So I have returned to life at my home base. two weeks into my hebrew course I returned to work at the base for many different reasons mostly being that I was the only girl in the course and I felt that I was learning more outside the classroom on my base than in the class there. So I returned to my base to continue working in the clinic and spending time with all of my friends on base. my hebrew is improving everyday and I am starting to feel more comfortable speaking and hearing the hebrew language when it is directed towards me.
As far as my job duties in the clinic, they are starting to grow and I am starting to take on more and more things each week. During the office hours that the doctor has, I am the medic that evaluates all of the sick soldiers and takes their vital signs and ask what is wrong before they see the doctor. I am also now giving out the medications that the doctor prescribes and able to advise soldiers what to do and how to take the meds. I am also in charge of inspecting the kitchen and it's staff every morning. That is a huge responsibility since if there is a breakout out of a stomach bug it usually comes from the kitchen. Also starting this week I will be traveling to other bases with the doctor and checking up on sick soldiers.
This past week has been great as well! I took off sunday and monday from the army to take care of some non-army things and then to spend some time with one of my friends from the base. we had a great two days. We went to some museums, watched movies, and jsut got to relax and spend time outside of army life. We then returned to base for two days and I worked in the clinic and was on-call for the base and luckily things were not "too" busy. but busy enough. I still got to leave early on thursday though which is always a blessing. so thursday night I was able to make it to a party that was for lone soldiers hosted by the founder of the organization that put me with my host family. It was a great party and really showed me how many lone soldiers still don't have a place to live or are still living in non-optimal conditions. then yesterday I spent the day with my boyfriend. Yes for those of you that don't know, I now have a boyfriend! He is a great and amazing guy and sweet and patient with me. we are both medics on different combat bases so we both understand what the other goes through. He is one great guy.
Now I need to vent a little. just a warning. after making aliyah and officially moving here I had to go to all of these offices to tell them i was in the army and a lone soldier. which i did. Well I get a call two weeks ago from one of the offices that I am not getting any money from the government and i need to come in and talk with them. I go in and they start talking in Hebrew. I ask if anyone speaks english, no only russian or hebrew. I explain that I have gone through this whole process and i am in the army and don't have the time to go through it again. they start going on again(don't understand) I then say why can't i get my money? (don't understand) where is the english speaking person that is supposed to work here? I vaguely understand something about coming every two weeks to pick up money and going to three other offices during the week to turn in papers. I try to explain that i did this already. again i don't understand all that they say in hebrew.
So end up going home talking with my host family and then my host mom goes with me to the next office they want a new copy of the same paper that i already have? why i don't know? it is the original and you want a new copy? one more office to add to my list! so we went to this office. it is an army office and they claim that the computers aren't working. when we called 5 days ago the computers weren't working as well! when are they going to work do they not understand that i am getting absolutely no money and I am a lone soldier with no family here to support me? the office said maybe two weeks and we will mail it to the house.
I am so frustrated and upset and the government. This was something that was supposed to be set up and i worked on long ago when i had the time and it didn't happen. now that i don't have the time i have to go through it all again and I have absolutely no money except what i get as a salary from the army. when do they think that i have to time to sit in all of these offices when I am on the front line defending their country?
Anyway enough complaining. Life is still good and there has to be some bumps in the road. I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer! be well and keep in touch!
Love,
Roxanne
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
It has been quite a while
Hi to all,
I can't believe that it has been almost a month since I have written an e-mail. It has been pretty busy over here since i have come back. I have been working a lot more since and there has been a lot more activity since the flotilla incident, but not to worry, I have been well and still enjoying myself and my time on base.
So to continue from where i left off last month. I returned to base the day after I landed in Israel and it was amazing to return to base. I had brought gifts from the US for all of my friends on base and they quickly got spread around base. It was quite funny to see some of the Israeli's that have never had american candy wonder haw it was made and where it came from. One of the more funny incidents happened when the disciplinary commander came up to me and told me that he had tried my candy and asked why I didn't bring enough for everyone. I told him that there were 160+ people on the base and if I did I couldn't bring anything else back. he told me next time I go to the US if i don't bring back enough i will get a punishment. Of course he was joking and it was great to just see that everyone was enjoying the things that i brought.
Then three weeks ago it was my turn to close on the base. What that means is that I am the on-call medic if there is an emergency or anything happens. I thought i was going to be in for a nice relaxing weekend hanging out with two of my roommates that were also on-call for the weekend, but no, right before shabbat on friday, one of the girls in the kitchen fell off a chair and hit her back really hard. So i was called to evaluate her and eventually to send her to the ER. Once at the hospital I got called that she got sick leave from the army for a week, but since it was already shabbat, she would be coming back to base and i would be looking after her until she could go home on sunday. So I spent the whole weekend looking after her. then on Saturday i had another soldier that i had to send to the hospital for a fever and dehydration. For my first weekend on-call, it was pretty busy.
