Resident's Blog

Sunday, July 23 (Post 8)

Yesterday was really tough. Thirteen kaytushas fell on Karmiel, one, very close to the house I am not occupying at the moment  Several people were hurt, at
least one, severely.  We have one in our ER.  I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach, and all the air had gone out.  Reports say that the
electricity substation had been taken out and repairs were underway.  Of course, no one knows how long that will take, but at least there's no ice cream in the freezer, and the vodka won't suffer :-(

Four members of one family were hurt when their house was hit, here in Safed.  The mom was pretty badly hurt according to the t.v.  A severely wounded woman from a south Lebanese village was brought to the hospital by Magen David Adom.  When I asked who takes careof the payment for her treatment, I was told we do.  We treat anybody and everybody.  Medicine first.  I wonder how that would go down in West Palm...Clearly, my sleep patterns are screwed up.  I managed to sleep 3 hours last nite, getting up this time at 02:30.  Maybe I will be able to go back to bed after lunch or something.  Sure could use a bottle of goodtawny port.  Great nap inducer.

I think I have found a way to get my plane tickets.  I sure hope my agent is still in town!

As others will certainly confirm, a real-live hospital is nothing like the shows you see on t.v.  No one runs around yelling CODE BLUE, and if there are affairs going on in the laundry room during working hours, kol hakavod!  Can't imagine how anyone could manage that. Certainly, the people here are amazingly functional. The medical clown (yes, that's right) plays with the
kids in the hospital maon [day care center]; research proposals and
abstracts still get written; meetings are held.  Among other stuff that I do here, I am the coordinator of a committee that safeguards participants enrolled in clinical trials.  We meet monthly to go over new study requests, etc.  We have a meeting scheduled forThursday.  The Committee comprises people from within and without the hospital.  No one has called to cancel.

Our major concern was finding a suitable meeting room in a somewhat protected environment. Done. The administration have received several letters and emails of support.  A few would like to donate money.  What a bright spot in an otherwise dark scenerio! 

I remember my amazement as I learned about the way people adapted and readapted to the drastic situations they found themselves in during the Shoah [Holocaust].  We are a wonderful and fearful invention, this human being. (I trust the next model will have some of the kinks worked out.  There's no question in my mind that we need to go back to the drawing board.)

Most of the shops are closed.  I'm pretty sure all the banks remain closed in Karmiel and Safed.  I hope someone is looking after the old and infirm. A couple of days ago I shared that my nephew says that the American man in the street believes Israel has the right to defend herself (Hoo! Hah!) Yesterday or so I got a message from my cousin who says people she knows do believe that Israel has the right to defend herself, but that we (Israel) have seriously overreacted (to the crossing of our internationally recognized border, killing and kidnapping of our soldiers, subsequent shelling of 1/3 of the country), and that "it doesn't play well on television."  My response, in the immortal words of Rhett Butler, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Well, I've made it to nearly 05:30.  Guess I will go make breakfast and trudge on over to my office in the old building.  I don't like to sit there much past
8-8:30 'cause the cannon booms shake my windows.

I remember some of the attitude adjustments I needed to make when I made aliyah [immigrated to Israel] if I was going to be able to live in my chosen country.  One of the first was 'standard of hygiene.'  Criminies!  How could the streets be so dirty in a town which has consistently won the 'most beautiful town in the country' award? Why is that woman pulling down her kid's pants and letting him/her pee in the garden?  What is that guy doing behind the bus stop?  I felt like I had moved to summer camp. None of that even registers in my consciousness any longer. When I was 15 and hanging around Habonim, my dream was to stand guard by day and dance the hora around the bonfires at night (sic!) Well, be careful what you ask for...

Sylvia

Saturday, July 22 (Post 7)

When I came to work on Sunday, I packed a small bag with a couple of changes of clothing, concerned that I might get stuck in Safed because of the rocket attacks here, but returned home to Karmiel without incident, leaving the clothes behind. I had no idea I would end up staying here for a week.

Did you know, for example, that a big empty industrial sized bucket formerly used for soft, dishwashing soap makes a great clothes washing machine?   Or that a pair of those green or blue booties that go over the shoes of an operating room doctor can substitute for the socks you left behind?  How about this one?  You know those metal tree-looking things that stand next
to your hospital bed and hold the saline and glucose solutions?  Well, depending on how many things they are pumping into you, they are designed with 2-4 arms and more.  A four-armed stand is great for hanging out the wash.  A small, two-armed stand, on the other hand, is good at bedside in place of a clothes closet.

