it has been a week full of excitement! last weekend was our physician’s oath ceremony, during which my class recited a paraphrased version of the hippocratic oath, meant to get us thinking seriously about the journey we are embarking on. indeed, it was a poignant time! we all dressed executively in white and groomed ourselves well beforehand. for my friends cherec, julia, diana and me this involved getting a fish pedicure in beer sheva’s old city! special fish eat the dead skin off your feet! i cannot recommend this experience highly enough! so exhilarating!
back to the oath – ben-gurion university was actually the first medical school in the world (decades ago) to start doing the physician’s oath at the beginning of medical school. it had traditionally happened at graduation, but it was felt that doing it at the beginning would be totally way better. during the 90’s the trend spread, and today every medical student in america says a physician’s oath at the beginning of medical school. after the ceremony there was a delectable catered dinner, skits/movies created by each class, and music and dancing compliments of some musically talented physicians-to-be and the co-director of the program on guitar!
last weekend was also the 100th anniversary of the keilah/church that i go to here. there were over one hundred visitors there from all over the world in honor of the occasion. particularly encouraging to me was that they had a palestinian pastor from bethlehem come and lead some worship songs. i really believe that one of the main goals of the church here (and everywhere, but especially here) should be to encourage peace and reconciliation among populations that often don’t get along so well, as this is one way that we can tangibly show that the love of Christ transcends divisions of ethnicity, culture, politics, and indeed even theology. unfortunately it doesn’t really happen enough in this region, so that was a really encouraging time.
now, we’re on a four day weekend for rosh hashanah, the jewish new year! the first night some of my classmates made an amazing meal and we watched a movie outside in the couches that populate their yard. some of us were thinking about going to petra in jordan for the weekend, but that ended up not happening. so yesterday morning i got up at 5 am for a little day trip to hebron….