Being 10kg heavier

What a week...as a friend nicely put it, being out in the field really helps you appreciate the little things in life. things like; not feeling like your going to die from cold, food other than tuna and white bread, food without sand in it, showers, deodorant, sleep, a bed, cutlery, soap-infact washing your hands at all, toilets, the list is fairly endless.

So yes, as you can guess we spent the week out in the midst of the desert. Comical thing though, the "midst of the desert" was really only about 6km from base.

The entire week we were in full uniform, vest (and 5 full magazines included), and of course gun. The idea of the week i believe is to experience a bit what it would be like to be in combat. For instance, you don't use deodorant because of the smell. Upon hearing this i obviously smartly asked but if we don't use deodorant WE smell. Unfortunately my Mefakedet had a good answer too... We smell if your within a few meters range, the smell of deodorant can carry. The same rule applied for smoking (there really were some girls dying there).

I was given the responsibility, and honour (though i wanted to kill it about 10 minutes into this so called honour), of carrying the radio the whole time. Fun you say? not so, not so at all. Let me explain. The radio is a boxy thing, fits in the back of the vest no problem. What is the problem? WELL, it weighs 10kg, that's one. But the biggest problem of all, is that carrying the radio the whole time, really is the entire time. Sitting down for lessons (yep we had lessons in the field),  to eat, to crawl, to dig the holes we slept in, absolutely everything is with this box on your back. Which essentially means, there is no rest. Saying that, sleeping with the vest on was pleasantly not too bad for me, because in that case i had to take the radio out. Because of the drastic change it was almost like i had nothing on at all.

Apart from the previously mentioned things, we did some fun stuff in the sense of moving position everyday. Also not as easy as you may think. Every person had as well as their vest and stuff, a small backpack crammed full with clothes, tent, blanket, sleeping bag, shovel, jacket, and a couple of other things. These bags ranged from weight and guess who's lucky. Mine ended up weighing so much i had to get 3 people to help me put it on my back. Now, this is sounding fun yes? It gets better.
We had two girls throwing up, from pneumonia or a bug who knows. What that meant though was that they could not carry any of their stuff. Please add more weight onto my back!
But we didn't simply walk (through soft sand by the way), we walked a bit, got down into ground shooting position (not so important the position, important bit is on your belly on the ground), back up. Well...may have looked hilarious from the side, and yes i did giggle quite a bit. I literally couldn't get up alone.

Each day we did some sort of run, without guns just regular, and then with vests and guns. The difference is incredible. However even with the vest i was without the radio so it was almost a rest!

The week ended with Parents day on base, or should i say parents few hours on the base and day of cleaning leading up to Parents day. But when i say cleaning i don't particularly mean cleaning in the normal sense. At one point, after straightening long rows of chairs for about an hour we were given the task to pick up any rocks which cast a shadow and throw them to the side. Apart from this being extremely fun, WHAT THE HELL? the base is in the desert, there are only rocks there. This was quite easily the stupidest task i have ever been given.
For Parents day, little sister Amy came to visit. Proudly showed her around even introduced her to some of my Commanders, Officers and my Sergeant (giving the background, he never smiles ever... who then of course greets her with an enourmous grin). Unfortunately the little one doesn't really take the place of a proud parent, but still pretty awesome that she was in Israel and able to come!

Appears it was rather sunny.... Check out the muddy boots (i'm fairly convinced we walked through sewerage)

Anyway, this week coming we are also camping out so i'll have to just wait for sandless food and showers. We have week of shooting. I am expecting shooting all day everyday, let's just wait and see what Morpheus can do apart from dig me in the back when i'm sleeping. 

Just before bedtime

So, a very brief update as I am writing this on  my brand spanking new. Who unfortunately is slightly too complicated for my simple mind!

Let me just say, what a week!

currently there is absolutely no energy left in my body,my back really really wants a massage (hint,hint )  and I'm 100% happy.
we returned to base today after shavuah sadaut (week in field) it's a week were we're immersed in the field.
Explain that one after!

In fact I'll explain everything after, I only have time now because I sneaked a shower during lunch time!! And my sha tash is soon up!

So until next update( this weekend!)

לילה טוב.

