Monday Morning

Up at 6:30 and off to shower. The bathroom is at the end if the hall and only six of us using it at this hour. Our madrichot are already up and gone. The shower is hot, but small and you have to push out against the shower curtain to get wet. Later the guys said, "You have a curtain?"

Now it is time for breakfast at 7:30. Basically the same meal we had for dinner last night. Hard boiled eggs with cottage cheese and plain yogurt. Also chopped cucumbers and tomatoes, but no tehina or dressing. There was white bread on the table, but no toaster which would have helped. There are tea bags and hot water and sugar also. I am not a breakfast eater, so no problem and Jeff is being a very good sport.

Next event is the flag raising at 8:15. We line up right outside our building along with the regular soldiers. They do a role call and check orders for the regulars. The the flag is raised and saluted. Short and sweet.

We walk inside the work building and up to the third floor. There the commander asks for volunteers and has the section heads take you to your station. I am cleaning radios. There are large field units and here for repair. So first we clean them removing dust, dirt, grime and even pebbles. We use a spray solvent and silicone paste. To apply we use a toothbrush, foam pads and a brush which three of us share. I also have a large screwdriver to remove any labels or decals. Each one take about a half hour to clean thoroughly and frankly, it is boring.

I work with another volunteer named Marilyn and we talk which makes the time pass. At 10:00 we have a 15 minute break and sit outside at picnic tables to enjoy the fresh air.

After we get started again the volunteers are called to the commanders office. A VFI representative has arrived to bring us Purim baskets. It is customary to give friends a basket of sweets for Purim. Each person got a shopping bag with a cellophane wrapped package inside. I had Skittles, chocolate pudding, a juice bag and a big bag of salty snacks. The best part is the representative was my former madrichot, Allouche, from my 1984 program. He is retired from the army and now works for VFI. I greeted him and showed him a photo of our group taken on Masada way back when. He said he remembered me and had the same photo on his wall. He had groups weekly for over 20 years so lots of faces to remember. They took a group photo with him which I can keep as a souvenir. We also got baseball caps this morning with the VFI logo.

12:15 is lunch and today it is kinda skimpy. They have smallish hot dogs with gigantic rolls and no mustard. I have the vegetarian alternative which is patty of something. Not bad when you put it on the roll with some cucumbers and tehina. Dessert was tangerines, oranges and apples.

At 2:30 we have afternoon break. Jeff and I were looking forward to going downstairs to the shechem, a tiny store with snacks and ice cream. It was closed even though the schedule showed it open. So we drank some water and sat outside. We are supposed to work until 4:30, but not today. At 4:00 Jeff was hanging out near me and said the soldiers in his area had packed up and left. I finished what I was doing and we walked home.

Now I am sitting on my bed eating a bag of Skittles and I don't even like them.  Also writing this blog and waiting for dinner which will be more boiled eggs. Hopefully I will lose a few pounds between the food and amount of stairs we climb every day. 

Dinner was not exceptional, more eggs and salad. No chocolate pudding tonight. Later we had an interesting program describing all the army units. We learned trivia about the units and what color their beret is so we can identify them. So tired and off to bed.