Day 7 - Looking harder than I thought

Originally I thought that volunteering in Israel would be my ticket to a lengthy stay.  However, I am now having second thoughts.  Yesterday, I began combing through websites that post volunteer positions in Israel.  While there seems to be a lot of opportunities, I was surprised to find that none of them matched what I was looking for.  Instead, it seems that they are either too short (2-3 weeks) or too long (5-12 months).  On top of that, many of the volunteer opportunities require an application fee (sometimes as high as $500).  Further, many of the programs don't even provide food and/or accommodation.  Most importantly, it seems like they are looking to attract young people (mid twenties) as volunteers, not middle-aged women.  Sigh.

So if that is the case, this might be harder than I thought.  Perhaps, I need to look into what it would take to make this a working trip.  This means that I might have to consider applying for a work visa, and worst of all, try to figure out what kind of "work" I could perform.

When I look back over my career, most of the jobs I've had have been in the teaching, training, and writing industry.  Not sure if this is something that is in strong demand in Israel.  I suppose I would be much more marketable if I could speak the language.  Maybe if I knew conversational Hebrew, I could teach classes on "English as a Second Language".  But, is there really a need for that?  Maybe with all the immigration to Israel, from all over the world, the focus in on integrating Jews into Israel, not preparing them to leave for the United States?

I am not going to let this new information deter me from my ultimate goal.  However, I do think that I need to do more digging to see if volunteering is really going to be a valid plan.  If not, there is no time like the present, to fall-back, regroup, and brainstorm for other ideas.