WWW Part One: Community Service

Two weeks ago marked the great AIS high school field trip: Week Without Walls. The purpose of the week is to engage the kids in hands-on learning about their community and the state of Israel outside the confines of the school.

The first part of the week is two days of community service activities. The high school is broken up into approximately 10 groups, each of which engages in a different community service project in the local Herzliya/Tel Aviv area. I was assigned to the "Animals and the Community" group. The focus of our project was more awareness of community needs than actually service, which was because any sort of animal-related community service project was not appropriate for a large group of our size.

First, we headed over to a local community center, which has constructed a simulated blind environment. You are immersed in complete pitch-black darkness for 70 minutes, and are led through different environments such as a busy street intersection, a boat, an outdoor market, a park, and a bar. It was a stressful, frustrating experience. I felt like I was going to panic when we first began. It was a really enlightening experience.

The community center.

Next, we travelled over to a training institute for seeing eye dogs-- the only one of its kind in Israel. Prior to the construction of this center, seeing-impaired Israelis could only gain access to a seeing eye dog by travelling overseas, which was only an option for Israelis that spoke English.

One of the kids translating for a seeing-impaired man, who shared his experience.

The kids.

After the talk, we headed out to the dog cages. The dogs are adopted by families for one year, during which the center pays for 100% of the costs of raising the dog-- food, veterinary services, everything. The dogs are then trained at the center for about a year, and then matched up with an owner, with whom they are carefully matched up and receive additional training. The average dog is used for 8 years.

The dogs.

Kids lining up to play with the dogs.

Of course, after playing with the dogs, everyone wanted to adopt a puppy. I'm sure their parents were thrilled.

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The next day, we began the day with a lecture from a local veterinarian, then headed over to a local tomato farm to do some gleaning. Farmers who have completed their harvest call the food rescue agency, which then recruits volunteers to go over the leftovers of the season's harvest to collect all the edible food that can be salvaged. Usually, there is a large amount of produce left behind after a harvest because of the carelessness of the workers or because it was not deemed appropriate for sale because of its small size.

Tomato field.

Gleaning.

Of course, put a bunch of high schoolers in a field full of squishy tomatoes, and the results will not be pleasant. A lot of rotten tomatoes were thrown-- the return trip was a little stinkier and pulpier than the ride to the fields.

In the afternoon, we headed over to the premiere vet hospital of Israel for a tour. The service focus of the projects was occasionally lost, but awareness about community issues was raised, the kids engaged in a little hands-on service in the fields, and everyone had fun.