Leitner Interns Blog: Summer's End

להתראות, ישראל!
(translation: see you later, Israel!)

My summer at the Hotline for Migrant Workers in Tel Aviv has come to an end, and I am back in New York after two and a half months away. It's nice to be home but I miss Israel so much. My last few days were a whirlwind of activity – the office was still packed every day with migrant workers applying for naturalization for their children from the moment we opened our doors until the last volunteer left. We had crayons and clay and children's books scattered all over the room, and it was slightly hard to focus on our work with the sound of babies crying and children yelling and running around. What was most interesting for me was that no matter what country their parents were from – the Philippines, Ecuador, Nigeria, etc – all the children played in Hebrew. One of the requirements for achieving citizenship was that they attend public school, so these kids are used to making friends and playing games in a language that many of their parents don't know.

My last project in the prison was working with a Somalian man named Akiba (who, at only 20, seemed even younger than his age) who was trying to apply for asylum in Australia. I mentioned him in one of my last posts. Anyway, the process was complicated by the fact that the application required 8 passport photos and he did not even have one, and we weren't allowed to bring cameras into the prison. Eventually, by waiting until the most helpful guard was on duty and then asking him for a printed copy of the photo that they had on file of Akiba, I was able to take the photo out of the prison and make copies on photo paper, which hopefully were professional enough for the Australian government. We spent a few afternoons together carefully filling out the application, and Akiba's last request of me before I left Israel was to ask whether I could make him an email address.

“Sure,” I said, “It's actually very easy. What name do you want?”

He asked me to make him an account with the user name “2pac no die.” Turns out Tupac Shakur is huge in Somalia – who knew? We're keeping in touch now through his new email account, and he signs all of his emails as 2pac Akiba.

I'm definitely missing many of the people I met in Israel, both from the detention center and outside. I even miss the language, though I spent the whole summer struggling with it. Between the staff and volunteers at the Hotline and the friends I made and strengthened in Israel, the summer was never boring and I had an amazing time. I'm so glad I went. I learned so much from some incredible people, and I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend my summer. Thanks so much to the Leitner center and to Jim Leitner for allowing us the opportunity to do this work!