The Un-Promised Land

I meant to post on this for some time now but never got round to it, thanks to my placement in Port Maquarie - which could be a couple of posts in itself! Nonetheless, here it is now...

Since seeing a friend of mine, (now Dr) Dean, undertake his medical elective term in Israel 2 years ago it's been something I've been psyched to do myself.
I know that some Aussie unis have made problems for people wanting to study in Israel over the past few years but, given that someone from my uni (Sydney) did their elective in Israel last year, I thought shouldn't have any problems. Right?

If only it were so simple.

One of my colleagues who was planning on doing her elective in Israel applied early in the year but was given hassles on the basis that Israel is dangerous.
After some lobbying on our behalf by a Professor, she was approved. Unfortunately she has subsequently made other plans anyway and won't be joining us :-(
In any case, the groundwork was laid and we would be allowed to go, so when I formally presented my application it was smooth sailing... until recently.

5 weeks prior to my anticipated departure a bulletin was posted to students that someone in the university structures was head-kicking the faculty into disapproving electives that had already been approved, if the destination country was one to which DFAT had recommended reconsidering travel. So yes, that's me. 5 weeks from departure!
Obviously I'm not going to be too happy with that! So after spending a frantic day on the phone to pretty much anyone who may be of assistance, the weekend (in which I packed and drove up to Port Macquarie for my 4-week attachment) was spent in limbo, not knowing what was happening around me...

The next week was tense, fraught with dealings with anxious students whose plans had been ripped out from under their feet, with communal leaders going in to bat for us, and with faculty and university officials evasively dealing with enquiries, with nobody taking responsibility for the new dictum.
Nonetheless, with the help of some people who know people, we had a new ruling put in place. We would have to sign some more rubbish bits of paper (another tree bites the dust) and have a meeting with the Dean but we'd be allowed to go. Yes, despite the "latest and final" decision advertised in that bulletin, we were again allowed to go!!

So, just the other day, I had this meeting with the Dean. He admitted it was a formality, offering that the Faculty could provide me with an alternative elective experience and watching me sign something that just said i was going to be responisble for myself and that the uni doens't really want me to be there. And then we discussed the memorandum of understand he'd been organising with the Faculty of Medicine Technion in Haifa (Israel's MIT, as he put it) and that I should think about taking that up as well...
Obviously the Dean's very convinced of the merits of that "latest and final" decision posted as a bulletin...

So yes, less than a week prior to my departure I had the seal of (dis-)approval to go and learn with the world's experts in their field, at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, in Jerusalem, Israel!
And now, here I am 2 days from departure writing a blog instead of packing.

2 DAYS!! awesome...
לשבוע הבה בירושלים! - next week in Jerusalem!