Yesterday marked the end of the ulpanit that I was enrolled in. The ulpan was from 9-5 everyday, and was only open to soldiers in the Search and Rescue unit. I had 8 other soldiers with me, so it was a nice small group.It seems like those three weeks flew by! On sunday, I have to report back to my base.
Back to guarding and patrols. Some good news:My counselor in the army told me that I have the right to take another month off the army to travel home. But this time, the army would be paying.
If all goes as planned, I will be back in the States in a month, finalizing all of my applications. Fingers crossed.
      ~Marcy

Until next time,
Marcy

Its 2:15 in the morning and my mind is racing! There is no way I can sleep right now. Just got off the phone with my mom and sister, so I thought I would share.

I recently met a woman named Miriam from Chile who made aliyah to Israel. I started chatting with her about 2 days ago, during her volunteer shift at the front desk of my building. She noticed that my name "Marcella" was a Spanish name and asked where I was born. I explained that I was born in Paraguay, she told me that she had cousins in Asuncion, Paraguay.

I told her that I was really interested in finding my birth mom and family. So she sent her cousin an email about me, asking if she could help. Sure enough, her cousin knew friends who work in the Attorney General's office in Asuncion, Paraguay.

I started emailing her cousin and gave her my mom's name: Emiliana Silva Melgarejo. And within hours, she sent back a message that she found someone under that name and even has her ID number!! 

"At work I’ve found a woman named Emiliana Silva Melgarejo, born in 1956 (11 December). She could be your mother…" When I read the email, my heart started beating uncontrollably. I fumbled with the phone, unable to think, and somehow managed to dial my sisters number and tell her what happened. 
 
When I later talked to my mom, she told me that according to the information she had from the time of the adoption, my birth mom;s date of birth matched the one from the email!

So in less than 24 hours, I had accomplished what I had always dreamed of accomplishing, but never thought was possible: finding the woman who brought me into this world and then made the selfless decision to give me up, which ensured I would live a better life. And I must say, I have led a fortunate life for the past 19 years, filled with love, education and opportunities just waiting for me. Always been grateful!

Now that I found her, the next step is to locate her and get her contact information. I'm so excited, nervous, overjoyed, and in disbelief about this new information that it gives me goosebumps.

I have made the decision that if I do find where she is, and I have contacted her, I will make plans to go meet her immediately after coming home from Israel. It will become my first priority over everything.

The mere idea that I could be flying over to Paraguay meet my birth mom, after so many years of wondering, gets me teary eyed. I just can't believe this is happening! Its like a dream...

(mentally freaking out, but staying calm on the outside)

I also was recently in the media (newspapers, videos, etc); I didn't even know about the most recent one (above) until a stranger sent me a message over Facebook congratulating me on it. Somebody wrote about me in one of the local newspaper in Asuncion, with me even knowing about it! I am still trying to figure out what newspaper it is and who wrote it. And fingers crossed that someone in my biological family has read it and recognized us!!

Heres the others:
IDF soldiers wish you a happy Passover  

An article about lone soldiers in Hebrew (Im on the left :D)

An article in Spanish on the Spanish IDF site

An article by Israel's leading online news source: Mako - Pazam (hebrew)

I was close to having a live TV interview on Channel 10, a popular morning news channel here. But it was canceled last minute. I'm still happy that I was even offered that. Very intimidating, honestly.

I will update as soon as I hear anything!!

Too excited to sleep,
Marcy (3:30 am, Friday morning)

I was going to wait to write this post until next week, when I see my twin. But, she had my brains and picked up on the hints. So, its no longer a surprise :(. 

But now I can write about how amazing it feels to be back in the states! For starters, I can understand everything and everyone can understand me. There are actual lines in banks, and restaurants. I am back in my childhood room, with wooden floors, a fan, and air conditioning. I get the wonderful company of my two cats. AND I'm back to ice skating!

 Now for some pictures:

Every morning since I've been back, Ive been skating from 7 to 9am in the morning. Then I was rows of doctors appointments that keep me busy during the day. I've also been taking private lessons to help me learn all the dances again (I used to ice dance, back in the day). Heres a very blurry photo of me and my coach about to start a dance:

I have also been much enjoying coming back to american food. Here are some examples of recent meals:

Thats it for now. Future plans include getting my hair done, getting my nails done, visiting DC, visiting some old friends, going out salsa dancing, going to local festivals/farmers markets, etc, etc. And on Monday, I fly to Florida to see my twin, Gaby!

Until the next post
 ~ Marcy

I am now leaving for 21 days on base, followed by my masa kumpta (final ruck march where I receive my beret). The final physical fitness, krav maga, and other tests are this coming week. June 19th is my final ruck march. Excited and scared!

Here's to three hard weeks of the army. 
Wish me luck - Marcy

The Ramatkal or Chief of the IDF, came to visit our base last week to watch one of our targilim (training exercises). It was interesting to watch my base go from having no money to buy extra toilet paper, to spending 800,000 shekels on decorations and cleaning up the base. I have to admit, the final presentation was very nice. 

