The Current Situation?? What Situation?

Twin Monkeys?!



Hello hello to everyone out there in Blog land. It’s interesting; CNN told me that I am living in a country that is at war and honestly, I don’t notice it. Ok, fine; there are a few things here and there that have changed. Though thinking about the extra security that is around (more police – not soldiers) could be attributed to the increase in tourists that are here right now.

Listen. Hezbollah is bad. Very very bad. They are not militants; they are terrorists and truthfully they are getting what they deserve. They were used to us just sitting back while they funneled money, kidnapped soliders and other various things. Though, I think that we (Israel) showed them that they were wrong; we’ve had enough and we’re going to show them that we will not be pushed around by them anymore.

Ive been talking to different friends about the current situation and I’d like to share parts of the conversations.

This was from a mass email from my friend who lives in Haifa (who I also could not get into contact with until much later that day as the phones were down): (This email was from Monday)

“Hi Everybody!
This morning at 6:00am the siren sounded and we all ran
down to the shelter, we didn't hear any booms and then my friends
father who works for the city in security received a call that it was a
false alarm, so we came back up. We had a very quiet morning after that and
thought maybe the worst is over, so Maayan and I decided to run back
quickly to our house and get some stuff that we had forgotten in our
haste yesterday.
We got together our stuff quickly called my parents fast
(again sorry I woke you guys at 6am) and were about to run back to our
host's house when the siren sounded again. We ran downstairs as fast as
we could, but our building is old and does not have a high qulaity bomb
shelter. Its essentially a storage room under ground. There are no
lights and it is filthy, so we hoped it would be over fast. After two booms
it was quiet, so we waited 15 mins (Just so you all know this email was
just interuprted by sirens and a 20 minute stinit in the bomb shelter)
and came back to Iris's parents house.
As we ate lunch and tried to regain some sense of
normalcy the siren sounded again. After several booms there was quiet, so we
came back in and then after about20 minutes the siren that interupted
this email.
The truth is the sirens are important and saving lots of
lives. Part of the reason we lost 8 people yesterday was because in the
first attack the alarm didn't work, so I'm glad we have it although now
if we hear a ploice siren, wind anything we jump, but better safe than
sorry. We can also hear the planes heading to and from Lebanon
overhead. We are tired, but ultimately doing okay. We will see how the week
plays out and maybe if it is quiet enough we will head to Jerusalem or
Beersheva. Its a difficult decision to leave your home under duress, but
as long as we have the bomb shelter here things will be okay and we will
be okay.
Thank you all for the wonderful thoughts and support you
have shown to me and Maayan. It helps to keep us mentally sane. Be well
and Pray for peace! Shira
.”

I spoke to another friend of mine that also lives in Haifa. She said that her and her husband left Haifa on Thursday night after the first rocket – she sounded stunned and in shock.

Another friend of mine has a brother that lives in the north. He said that the camps have been shut down and people are bringing their WHOLE families to work. Offices have begun to provide “in-office” camp for all the kids that are there.

You can also go to my friend Michelle’s Blog to read about her Shabbat experience (the link is on the Right)

Yet here in Jerusalem things are relatively calm. We’re going about our day to day stuff. We have not received any news from home front command about preparing ourselves; nor has the Canadian consulate (which I am registered with for some stupid reason) contacted me and told me to pack my bags. Infact; the only thing that is on peoples minds is “Who is going to be called up?” SMS’s are flying back and forth about it

(this part I continued today; Tuesday)

The only thing that IS happening is my friends have started to get called up. I just SMSed (text messaged) with my friend Nahum Binder who just got his milium (reserve duty) for tomorrow. Supposedly the men that are getting called up now are going to be in the Shomron and not Azza or Lebanon. It’s interesting; most people that I have spoken with WANT to called called up; they want to fight, they want to protect and they want to serve the country. It’s a very interesting mentality that those of us that have not served do not understand (the army didn’t want me.. something about a bad back…)

Other than that… things are going well. The country is very unified and it’s interesting to see that people are getting a long – different groups of people that may have never spoken to one another are talking – all over the country people are talking. It’s a big family here.

I would just like to assure people that I am not concerned or worried for my safety. I feel very safe here; this is why we have some of the best security in the world. Just hope for the soliders that are on the front lines; those that are going to get called up and those that have been kidnapped. (I also add that the media interest in the 3 Israeli soldiers that were kidnapped by terrorists has been shadowed by the current “situation”… they are still being held hostage.)

BTW – Stay away from CNN. They seriously have things wrong and are in the business of selling ads- not news.


That’s about it.

Keep smiling and send me a message to let me know what’s going on!

On a funny note; I got an email from my friend Rina Parker- she told me that she had a dream that I gave birth to twin monkeys – for the record, I would like to publicly state that I have not given birth to twin monkeys and I never will.

Have a great day!

Nikki