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Life.

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Life. The English definition of the greek word Zoe

a memoir

life | ancient Greek word for zoë | Gender: Feminine | Usage: English, Italian, German, Ancient Greek Scripts Ζωή(Ancient Greek) | PronouncedZO-ee(English) DZO-eh(Italian) [key·IPA].

The letter Z. A small tribute to the letter Z in the name of my late grandmother Zehava A”H. My name, Zoë, Greek for the word life, is a tribute to her.

Along with the letter Z that she passed onto me, so too did she pass her love of life, her appreciation for happiness and her loyalty to the people around her. She was the person I looked up to and aspired to be like.

These six words reflect who I

Always

Caring for

Others Around

Me

am because people who know me know that I’m very sensitive and caring to others around me. A lot of the time, I tend to care more about others than I do for myself. This can sometimes lead me to be naive and give people the benefit of the doubt when they didn’t deserve it. I still care for others because sometimes people need someone to care for them. While caring is both a blessing and a curse, it’s just a part of who I am and it doesn’t feel like much of a choice.

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Budget Budget for the week of 9/15 - 9/29 Snacks 35.5% Meal 64.5%

Reflection

Tracking my spendings was an interesting experience, not only because I tracked what I spent, but also because of Spend.com.

Both things provided a new insight into the world of spending.

Spend.com was very intriguing because it made me experience what it was like to be short of money. Even though I only lasted for 14 days in the simulation, it wasn’t an easy two weeks. In the simulation, I had to kill my dog, lost my car, and only had enough money for my child to have insurance. Not having much money made it very hard to live even a simple life in an apartment. It really puts into perspective how hard life can be if you don’t have a good source of income.

As for my weekly spending, surprisingly, I spent much less than I expected. Unsurprisingly however, all of my spending was on food.

I think that Corona life has caused me to spend less money because I usually buy lunch and a snack in school. However, because of the new way of life during Corona, I might buy lunch 2 days a week and make lunch at home the rest of the days. I also realized that I don’t really buy any personal items for myself, which I understand because for some reason, it's something I never do. My siblings actually make fun of that fact by saying “you know you’re not adopted right? You can get something for yourself!” Maybe that’s an idea I can work on.

It’s important to realize that money is something that we sometimes take for granted. We have to remember that not everyone is lucky when it comes to money.

Jewel

A short story. By Zoe Sabbagh

I’m sitting in a dark interrogation room. There are a bunch of cameras above me and a big glass to the left of me. “ What are they going to ask me?” I think to myself.

“What if I end up in jail? Or a government lab or-”. The door interrupts my thoughts and a man in a suit walks in.

He looks at me and says in a calming voice “ Hi, my name is detective Roberts and I’m here to ask you some questions. If you aren’t comfortable about answering something, you have the right to say so. Are you ready to begin?” I feel my heart beating out of my chest, but I somehow get the courage to respond by saying “yes sir.”

He looks at me and gives me a gentle smile. “Why don’t we start with an easy question, what’s your name?” I take a deep breath and say “ Molly Smith.”

I’m known around school as the girl who doesn’t talk in class and sits alone at lunch. What people don’t know though is that I actually have a friend named Lilly, she just goes to another school. I know that people won’t believe me when I tell them that, so I don’t say it at all.

When I walk in the hallways, people give me looks and whisper to their friends, but I don’t care. Even when people call me names and hurt me, it doesn’t affect me because I know Lilly and I will make each other happy when we’re together on the weekends. The thing about Lilly is that she’s just as anti-social as I am, but we both open up when we’re together.

That weekend, I was walking to Lilly’s house by going through an alley ( a shortcut). My leg was already scraped from the last time I walked through this shortcut, but the

stick that just impaled my skin just made it worse. I wince in pain and hold my leg. “I’ll just get a bandaid from Lilly.” I continue to walk slowly when all of a sudden, I hear a cry from the distance that sounded like an animal that was in pain. I turn around to see a bright red and blue bird with a rock crushing it’s leg. Usually in this situation I would just keep walking, but for some reason I found myself walking up to the bird to help her. I bend down toward the rock and the bird screeches and flaps her wings, which makes me jump. “It’s okay” I keep telling the tiny bird as I move closer.

Once I get close enough, I quickly grab the rock and get it off the bird before she pecks me. The bird freezes and I scoop her up and hold her in my palms. “How did this happen to a cute bird like you?” I ask knowing full well that she can’t answer me. “ I gotta show this to Lilly!” I say to myself as I start running down the street, but the bird had other plans.

