It's only 3:30 and today was already SO great!!

Getting up at 7:15 to workout was a great way to start my day!! I came home for a quick shower and ran off to a meeting with an organization that helps Arab women gain their rights. It was explained to me that many Bedouin women are abused, one of many wives, can't gain a legal divorce, etc. Or if they get get a divorce, they are ostracized from their community, or since they were property, their children still belong to the man, and in order to keep/stay with their children, they don't get a divorce. So this organization, of all women, is designed to empower these women to take a stand. Their are lawyers who work free of charge to help this women legally.

This organization also has sub-organizations like the one I will be helping called "Women of the Desert." This organization helps women become self-sufficient. They give classes to teach woman how to sew clothes and then sell them. So the woman have an income for the first time in their lives. It's really awesome. They also teach them their legal rights as women and use the Quran to teach them their rights as humans, mothers, and wives. I want to help them create a website to gain recognition and to also sell their products, maybe even internationally! I will also be writing many grants (in English) in hopes of helping them monetarily.

Naheda and Rina (mother and daughter) are Muslim and Nadia is from Gaza...I am SO excited to be working with them. Nadia was a single mother in just this type of situation, not knowing how to help herself, which later lead her to establish this NGO. They are going to take me to the village soon so I can take pictures and get a real feeling for what these woman are doing and I'll be able to write about it with more passion and clarity, especially for the grants!

After our meeting, they dropped me at an office building, which of course, being Israel, was not successful in what I needed to do, but the building was write across the street from a mosque. It was completely gated, but I found a way in!! It was being renovated into a museum, but I have to go back with my camera, because it was built by the Turks and it looks just like the mosques I am use to in Turkey!! It really was beautiful and the structure too, with the high oval ceilings. I will have to go back soon with my camera!! (Since it was being turned into a museum, there were tile floors, not carpet, so that was weird! But otherwise, it looked the same!)

Thennnnn..I went to the mall to exchange a shirt and I passed an eye doctor, so I ordered new contacts, which was nice, because I am running out and he gave me some extras just to hold me over! THEN, I was walking to the bus and I passed the blood-mobile that is always by the McDonald's and since I was on such a high already, I decided to stop. It was hilarious! I just gave them my passport, he filled out the paper work, asked if I was healthy...and said, okay! He stuck my finger to check my iron, and took my blood pressure. Then I laid down on the bed, a lady sanitized my arm...stuck me...I waited for the bag to fill, I got a juice box!!!!!!!!!!! and I was done! It was amazing...no two hour event like in the US, just a short 20 minutes! It was great, and a good mitzvah!!!