Wednesday, August 02, 2006

the drive home

I have a great powerpoint of the attack on Nahariya hospital, but I don't have a web account to host it on. If anybody would like to host the file so I can put it up here, please let me know.

Yesterday on my way up, I told the welfare agency that I was coming and I would have about an hour to volunteer if there was anything that I could do. They turned me down but asked if I could bring 2 teenagers back with me to Jerusalem. I said of course and told them I would pick them up around 6:30 PM.

Dinner with the doc and wife was excellent, as usual (even though it was pareve), and the apple pie was beyond delicious. I loaded up the car with such neccessities as scooters, a computer and other things we can't live without (I actually went to get some important paperwork, not just stam) and went to find my teenagers. I found a kid wearing a tanktop, gold necklace, sunglasses and a baseball hat and his little sister. He loaded his stuf and got in the car and we started talking. He showed me his drivers license and told me if I get tired he can take over, so I shouldn't worry. He was a driver in the army. He didn't look like he was old enough to have done the army, but I didn't say anything. He just got out of the hospital, where he is being treated for cancer. He asked me to stop on the side of the road just after we left because that's the best place to say tefilas haderech, the travelers prayer.
We talked for a long while, the family is not religious, but he is looking for a "pure girl" (bechora tehora) so he may go to yeshiva. He was very northern sefardi and his language reflected that. He called people neshamale, for example. He brought a lot of music with him and said he used to be a DJ. We drove with the windows down and loud music playing the whole way. When we entered Jerusalem I turned on some Jewish music for the soul and he loved that.
I dropped them off at the hotel that their mother was staying at and he said he would call me sometime. I invited him for shabbos when we're all back home.

1 comment:

Yaakova said...

What a very interesting drive you had! He seems to have amassed a lot of experiences for a (boy? man?) his age.