Let It Rain

Aside from the ‘ceasefire’ and elections, the hot topic in Israel at the moment is water, or rather the lack of it. It seems that our water sources are drying up and our supplies are running out. Mismanagement, consumer wastage and climate change have, between them, given us a shortfall between demand and supply.

On arriving in Israel I found it bemusing that although people spoke of the need for rain, the sprinkler systems in public and private domains continually clicked on at regular internals, as if showing irreverence to the situation. Public actions were, and are, seemingly out of synch with governmental concerns.

Apparently, in the past, Israeli kids grew up singing songs in kindergarten about saving water. Today though, the passage of time appears to have eroded this ingrained respect for nature’s provision of water and seems to have been replaced with the assumption that, if you turn the tap on, water will come out.

For the first time, Israel, advisor to many countries in the world on advanced technology to manage water systems, is ironically facing a drought; not only a literal drought with taps being turned on to no effect but a drought of ideas on how to solve the problem.

There appears to be government level discussion, research and trials but, as yet, no clear decision on the way forward. Anglo discussion boards are full of posts submitting ideas on how we can all preserve water and reduce our individual consumption.

Last night we had a massive thunder storm; lightening bolts shrieking from the sky and violent rainstorms pelting down. We have seen little rain this winter and last night's storm will do little to redress the national water shortage.

Let’s hope we find a way to adopt those ideas which are the cheapest and most effective and, above all, develop a strategy so that the country can worry about all the normal ‘soress’ and get the basics right.

Sharona B

www.judaicamosaica.com

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

Israeli houses, like Israelis themselves, have a whole set of idiosyncrasies. Designed to combat the heat that is present for most of the year, they can be a tough experience during the winter months.

Heating houses which a) don’t have a heating system pre-installed, b) don’t have carpet, c) are open plan, d) have stone floors and e) have draughty windows, is both difficult and expensive.

Having been shocked at our electricity bill last year (which, I might add, was despite our efforts to be as economical as possible,) we decided that this year we would try to avoid an excessive bill. We bought a few heaters and these go on early morning and sporadically throughout the day but, alas, are not constantly pumping out the heat.

We have taken to old fashioned remedies. We use hot water bottles, we layer on our clothes, we shut the curtains at night and we eat lots of porridge. I would love to report back that all of these things have made a great difference but in truth, we are all still cold.

We are still cold inside the house that is. Many days, we venture outside and are shocked to find that it is 21°! We look around us at all the Israelis in their T-Shirts and jeans and feel a little foolish in our coats and scarves!

However much I get caught out, I still forget next time around. It just feels so cold that I automatically pile on layer after layer of clothing only to peel many of them off when I leave the house. My kids too are fed up with me making sure they wear their coats before they leave for school (zipped up too!) Israel just seems to be one of those places where you actually wear more clothes inside of the house than outside.

Maybe next year I will finally find a way to deal with winter in an Israeli house. Still, the phrase, 'cold hands, warm heart' springs to mind. In Israel we certainly have cold hands at the moment. The phrase also rings true for Israelis themselves, whose sometimes cold, tough exterior more often than not conceals the warmest of hearts.

Sharona B

www.judaicamosaica.com

The Media Battle in Israel

I haven't blogged for a while. I think I kind of lost my words with all that has been happening around me. It all started after Mumbai. I was laden down with sadness; the loss of the Chabad Rabbi and his wife seemed to engulf me; it was as though I had had some kind of previous connection to them, yet I had none. I guess I have enjoyed so much hospitality from Chabad families, both in the UK and Israel, that I understood that two very special people had been taken from us.

And then the continuing rockets and the well overdue response. It is hard, with all this going on to keep my blog politics free, as was my intention. I guess, out here, politics is not so much a separate topic, an interest to be engaged with as and when one might want, but more, it is entwined within our everyday lives. Where does day to day life start and politics end when it is your own citizens who are living in bomb shelters, whose children are unable to go to school, whose daily lives over the past eight years have become so mundane, so risky, so sad?

I watch the news from Israel, from the US, from the UK. It saddens me that the UK news is so skewed towards our enemies. It shocks me that emotive images are used without a commentary that explains the civilian losses are due to their own cynical leaders using them for their own political gain. When their civilians die, Israelis feel sad and understand the grief of parents, friends and community members. But their own leaders just rub their hands in glee, waiting for the inevitable points scored in the media battle against Israel. And the media, predictably, bites the bait every time.

Theirs is a society which breaks every rule; should not any civilized society put the needs of the vulnerable first and foremost? I guess we are not fighting a civilized society. The frustrating thing is that the world looks at the pictures and very few report the facts in a way that reflects reality.

So I will leave you with the contents of two emails I recently received, which I felt summarised the battle itself and the media coverage of this war.

Two Different Mentalities:







Two ways of looking at something:

New York Times Headline: "Israeli Shells Kill 40 At Gaza U.N. School"

New York Post Headline: "Hamas In Human Shield Atrocity: Uses School As
Mortar Lair Where Children Die"

Sharona B
www.judaicamosaica.com

Israeli Style Repairs

Dealing with simple, day to day household tasks can sometimes be a little intimidating when you have very basic language skills. Making calls, understanding automated responses on phone lines, explaining your problem, arranging appointments and understanding customer service advisers all becomes a challenge.