Feeling like a failure and having an incredible time

This week didn't particularly start out on a great foot. 

After the usual putting everything back together screw around; all the girls who finished the oketz gibbush were stood in a chet. The mefaked plugeut came and explained all the boring stuff, and told us that he would read the 16 names and that at the end all the girls who's names weren't called would walk back to rest of the group. At this point my heart was beating so fast i honestly thought it would explode. Feeling quite sick, i listened as he read the names out. At a crazy fast pace i watched girls go up all the time thinking "hmmm, there aren't many places left". Then he read the last name out. I was not called.
Walked back to the group in a bit of a state of shock, stayed in that state for 5 minutes and then it hit and i burst out in tears. I quite literally exploded. 

I can honestly say, after the gibbush i said i didn't know but i was 95% sure i'd gotten in. I mean, physically i did well at the gibbush. I assumed i got in and so did the girls who did the gibbush with me. So when my name wasn't called i really didn't know how to handle it.
Cried a bit with a friend who also didn't get in and we figured out something really very interesting. We were crying because not getting in meant we "failed" and that we had to now tell everyone. I do not think that those are good reasons. Not at all. 

After the initial shock i put it all into perspective and realised Caracal as a unit suits me and my personality better. Caracalists (not sure if you're allowed to say that...) are known to be a little crazy.Have a screw loose  in the head, they have rabak. Rabak is a hebrew slang word that doesn't really have an english translation. It sort of translates to enthusiasm but it's like super enthusiasm for everything. 

Aside from that bit of news, this week was amazing! We were in Shetach (field). Camping out in little tent thingys eating tinned food (there was NOT enough), peeing outside (always a highlight), but mostly shooting. Learning that the things we carry around with us are in fact rather powerful. 

I however, as well as firing guns, threw a grenade. Remember how i said my heart was going to explode from beating too fast on the news from Oketz? Well times that by 10. Running to the throwing platform with a real grenade in my vest then doing practice throws all with a real grenade Oh MY GOD.  Not only that, but we did this practice of what to do if a grenade is dropped live inside the platform. So when that happens you run outside counting 21, 22, 23 then hit the ground on your belly; legs crossed and hands on your head. Great, did that...kindof on my side not putting my weight on the grenade. Then the Mefakedet Machlaka jumped on me. Full weight on top. I was screaming inside my head "ARE YOU CRAZY? I'VE GOT A GRENADE IN MY VEST". I guess that's why they have a safety pin.... Anyway, i can say throwing grenades was the scariest thing I've done so far in the army. 

Shooting was fine. There isn't much kickback (that i can feel), and it's a lot easier to aim with the scope on top. I really got to see what Morphias (that's my gun), can do.  

Aside from that, the week went rather quick. 

Things that happened in shetach:

Some friends and i, and our sleeping bag
filled with other sleeping bags, nicknamed "casper"

• I was freezing cold, even with thermal pants, 2 pairs of socks (difficult with boots that are too small-still waiting on replacement boots), two long sleeve shirts, uniform and a beanie. 
• I was constantly hungry--there really was not enough food
• I crawled around a lot--we did a lot of practice with positions of shooting. 
• and a funny story; was around the middle of the night when somebody pokes their head into the tent and shakes my leg. me "what?", person "who's this", me "louise" person "it's the mefakedet machlaka" me "yes", her "where's your gun", me "inside my sleeping bag", her "where are the guns of the other two" me "i don't know" the end. Lovely middle of the night conversation. 
• OH and sleeping uncomfortably between two girls in a tiny tent with my gun poking me in the side all night. 

Our shooting range.

Doing alot of running and a little bit of dying.

Apart from regular not so interesting army stuff (lessons, cleaning, yelling, running...) this week was a very big one for me.

I did the gibbush for oketz. 

Started on tuesday night with filling out medical and personal forms. Filling forms is of course always an incredibly fun activity. Begins with the following: "i need help...." 

They divided us into groups, yelled at us a bit, made us change into shirts and hats with numbers on it (I will never forget my number: 8). Following us having to down our meymiahs, put our phones and watches into a bag so we had no record of time whatsover, without brushing our teeth we were put to bed. A pleasant send off to sleep. "TUSU 30 SECONDS TO BE ASLEEP IN YOUR SLEEPING BAGS". tusu by the way, was the most used phrase. Hilariously it means fly. 