Fresh fruit can be found in many departments-- gifts from grateful families.  Those pink & white polka dot nighties don't look too bad over a pair of white
slacks. If you spray a concentrated cleaning product on a bee, it will likely die. In a pinch, surgical tape will repair a fallen hem.  Paper towels can be used to filter some of the botz out of turkish coffee (but, admittedly, leave some of their own essence behind).

It's pretty quite in Safed right now.  Karmiel suffered 4 hits today with several injuries, though none of them serious, thanks be.  Yesterday was the first day I actually made a point of calling friends. I have received several calls, but have been too busy to return the favor.   I find that all but 4 English speaking families of my acquaintence have moved all or some of their members
southward.  Of the ones who stay behind, it reads something like the Hagaddah Pesach--

There are the 'chachamim,' [the smart ones] who, having learned the
facts have made a decision to stay behind because it suits them to do so and they are willing to take the possible consequences; there is the 'rasha' [the evil one] who, when told that from a strategic point of view, old or sickpeople may cause some problems in the event of an attack, sees moving as an infringements upon his independence; then there is the "Tam", who is simple
and unsophisticated, not because of external circumstances, but because he’s been too lazy and indolent to educate himself.  And lastly, there is the
one who doesn't even know to ask, the Simple Ones who sit out on their balconies and watch the rockets fall.

Or simply, as one friend say, "We're Brits, you know..."

I'm tired.  I still keep waking up at 04:30.  Somewhere I got the idea that this is something one can get used to.  I was wrong.  Instead of finding it easier to let go of, I find that it wears me down. Every time I hear a siren, my stomach acids begin to pump.  That just started yesterday.  When a t.v. broadcast replays an attack, even the siren on the newscast can have that effect, and even if I know it's just the television.  There's a door in one of the departments that sounds like the first notes of the siren when you open it.  And a floor washing machine which, ditto.  Same HCl.

Well, I'm going to try to catch up on some sleep.  I ssume that a siren will go off just as I do...

Sylvia

Saturday, July 22 (Post 6)

When I finally decided that there wasn't much point in my going back home to Karmiel for the weekend, I unwittingly opened a new door in my experiences.

I am not and never have been a religious person. Indeed, athiest is not too strong a word.  However, rituals and traditions, history and heritage are
important to me.  I have a strong personal need to affiliate, and I am affiliated, by George, with Am Yisrael [the people of Israel].

Well, when a secretary asked me to find candles somewhere in the hospital for her to light for Shabbat, I decided to light Shabbat candles for the first time in years.  Don't know if I mentioned it, but all of the administrative staff are working shifts 24/7.  Doctors and nurses in several departments are working 12 hr shifts. Ministry of Health people and IDF people are in and out all thetime. 

So, where do you look for candles?  The kitchen, of course -- sorry, only one set there, and the head of the kitchen has dibs.  How about the beit knesset [synagogue]?  The Hospital has a very pretty beit knesset [synagogue], but no candles.  AHA!  I grabbed a quartet of religious people talking in the hall -- Try maternity, they told me. Sure enough, the local Habadniks or someone else distributes little plastic baggies with 2 tea candles, 3 wooden matches and 1/2 inch of striking paper each carefully cut from some larger source. 

Waste not, want not. I called my niece to get the time Shabbat came in and
wished her peace and quiet for the sabbath, and at 19:20 JT, my two little tea candles joined hundreds of thousands of others all over the world.

Hoping for a quiet shabbat eve was too much, of course, and didn't stop the kaytushas, but for a few moments there it was really nice to be part of the
family.

Sylvia

Friday, July 21 (Post 5)

Well, I guess I will won't be attending a performance
of the Three (Israeli) Tenors in Karmiel tonight!
    *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
Things I never thought of becoming well versed in:

The difference in the sounds of 'boomim'-- i.e., ours, theirs, sonic, far away, close up, etc.

Codes used by print/electronic media, i.e., 'public building', western Galilee, etc.

How to order groceries by phone from Hyperneto and have them delivered to an Emergency Department

    *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
It's been a week and a day since the first kaytushas fell on Safed.  It seems like forever.  I woke at 04:30 this morning.  Looks like I may get one night's
sleep out of three.  Anyhow, all Israel woke to the news of the helicopter collision this morning, so it was hard to say 'good morning' to the nurses watching t unfold on t.v.  The administrative people have arutz 10 playing on their computers (go to www.walla.co.il, find "hadashot", click the link. You
know, there are advantages sometimes in not understanding all the news...) 