The bird, which I just named Jewel, jumped up from it’s lying down position to standing up, as if she miraculously got better on her own. She started to hover around me. Then she started moving faster and flying around me. Soon Jewel is flying so fast it looked like a blue and red tornado was surrounding me. “ What are you doing?!” I scream as I cover my eyes to block the wind. Then she stops and lands on my shoulder. I look down and realize that the cut on my leg is gone and the pain I once had from it disappears. “What the hell?” I turn to Jewel, “did you do this?” Jewel happily chirps and gives a little jump.

“So she just healed you? How is that even possible?” Lilly asks me as we sit in her room with the door closed. “ You think I know?! Ask the bird!” Lilly perks up “ That’s not a bad idea.” Lilly crowds around Jewel and starts bombarding her with questions. “ Okay Jewel, chirp once for yes and twice for no” “Are you from this planet?” Jewel chirps twice. We look at each other then back at Jewel.

“Did someone send you?” Jewel chirps once

“ Are we in danger from this person?” The silence of Lilly’s question hangs in the air. We inch closer, shaking the whole time. Jewel chirps twice and we both sigh with relief.

We ask Jewel questions for hours “Were you born with powers?”, “ do you have other ones?” ,“ What do you eat?” By the time we finished asking her questions, it was almost midnight and I had to go home. “What should I do with Jewel? There's no way my mom will let me keep her” I ask Lilly. She responds with a shrug “figure it out.”

I put on my hoodie and yank the hood over my head and gently put Jewel in my pocket. I keep my head down as I walk back to my house only focusing on the music through my headphones. I don't take the shortcut this time, enough has happened to me already. I get home right before the clock hits twelve “ good, my mom’s asleep” I whisper half to myself and half to Jewel. I tiptoe up the stairs to my room and shut the door. I put Jewel on my desk and say to myself “ where do I put her so my mom won’t find her?” I glance around my room and notice the shoebox on the top shelf of my closet.

“Perfect” I grab a blanket and stuff it in the shoebox.

Then I scoop up Jewel again and put her in the box without the lid. Jewel gets comfortable and I whisper “I'll see you in the morning.”

The next day, Jewel’s screeching wakes me up. I groan “ you’re lucky my family didn’t hear you.” I roll out of bed and plop to the floor ”c’mon Jewel, let’s go to Lilly’s.” I throw on the same hoodie from yesterday and head toward the door “ Mom I’m going to Lilly!” I say as as I walk out the door not even waiting for an answer from her. I walk down the block and turn the corner when I see a man with a knife facing me.

“GIVE ME ALL THE MONEY YOU HAVE,” He

screams as he points his knife at me. I’m so overcome with panic and fear I freeze in my tracks. “Are you stupid?! I said GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!” he screams louder. Even though I’m shaking, I quickly turn around and run as fast as I can in the other direction, clutching Jewel in my hand. I hear the man’s feet slamming on the pavement as he bolts towards me. As I’m running, I scrape my arm on a tree and it starts to bleed. I don’t notice it because my only focus is getting out of there. I’m running faster than I’ve ever run in my life and I feel Jewel shivering in my pocket. “ Don’t worry Jewel, I’ll get us out of here.” I round the corner and run to Lilly’s door. I put in the code and run in, slamming the door and locking it behind me. I put Jewel down and sit on the floor to catch my breath, panting like an animal. Lilly comes rushing downstairs with a smile, but it changes to a frown “ What happened to you?” I can’t answer ... I’m too exhausted. I look at my arm to see how bad my cut was to see that it healed itself. I'm confused. Jewel didn't surround me like she did the last time she healed me. Then it hit me…

Jewel had given me healing powers! “Lilly…I… I think Jewel gave me powers” “What do you mean Jewel gave you powers?” Lilly asks while she looks at my arm. “Exactly what I said! I cut my arm while I was running and it has healed!” Lilly pauses ”wait running? Running from what?” I was so overcome with emotions I didn’t even realize I never told her. I look at her with a terrified face “ A man with a knife was chasing me. I was barely able to outrun him.” Lilly suddenly gets a shocked expression on her face as well and runs toward the window “ Is he still outside!?” I jump up and follow her. We both crowd around the window and slowly, Lilly opens the curtain. Our legs shook as we inch closer to the window and both of our eyes widen once we look through. The man was pacing in front of the house.

