David G., who went to school from K-12 with my oldest son, is now in Israel and sent another letter from the front; all of Northern Israel is now "the front."
[His first letter is here.]
On sunday I made the desision that I would no longer be taking hebrew classes. I came to this decision for a few reasons. The first is that attending class in a bomb shelter is just too much for me. The second reason is because I want to take a more active roll in the kibbutz workwise especially when labor is a such a lowpoint due to everyone heading south. So I was assigned a new job in the store. The job pretty much consists of stocking the drinks (which no one buys because the store is closed or people are afraid to go out) and talking to one of the most beautiful females in all of Israel- However she has a boyfriend who just finished his army service and is traveling around Brazil for a year. After about an hour of work and funny talk we begin hearing HUGE explosions. No warning no siren no nothing. The explosion was so loud and clearly close the windows, ground and almost everything else shook. This was the first time sinse arriving in israel since fighting began that i actually heard people say "I am afraid". This is also the first time I saw older people and I mean much older people even come into the bomb shelters. However they had seen so much in their lives that they began to comfort people who were clearly shooken up. On lady even handed me a magazine with Paris Hilton on the cover and said "look at the pretty girl". After 15 mins we returned to work only to hear sirens 2 more times to return to the bunkers.
Sunday afternoon I began getting real restless and was craving a drink; however every store on the Kibbutz was closed. I couldnt drink anymore watebutz was closed. I couldnt drink anymore water and was fiending some juice so I convinced Rob who was suffering from major girl rejection and sinking into a bad case of depression to walk with me to an "orange crove". Along the way we ran into Dan from Florida who was so excited that we were actually going some where he decided to join us. Now this "orange grove" is approximetly a mile and a half away from where we live just past a high school; and certainly the farthest we have ventured since the fighting began. After walking pretty short distance but still an unfamiliar distance sirens began to ring! Not only did sirens ring but rockets were falling so close the ground was shaking!!! I have never been in an earthquake but this is what I picture it like. Being that we had no idea where a shelter was we RAN for a an elementary school we had just past. We sprint as fast as we can into the first open door (which actually turned out to be a bomb shelter/ safe room, that doubles as a class room in times of war. The walls are white concrete with metal coverings for the windows- with an air ventalation system to protect against biological weapons and nerve gas that Saddam Huissen continually threated to shoot against israel.
After walking out of the saferoom into the hallway we saw tiles the children had painted lining the wall. They had been painted the last time Israel was defending itself against Hezbollah. Most times were doves, peace signs, hearts but the one that cought my eye was the word "shalom" meaning peace riddled with bullets and dripping blood. At this point we probably should have turned back but we had come so far so we decided to continue on. We wound up cutting through the houses where children live (16-18yr olds). And we saw one door coated with bumber stickers with a U-turn signal on them and five hebrew words saying "Return the soldiers from Lebenon". We couldnt understand why these stickers looked so warn and faded. We also were very suprised that stickers like this were already made when the soldiers were kidnapped about 10 days ago. After standing there baffled and and discussing one of the children came outside to talk to us; and he explained that these stickers were from when Hezbolla kidnapped soldiers a few years ago. It was then that I realized that Israel will never have peace in my life time. I mean here you have children begging for peace and wanting it more then anything from Its neighbor; and after pulling out of Lebbenon completely Hezbollah still continues to kidnapp Israeli boys. It is the exact same situation over and over again.
After discussing the situation we decided to press on. We finally found the "orange grove" simply to find that none were ripe and most of the trees had been recently cut down. At this point I was so frustrated that I was dehydrated, furious that Hezbollah just wont leave Israel alone and sure enough the sirens sound again. And sure enough within a minute we are hearing explosions like they are next to us. The ground isnt shaking like an earthquake more like the continents reconnected! At this point we decide to sprint back as fast as we can toward the schools safe room. Along the way we stumbled into a bunker- thank god! However this bunker must have been used in world war one! We felt so close to the surface it was like we were in the siren speaker it was so loud and we were shaking so much. After emerging from the bunker we decided to try and find a shortcut home. After walking less then a minute we found a lemon tree with three ripe lemons!!!! That night I had some of the best lemonade of my life.
Oh yeah it turns out that the rockets we heard, felt, and had scared us to death landed in the fields owned by kibbutz yagur!!!!! I dont know how many more of those strolls we will be taking anymore!
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