The windows in this old building my office is located in are rattling but there has been no siren, so I haven't felt the need to go to the miklat [bomb shelter]. Unfortunately, when my department moved over to the new, sturdier building at the beginning of the week there wasn't enough room for me, so I'm here in the building that houses the Nursing School, mostly underground, in room with a wall full of windows which faces south.  Gonna type fast.

Some of the stress is showing among the professional staff.  Short tempers, loss of patience (but not "patients" -- get it?, patients....patience). Exhaustion takes its toll. What is amazing is how well everyone seems to continue to function under the circumstances. Priorities are being examined.  Any number of young parents I know who work here and live in and around Safed simply are not willing to keep their kids in such a risky environment.  If the child is able to be away from the parent without additional trauma, then generally the parent comes to work.

Several of the doctors and nurses I know have shipped their kids off to friends and families in the center of the country and come to work daily--they are, after all, medical professionals.  But some of the children of administrative personnel have had serious psychological reactions which are aggrevated by their fear of separation from Eema [Mommy], so the moms make what seems to me a pretty simple decision, i.e., my kid is more important than my job.  Not all the bosses are real happy about this. But, if the kid can handle the separation, these clerical folk also come to work, even if only part time.

Relationships are changing.  I saw two security guards in their 20's embracing at shift change while a third looked on.  No embarrassment, no macho b.s.
Conversations after someone from another department have been enlightening.  She knows more about who, what, where, when and why than anyone else I know.  I was permitted a window inside her head last night and learned more about her and how she thinks than I have in the nearly 15 years I have worked here.  When I remarked on her composure and calm, she said that her life had changed when her son was nearly killed in the Army some years ago.  He is under care for the rest of his life, wheelchair bound with a metapel [care-giver] provided by the Army.  That was it. 

After that, nothing phazes her.  She watched the news last night about the soldiers who were killed in clashes at Avivim and turned to a coworker---"More dead families," she said. I got a message from my nephew who lives in Ohio.  He assured me that most of main stream American believes Israel has the right to defend herself.  I AM SO RELIEVED!!!

My skill at FreeCell has deteriorated.  Having problems concentrating on strategy. Stay safe.

Sylvia

Thursday, July 20, 2006 (Post 4)

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.... 3 choruses, please -- I'm still alive, my friends and relatives are alive and well, their friends and relatives are alive and
well.  It gets a little dicey after that.

First of all, I want to thank all who have written to me for their support.  As a one who lives alone, I am very lucky to have an alternative place to stay for as long as I want, apparently. The hospital bed wasn't so bad last nite and I actually slept through the snoring.

Couple of days ago I spoke to the head of Internal Medicine. He is Druze and lives in Rami (what the maps call Rama) Village across the road from Karmiel, but his widowed sister and her children live in the next shvil [lane] from me.  All the homeland security notices tell you to stay in an interior room w/o windows and on the bottom most floor.  The doctor reminded me that I should stay on the bottom floor. His sister's house has 2 floors. I told him about the dining room table.  But how many floors are there above you???   "None," I replied.  "Oh.  Well, maybe the table will protect you from glass..."  

Apparently the supermarket here in Safed may make grocery deliveries to the hospital, so I am trying to order some stuff.  Boy, do I love Israel.  Try to do THAT under fire in Illinois!!  (Of course, the likelihood that you would be counting "booms" in Illinois is somewhat less...) Come to think of it, I can't do that in Pennsylvania during peacetime!  

Anyhow, there was a "real" CBS crew here last nite--camera guy, mike guy, producer and presenter.  Nice people, really professional.  The on screen presenter looked to be about 25 and grew up in Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh.  Me, too...talk about coincidences! Anyhow, she and her colleagues actually witnessed the death of that poor man in Nahariya, the one who suffered a direct hit by a kaytusha, the day before. "How do you live with that?" I asked her.  Stupid question.  She didn't answer.

They interviewed the patient in orthopedics.  This time he cried.  I guess that's good for them, but I think I better find someone else for them to talk to.
Enough is enough.  I took them through pediatrics where the daughter of one of our service workers was hospitalized.  Momma gave permission for her to speak to the reporter and for the filming, and she was interviewed in English.  Her mother was so proud.

I hope these small efforts will make some impression on the American t.v. watchers.  One of my friends said,"tell them WE'RE civilians, too. All the newscasters and reporters talk about Lebanese civilian casualties.  Apparently in Israel all there are are soldiers and 'people.'"  Good point.  I passed
it on.