“Oh my god.” I back away from the window, suddenly

feeling dizzy. I whisper to Lilly “we need to call the police.” Lilly nods in agreement as she runs to get her phone. At this point I’m sitting in a ball on the floor, rocking back and forth in fear. A few seconds later, Lilly pokes her head out of the kitchen and gestures for me to come to her. I slowly get up, still shaking, scoop up Jewel from the floor and tiptoe to the kitchen. Lilly dials 911 and puts the phone on speaker. A female voice picks up the phone “911 what’s your emergency?” I’m too scared to speak, so Lilly does all the talking.

“There us a man with a knife outside my door” “Ok ma’am, can you state your address please?”

“240 Lochwell Place” “Ok, there are police officers on the way to you right now.

Is there anyone else with you?”

“Yes, my friend Molly” “Ok, stay calm help is on the way” “Thank you.”

I start to calm down a little, but as I start taking deep breaths, we hear a pounding coming from the door. A familiar voice screams through the door “I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE!” I freeze in my tracks still holding Jewel in my hands. “We need to hide now!” I loudly whisper to Lilly. She grabs my arm, pulls me to her room and quickly closes the door. The pounding continues and all three of us crouch together under her bed.

We’re too scared to speak, let alone breathe. After a few minutes of trembling in silence, we hear the door break off its hinges and slam to the floor. He was inside. We stop moving. He stomps around the house “ Come out come out wherever you are!” I hug Jewel and Lily as tight as I can. “Police please come” I desperately think to myself. “Please come, pl-” my thoughts stop when I hear him coming up the stairs. Lilly and I look at each other with tears streaming down our faces as we hug so tightly we can’t even hear our own breathing. The man gets to the top if the stairs and starts walking down the long

hallway toward Lilly’s room “c’mon you little twerp! You know I’m gonna find you!” We don’t dare to speak, but then he starts turning the doorknob. After seeing that the door was locked, he started to slam his body into the door.

He slams four times, each time getting louder and louder.

On the fifth, the door swings open and he charges in. He takes a look around and finds Lilly under the bed. Since I’m near the middle, he doesn’t see me, but I’ve never seen her so scared before as she gets dragged out from under the bed. Then, the man did the most horrific thing that will scar me forever. He stabbed her in the back! I cover my mouth as I watch the life leave her eyes and I can’t do anything but watch. Then, I hear sirens coming from the distance. The man hears them too and starts running out of the house. “Nows my chance” I quickly crawl out from under the bed and put my hand on Lilly to try to heal her. No luck. I try again using both hands and nothing happens. I turn to Jewel “can I help her?” Jewel sadly chirps twice and bows her head. “So… my best and only friend is d… dead?” Jewel chirps quietly. I’m so overcome with emotions that I start screaming and crying at the same time. I screamed so loud and cried so hard I didn’t care who heard me. Then I hear someone come up the stairs. I hear a different voice this time “Who’s up here? This is the police” The officer asks me a billion questions like “ did you know this man?” or “ How close were you with Lilly?”

I’m too shy and afraid to answer his row of questions, but out of the corner of my eye I notice a different officer putting the murderer in handcuffs. The man was fighting the officer off and swinging his knife around. While he’s doing this, the man cuts another officer trying to hold him down. That’s when all the shyness in my body leaves me and I rush over to the wounded officer. I get down on my knees and put my hands on the officer’s wound and it heals instantly. She looks up at me in with a look of both

fear and awe on her face “H..How did you do that?” “It’s a long story” I respond, helping her up. All of the officers crowd around me with the same look as the officer I just healed. That’s when I see the news cameras start to surround me, with news reporters pushing through the crowd to try and ask me questions. All of a sudden, a man in a suit grabs me by the arm and pulls me away from the crowd. “ Don’t worry” he tells me “ I’m here to help.”

I’m sitting in a dark interrogation room with a bunch of cameras above me and a big glass to the left of me. The man that pulled me out of the crowd walks into the room “ Hi, my name is detective Roberts and I’m here to ask you some questions. If you aren’t comfortable about answering something, you have the right to say so. Are you ready to begin?” I feel my heart beating out of my chest, but I somehow get the courage to respond by saying “yes sir.” He looks at me and gives me a gentle smile. “Why don’t we start with an easy question, what’s your name?” I take a deep breath and say “ Molly Smith.”