Girls complained that they couldn't sleep because of the hard ground, and the mass amount of water that we had to drink right before bed. but as usual, i was fairly fine. A great talent i inherited from Dad, the ability to sleep under most any circumstance. 

Morning started similar to night, "TUSU 30 SECONDS TO BE IN FULL UNIFORM AND IN A CHET". i was so much so still asleep that my hands were shaking from moving too fast.  But then the physical started, and i was very much awake. 

All activities of the day were long (tortuously long), nearly vomit inducing, exhausting and well...hard.
physically i did ok  i think. I mean, apart from dying a little every time. I came in the first 5 finished 95% of the time. The whole day was done in mud, which was less fun then it could have been. It meant that everytime you ran, you ran with extra (what felt like 100kg) weight on your feet. It was also incredibly slippery, most everyone fell spectacularly as they ran.

The personal interview i did at the end of the day went well. I mean, i'm not sure how great all my responses were, but it was fun. In fact i did krav maga for them. Weird right? But it was fun.

There were 42 girls that went to the gibbush and i think something like 35 that finished. Originally i thought that wasn't too bad, meant i had a pretty good chance of getting in. But these weren't 35 sweet little girls. These were 35 crazy warriors!   If i get it or not i'll be ok. I really did give 100% there is no moment that i can look back and say, hmmm i should have pushed that little bit harder. Obviously i wish my hebrew was a little better so i could have given more leadership. But my hebrew is what it is at the moment, and that's just part of me at this moment in time. 

Tomorrow what my future is, cross your fingers for me! 

Unwritten Laws of Lochemim

So, as my days of being a lochemet have increased i've become aware of a range of unwritten laws that everyone knows and obeys. They're so odd, and foreign that i just have to share. Basically we keep them because if we don't its Padicha (embarrasment).

1. Fighters never wear their Madim aleph jacket.  It's big and poofy, and no matter how cold it is, fighters do not wear it. On base however you wear your madim bet jacket no problem
2. Fighters always wear the sleeves of their madim aleph rolled up. Same rule applies as the jacket, no matter how cold; sleeves up.
3. Fighters don't put the two stripes on their uniform - that's for jobniks. In the army, there are stripes that you put on the side of your arms to show your rank. Two stripes means you've been in for a year and three is i think a year and a half. It's not very important the meaning, the important thing is fighters don't put the two stripes on....it's padicha.
4. Big bags are to be worn like they weigh nothing, preferably with only one strap. Definatly without doing up the hip strap.  no explanation needed.
5. Being a fighter gives you special permission to sleep on random people's shoulders on the bus. Ok, i made that one up, but the number of times a soldier has fallen asleep on my shoulder, woken up and said nothing is crazy.

Some stuff i probably should have said day 1...

So, i realise that i often use hebrew words when actually nobody really understands them.
Because of this, this post is really just a dictionary for future reference.
Most of these are words i never use in english, so i stole a bit of the translations from the net...all correct though!
 
 Names
Chayal boded (chayelet bodeda) - (חייל בודד) lone soldier, without family in israel (or not in contact with family in israel)

Cita (כיתה) class

Tzevet (צוות) team

Machleka (מחלקה) platoon

Plugah (פלוגה) company

Gdud (גדוד) battalion

Chativah (חטיבה) brigade

Sayeret (סיירת) special forces

Mefaked(mefakedet) - commander
Machlaka - platoon
Pleugat - troop
Chet (ח) - a hebrew letter
Gibbush - i think the word means something along the lines of get to know, but when i use it it means the test. A physical and mental test to weed out unqulified soldiers.

