Getting Out Of The Dark

Well I am sure you are all wondering how the thing with the army went. It took a few days to write this because of holidays here in Israel. It is the celebration of Shavuot. Which means weeks. To be perfectly honest I am not 100% sure what the holiday is about. I never really remember celebrating it in the US. But this is a pretty big holiday here, and especially on kibbutzim. I know it is an agriculture holiday. Last night we had a very nice meal with all dairy and vegetables. Then afterwards there was a kind of carnival. Today they had a ceremony by the cow barns. They even had a little parade of the farm machinery and some animals! I think my Grandpa Bob would be interested in it.

So now here is the information about the army. To start with, it finally feels like I am getting information. The first few times I had to do anything for it I felt as if I was in a dark room and had to walk from one side to the other. I was so confused. Can you imagine going to the army offices and having to wait hours to take an eye exam and then, “Thank you. You can go now.”

I decided to stay over with Lerone the night before. It was a really good idea and we had a nice time. Her friend Amitai just came into town from the US and we went to a really nice little restaurant for dinner. This place is really cool because all the dishes are 30 shekels, which is about 7 dollars. We had a nice time.

Amitai had asked me to take some pictures of him for his webpage. And I was thrilled, because the first time I met him I told Lerone that I would love to photograph him. To me he has such a great and expressive face. Maybe you will think I am silly to think this, but check this out. On one side of his family he is German. OK. On the other side he is 14th generation Jerusalemite. And before that his people were from Tiberius. Which means, if you think about it. Maybe, he looks a lot like what Jesus could have looked like. OK maybe I am crazy to say this, but who knows…

Regardless, I think he is beauty and a nice and interesting person. So it was great company with the both of them.




So the next morning we woke up and ate breakfast and Lerone was kind enough to make a very extensive map on how to get to the army office Beit HaShirion. It was in an area that neither of us were familiar with. I could have taken the bus, but then I would have had to backtrack to the central bus station (which is a zoo) and take the bus back to the area around her apartment. Anyway, it was a good length walk and I got there a bit late, but it was fine.

When I walked in I was directed to a room in which many girls were seated writing. I handed over the army notice and ID and told the soldier I was an English speaker. She looked through some files and found the form that all the other girls were doing, but in English. She had no Hebrew accent when she talked with me and almost had a bit of a drawl when she spoke, “go sit in the last row in the second seat.”

This form was crazy. It was about 30 pages of questions and writing. If they had asked questions like: When was the last time your mother had a bowel movement? Or: How many hairs are on your father’s head? I would not have been surprised!

I had to write about my life, my health, my thoughts, all the schools I went to, and all the things that impacted my life for good or bad. And then also things about what I wanted to do in the army.

About 30 minutes after I got there a soldier who looked higher up in the ranks came and started explaining something in Hebrew. Seriously it is like this: If Israeli’s speak at a certain fast speed then in the army they speak twice as fast. I sat there in wonder thinking, “I can barely make out ONE word this chick is saying.”

But I could see everyone was turning to the front of the booklet and I could figure out we had 20 minutes to complete some exercise. Good thing on the front there were directions in English. This was the psychometric test that I had heard all about. So you are given 2 pages of incomplete sentences to complete with whatever comes to mind first, but try to have only 2 word answers. Now this is harder to answer with 2 words in English than in Hebrew because words like ‘the’ are just an add on the beginning of the next word.

As I was taking the test I found myself thinking how interesting it would be to be a soldier who corrects these tests, because it is so psychological. The definition my computer gives for psychometric is: a branch of psychology dealing with the measurement of mental traits, capacities, and processes.

It was so interesting. For instance, there were like 4 statements all with _____ is afraid of______. So it would be like: She is afraid of ______. He is afraid of ______. I noticed that on two I wrote the dark. But there were other questions like: A proper gentleman should __________. A good mother/father is ________. A bad mother/father is_________. I am good at _________. I am happy when ________. When the boy gets angry he _________.

We had 20 minutes and I finished in 12.40. There was also a thing at the end of the booklet where you had to look at some image and then close your eyes and try not to do something and do another thing. Make sense. No. Well it was like a big circle, with 5 smaller circles on it and they all got progressively smaller. My job was to close my eyes and try to go clockwise and see how many times I could get x’s in the circles. The first 2 times I only got 2. But the last time I got 4.

Back to the information pages. It was crazy all the things they asked me about. What where the things that changed my life for better, for worse. Write briefly about your life, any major changes, why you moved to Israel. And what you want to do after the army. It was wild.

So when I finally finished all this I waited till the first soldier who helped me (the one with the drawl) came back. I told her I was done but that I didn’t do one whole exercise because it was in Hebrew. She told me not to worry and if I had gotten an interview. No I hadn’t so I had to wait till I was called.

About ten minutes later I was called into a room for the interview. It was the same soldier, which was nice to have someone familiar. She said she would try to give it in English. First thing she asked me was if I knew why I was there. I told her yes. I was there to take tests for the army to see where I would be placed. She said wrong.

She told me that a few years back the army decided that they were going about things wrong. They felt they were not putting to use all the people they could and they were wasting good soldiers and time in crappy jobs. She said all the girls in here today have high profiles and we want to help you so you can help the army. Yes the army is selfish, but as she said, “if you put a rocket scientist to be a dish washer it is a waste of her mind and she probably will no even be a good dish washer because she is so miserable.”

So after taking more of the same personal info she asked me, “What do you want to do in the army?”
Me: What do you mean?
Soldier: I mean what do you want to do?
Me: I thought you were supposed to tell me? Not me tell you!
Soldier: Well, if you could do anything, what would you like to do?
Me: If possible Photography since I am trained in it for 3 years and that would be a waste for the army not to take advantage.
Soldier is writing
Soldier: OK what else?
Me: I really don’t know because I never thought you would ask me what I wanted.
Soldier: OK what I usually say to girls who have no idea, or don’t know a lot about the army is first break it up into two. Do you want and inside job, or an outside job. I am considered inside job and there are a lot of different things to do. But it is not physical. Or do you want an outside job. And that doesn’t mean only combat. You can be an instructor or something combat too, but it is more physical.
Me: I prefer outside job.
Soldier: You can also do something with international relations since you have English. Or even intelligence if your Hebrew gets better, but those are inside jobs.
Me: I am interested in International relations.
More writing
Soldier: Would you ever consider trying out of an elite unit or combat?
Me: Wow. I never considered it even because I never thought I would be good enough.
Soldier: Well you run. You look fit. You are in good health. Would you want to try?
Me: Yes I would be honored to try.
Soldier: I always push the girls who are able to try. I really regret not becoming combat now so I tell them to try.

After this conversation and more writing on her part she asked if I would be will to serve more that 6 months (I think that is the minimum for a girl my age who is volunteering). When I told her yes, of course, the army ulpan alone would be 4 months she got really happy. Then she asked if I had any more questions.

Me: What happens next? I wait to hear from you with my job results?
Soldier: No. First we send all this information we gathered today to offices where soldiers dissect it all and decided according to all the information what would be the best places to use you in the army. Then they will send your info to units that they think you would be good for and then they (the units) will contact you for further tests and interviews.
Me: OK. Wow. Thank you so much. You have given me the most information. I really appreciate it.
Soldier: Of course. It’s my job. Good luck with everything and have a great day.

Truthfully, I walked out of there on a cloud. I don’t know if one thing she said was true. Maybe they say that to all the people. But I do know that I have more information now than I ever had.

And that is a good feeling. Maybe I am not afraid of the actual dark, as I answered twice to in the psychometric. Maybe I am afraid of being in the dark, and the unknown.