Iran launched drones and missiles at Israel Saturday night

Getting Around

I didn’t sleep much last night.  I waited for a drone and missile attack that didn’t happen in Pardes Hannah.  Only from reading newspaper headlines I’ve discovered that the entire drone and missile fleet was destroyed by Israeli pilots.  More on that in today’s Journal.

To begin my volunteerhood, I had to go to Or Akiva.  So that was the first adventure.  I had to learn which was the right bus to get on, and I had to learn how to use the Rav Kav card to pay.

I found out I could use Google Maps to find bus stops and busses. All I have to do is punch in my destination, and Google Maps will show me the closest bus stop, and the times and routes of the next few busses going in my direction. Easy, huh?

Yeah, it would be under normal circumstances. Israel is in a war, not normal circumstances at all. We are under a constant state of attack by neighbors who like to launch missiles from time to time.

So what does Israel do? It hacks the GPS system for the region and gets it all baffled. When I turn on my Google Maps application, it looks like I’m in Beirut, Lebanon. There is a way to get Google Maps to show you how to get to different places. It’s a bit time consuming but it works.

So Google Maps told me which bus to get on. The bus pulled up, the door opened, and the lady driving the bus had this big ol’ friendly smile as she showed me how to use the card to pay for the fare.

Click the image

There is no way I could remember the bus route from Pardes Hannah to Or Akiva, there were so many twists and turns. When we got to Or Akiva, the lady driving the bus showed me where to get off and which way to walk to get to my destination. All with a big smile on her face, saying, “What a great job. I get to drive a bus, go places, and meet and help people.”

And that’s the point I wanted to make with this post. That since I got to Pardes Hannah three days ago, every single person I encountered was a good and decent person. A bit different from the impatient stereotype I usually encountered in the past.

My airbnb host told me that something happened to the people on October 7. Suddenly, everyone realized they were on the same side all along. We all had the same enemy, and we all wanted to see the same outcome of this war.

In the next post, I’ll tell you more about the volunteer work and the organization behind it. For now, thanks for stopping by and reading my post. Later, Jerry


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