Wonderful 2 weeks volunteering in TSAHAL

[philtang]

Bye the way, on this website you will see and buy most insignias and tags of Tsahal:
http://www.zahal.org/?gclid=CLfjm_fS6pICFQJFZwodLUy4dA

[philtang]

you can find more shops but this one is the safer

[Bigduke1]

...it seems they have a very good offer. It´s a sad thing that you don´t know to what unit you will be attached. So you have no chance to order the gear before the journey. And also to get informations about the history of the unit you will join!

[milluim]

What was communication like do you have to have good hebrew ?

[rafi]

Originally Posted by milluim

What was communication like do you have to have good hebrew ?

Obviously it is very subjective, but english is mandatory from fourth grade in Israel. In the bases you serve in, you will undoubtedly run into either a native neglish speaker or someone who is fluent in addition to all the other people.

[philtang]

In my group of 12 french volunteers i was the only one able to converse both in english and hebrew, i was all the day long making translations for my friends who spoke only french! normaly our 2 french speaking "MadreHot" (female corparals in charge of us) are supposed to be always around and joinable by cellular in case of problem. It happened sometimes that lonely french volunteers arrived and joined an american group and could'nt communicate at all! they felt very isolated and their stay was not so pleasant...

[rafi]

Originally Posted by philtang

In my group of 12 french volunteers i was the only one able to converse both in english and hebrew, i was all the day long making translations for my friends who spoke only french! normaly our 2 french speaking "MadreHot" (female corparals in charge of us) are supposed to be always around and joinable by cellular in case of problem. It happened sometimes that lonely french volunteers arrived and joined an american group and could'nt communicate at all! they felt very isolated and their stay was not so pleasant...

Funny, this summer I did miluim in Kalkilya at a time that I don't normally do it - with my own group of friends. The guys in this unit were mostly French, and while we all spoke hebrew, I felt kinda leftout on allot of the joking around. So I understand.

[philtang]

bakum base and border police

[philtang]

tanks are shot at the latrun museum

[soso]

!!!!!!!!!!

[morty]

Great pics thanks so much for posting.

[OttawaLoneWolf]

couple young guys from my group join IDF later. pretty interesting

[philtang]

During our period we visited a border police unit just near the "green line" and we were extremely well received; shey showed us all their weaponry
We celebrated together Tubi shvat

[rafi]

Originally Posted by philtang

During our period we visited a border police unit just near the "green line" and we were extremely well received; shey showed us all their weaponry
We celebrated together Tubi shvat

The holiday is Tu B'Shvat.

Tu is the hebrew letters tet and vov which have a numeric value of 15, and are pronounced together "too". Shvat is the name of the hebrew month that generally occurs during the winter, the month following Hanukahs end (Hanulah starts in Kislev and ends in Teveth).

Tu B'Shvat is Israel Arbor Day.

[Guy]

I havn't been here in a while, had lot of work.

But just wanted to say how amazing you people are, and in the name of all IDF soldiers, Thank You.

[Paparock]

Great job! The world needs millions more like you!

[philtang]

[Lion]

This sounds awesome. A friend of ours has been as well see raved about it.
Hope to go myself some day. can you put in a request to go with the guys on patrol. For example what u did border guard near the separation wall.

[rafi]

Originally Posted by Lion

This sounds awesome. A friend of ours has been as well see raved about it.
Hope to go myself some day. can you put in a request to go with the guys on patrol. For example what u did border guard near the separation wall.

Lion,

I cannot answer as someone who has done the program, but I have served with some Sar-El volunteers in the past. The program is as great as it sounds.

I wanted to make one important clarification: You do not serve in an "active duty" capacity. In other words, you are neither armed nor trained for fighting, and would not be put in harms way where you might face someone who is. So you would not be doing guard duty near the seperation wall (did you know that over 97% of the "wall" is a fence?).

If you think about it, it would not be fair to go out on patrol with a group. There are a fixed number of guys in a unit, and if one has to keep an eye out for you, then there is one less guy to do his regular job. That's not to say that we wouldn't love to have you along, just that, well, it is the army.

But again, as you have read here, you will have the time of your life!

The Sar-El volunteers are great, and greatly appreciated !!!

[Bigduke1]

Tody i found an interesting book about sar-el on amazon.com

"Army Fatigues"

Does anyone know it?

cheers
Frank