The sense of solidarity among the staff and patients is incredible.  One of the cleaning ladies provided me with some 'clor' so I can wash some clothes.  One of the nurses has volunteered to take me to the supermarket if the delivery idea doesn't work. I bought a ticket I can change, so if it gets too hard to be away, I can return early.

I have lived by myself for a goodly number of years. I guess I am pretty self-reliant.  One of the most important lesses I have learned from my 'aliyah  [immigration to Israel] experience' is the importance of being willing to ask for and receive help from others.  I remember how hard it was for me at the beginning.  After all, I was a pretty successful person by American standards.  I owned my own house, had an interesting and challenging job, made a decent living, drove a bright yellow Pontiac Firebird with a big, black sexy decal on the side.  (selling the car was one of the hardest things I ever did.  I LOVED that car.)  Within a year, I hadbeen reduced to a gibbering idiot who couldn'tfunction without a guide, or so it felt.  Thanks to the powers that be that I survived that (very common and very normal) phase of aliyah [immigration to Israel], but it involved LETTING GO OF EGO.  I know I've said it before, but here I am again.  Having to ask for help, and supergrateful for it when it is available.

Well, so much for fun & games.  Gotta earn my daily
salad! Stay safe.

Sylvia

Wednesday, July 19 (Post 3)

I've kinda lost track of days and such, but since I work at the Ziv Hospital in Safed, I decided to stay here for a couple of nights.  I have everything I need
and the miklat is much nicer than the one in the neighborhood.  Sunday nite the hospital had a near-hit.  A katyusha fell at the periphery of the main building.  There was no structural damage to speak of, but tons of broken glass.  14 staff were treated for shock.  I was either under my dining room table or in my local miklat in Karmiel at the time, but not everyone was so "lucky."  

The miracle is that the attack took place at about 10-11 p.m., so the public areas were empty, and the heads of departments had already taken the precaution of moving patients from the north to the south side of the building, and mommies and babies had been relocated to the day surgery center in the bowels of the main building.  All but one window in the Peds dept was blown out by the force of the blast as were most of those in the surgical ward, the waiting rooms, and others.

A 13 year old boy recovering from surgery was watching t.v. in the dining room when the blast took place and was hit in the head by flying glass, suffering a nasty, deep gash.  No brain injuries, but lots of stitches.  A patient in the orthopedics dept, recovering from shrapnel wounds and the subsequent surgeries, was thrown out of his bed. He said he could feel the whole
building move.

Sunday and yesterday (Tuesday) I heard loud booms and saw the aftermath of rockets which had fallen across the wadi, some hundreds of meters away, but scary enough to see out of your office window... I met with 4 groups of reporters yesterday (they've discovered us!) 

--but when the chickie from CBS called to make an appointment for 8 PM and asked if there was any chance that they could interview a patient who had been hurt by this attack (yes), and wanted to know whether -- by chance he might be from New York (nooooo -- Safed by way of Morocco), she decided to come but not to interview.  "I really wanted to talk to someone from NY, or at least an American," she said.  I told her that I was sorry that I hadn't received more notice so that I could have arranged to have an American wounded for her...  It went right over her head.  BTW, they showed up at 10:30.

Anyhow, I'm tired and testy.  Slept in the cardiology room with 4 other women, one of whom sounded just like a diesel truck warming up on a cold winter's day.  I don't do well on hospital mattresses (and who does?), so I was up at 3:30 again.  But it was nice to have other people around whom I know.  And since I have a vacation in the US scheduled for a few weeks,perhaps I will catch up on sleep there.

Something I didn't anticipate was that my grandkids are watching the news on t.v. in America.  I had no idea they watched the news or that they had any understanding.  The kids here are really suffering, as most of you parents must know.  I know of two families who had to go asfar south as they could just so the children would stop having panic attacks. This is really (fill in your expletive), this massive, indiscriminate bombardment of innocents.

Sylvia

Friday, July 14 (Post 2)

So, when I heard all the booms this afternoon (Friday) and the announcement over the radio that Nahariya and Safed had been hit again, I hurried home, pretty sure that we were next.  Just as I got back, a very loud and nearby explosion sent me back to the miklat. Incredible, how quickly the unimaginable can become routine! 

The sound of the whoosh overhead is unmistakeable.  Then the boom.  Of course, the good news is when you're still standing after the boom. This time, someone brought a TV into the miklat [bomb shelter] so that we could follow the news.  I went back home and got a fan, a couple of folding chairs, my newspapers and a book and a few decks of cards.  No one knows how
long it might take till we are told we can come out again. 

