A picture speaks a thousand words....photoblog by Jonathan Ditty

Words can only go so far to describe the wonder that is Beersheva. Therefore, I have provided a sampling from her majestic scenes. Behold, a photo blog.

Home, by blogger of the month Jonathan Ditty

Our first year is winding down and there are less than two weeks until our last exam. Many of us are going back home for the summer, others will be here in Beersheva making a lot of vitamin D, and some will be exploring other parts of the planet. I will be heading back to California for a wedding; it’s the place that it all started a year ago.

I remember this time last summer very well. I re-read all of the MSIH emails that I had skimmed (skipped) and did some last minute I-don’t-want-to-pay-crazy-taxes-on-shoes-in-Israel shopping. But most of last summer I spent preparing for my wedding. Casey and I were engaged for three months and were married for three days before leaving for Israel.

Some students had spent time in Israel before, some spoke Hebrew fluently; others (like myself) had never been to Israel and knew some of the alphabet at best. Aside from wondering if I would survive the first year of medical school, I was wondering if I would survive Beersheva. Then there were questions like "what will marriage be like?" and “what is it like to be a husband and a student at the same time?” and "what will my wife do there?”

Transitions are usually not easy, and last summer was certainly no exception. We loved Los Angeles and never thought we would stop reminiscing about the ‘gold ol’ days.’ And yet somehow, Beersheva has become a lot more like home than I ever expected.

To the much anticipated MSIH class of 2017: the adjustment to life here is different for everyone - and yes it is difficult - but it does happen. Be patient, ask for help, and drink lots of water.   - blogger of the month, Jonathan Ditty 

Waiting well, by blogger of the month Jonathan Ditty

Soon after my lovely wife and I moved into our apartment last August, there was an unexpected knock at the door. I had been in Hebrew class for a few weeks at that point so I figured that I could manage to communicate something with whoever it was, maybe. As I opened the door, I saw an elderly man standing with a leather briefcase. We stared at each other for a second and then he said something to me in Hebrew. As I have often done in this country, I picked up one word and thought I understood the whole sentence. I heard the word “rofae” (doctor) and somehow (I don’t quite know how) I put together a whole story in my head that the man was looking for a doctor. He must have found out that I was studying medicine and assumed that I could provide him some medical assistance. Somewhat flattered, I decided that I had to tell him the truth. I quickly went through some Hebrew charts in my head and muttered out, “ani lo rofae” (I am not a doctor). The look on his face told me that he was not surprised, and clearly I had misunderstood him. Through gestures and some more Hebrew (which I mostly pretended to understand) I realized that he was a doctor making a house call and simply had the wrong apartment number. Embarrassed on all accounts I retreated to my wonderful wife and a homemade iced café (the most profitable use of instant coffee in the summer: just add sugar, water, milk, and ice cubes. Bam! Iced café).

Not as good as the real thing, but a smart way to spend borrowed shekels

One of the most difficult things about the first year of medical school is waiting. Of course it’s reasonable and necessary to learn how to do medicine before jumping in there and getting your hands dirty (or bloody). But at least for me, the beginning of this year felt like putting on the brakes big time. I came into medical school ready to start saving people’s lives and quickly realized that I would have to wait a while. I did get the chance to save a few dummies in the Emergency Medicine summer course and got to bloody up my IV partner a little, but otherwise I have been in the business of learning. The days are long, the books are many, and Firecracker doesn’t do itself (see http://www.firecracker.me/for details). There is a lot to learn, sometimes it feels endless, and really it can be quite disheartening to an ambitious first year ready to change the world.

There are a couple ways to deal with these “brakes” as it were. The less ideal way (of which I am a veteran) is to bewail, moan, and blame the system. In my experience, this was often accompanied with long nights complaining to my sympathetic wife. In the end, this way kept me paralyzed from doing anything (like those dummies from the Emergency Medicine course).

The more ideal way (of which I am a rookie, maybe just getting off the bench) is to find opportunities in which you can serve the community around you. Now except for very special circumstances (Jeremy on the plane), you probably won’t be saving people’s lives. But you might very well be helping to improve someone’s life in a small way during your first year of medical school. A few examples from our first year class: shadowing doctors in Soroka, Tel Aviv refugee clinics, and PHR in the West Bank, teaching English or Spanish at local schools, supporting Beersheva families with chronic diseases (Global Health Made Local), helping out families in your church or synagogue, spending time with the elderly in retirement homes, etc. (really there are many more).

The waiting is still hard, and sometimes you might want to think that the guy knocking on your door is looking for a doctor, but take heart, drink some iced café, and wait well during your first year. - blogger of the month, Jonathan Ditty

Beer-sheva's "Beach", by Sakal Kiv

On those occasions I am not drowning in Endocrinology and learning about hormones that gush out of our glands and flow down lymphatic or hematogenous course ways, I try to take a walk with my family to the “Beach,” an affectionate nickname given to the fountain park that has recently opened in the neighborhood. It is a nice place where our family can go and enjoy ourselves. It is just as much fun to the kids (and a lot less expensive for us!) as any water park. It is even better at night, when all the gushers light up with lots of bright colors. It is such a contrast to the hot summer sun. I like to hear and feel the cool, crisp water. It shoots up and down. It rains all around. The lights seamlessly morph from one mesmerizing color to another. Everything is synced to create this cool dancing effect. Majestic palm trees line the way and plenty of leafy plants and flowers bloom in the perimeter landscaping. Adults chatter away as they sit under the wooden shelter made to look like an impressive giant wave. All the kids are laughing, playing, and splashing. Some try to sit on a jet of water. Others try to run through as many as they can. Another group is playing tag in the middle of the pillars of water. Parents are snapping pictures while others are gently coaxing some of their shyer and younger ones to brave the water. Some walk their dogs along either the boardwalk or the path made to look like a sandy beach. Aside from actually being at the Mediterranean, this is not a bad place to be, especially since it is only a few blocks away. Of course, we often come home with our children soaking wet. Faith and I rinse them off in the shower, change them into dry pajamas, and sing a bedtime song like this one:

I've got river of life

Flowing out of me,

Makes the lame to walk

And the blind to see;

Opens prison doors,

Sets the captives free,

I've got a river of life

Flowing out of me.

Spring up, O well

Within my soul,

Spring up, O well

And make me whole.

Spring up, O well,

And give to me

That life abundantly.

-blogger of the month Sakal Kiv