, no sirens. Apparently if the driver/dispatcher doesn’t classify it as an emergency call you just drive normally. Turns out our first call would be what we now know as a paramedic/medics worst, a transfer. It was an elderly women who needed to go to the hospital. What was wrong with her was more like what wasn’t wrong with her. Diabetes, high blood pressure, knee/leg pain who knows, we were just told all “the typical” elderly ailments. The problem was she wouldn’t help us move her. She wouldn’t put any weight on her legs and there was nothing we could do to get her into the stretcher/bed. By the time we realised we were going to need backup it had already been 15-20min and since it wasn’t an emergency it took about another 20min for a second ambulance to arrive. It took 5 of us to transfer her into the ambulance bed and we were finally on our way to the hospital. Once we got to the hospital we faced another “typical” problem. No hospital bed. Now we are not allowed to leave without our stretcher so we had to wait a bit for them to locate a bed, get another 4/5 people to move her over and then we were able to leave. But not so soon. We also had to complete the paperwork. By the time we left it had been an hour and a half since that call began. But anyways, it’s better than sitting at the station. With our first call out of the way we were waiting not so patiently for the next. Not driving more than 10min from the hospital we get a call that there is an unconscious person lying outside a building. Now I know that sounds bad, but for us, this is exciting. Our driver flicks on the sirens and off we go. It was so exciting to manoeuvre through traffic and also surprising that the sirens aren’t nearly as loud inside the ambulance as they are outside. It isn’t like home where drivers part on the sides and make a clear path for the ambulance. It’s definitely a challenge to get through. We get to the building (in under 5min) grab the essentials, leave the bed, not knowing what exactly we are going to find and to our surprise the man is standing up and talking. Apparently he fainted or something, who knows. We convince him to come into the ambulance and begin the routine vitals; bp, pulse etc. and he begins to tell us his whole life story, English teacher who fell into drugs etc. Then the driver asks if he can check the man’s blood glucose, a very routine test for someone who has passed out. The man agreed but when he learned that to do so his finger is pricked with a needle he freaked out. Like actually freaked out, apparently the drug addict is scared of needles, who knew. So the driver said that’s fine but they may have to check it as the hospital. And that was all this man needed to know. He basically ran out of the ambulance saying he wouldn’t go to the hospital and that was the end of that call. Now we back on the road headed back to the main station to replace our masaphone (hand held computer/GPS thing), we had been trying to get back to the station to replace it since our first call. Anyways we’re on our way and we get another call. Someone has fallen on floor in their apartment and can’t move. Sirens on, we rush there and arrive to the sweetest elderly lady and her husband. She’s on the floor and her hip clearly looks broken—her leg is displaced, for lack of a better word. We take vitals, determined that nothing else most probably wrong and head to the hospital, where there is a bed waiting and everything. Very easy and quick call, probably only 20min from arrival at the home to the hospital. And they were so grateful, nice way to end the day. We finally head back to the station, hadn’t been here since about 7:15am and wait out about 25min for our shift to end, our driver hoping the entire time that our number isn’t called out again. So that was the end to my first day. A little slow, maybe no “life saving” but it was a nice entry into the מד''א world. We went out for some lunch after (we realised for the first time that day that we hadn’t eaten since 6 something in the morning, it was now 3pm) and caught that bus home which was a win. We both ended up passing out for about 2.5hrs when we got home and are looking forward to having tomorrow off.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Let מד''א Begin
Thursday, June 24-10
Today we had our first meeting at the main station in Tel Aviv (where I am living and stationed). Before the meeting Moriel (my friend from home- who is doing מד''א with me) and I decided to head to the Central Bus Station (CBS) to get Rav-Kav bus cards since it is somewhat close to the station. Here we got the first idea of what it’s going to be like walking around in “in uniform”. We get to the entrance expecting the typical pre-mall security check (the CBS is connected to a mall) and instead we are greeted by, “Are you here for someone, what floor do you need!” After explaining that we just came for bus cards we carried on. A few moments later walking through the mall I stop to get a piece of pizza and someone waiting nearby just says to us, “Kol-HaKavod” (i.e. all of the repect/way to go), and before we leave a few people come up to us asking simple questions like do we know where to find _____ etc. I guess they assume that since we’re with Magen David Adom we are knowledgeable/willing to help. Anyways what I’m trying to say it that I had an amazing feeling and sense of pride walking around in my uniform for the first time and I hope it doesn’t end.
Later we got to our meeting and met the station coordinator, Yaron, and the rest of the Tel Aviv people from our course. I was pleasantly surprised that there were only 10 of us since during the course everyone seemed to be stationed in Tel Aviv, but it turns out people are living here and stationed at surrounding nearby cities. Our meeting was nice, we made our schedule for the following week and got a tour of the station. Moriel and I decided to begin asap so our first shift is tomorrow morning! Most people decided to start working on Sunday.
Reflecting on the Course
Wednesday, June-23-10
Wow. What an experience. I just arrived back to Tel Aviv after what has been an amazing last 10 or so days. We stayed at the Beit Yehuda Hotel near Malcha about a 45NIS taxi ride to downtown. Whoever designed this place was brilliant. It as a pool, “library”, Beit Knesset, Heder Ochel, multiple classrooms, and bedrooms that convert to hold more people (wall bunk beds), attracting many groups to stay for a few nights or even a month. Our course began by being divided into 5 classes of 20 or so people each. Each class had their own Madrichim (instructors/counsellors) and even on Day 1 we went straight to work. The next few days were pretty similar, schedule wise. Class from 8:30am-12:00pm, lunch 12-1pm, class 1-6pm, dinner 6-7pm, and more class 7-8:30/9pm. It was a lot of class especially after having been on vacation for the previous two weeks, but it was sweet. The Madrichim were so good. They truly love מד''א (Mda) and made the hours enjoyable. At the end of each day all the classes would meet outside on the balcony and stand in the shape of a “Chet-ח”. We would listen to any announcements and finish with the signing of Hatikvah-Israel’s National Anthem. For me, this was one of my favourite moments of the day. It’s not often that the chance comes to sing Hatikvah in the heart of Jerusalem, surrounded by about 100 friends, and I appreciated it every night. The evenings were also our time off, time to study and also our time to meet people. Not only did I begin to meet the people from the other classes, but also the other trips staying at the hotel. I met people from England, France, and Australia who were on 5-10month trips and also some people from the US who were on their birthright trip. Just listening to all their Israel experiences over there time here was awesome. Even if we may never see each other again. Mid week we had our midterm. Lots of us stayed up together and studied which was really nice. There was something about knowing that even if what I was studying didn’t end up on the exam the next day I would still need to know it on the ambulance, made the studying actually enjoyable. Shabbas was the next day and we finally got some well deserved time off. Thursday night we were able to go explore downtown Jerusalem if we wished and Friday morning we were encouraged to go see what Israel is like on a Shabbass morning. The Madrichim organised Kabbalat Shabbat, with optional services, an Oneg Shabbat, and a hike/walk to a spring the next day. Sunday was our last day of learning at it was packed with information followed by a night of studying for our final the next day. After Monday’s final came the practical on Tuesday and then we were done. Hard to believe that we were actually now certified to be on the ambulances. Tuesday night we had a closing meeting and then we head out to the buses which we waiting to take us to a club they had closed for us. It was a fantastic night. Wednesday morning, exhausted, we all packed up and boarded buses (we our new uniform shirts in hand) to different parts of the country to begin volunteering. It’s going to be weird not being surrounded by everyone. A part of me wishes that we could stay there and all come back from our shifts and be together and the other part is just well to exhausted to think. It’s nap time.
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