I explain everything from finding Jewel to watching the murderer kill my best friend. Detective Roberts keeps asking me questions in a gentle tone, but still making sure he gets all the details. Once he’s asked all the questions he needs, Roberts stands up and shakes my hand. “Thank you for coming today.” I leave the interrogation room feeling conflicted. Does this mean everyone at school is gonna make fun of me more? What will my parents say?

Does this mean I’m a superhero now? I have no idea, but all I know is that I want to help people who were in the same situation as Lilly, to help people when they get injured or even help with people’s mental issues. Most importantly, I want to help people when I couldn’t help my best friend.

Reflection

By Zoe Sabbagh

This assignment was given to me when I was in sophmore year, we were told that we could write a short story about anything we wanted. Our idea needed to be approved first and it couldn’t be longer than eight pages.

Everyone in the class was so excited because we could write about whatever we wanted! My class and I immediately started writing our stories. I ended up writing about a superhero type of story which made me feel very proud of my writing.

I chose this assignment because it was really the first project where I could be as creative as I wanted. When I was told that I could write up to eight pages, I thought “There’s no way I’ll write that much”. However, at the end, I ended up needing to remove some parts to fit my story into only eight pages. This assignment really showed me that writing was something that I didn’t have to hate looking forward to, but something that excited me! I came up with a story that made me want to write more, and show to others.

When I wrote the short story as a sophomore, I was so proud of myself because I thought I wrote something so above my level that felt like a book instead of an essay. However, ever since I wrote that story, I always think about how I can improve it. I’ll randomly think of the story and cringe to myself because I realize now that there was so much about it that I didn’t like, from the grammar to the logic of the plot. It always surprises me when I realize how much my writing has improved without me even realizing it. While I do think the story was good for my grade level, I certainly don’t think that I could submit it to a teacher without making some changes to it.

Room Sweet Room

When you walk into my room, you’ll see a greyish blue wall on your left and an open space on the right and a pink striped wall straight ahead.

The greyish blue wall has a horizontal bookshelf that goes across the whole wall with two windows above it. Right next to the window, there is an inflatable unicorn head hanging on the wall( it is positioned to look like it is coming out of the wall). Next to the blueish gray wall is a striped pink wall with six small windows on it. I share a room with my sister, so there is a white and black bunk bed on the far right side of the room.

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And two big closets near the door. The carpet is a light pink plaid pattern that covers the whole room.

There are a lot of knick knacks all over my room, including on the windowsill, on the shelf near my bed, and even on top of the closet. One of my favorite things is sitting on one of the windowsills: a collection of little bobble head animals that I’ve collected from vacations. Another one of my favorites is a small jelly- looking toy that got stuck on top of my closet. Things like these remind me of all the fun times I share with my sister in this room.

On another note, other things in my room have sentimental value, like the cactus-shaped lamp sitting on my bookshelf. This lamp was my grandmother’s and it reminds me of the times I would go to her house and look at pictures next to the green light of the lamp.

Even though I share a room, I wouldn’t want it any other way. My sister and I have so much fun together and our room is so fun.

Life is good.

From sixth grade to ninth grade, I would spend my summers at a day camp called Pine Grove. This wasn’t your typical day camp, Pine Grove had so many amazing activities like mountain biking, gaga, and even zip lining! However, my all time favorite activity at Pine Grove was archery. Not only was the activity really fun, but the teacher Floyd was one of the nicest and funniest people I’ve ever met. The personal symbol above is my first and only bullseye I got in archery.

Every time we had archery, Floyd would start the period by saying the same line “ If you make the shot, life is good, and if you don’t, life is good.” Not only did this give me a little chuckle, but it gave me reassurance that it’s ok if I miss the target. In the middle of every target, there was a piece of paper with a little doodle on it, and if a camper hit it, they would get to take it home. I wasn’t the best at archery, so while I hit the target, I never really got a bullseye. However, getting a bulls eye was always a personal goal of mine that I desperately wanted to achieve.

One day, my group was at archery just like any other day.

Floyd said his charming line “ If you hit the target, life is good, and if you don’t life is good.” When my turn came around, I shot my arrow just like every other time and turned to return to my seat. I didn’t realize at first, but when I noticed that the other campers in my group were smiling and cheering, I turned to the target to find that I shot my first bullseye! I was so ecstatic I jumped. I ran to retrieve my arrows and my prize from the target. One of my arrows was pierced through a paper with an eye on it. My shot landed right next to the pupil of the eye! I grabbed it and my arrows, then ran back to Floyd and said “Look I finally did it! I got a bullseye!”