For this reason I put off dealing with the rubber seal which was coming away from our relatively new fridge. I didn’t know the words to use to explain what had happened and I just didn’t get round to it. Over time the fridge started to drip a little and I knew that the problem had now reached the top of my ‘to do’ pile. Luckily a neighbor offered to handle it for me and I was extremely grateful. They had problems convincing the shop to deal with it as the fridge was now out of guarantee. However, finally they were successful in organizing a home visit for me.

I was a little perturbed when the repairman arrived without a spare seal for the fridge. It seemed obvious that he had already made the decision that he would not replace it for me and was going to fix it up instead.

I waited for him to produce some kind of professional tool or gadget to repair the broken seal but instead he asked me for a hairdryer. He used this for a while over the rubber seal, expecting it to spring back into shape. It didn’t. Finally he asked me for some cotton wool and appeared to be cleaning the seal. I didn’t like to hover over him and left him to sort out the problem.

When he was done he showed me the seal which appeared to now be working better. However, when you opened and shut the door it did not automatically stick to the inside of the fridge and a gap remained unless you pushed it hard to seal the contact. I was not particularly happy with this but before I knew it he was out the door. On closer inspection I could now see that the cotton wool had not been used to clean the seal but was in fact stuffed inside it bring it closer to the inner door and help it to connect. I made a mental note to learn the Hebrew for, ‘bodge job’, which I felt sure would come in handy on many future occasions.

Israeli repairmen always seem to come up with improvised and crude methods of fixing things.

I once had a gas man come to the house to investigate the smell of gas. I was expecting him to produce some kind of gas sensory device to take a meter reading but instead my Israeli ‘Mr Fix It’ simply poured washing up liquid over the pipes and looked for bubbles.

Somehow they continually fail to inspire me with any confidence and they just have a very amateurish air about them. They are rarely dressed in any kind of uniform, their tool kits contain general household items as opposed to technical gadgets and they always look for the cheapest way to resolve the problem, even if that means it is likely to recur.

Yet again the language barrier clouds my decision making. Do I bother my neighbor again who already took time and effort to arrange the visit? Do I phone up myself and try to express my dissatisfaction? Or do I simply shrug my shoulders and live with it?

What do you think?!

Sharona B

www.judaicamosaica.com

Voting, Israeli Style

Yesterday was my first experience of carrying out my civic duty and voting in an Israeli local election. I guess that’s some kind of a landmark. I think however, those monitoring the election process must have wondered who on earth they had on their hands and whether I had the mental capacity to cope with voting at all! I must have seemed a little clueless whilst trying to cast my vote. The whole process is different to ‘back home’ and I didn’t really know what to do or fully understand the instructions I was given.

I was given two envelopes and for a while afterwards stood around searching for a ballot paper inside each of them and looking for pen to mark an x. After a while I realized things were done a little differently here and that I was standing the wrong side of a booth, which was hiding numerous slips of paper, two of which I needed to insert into my envelopes.

Having rectified the error I mustered as much dignity as I could and prepared to post my envelopes in the ballot box. The officiator, having surveyed my confusion repeatedly checked that I had managed to put the yellow slip in the yellow envelope and the white slip in the white envelope. I assured him that (even) I had managed this.

Later on I walked to the local supermarket and brought a trolley full of food. I asked for a delivery and was initially told there were none today (no reason given, just, ‘not today’). I stood for a while considering which items I needed the most and could manage to carry home. Suddenly the loud speaker unexpectedly announced that deliveries were back on.

Later on in the afternoon my delivery arrived whilst I was on the phone. I noticed the man deliver two boxes and then return to his van for more. I was conscious that I had a final box and assumed he was rummaging around in the van for this. Finally, call over, I peered outside to see what was happening. There was no sign of him. Realizing that my final box had not arrived I phoned the store. I established, in the best Hebrew I could, that I had just had a delivery but that my box of fridge and freezer food had not materialized. I gave them my name and address and waited for them to respond. The phone was passed around to a few people and finally I spoke to someone who acknowledged that one box was indeed missing. Rather than apologizing (An Israeli apologizing? Does that happen?!) I was asked whether they could now deliver my box tomorrow. As I needed some of the items that night I said, ‘no’. Their caring, customer-focused response was, ‘why not??’. I began to pull together a sentence in my mind in Hebrew, explaining that there were things I needed. Suddenly I realized that a better approach was simply to treat the question as an Israeli would. ‘Cacha’ I said (‘because’). Israelis rarely back up a ‘cacha’ with anything, a ‘cacha’ is simply enough. I am proud to say my tactics worked and my box arrived shortly afterwards.

So I guess I may be a little inept at all this new election stuff but I am starting to feel my way in dealing with everyday situations.

Sharona B

www.judaicamosaica.com