One guy fixed the vent, so the place wasn't quite as hot and stuffy.  Went home about an hour later, made a late lunch, turned on the news and tried to relax.  Before I knew it, there were more whooshes and more booms.  Hell with it.  My friend called to tell me that the Keter factory in the azor t'asiah [industrial area] had been hit.  One of her friends could see the smoke when she stood on the balcony.  Stood on the balcony?  People are standing on balconies??? Well, I've made a policy decision. 

The army says to stay in an interior room without windows.  I have a sort of interior room, even though it has a window that leads into another room-- not the out doors. It's my dining area and it looks like the big, heavy wooden table I bought a few months ago is going to do blitz duty.  I have shlepped a mattress out of the spare room and tucked it under the table.  These are old houses, among some of the first built in Karmiel, and I have no idea how much damage they can sustain without collapsing.  I'm hoping that should the worst case scenario occur that the table will help to protect me against a falling roof or collapsed wall. I can see the t.v. from there, and I have a candle ready in case the power goes out. 

Tired of the news.  Watched Strictly Come Dancing on BBC Prime. Sometime during the day, I remember thinking, well, if this is the price I have to pay for living in Israel and enjoying the best life ever, it's worth it. Denial, as they say, is not a river in Egypt! 

I really feel for the people in Safed.  They are having the **(& pounded out of them.  I assume I will be going to work in Safed on Sunday.  Sure would be
nice if this were all over by then...

Sylvia

Friday, July 14 (9:12 a.m. - Post 1)

Yesterday, just before I left the office, I heard several 'booms' and saw the smoke rising from Safed.  As I was leaving, several ambulances were coming into the ER at the Hospital.  By the time I got back to Karmiel, Madj el Krum had been hit and there were rumors, later verified, that Karmiel had suffered a hit as well, but apparently no one was hurt in Karmiel although several injuries occured in Madj. 

When I got to my neighborhood, lots of folks were milling around the local miklat [bomb shelter], problem being that there was an enormous lock on the door and no key.

The local moked [information] said to call the police.  The police said the call 'this number,' and 'this number' said to call moked.  Finally, someone went home and got a big hammer and broke the lock.  The miklat [bomb shelter] was clean and very basic.  The ventilators did not work.  I don't know about the toilets, because I left and went to a 5* miklat [bomb shelter] in another neighborhood!  (air conditioning, 3 working toilets, etc.)  The second miklat [bomb shelter] is operated as a moadon [club] for olim hadashim [new immigrants] from Romania. There I found about 25 young girls and their groupleader.  The group was from a small town in Hungary, and they had saved up for 2 years to be able to fly to Israel and perform at the Karmiel dance festival which is scheduled to be held next week (or not???)  One girl spoke pretty good English and asked what was happening, so I filled them in and assured them that their lives were not in danger. 

Eventually the organizers appeared and told them to pack up; they were returning home.  I saw them off on the bus to Tel Aviv where they would await word from the Hungarian Embassy as to when they would be flying home.  After a couple of hours I went home.  Most of my friends never went to the miklatim [bomb shelters].  Many, because they could not understand the announcements in Hebrew. Listening to a teacher in ulpan [Hebrew lessons] is  whole lot different from trying to figure out what someone in acar is saying over the loudspeaker as he drives by... Some just elected to stay home.  The last direction I heard last night was that residents of Karmiel (and lots of other places) were to spend the night in or near a miklat.  Since I am pretty close to our neighborhood miklat, I elected to spend the night in my own bed.  Good decision.  Well, what about today???  Just as in the Iraq Wars, I will go to the gym, buy my newspaper,do my shopping and have a coffee with friends.  Lifegoes on.

I did call my kids in the USA to let them know I was okay.  Like many other Americans, they had no idea what was going on.  I wanted to let them know that if they should, by any chance, hear the name of my town on TV (one of them doesn't own a television set anyhow), they should not get alarmed.  The truth is, I just wanted to let them know I love them.  I am not an alarmist; I do believe that one never knows what any given day might bring, so that it is very important to me to say "I love you" at every opportunity.  One of them reminded me that if I want to 'retreat' to the US, I would be welcome, and that the ticket would be on him.  I was really touched, thanked him, and told
him about my plans for the day...

Anyhow, I hope we will be able to walk about without fear soon and wish all my neighbors from g'vul hazafon [northern border] and all am Yisrael [the people of Israel] a safe and quiet weekend. And I hope we bomb the *&&% out of our enemies, wherever they may be.

Sylvia