Floyd smiled at me and said “ You know how it is, life is good!” Before we left, he wrote a message on the back of the paper to remind me of my accomplishment. It said “7/29/2014: To Zoë, good shot ol’ girl! A bullseye the hard way! Life is good - Floyd” This bullseye hangs in my room to this very day. Not only to remind me of the bullseye that I made, but of all the fun times I had at this day camp. Archery at Pine Grove is one of my favorite memories and whenever I’m feeling nostalgic, I look at this bullseye and the note on the back and remember that it’s not about not hitting the target, but remembering that life is good.

by zoe sabbagh

I once had a garden. A really nice one that gave me fruits and vegetables. I cared for it, and they returned the favor by feeding me and making me strong. This garden lasted for years and I was happy to call it mine.

One day, the garden stopped growing fruits. I didn’t change my routine, or give it new fertilizer, so I wondered why this happened. “This is fine” I thought, “ at least I still have my vegetables!”

I kept caring for the garden, even though the food it gave me wasn’t enough. As time went on, I got less and less produce until one day, there was nothing left. I sat in the dirt and cried, “but, my routine was the same! I don’t understand why they’re gone!”

For a while, I didn’t know what to do. Should I try and revive this garden, or move on and plant a new one?

After a long time, I found new seeds and planted a newer, stronger garden. One that gave me even better fruits and vegetables than my old one. While I cherish this new garden much more, my old one has taught me that I have to put in the right work to keep a garden healthy and happy. My new garden appreciates what I do and I appreciate what they do for me.

Sometimes, gardening is like friendships, if they give you produce, you have to give back to them. However, sometimes no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try to seed and plow, your garden just stops producing. The soil goes bad. It stops seeing the sun. That’s when you have to plant a new garden.

Soundtrack to my life

o hell e driv d n sou

Music makes up a lot of my memories. I always feel nostalgic over certain songs (including the ones above) because they just remind me of so many fun times.

The first song on the playlist is Hello by SOUND DRIvE. I love this song because SOUND DRIvE is actually my dad’s band. Throughout my childhood, Hello was the song that my family sang all the time, even in front of my friends! Eventually, when the music video came out on Youtube, my whole family huddled around the computer and watched it together. I was around 8 at the time, and was amazed that I as seeing my dad on the screen, so I kept declaring “Look! That’s dad!” every time he came on screen (which was often).

The second song on the playlist is Upside Down by Jack Jackson. This song was the main song in The Curious George Movie. Funny enough, after I watched the movie with my older siblings, we became obsessed with it. My siblings always blasted the song through the house and we would dance to the whole thing. We even made a music video using the song! We worked on it for weeks and I think about it every time I hear this song.

The third song is We Are the Crystal Gems by Rebecca Sugar, which is a theme song to one of my favorite shows, Steven Universe. This show is special to me because it made me realize that Cartoons are something I’m very passionate about ( even though it

seems childish). I also made more friends because of this show! I became much closer with my cousin because we both loved the show and would watch it together. Even though the show is over now, my cousin and I still bond over cartoons.

The next song is Lemon Boy by Cavetown. This song is special to me because this artist is the first concert I’ve ever been to. This is so funny to me because Cavetown is an indie artist, meaning that his music wasn’t very well known. So I ended up going with my mom and she was shocked when we got there because she didn’t see any chairs. My mom learned two things that night: Cavetown’s music is so good, and that general admissions seating means standing was our only option.

Another song on the playlist is You Make my Dreams by Hall and Oates, or more formally known as Daryl Hall & John Oates. I love this song, not only because it’s catchy, but also because it sparked my interest in older songs. Ever since I heard this song for the first time, songs from the 90s and before have been my favorites. Even though this usually gets some weird looks from other people in my grade, I’ll never stop loving old songs.

Saving the best for last, we have Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. This is definitely my favorite song ever! I could probably write a whole book on why I love this song and the band, but I’ll keep it short. This song is important to me because it reminds me of the summer of 2016. During the summer, the whole grade and I went on trips with camp, and sometimes, my group would have their own bus! This led to us blasting music and screaming the lyrics, including Bohemian Rhapsody. Not only would we have lost our voices by the time we got to the trip, when we got there, we were in such a good mood. That’s the magic of this song, it instantly lifts your spirits.

