Coby checks in from Ramla, where he’s serving with UMass-Hillel and JDC Short-Term Service.

Coby (front, center) with the group in Ramla

We recently spent the afternoon working with children in Ramla.

I along with seven others was fortunate enough to help out in an afterschool theater class. The kids were between the ages of 8 to 12 and showed us their knowledge of English by singing a song which encompasses the alphabet, days of the week, prepositions, and a few verbs. This was amazing to see a group of children know more English than many of the people on our trip knew of Hebrew.

Afterwards they performed two plays. The first was Cinderella and the second was the biblical story of the golden calf. These were inspiring to see. Even though I couldn’t understand the words the children were saying I was still able to follow the performance with my knowledge of the stories.

Finally, we played some other theater games with the children. When asked about the experience I immediately said “life changing”. This was the only way in which I knew how to explain the small time we had with the children. Even with a huge language barrier we were able to interact with the children and by the end have a unique experience that seemed to affect us as well as the children.

What amazed me was that even in a city that’s not economically stable they still find a way to run art programs such as a theater class for both boys and girls in the community. This inspired me and showed me how a community will work together in order to enhance the lives of each other and especially the children. So far the trip has been full of great experiences and can’t wait for all the others I’ll get to have.