So many things have happened since my return from the States, that aside from all of the wonderful memories from visiting my family, it almost feels as though I never left home. The morning after our arrival (following a good nights sleep), Chana and I ventured out to visit friends. In between visits we enjoyed roaming around outside. Of course, we had to stop every five minutes to watch one or the other of our hilltop’s donkeys munching away at the thorns and weeds and visit the ducks and chickens which are definitely the biggest attraction for the babies on our hilltops. Chana loves them so much that she makes sure to save parts of her sandwiches, fruits and vegetables for them. In essence bags of garbage (left over food for the ducks and chickens) can be seen in every kitchen up here on the hill. Mordechai and I plan on making a duck pond in a portion of our yard, which I hope will be the beginning of a beautiful petting zoo. I am sure that a nice petting zoo will serve our hilltop well and maybe even be used by the families of Kfar Tapuach, the community nearest us, as well as others.
Well, back to our return from abroad. After several days of getting back on schedule as well as uprooting (by hand) all of the weeds which were overtaking my herbs and flowers, traveling here and there on errands and getting our house back to normal, I noticed that Chanuka was just around the corner. Since our neighbor Chana’s due date for giving birth was on Chanuka, she asked me if her mother could stay in our house for several days after the birth. Of course, we agreed happily.
We spent the first night of Chanuka (also Shabbot) with Mordechai’s family at his brother’s home in Yitzhar, a Shomron community not far from us. Almost as soon as Shabbot was over, right after we finished lighting the second night’s candles, we received a call from one of our very excited neighbors - usually first to spread good news. Mazal Tov - on Shabbot Chana had given birth to a baby boy. Mordechai’s younger sisters spent the second and third days of Chanuka with us. On the first day of their stay we had the wonderful luck of being without electricity, since our generator ran out of gas. I noticed this to my dismay when I tried to heat up the jelly doughnuts which we had received the night before from a family who regularly showers the families on our hilltop with cakes, breads, pizza and much more. We enjoyed ourselves anyway and ate the jelly doughnuts that night after candle lighting. The next day after running around Jerusalem shopping, I hurried back to prepare our guest room and welcome home my neighbor Chana.
This past Shabbot we all joined together in one of Kfar Tapuach’s synagogues and celebrated as the little Yoseph Avichai had his “Brit Mila” (circumcision) and received his beautiful name - one so connected to the Shomron. On Shabbot day the weather was especially nice making our walk down to the community and back up quite pleasant.
For two days now Chana and I have been sitting in our cozy home watching the rain fall over and cover the land - moistening it and making everything shine. At night we close our eyes to the drumming of the rain on the metal roof of our caravan. While I haven’t dared to venture past the wooden gate of our ‘pergula’ (deck), for fear of sinking in the mud, Mordechai and the other men on our hilltop are the true heroes. Every night they, along with volunteers from the Jewish Legion go out into the freezing rain and guard. Every morning and afternoon they walk along the muddy road leading to the community, unless they are lucky enough to catch a ride with someone driving a 4×4 off road vehicle - the only thing short of a tank that can successfully make it up and down the hill without getting stuck in the mud. We all hope that someday soon we will have enough money to pave our road.
In the meanwhile I am enjoying the sights, smells and sounds of rain in the holy land. As for Chana, although she is getting a little bit stir crazy we are having a good time inventing new games, singing, dancing and reading all of her many books over and over every day. When the rain stops and the mud hardens a bit we will go hiking in our backyard discovering the new flowers and weeks that have sprung up decorating our beautiful land.
This entry was posted
on Friday, December 13th, 2002 and is filed under series.