Today, Wednesday, June 22nd our group visited one of the IDF’s most popular and appreciated army bases in Israel, Michveh Alon. The reason Michveh Alon is so prestigious is because it is an educational IDF base, and it’s main purpose is to educate all of the soldiers that aren’t from Israel but have connection to the land of Israel and their people no matter if they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or Druze. Our group spoke with several people, but 2 of the soldiers told us what Michveh Alon is to them and how and why they ended up there.
The first person we interviewed was Elsa an officer at Michveh Alon. Elsa was born in France, speaks 3 languages (English, Hebrew and French), and has been on the base for two years. At first after high school she went to the US for an internship with Oracle that was mainly money and numbers focused, but she didn’t feel like that fulfilled what she wanted out of high school. So she ended up leaving the US early and flew to her home – not France but her other home – the home of her people Israel. She said the she was always raised to love and recognize the connection she had to Israel. In Israel she enlisted in the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). She knew that she’d feel better doing something she knows will not only save lives but help the land of her religion and protect it with her life. Then Elsa went on to teach us more about not only her opportunities but the opportunities the are provided by Michveh Alon and how this place has sergeants that teach you languages and that is another opportunity that comes out of going there you learn more languages and that’s a very powerful thing to do.
After we spoke with Elsa our group broke out into 5 groups. Each group spoke with a different commander my group spoke to another commander named Ival. Ival is from a village called Beit Yan and her parents are originally from Baku, Azerbaijan. Ival started her army service in the Yan Platoon which is a platoon for girls that came from a rough background and have “physical problems from family members”. She did 6 weeks of training on basics like how to use weapons, what to do in certain situations, and healing techniques. After her tirunut ((training camp for soldiers) she left Michveh Alon, did 6 months of commander training in a different base, and then returned to Michveh Alon, as a commander. She now takes soldiers through their training and has an extremely hectic schedule. As a commander she wakes up at 5 am daily. The soldiers get up at 6, eat breakfast, clean their rooms and then she lectures the soldiers on Israeli culture, medical training, and weapons practice (m16 focus). She leads free time where she chooses what the soldiers do, then lunch and dinner. Then, everyone meets with their sergeants. If they did wrong they do running for punishment, and if they did well they just have a chill period. At the end of the day, the soldiers get ready for bed, and the commander checks if everyone is in their rooms. and in bed, She goes to sleep around 1am because she is a commander. She only gets 4 hours of sleep!
Ival ended our interview with answers to two questions. 1. What is her goal in the two years she has left in the army? 2. What advice would you give someone that’s thinking of joining the army? She answers the first one with “my goal in the next 2 years is to finish them and create new bonds, have a second family, and also gain maturity and knowledge”. She wants to study in college and take her life lessons from the army with her. As for the second question, her advise would be to know what role you want to do/how do you want to help your country, and enjoy your time here. This is where you make bonds with your fellow soldiers, and create a second family. In spite of setbacks, be optimistic, mature and remember the good times. “When you go to sleep think about how at least something good happened to you today -even the little things.” Then she tells us to chase our dream and don’t let anyone or anything stop us from achieving it. “If you really want something you have to work as hard as you can for it, no matter if someone says you can’t and doesn’t believe in you, and you will still get your goal”.
To end our visit to this fascinating place we spoke with one of the heads of the base she explained to us and said, “You are at Michveh Alon which is a special location for all different people/soldiers. The soldiers really appreciate that you are here and are happy that you thank them and that you appreciate them.” Then she shows us a quote that’s written on a wall in very large Hebrew: “the army builds the people and the people build the army.” All in all we learned so many fascinating things from our visit to Michveh Alon and I’m glad we where able to experience this amazing place and meet the heroes of Israel.