In The Service

My day began pretty much like every other day. I meet with Ram (pronounced Rahm) about 8:00 AM and throughout the morning. Using a three-wheeler electric cart, we moved and towed large stainless containers from the basement to the different clinics in the hospital. The containers going up had clean sterilized instruments, while the ones coming down contained dirty instruments to be cleaned and sterilized.

We quit our volunteer work today at 1:15 PM in order to go and visit an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) military base near the ancient city of Hebron. We were met by Yoram, the Friends of the IDF representative, who gave us a short briefing about how modern-day Judea and Samara are divided up into the administrative areas of A, B, and C. The A areas are where Palestinians live, control, and manage the security. The B areas are lived in jointly by Jews and Palestinians and both jointly manage and provide security for the area. The C areas are lived in by the Jewish people, who manage the area, and the IDF provides security.

Once we were on the IDF base, a female soldier, Uveal, briefed us about her operations area. There, IDF women sit in front of computer monitors to watch for any sort of problem or attack around Hebron and the surrounding area. The IDF uses hundreds of security cameras stationed throughout the region in order to watch for trouble.

After the IDF completed their presentations and tour, we thanked everyone for their hospitality and then left for our hotel. We arrived back safely around 7:15 PM.

Claude Jewett