Two weeks ago it was my turn to go to the hospital. During lunch one day I ate something that didn't taste quite right and tasted like meat. It was in a vegetarian salad though so i didn't give it much thought. Later that afternoon i wasn't feeling that great and instead of going back to work i went to lay down in my room. That is when i got really sick. I got really bad stomach symptoms as well as my vitals going sky high. I went to the clinic and told my commander that i was really sick and needed an IV because i was dehydrated. I got one liter of fluids and went back to my room. It didn't help much and within another hour I couldn't get out of bed without help and my pulse was above 130. When I got back to the clinic with help from my roommates the doctor didn't understand what was wrong. I got another liter of fluids and went back to the room for another hour. when one of the medics came to check on me later I was running a fever and getting worse. I was sent to the hospital where it was confirmed that i had food poisoning from eating raw meat and also because i am vegetarian. I was given meds for pain and nausea and sent home. Even though it seems like it took a long time before I went to the hospital, you have to remember that I am no where near a hospital and you only go if it an actual emergency. Our clinic on base can treat like an ER and has all of the skills to treat. The medics in the clinic that work with me are amazing and really do know what they are doing.
This past week I have been at a different base in a hebrew course for three weeks. It has been a lot of fun. Most of the soldiers are english speaking so we have a lot more fun in class. the course is not boot camp style so there is a lot more freedom and that has been nice. I have also spent time in the clinic on this base learning a lot more and that has been great for me. The medics on this base were in a practice week and were going over many things that they learned during their course so i learned many things and that was really helpful and good for me. The base that i am on is the main base for my brigade. so all of the basic training units go there. it is a big base and there are many people that i know there. I am looking forward to the next two weeks there, even though i miss my friends on my base so much already.
So to everyone in the US have a good and safe 4th of July weekend. I will be celebrating on base with all of my american friends.
Love,
Roxanne
I can't believe that it has been almost a month since I have written an e-mail. It has been pretty busy over here since i have come back. I have been working a lot more since and there has been a lot more activity since the flotilla incident, but not to worry, I have been well and still enjoying myself and my time on base.
So to continue from where i left off last month. I returned to base the day after I landed in Israel and it was amazing to return to base. I had brought gifts from the US for all of my friends on base and they quickly got spread around base. It was quite funny to see some of the Israeli's that have never had american candy wonder haw it was made and where it came from. One of the more funny incidents happened when the disciplinary commander came up to me and told me that he had tried my candy and asked why I didn't bring enough for everyone. I told him that there were 160+ people on the base and if I did I couldn't bring anything else back. he told me next time I go to the US if i don't bring back enough i will get a punishment. Of course he was joking and it was great to just see that everyone was enjoying the things that i brought.
Then three weeks ago it was my turn to close on the base. What that means is that I am the on-call medic if there is an emergency or anything happens. I thought i was going to be in for a nice relaxing weekend hanging out with two of my roommates that were also on-call for the weekend, but no, right before shabbat on friday, one of the girls in the kitchen fell off a chair and hit her back really hard. So i was called to evaluate her and eventually to send her to the ER. Once at the hospital I got called that she got sick leave from the army for a week, but since it was already shabbat, she would be coming back to base and i would be looking after her until she could go home on sunday. So I spent the whole weekend looking after her. then on Saturday i had another soldier that i had to send to the hospital for a fever and dehydration. For my first weekend on-call, it was pretty busy.
Two weeks ago it was my turn to go to the hospital. During lunch one day I ate something that didn't taste quite right and tasted like meat. It was in a vegetarian salad though so i didn't give it much thought. Later that afternoon i wasn't feeling that great and instead of going back to work i went to lay down in my room. That is when i got really sick. I got really bad stomach symptoms as well as my vitals going sky high. I went to the clinic and told my commander that i was really sick and needed an IV because i was dehydrated. I got one liter of fluids and went back to my room. It didn't help much and within another hour I couldn't get out of bed without help and my pulse was above 130. When I got back to the clinic with help from my roommates the doctor didn't understand what was wrong. I got another liter of fluids and went back to the room for another hour. when one of the medics came to check on me later I was running a fever and getting worse. I was sent to the hospital where it was confirmed that i had food poisoning from eating raw meat and also because i am vegetarian. I was given meds for pain and nausea and sent home. Even though it seems like it took a long time before I went to the hospital, you have to remember that I am no where near a hospital and you only go if it an actual emergency. Our clinic on base can treat like an ER and has all of the skills to treat. The medics in the clinic that work with me are amazing and really do know what they are doing.
This past week I have been at a different base in a hebrew course for three weeks. It has been a lot of fun. Most of the soldiers are english speaking so we have a lot more fun in class. the course is not boot camp style so there is a lot more freedom and that has been nice. I have also spent time in the clinic on this base learning a lot more and that has been great for me. The medics on this base were in a practice week and were going over many things that they learned during their course so i learned many things and that was really helpful and good for me. The base that i am on is the main base for my brigade. so all of the basic training units go there. it is a big base and there are many people that i know there. I am looking forward to the next two weeks there, even though i miss my friends on my base so much already.
So to everyone in the US have a good and safe 4th of July weekend. I will be celebrating on base with all of my american friends.
Love,
Roxanne
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