Mishakit Tash (מ''שקית ת''ש) in charge of soldiers' personal affairs

Mishakit Aliyah (מ''סקית עליה) in charge of translations

Kravi (קרבי) combat

Lochem (לוחם) fighter/warrior

Training              

Bach (בא''ח) training base

Tironut (טירונות) basic training

Masa (מסע) hike, forced march

Shetach (שטח) field

Sha Tash (שעה ת''ש) hour free time

Buchan Maslul (בוחן מסלול) kilometer run and obstacle course

Baror (ברור) physical test of pushups, situps and 2k run

Equipment

Neshek (נשק) weapon

-Amidah (עמידה) standing

-Kria (כריע) kneeling

-Shchivah (שכיבה) prone/lying down

Cadoor (כדור) bullet

Rimone (רימון) grenade

Casdah (קסדה) helmet

Maymiyah (מימיה)    army water bottle

Alunka (אלונקה) stretcher

Minot krav (מנות קרב) field rations

Diskete (דיסקית) dogtag

Madim aleph/bet (מדים א/ב) uniform dress/combat

Kumtah (כומתה) beret

Seicah (סכה) pin

Choger (חוגר) military ID

Life

Kav (קו) line (operational)

Imun (אמון) training

Shmirah (שמירה) guard duty

Mitbach (מטבח) kitchen

Krav maga (קרב מגע) IDF's hand-to-hand combat training

Mitvach (מטווח) firing range

Tekkes (טקס) ceremony

-hashba'ah (השבעה) swearing-in

-kumtah (כומתה) beret, at the end of advanced training

Sha beitziyah (שעה ביציאה) hour punishment to leave base

Yom Siddurim (יום סידורים) day to take care of personal things

Bettim (בתים) medical leave on base

Gimmelim (גימלים) medical leave off base

Madas (מדס) exercise

Slang

Tzair (צעיר) young, inexperienced

Pazzam (פז''מ) experience (or served time)

Tzahove (צהוב) yellow, straight and by the book

Shpitz (שפיץ) great soldier

Tash (ת''ש) chill, relaxed

Mitztayin (מצטיין) outstanding

"Kama ode" (כמה עוד) "How much more?"

"Ad matai" (עד מתי) "Until when?"

"Eifo kulam" (איפה כלעמ) "Where is everyone

 

Jumping over walls

One word to sum up the past two weeks: Exhaustinglyawesomelyfun

But then of course, there's a reason that this is a blog, and not a one word sum up (even if that's not really one word).  Exhaustinglyawesomelyfun doesn't really give a good picture of what's been going on.

The standard apology applies as always; "i'm sorry, i've got no real idea what we actually did in two weeks". Aside from that, let me fill you in!

The first few weeks of basic training i believe (because i'm clearly an expect having done it twice), are there just to break you down. It's a lot of very small times to do things, a lot of yelling at you, a lot of run there and back, and a lot of letting you realise that you really have no control of anything anymore. It was interesting this time to see everyone cope with the change from being in control, to having a small bracket of time for even going to take a pee. So, aside from a lot of cleaning areas in very small amounts of time (or long amounts if you keep getting 20 seconds to roll up and tie the sides of the tent-in 20 seconds you do half a roll...which you then have to redo because you drop it) The two weeks were broken up into three main categories:

1. Learning stuff
2. Doing stuff
3. Counting stuff

But before that, a little about the soldiers the base and the ones in charge.

The soldiers:
Put together a bunch of 100 girls and you're going to have a bad apple or two, it's simply statistics, in this bunch however you really have to search hard. As well as 100 girls (i'm making up numbers here), there are around 22 boys. The boys at first (i believe) were a little bitter, it's basically no boys dream to grow up and be in caracal (why, i don't fully comprehend, probably just stigma) but as the days went on it defiantly grew on them. The girls, i sum them up this way: picture your typical cute, girly isreali 18 year old, now take her make up off, put her hair up in a pony tail, put her in a uniform and watch her drop down and do 20 pushups without complaint. The girls here are sweet, tough and most of all incredibly patient.  They giggle often at my accent but always assuring me that their laughing out of love, i of course assure them that i have no accent, to which they repeat what i've said in a strong American accent. hmmmm.

The base:
Not the most beautiful place in the world i'll give you that. Located in the desert it's rocky, sandy, windy and bare. We sleep in giant tents (which don't always have lights). Basically it's no Michve Eilon with a beautiful view, buildings, numerous trees, grass, shower curtains or edible food...but it is my home for the next month and a bit so i'm getting used to it!

