Rafa! Rafa! - March 9, 2014

During the first half of our day we heard music from me, Daniel Gerstein who played piano for the group and a beautiful heartwarming speech from Ariel Dror. Listening to people’s stories help paint a perfect personal picture of who they are. Avodat ha lev, the sharing portion of out diller meetings, really is a safe time to delve into the inner workings of each person. For me diller is like a giant chapter book every week two more people share, two more chapters are written. Getting to talk to the people in my cohort one on one is great but seeing them actively listen and take in information and put it in a special place in their hearts is an amazing thing. Getting to talk about my music and play it for special group was amazing. I really felt like my music and words did not fall on deaf ears, instead it was internalized and appreciated.

After lunch, we finished up work in our committees. When we all gathered and shared our plans for the NAS, which are very exciting. Next, we segued into a hilarious activity on cultural differences. The group was split into Alpha culture and Beta culture. We then had to come up with a completely new culture- from our language, to our currency! Hilarity ensued and this will certainly be an activity us Dillers will not forget. This helped us understand a little more about when the Israelis would be joining us and the challenges and advantages of sharing in new cultures. Finally, we had a Ma'agal where we reflected on our Diller experience thus far. When we were told that we are about halfway through with our program, we all were very sad, but also really happy because it is apparent that we have grown so much since we all met in September. When this was finally over, we joined our parents for NAS orientation, which was cool because we got to see what our Israeli buddies will be doing when they come. By our next workshop, we will have found out who we are hosting and every single Diller is anxiously awaiting this news!" I'm sorry that it is nearly midnight!

- Arielle Dror & Daniel Gerstein