Bureaucracy...its a bitch

Israel...as wonderful as a country it may be has a major major problem. No, I am not talking about the Israeli-Arab conflict, frequent wars, poverty, sex trafficking, thick hotheadedness, bad leadership, and drugs...no, these are just a few other major problems in the country. The big problem, in my opinion, BUREAUCRACY!!!! I have been consistently learning this fact the hard way over the course of my stay here. This point was, and is continuing to be, further reiterated through my dealings with Magen David Adom (Israel's National Ambulance Service). Thankfully I was able to take the test without much trouble, but I still had to take the Hebrew portion...easy right? A simple phone call is all that is needed to complete that section and I am golden! NOT! I call the head honcho at least 6 times towards the end of the week after my test, no answer. I call him on Friday, not there, Call him on Sunday, not available, I call him on Monday, he is busy and can't talk. I call him again in between classes, finally reaching him, and he says call at 8pm...no problem, that just requires me to pick up the phone at 8pm and call, no big deal. WRONG! 8pm roles around, I call his phone, by the way there is no ringing, and hear this: "Circum Shalom, the person you are trying to reach right now is currently unavailable..." I wait for the answering machine...there is none. I call again, and it goes straight into this obnoxious woman telling me the obvious, that clearly my friend at MDA has either disconnected his phone or he has turned it off (considering the number worked earlier, I assume he turned it off). So I go searching for another number he might have called me from, I find it and call. Sure enough, he is finally answering (9pm by the way, an hour after I started this calling adventure). He gives me the test which lasts literally 5 minutes...5 MINUTES!!!! (He couldn't have just given this test to me earlier?) I pass the test no problem with only a few minor mistakes mainly due to the static that just so happens to increase when he speaks (go figure). Then he deals me the deathblow...he couldn't get in touch with the base in Haifa, but they are supposed to call him back tomorrow and then he will call me with their number and I can start signing up for shifts. As excited as I was that I passed and that I could finally start shifts, I also realized that what he just said meant that the base was not going to get back to him, and even if they did, he probably wouldn't call me for a few weeks with the information, and lets not even get started with the possibility of me having to try and get in touch with the base.

When all is said and done, its what being in Israel is all about, if you can't handle it, go home, if you can, its worth every minute of BS that you go through and waste trying to do even the most simple things such as scheduling a shift. In any case, I am going to call on Sunday and sort the whole thing out, but this is a case in point in how annoying, frustrating, angering, and rewarding Israeli society can be.