Music has been and always will be a big part of my life. No matter what kind it is, I love music. It becomes a key part of many of my memories and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

o hell e driv d n sou

The Mission That Changed My Life

YOF Chesed Mission 2020 Last year, I went on probably the best trip of my entire life: Chesed Mission. This was a school trip where Juniors spent their winter vacation in Israel doing chesed. This included visiting organizations that helped special children, poor people, and even people who lived on the street. This picture above only represents one of the amazing things we did on Chesed Mission!

At first, I was very nervous about this trip. A billion questions and worries flew around my head. What if I get nervous around the special needs kids and I don’t know what to say? Who am I going to room with? Are my friends even going? What if only the popular kids go and I don’t get to do anything? What if I end up wasting my winter break? Then, I remembered that my brother and some other family members went on Chesed Mission a few years ago, so I asked them. Immediately, they responded “ you should totally go! It’s your kind of trip and you would love it!” Just like that, I was settled. I booked my flight and talked to my friends about rooming together.

After a long few months of waiting, it was finally winter break. On the way to the airport, I was so excited I couldn’t stop smiling. “My first trip alone!”

I kept saying to my parents in the car, and they responded “just remember to stay with the group.” When I got there, I found the group, said goodbye to my parents and checked my bag onto the plane. Twelve hours later, the plane landed my friends and I walked off the plane and we couldn’t wait to see what we were doing!

While I would love to go into full detail on every single thing we did on Chesed Mission, I’ll shorten it to my three favorite organizations: Meshi, ‫אבישי‬., and Aleh.

We went to Meshi on our first day in Israel. On the way there, Rabbi Besser told us that Meshi was a school for young special needs children. At first, I was nervous because I was scared I wouldn’t know what to say. The whole grade was split into groups, and my group was led to a classroom with 4 kids and a teacher for each one. At first, the children were a little shy around us, but once we started playing together, we all warmed up to each other. The teachers took a picture of my group with the kids, and we started playing games. Even though I couldn’t fully understand the childrens’ perfect Hebrew, I could still tell that they were so happy to see that people cared about them. On the way out, Rabbi Besser stopped us at the elevator and said that the people in Meshi had a surprise for us. The teachers there took the pictures we took at the beginning of the day, and made them into magnets! (As you can see above.) The children in Meshi were unforgettable and I loved their energy.

My next favorite part of the trip was an organization

called ‫אבישי‬. This organization helped kids from ages six and up in poverty with after school programs. I loved this place because two juniors were paired with one child, so we really got to know them. First, everyone played a huge game of bingo, and then we had an awesome dance party!

Unfortunately, I forgot our child’s name, but I do remember that not only was she hilarious, but she was a great dancer! She made us all laugh by doing tik tok dances perfectly, which led to a whole circle of girls doing them with her! My favorite part of the outing was when all the Juniors gave their child a gift basket with toys and candy. When I gave my child her gift, her face lit up and she gave me a huge hug. Right before we left, My child went to my partner, gave her a huge hug and said “ You’re like my mom” and after hearing that, both my partner and I started to tear up. This girl doesn’t even know us and loves us so much she considered us family. It really showed me how lucky I am to have the people in my life.

My final favorite thing about Chesed Mission was a different school for special needs children was Aleh.

This school was a little different than Meshi because these children were in wheelchairs and couldn’t really much move on their own. I thought that I would get shy and I wouldn’t know what to do, but like in Meshi, I became confident the minute

I walked in. We started to play with the kids and sing songs with them and their faces slowly lit up. One of the little girls spoke using a computer, and after we were there for a few minutes, she said “! ‫אני מאוד‬ ‫ ”שמחה‬Even though she wasn’t physically showing it, her and all the other kids were very happy to be with us.

It’s really crazy how complete strangers can make each other’s day just by being there for each other.

Chesed Mission was a trip that I will never forget. We did so much good for so many people and it really gave me a better outlook on life.

Mission volunteers with special needs children from The Meshi Center.

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W

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Desert Island Needs

S

Matches > To start fires

Machete > To hunt &make shelter

The Ables (my favorite book) > To pass time

Tarp > To use as a blanket.

Glasses > To see and to start a fire

Life. The English definition of the greek word Zoe