Bochan pluga, literally "platoon test", is a competitive test taken by the entire platoon at the end of the training. After each platoon completes the test, they are ranked from the "strongest" to the "weakest". The girls and guys run separately. The guys have a 1500 m run in full uniform, loaded vest and gun followed by a 500 m run with the stretcher. The girls have a 2000 m run without any stretchers. After the run, both groups must go run to the range and do what is called yalam. 10 m crawl, 150 m run and shoot 6 bullets in 2 minutes. Both scores are added to create the final score. 

Our girls broke the record on base, running the fastest than any other group of girls in the history of base Zikim. I personally was extremely nervous before starting the race, because I am the only girl with the A3 (heavy gun!). In the end, I was the second one to finish, so not too shabby. I also found out that my shooting scores were the best out of all the girls. Proud of myself!

Yom Olim, or a day for immigrants was held on Thursday. The head of the base spoke to us about how much he appreciated our service (a lot of kind words and butt kissing, to be honest). We then spent the next 3 hours doing ice breakers, listening to presentations and speaking to the other immigrants on base about how it felt to be in the IDF. Met some new people and all in all it was a nice little event planned for us.

Yom Sport (Sports Day) is a day of competition held on our base every 6 or 7 months. Each platoon competes against each other in basketball, soccer, beach volley ball, sprinting, dodge ball, etc etc. I got chosen to compete in the Sports day between different units. Ill be one of the 10 girls representing Search and Rescue. I going to be playing dodge ball, which is a fun, stress free sport, so Im happy with it. Our first practice on Thursday went really well so confident we'll have a good team.

Shoham, a town near the Ben Gurion Airport, held a fun run on Thursday evening, in which my platoon participated. There was a 2k, 5k, and 10k. I did the 5k, which was extremely difficult after not running for almost a month and a half, due to my knee pain. Did it in about 30 min with my friend pulling me the second half. Was a lot of fun, never the less!

I was supposed to close this shabbat until my commander pulled me over on Thursday morning. He told me that because there were enough people with punishments this weekend, I get to go home! I arrived at Bayit Shel Benji at about 11 Thursday night, exhausted but extremely happy to be home!

Typed this entry from my beautiful soft white queen sized bed, with grapefruit juice and pringles beside me, and beautiful trees and sunshine outside my window. Completely in love with my new home! 
Until the next post - Marcy :)

For the first time in almost a year, I will finally have my own room! 

I went to Habayit shel Benji this morning, for my third visit. Stopped by to get my passport copied, and Avi, the house manager, told me that I got the room! Its been a long process, full of lots of paperwork and an interview. I was told by my counselor that there was no way I would get to live there, because too many people were applying. So it felt SO good to hear that I actually got it. 

Some info: There is a dining hall that serves three meals a day. Also a fridge stocked with food, in case were hungry in between meals. Each soldier gets his/her own room and shares a bathroom (suite style). I got a balcony in mine :). We each get a family who takes care of our laundry and returns it folded. There is a mostly volunteer staff who are super friendly! 

My roommate is from England and is in the Oketz unit (the IDF K9 unit). So cant wait to meet her. And I met my first neighbor, just this morning: a paratrooper from New Jersey. 

So excited! Here are some pictures that I snapped before running out:

This week, from Thursday the 2nd to Thursday the 9th, my platoon has הגנשים or guarding Israeli settlements (all of which are surrounded by Arabic settlements and cities).

The settlement I received is particularly small, home to about 25 families. It's a quiet place, located on top of a hill, looking down on a gorgeous landscape of rolling hills, Bedouin settlements and Arabic villages.

       After the week was over, I found my group enjoyed ourselves the most. Our guarding schedule was not too bad. Throughout the night, we guarded three hours and then slept three hours. During the day, it switched to guarding four hours and having an eight hour break (what we call 4:8). Patrol cars, full of current infantry soldiers or reserves, visited us at every hour of the day, literally, when they wanted some coffee, rest or simply, some company. All the units that came by told us stories of their army service. I learned of first-hand stories of riots in Hebron, shootings, and attempted stabbings, as well as background stories of the soldiers. For example, one of the reserve soldier's job in the civilian world is selling camels outside of Eilat. Like all those who serve in the IDF, he is called in for a month every three years as a reserve soldier. The children of the yeshuv also visited us during our shifts.

On our down time, we went down to the mayaan (Stream) on the yeshuv (above). Its a pool which took water from a nearby stream. We spent alot of time lying in the hammock, or on the swing and enjoying the lovely view. :)

 All in all, it was a really fun and interesting week! And a nice break from the base.

Until the next update -
Marcy

      As of 6 days ago, I have officially two months left of advanced training. After my beret march, a 3 day march that marks the end of training, I am flying back to the states to visit my family and friends!! Its been almost a year being separated from my twin; something thats been extremely hard for me. But, when things get hard in the army, this opportunity to see my family becomes my motivation to continue.

      This was the first week back to the army, after a 9 day break (very much needed!). We slept in the shetach ("the field") for three days as we completed our final חילוץ (rescue) test. Then, yesterday one of the top commanders of the IDF visited us on our base. Fellow soldiers did a practice exercise for him in cool looking one-piece outfits, with Israel written on the back (pictured below).

To be continued...