The ones in charge:
My Mefakedet: the first ever Arab Christian woman to be a commander in a combat unit...yep that's my commander! A funny one, laughs alot, doesn't believe in distance between soldiers and commanders, and told me her birthday (i'm older!). Pretty great.
There are some real scary ones though...one who doesn't smile even when it appears impossible. For instance: We were in our lines outside the food hall when i asked to blow my nose. Unfortunately i didn't know any of the words so i said "attention mefaked..." then made hand gestures. Well everyone was laughing (apparently that is hilarious!), but he without a hint of a smile said, leave the lines then ask to join after. tough cookie that one!

Learning stuff

As always we did a lot of lessons. Lessons on rules, on army structure, on drinking and driving, on micro tavour (our guns), on the oldest radio communicator alive (that's probably not what it's called), and also sort of discussions on why we wanted to be fighters.

Some lessons were easier to understand then others, i have major problems understanding when men speak hebrew (cant' tell you why) and also for some reason our assistant troop commander (the cutest little girl...expect she's kinda badass!).

For that reason myself and another 4 or 5 new immigrants received special lessons. Special in the way that essentially it's the same lesson as everyone else gets, it's just we have more time for it and they are able to explain things every few minutes. It works really well for me, as i can't fall asleep if it's only 5 people in the class!

 

 

Doing Stuff

 

We did alot of fun stuff in the two weeks too. Some of it frustrated me to no end.,...but fun none the less. Firstly there was the baror (essentially a fitness test to track progress), there were large portions of pushups outside of the food hall, there was trying to jump over a wall -took me many many fails but when i finally did it, wow was i happy! climbing up a rope, again many fails (i couldn't get the foot technique down) when i finally made it to the top though i was on top of the world!

But wait, the wall and rope are part of a bigger picture. Their part of a test we do, i don't know when, called the bochal maslul. It's a big obstacle course (I KNOW< HOW FUN!) that we have to do wearing all our gear, vest, helmet gun. At the moment we are practising just as is. but it's the most fun thing i've done in a while. there are monkey bars, tunnel thingys, a big pyramid thing that you walk up and down, the wall, the rope, and quite a few other things. Something weird, when we were practising the other day the mefaked machlaka (platoon commander) gave me a gun, told me to take care of it and let me continue practising all the activities with the gun. Probably i was just the first soldier she saw, but made me rather happy!

 

The weeks ended off with a masa for our unit tags.  that's caracal. Not an especially long masa (2 km), easy in fact apart from the pace. We did it so fast that you were running every few meters. Odd for a masa, we did it without our guns and sadly also without a flag. Next time it won't be so easy...not even slightly!

At the end of the masa we had a little ceremony for receiving tags, i was really shocked to receive my tag from the mefakedet machlaka (platoon commander) with a personal message written on the back. Will get back with full translation (the Hebrews a little above my level). 

 

 

Counting things

At the start of the two weeks we received our base equipment, including our base uniforms. Brilliant you say; hmm yes and no. Yes, as our home uniforms are very hot, and rather uncomfortable to run in. No, the army does alot of counting. I think 3 or 4 times we had to take all our base equipment out for a check. That's not a simple thing let me tell you. You have to put all the blankets on the floor in a neat chet, then put all the equipment on it with each thing in its place. this whole process is done in small times (duh), and ultimately it's a pain in the ass!

 

A small thing i forgot; Morphias. Who or what is Morphias you ask...well he is my gun. I think anyway, haven't fully settled on a name yet. Photo's to come. Brand spanking new and simply beautiful...if a gun can be beautiful. Haven't decided yet. Morphias will be my personal gun until the end of my service. After a certain amount of time...i don't know exactly how long, he will be coming home with me as well. As all combat fighters take their personal guns home as well so they are ready at all times.

 

To sum up though...

 

The past two weeks were great, i'm really extremely happy that i've arrived where i have. At times a little hard with the language, but even then the majority of the time i'm able to join in, which is defiantly a relief.  At the end of the first week my entire body was in pain and i was convinced that in a very small period of time i would look like this:

 

 

But I'm pleased to report that no, steroids are not part of the army diet..oh don't get me started on what is in the army diet!

 

That's about it,

Lots of love,

your ginger fighter.