Pre-Departure Briefing

There was a pre-departure briefing for the Israel trip today. Since my mum is still away, I went on her behalf to find out more details. Since this trip is the first "Faith In Action" trip by World Vision, they partnered with a tour agency to come up with the itinerary. The tour agency is an exclusive agent that does religious tours, that include Israel, Egypt, Jordan and some other exotic places.

It was a pretty informative briefing. Included in our pack is a booklet containing information on what we can do and cannot do, what we can bring in and cannot bring in, and things to note at airport customs. Apparently the Israeli authorities cannot stamp on the passports. They have to stamp on a piece of white paper, as if we go to other places and the other authorities find out we have been to Israel, we may not be let into that country. I thought this aspect has been relaxed?

Another thing to note is the dressing, especially for ladies. Since the country is pretty conservative, no sleeveless tops and shorts are allowed. A normal T-shirt (with sleeves), bermudas (knee-length), normal length dresses are fine. However, if we are to enter into some religious sites, which are sacred even to the Muslims, we need to be all wrapped up. Which means no showing of bare arms. Hence, when going to those sites, we need to wear a light jacket over our T-shirts and even wear a headscarf as a form of respect.

Since this is organised by World Vision, there will also be social mission. Hence we will spend one day with a Woman's Care Society, where this organisation helps to bring up the status of women in that part of the country. Many of those women are lowly educated, because they left school at a young age and then got married and gave birth young. Because they were lowly educated, they did not deem it necessary for their children to receive a good education as well. Furthermore, many of those women suffer abuses and are subjugated to the wills of their husbands and families, without any rights for themselves. We will get to see how this organisation helps in improving the lives of these women.

Then there will be a dinner with young Palestine Christians, and learn about their struggles and difficulties being a minority Christian in a Jewish-dominated and Muslim-occupied area. Since World Vision is primarily working with children, we will also get to visit a kindergarten and see some of the children that World Vision is sponsoring. 

Finally, we have to sign a declaration form that if in the event any of us gets kidnapped, the tour agency nor World Vision will pay the ransom, but they will try their very best to make a police report and get us rescued, but they will not negotiate with terrorists or kidnappers. We also need to sign a declaration that when visiting the children, we will not give them cash personally, nor exchange our numbers or addresses. This is just to play safe.

So now that the briefing is over, I think my mum will be so excited that she cannot wait to go for the trip now! And so am I!