Week 8: Snakes and Ladders or Yemeni Update

Alma gave me a beautiful metaphor for our situation – snakes and ladders. Surprising and joyful ups, frustrating and tough downs. We need to get used to it and remember that the up will come. I’m sitting at home now, waiting for 2 PM, wondering if I'm on a ladder going up or on a snake going down. Biting my nails and reading unnecessary articles in Haaretz. I can't focus on anything else productive to do, even though there's an endless list of bureaucracies to handle. After we waited anxiously for Yoela's contract to be approved, and after we waited for the flight to Costa Rica, and after we waited for a visa to Colombia, and after we waited for the school to agree to take us, now I’m waiting for Ophir to finish his first day alone at kindergarten. Just 4 hours alone and it feels like eternity. Yesterday was his first day at kindergarten and I was with him all day. It was a tough day, both because of the language and the nature of the school (more on that later), which mainly made me reevaluate all the goodness of the bright ones and understand better how uncomfortable I am with him going to that kindergarten. But there's no choice, we need to toughen up – he and I.
It’s 2 PM. I drove, waited half an hour at the parents' waiting area, and then he came running and we hugged. Three kids, intake at Batya, pomegranates, first grade, and that was the best moment so far.

How was it?

It was fun!

Tell me what happened.

I don’t remember anything.

Can we relax...

It was a week full of small and big steps. Up, down, and in all directions.

Helplessness in Spanish or do you have 4 shekels? I need to get to Be'er Sheva.

On Saturday, I went with the kids to our new friends in Medellín and we spent a fun day. The dad is a fan of Hapoel Jerusalem in football (learned that he studied a grade below mine and lives a street away from me in Jerusalem, small world), so we have no choice but to start liking football (better than the football we watched with him two weeks ago). Hapoel managed to draw with ten players and rose above the red line! In the evening, I went to pick up Yoela from the airport. I had a bit more than 40 shekels in cash, and there are three tolls on the way (only cash, I already know) I withdrew 400 two days ago, but all the time there are toll booths and the closest ATM is an hour away. I know two of the tolls; they cost 11 shekels and 14 shekels. I don’t know the third, but how much can it cost? Driving worried – it’s near the airport, surely a bit more expensive. One kilometer before the toll, Yoela calls. Yoela: You landed. Me: Quick – how much is the third toll? Yoela: 20. Me: What 20? I don’t have 20. I stop by the side and count. I have 16. Fine, get an Uber to me, I'm 10 minutes away from you. And get money because I have no way to pay on the way back. After 10 minutes I get a call. Yoela: I can't talk – I have no battery and I can’t reach the driver. Yes, I withdrew money. Messaging Yael: What would you do? Drive to the toll, give the biggest smile I have and promise I'll be there in a few minutes with the missing amount. Big wisdom with her smile... Yoela writes: I don’t know what to do, this is the fourth driver who canceled on me. Me: They probably are not willing to pay the toll for a 10-minute ride. I’m coming. Yoela: No! They won't let you through. Me: I’m out! (she doesn't answer, probably her battery died) I drive and start planning my phrases in Spanish: Se puede comprar en tarjeta? no? No tengo suficiente dineros, solo tengo 16 mil pesos Por favor, mi esposa es en el europorto. 10 minutos aqui y yo pago!

Arriving. Everything goes according to plan, except for her response: I can't, it was deducted from my salary. I put all the money in her hand – bills, coins. 4 shekels short. I offer my license as collateral – I'm not allowed to take documents. She stands in front of me, I beg in broken language, and we both feel helpless. In the meantime, a traffic jam occurred behind us. She goes to the car behind, comes back a few minutes later and opens the gate for me – the man behind you paid for you.

And he didn’t even see my smile... I call Yoela. Yoela: Here, I’m just getting into an Uber.

Small Ladders

On Friday, we prepared sushi for dinner. Ophir found seaweed at the supermarket, and for a few days we gathered ingredients. Various supermarkets in preparation for the event. It was delicious and the whole house is still sticky from the rice.

On Sunday we woke up in the morning and went on a trip to a nice park with ladders, ziplines, and local costumes (the park from the story about the gondola that was too expensive, this time we arrived by car).

On Monday, I opened the original Abu-Mediyan restaurant. Yoela returned from Costa Rica with tahini. I bought chickpeas, flour, and yeast and made a chickpea meal with pita bread. The most challenging thing to obtain is cucumbers.

On Tuesday, the landlord came with a team of professionals. Installed radiators, heat distributors mostly, and a gas dryer. An empire... Only then came the snake, or actually the Yemeni step. In the evening we activated the empire and.. power outage. The next day an electrician comes to fix it, and the next evening again – power outage. In the meantime, we've run out of drinking water, the gas is finished, so there’s no cooking, and we can’t shower. In the morning we debated whether to go draw water from the nearest well or move to live in a cave, when we returned from school, we found out that the municipality/community/village turned off the water at the tap. Sitting in the dark without food and water, on the remnants of the battery, and waiting for the electrician.

Big Ladders

Finally, school returned to us and the kids started school and kindergarten. 3 days of testing and then a pedagogical committee, they don’t commit to accepting us, playing hard to get, but finally, the kids are leaving the house, not to the mall and finally, I have 4 uninterrupted hours alone. Of course, with the entry to school, the issues that waited on the side begin to surface – language, friends, educational gaps. Everything is just around the corner. Mati and Michal are doing well in general, not understanding anything in class but starting to connect. With Ophir it’s more complex. On the day I was with him, he wandered around lost, worried, and scared. Unable to communicate with the children or the teachers. Two children tried to adopt him, but he felt attacked and asked me: What do they want from me? Why won’t they leave me alone? This will pass with time, as long as he agrees to go to kindergarten every day. The bigger problem is that this isn’t kindergarten; it’s a university for kids – running from lesson to lesson, each time a different subject teacher shows them something on TV and tries to entertain them so they don’t go wild. So different from what is right for them at this age. The teachers and educators are kind, pleasant, and inclusive, but in my super critical eyes, a very tough situation. On another front, it seems we found a home, and there’s even a date. We're moving in next Saturday. A house, a garden, a lake. We'll hold on for another week in the cave, until the next ladder or snake.

For two weeks now, I’ve been forgetting to add this beautiful song. A new song by Meir Ariel, sort of. A spoken segment of his that was transformed into a song and released not long ago. I’m far from being a poet, and our lives are basically strawberries. But the thought that meaningful experiences also come with difficulty, and maybe even suffering is echoing in the last weeks.Poet takes the most miserable situation in life and makes a peak of art the hardest blows in life collect all the Oscars

There are people who have it tough, there are people who present it to those who sit at the safest edge of the sweetest end of all stories

...

A poet is sometimes all of these together

also has it tough, also makes it into a song, also sits and watches himself how he has it tough and gives it a grade

Not bad Alexander, you played it well, you played it and ate it, you inherited and also killed and vice versa

you suffered, wrote, loved

See you next week

P.S: I feel a bit uncomfortable continuing to send the blog to a large audience, and sometimes at unreasonable hours in Israel. Especially since there’s no need for the link since you can enter the blog independently. So starting next week, I won’t be sending it anymore and you're welcome to enter whenever you feel like. Anyone who really needs a reminder that Friday has arrived, can write to me, and I’ll know to remind them..