Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Yeladeem

The night we were sleeping at the Bedouin Tent Complex there was also a group of high school students on a school trip what were sleeping in another giant tent next to ours. They noticed us quite quickly and when they realized we were Americans they got excited. Unfortunately for them Faris intervened and chased them away. He said they were trouble and made sure they stayed away from our tent. An hour or so later we hear trance music. The last thing I was expecting in the middle of the desert. Their group was having an all out rave in the middle of the desert, disco lights, DJ and all in their freaking tent. This must be a mirage. Not even paying attention to the fact that we are in the middle of nowhere, this is a school field trip, did your teachers ever throw you a rave party during a class trip?

Inside The Bendoin Tent

Horribly intrigued and with and Faris nowhere in site (I later found out Faris had run off into the darkness to do some midnight desert hiking with Noam) I gathered a few friends and investigate. Yup, just as I thought, school sponsored desert rave, just like Abraham would run. What’s a crazy Jew to do? It was crash time. They were playing some hard punkish music at the time and I thought they might like to see some of my moves. If you have never seen my moves before well, first I’m sorry and second I render all styles of dance into a pulsating ball of energy and then I let it loose in any way I deem fit. I rip shit up gonzo pizza style. These kids didn’t know what was in store. Jaws dropped, girls fainted and then it was over. I broke the party. I destroyed it. It ended. And when the smoke cleared and the DJ unplugged, I was left surrounded by 40 Israeli teens in utter bewilderment. All I remember is three seconds of silence and then they were all over me. “Yo homie, where are you from?” “What was that?” “Where did you learn to dance?” “Who are you man?” “What was that dance?” It was crazy. I decided to fill their little brains with pop culture fantasies and told them that everyone in New York dances like that. That we are all crazy cracked out motherfuckers and we dance like nobodies business. I was getting a little claustrophobic and tried to make my way outside. That’s when they spotted Aaron. Aaron looks like he is straight of a rap video. He puts Eminem to shame. He usually sports a bunch of silver chains, one being a large chrome scorpion that just dangles over everything he wears and a knockoff diamond crusted spinner watch. Bling. So the kids see Aaron and go wild. I think they didn’t even get to him because he ran so fast. I didn’t see him until I got back to the bonfire.

Aaron (Right) aka "Method Mosha" with one of the kids, his nickname (Left) "Big Dick"

Later that night I went back to their tent to find a bunch of them sitting around the campfire and a bunch of them playing soccer. I was asked to play but them I was told I wasn’t allowed because the Arabs didn’t want me to. I don’t know if this was true or not but I didn’t wanna push the boundaries. Instead I joined the group next to the campfire. A bunch of the kids I remembered me from the dance and we instantly stated talking about anything and everything they new and loved about America. They loved to speak American slang, like “what’s up man,” “what’s up dude,” but they also really liked to say “niggar.” To them that word is nothing more then a word they hear in rap videos. And considering there aren’t any African Americans living in Israel they can pretty much say it as much as they want without offending anyone. I tried to explain that the word is derogatory, but they didn’t fully understand what I meant. We talked for a long time. Many of them tried to teach me curses in Hebrew, which I found amusing and their teachers didn’t. They did like that they were practicing their English, which was amazingly good. After listening to one of the girls play Stairway and a few songs by The Doors I thought I had enough culture shock for the night and went to bed. I am convinced that there is no such thing as Israeli music and the Israeli music I heard on the stereo is actually made in America by Americans.

Some Of The Kids

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