Day Ten

Please can we mark this moment because it is officially and sadly (in most aspects) the last night I will be forfeiting decent sleep for the sake of the blog. And also the night before this program ends.

Thank you.

Ok, so this morning the girls came to meet us at the hotel before we started our predicted 40minute and actual 25 minute trip to Click in Hod Hasharon. To find out about the amazing things Click does, go to their fantastic website: www..click-savi.org.il. We were taking part in their 'Savi' project. In short they inhertited an Australian felt toy making company and brought it to Israel. They opened up the Hod Hasharon center to house the equipment and were helped to set up by many of the programs' pensioners. Their 'workforce' is all the able and active, retired elders in the community who after retirement, find their lives empty and with no purpose. They give the old people something to care about. Something to make them want to wake up in the morning. And its a fantastic success! They have a beautiful, welcoming building and great and very dedicated staff. They welcomed us with an info pack about the Click - Savi Project and we got an amazing talk by the Project manager, Linda.

Then we went into another room where we sat at tables with elderly women and began creating our masterpieces! On my table I found that the three women were all from Baghdad and knew my grandfathers family, Dallal! That started a discussion about Iraqi blood and a competition about who got married younger, whose husbands were older, who had more great grandchildren and who escaped Iraq earliest! The winner has 20 great grandchildren, left Iraq in 1951 and got married at age 14 to a 30 year old!

Then I finally met Danni!!!! Danni Franks from My Israel (www.myisraelcharity.org) has helped me and supported me immensely throught the past few months and definitely, if not for her and her brilliant charity, we wouldnt have been there today. And may I say that it was not an easy ride on either end, between charity cheques and bank transfers, lack of communication and surplus communication, among other things! It was great to finally meet her, hopefully the first of many times!

We made the cutest puppets, hanging toys and pillows and all agreed that we would donate the toys to the childrens hospital at Laniado, our next stop.

We piled on the coach after a lovely summary of our visit by Linda and our creations being packaged. We had lunch at a restaurant in Netanya all together and then arrived at Laniado!

Now, Im not really biased...but Laniado is the most beautiful hospital ive ever seen! We were greeted by Matilda with some drinks and a video presentation about the hospitals origins and its founder, Rabbi Yekutiel Halberstam - the Sanz Klausenberg Rebbe. To find out more about the hospital and the incredible story behind its creation please go to www.laniado.co.uk.

After a great tour which included meeting Bradley and Sadie Smith from Elstree and their mother in the Childrens hospital and a visit to the baby nursery, which some girls found fascinating we got back on the coach for our last activity of the program...:(

We got to the hotel and after a ten minute break we had a reeeaaallly cool Natual Herb Workshop! The woman running it, Yael, brought many plants such as Lavender, Rosemary, Myrtle and others and described what each one does. She then announced that we would be making foot cream!

First we crushed Rosemary and Lavender, then we heated up pure beeswax pellets, then we melted Palm tree butter and mixed it all together on the flame with some pure clear olive oil. The we put the whole pot in a bigger pot of cold water and began mixing it! We just kept mixing and thickening it with melted pure beeswax until it was a creamy green (Some of us thought it looked a lot like courgette soup...!). We put it in small jars, put lids on and tied a piece of straw around it. It was soooo cool!

Then we went back to our rooms after saying a tearful goodbye to the Israeli girls. It was really sad to be packing and putting togther all our momentoes from the past ten days. Between the Safta Gamila creams, Ethiopian sculptures, Click-Savi toys, our homemade foot cream among many other souvenirs of our trip...our suitcases are a lot heavier!

Now, for the last time...I must go to sleep so I can get up for our last day tomorrow. As a pre-ending...Its been great blogging with you! May we share many more bloggable happenings together and only have success in any future events, programs and ventures.

Love, Brocha

ps I will blog and put up pictures about tomorrow...dont worry and Good Night!