On one of our first nights in Ezuz, Tommy and I decided to go for a walk. It was close to midnight and we started walking down the hill out of the community, in the direction of the Egyptian border. I was talking to Abba on Tommy's phone and all of the sudden we hear this really eerie sound. I said something to the extent of, "What was that?!" ... and Abba is on the other end of the phone thousands of miles away, asking, "What is what?!" We heard it several times and realized that it was most likely a nearby jackal. Have you ever heard a hyena? It wasn't quite the same type of sound but it was almost as creepy!
... trying to watch Anne of Green Gables with Naomi ...
It was a new DVD and it would not play on my laptop. We asked Anchel (the Mexican man that was volunteering there) if we could try it on his computer and it didn't work there either, but we did receive a message in Spanish. None of us understood Spanish except Anchel ... and he did not know enough English to tell us what the message was saying! We kept ejecting and inserting the disc, trying to make it work and then Tommy got a bright idea :) He pulled up Google Translate (on my computer) and told Anchel to type in the Spanish words. The message was translated ... to the effect that the disc was damaged and could not be played. The funny part was when we were started playing around with Google Translate, translating English words into Hebrew and Spanish and vice versa ... and someone clicked on the volume icon to hear the translation. The accents were so hilarious that Naomi and I nearly fell over laughing. Tommy was laughing because we were laughing and Anchel couldn't understand what we were saying, but he joined in anyway. It was a fun night.
... yep, those were drug runners ...
We were on a walk again - this one was in the daytime. We had walked to the Egyptian border and back. As we were approaching Ezuz, there were two vehicles that came out of the desert and into the oasis - one was a fairly nice Mercedes SUV. There were two Arab men in each. Tommy and I weren't sure what to think, but we walked on - keeping an eye to make sure they weren't following us. When we mentioned the incident to a soldier friend of ours who had been stationed near the border, he said, "Oh yeah, those were definitely drug runners."
Arab in keffiyeh + Mercedes SUV + near the Egyptian border = ............
well, let's just say I was glad we didn't meet those guys on one of our night walks :)
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| This was taken shortly after we saw the drug runners. |
... piano accompaniment ...
There was a family staying the Hirshfeld's one weekend - they were from a settlement near Hevron. After Shabbat, the wife started playing the guitar, singing Psalms in Hebrew. It was beautiful! I was thrilled to not only be able to understand some of the passages she was singing, but also to be able to heard most of what she was playing by ear and join her on the piano :)
... "well, life in the Negev can be kinda loud, with fighter jets flying below the clouds" ...
(If you know the song and have been in the Negev, you're welcome to finish the verse, 'cause I can't figure out the rest of it! As a matter of fact, if you haven't been in the Negev but you have songwriter's imagination, let me know what you come up with!) Anyway, it was a regular thing for noisy air force jets to fly over the area while practicing. Every so often we would see flares. It was kind of neat ... it wasn't something that we regularly experience here in the hills and hollers of Tennessee :)
... Tommy, the impromptu IDF mechanic ...
It was on another one of our walks (nighttime again! We tried to walk nearly every night on the road that circled through and partially around Ezuz - about a two miles, I think) ... we saw two vehicles coming toward us and one was being towed by the other. As they passed us, we realized that the vehicles were IDF hummers, heading toward Ezuz. Tommy started wondering what was wrong with the one, mechanic that he is :) We walked on a little further and discovered an area in the road that was wet. Tommy bent over to inspect it and promptly announced that it was transmission fluid. We continued our walk back toward Ezuz and Tommy expressed his plan to offer his services if necessary. Before we got back to the community, the hummers had left.
... "that's not modest" ...
There were several times when the neighbor girls would visit Naomi and there would be discussions about modest clothing ... specifically - that their clothing wasn't modest! I couldn't understand all of the Hebrew, but at times Naomi would turn to me and ask me in English if I agreed with whatever point she was trying to make. I would agree and she would turn back to the neighbor girl and tell her what I said. It was amusing to see the expressions :)
(more coming later ... or sooner, depending on when I get a round tuit!)
... "well, life in the Negev can be kinda loud, with fighter jets flying below the clouds" ...
(If you know the song and have been in the Negev, you're welcome to finish the verse, 'cause I can't figure out the rest of it! As a matter of fact, if you haven't been in the Negev but you have songwriter's imagination, let me know what you come up with!) Anyway, it was a regular thing for noisy air force jets to fly over the area while practicing. Every so often we would see flares. It was kind of neat ... it wasn't something that we regularly experience here in the hills and hollers of Tennessee :)
... Tommy, the impromptu IDF mechanic ...
It was on another one of our walks (nighttime again! We tried to walk nearly every night on the road that circled through and partially around Ezuz - about a two miles, I think) ... we saw two vehicles coming toward us and one was being towed by the other. As they passed us, we realized that the vehicles were IDF hummers, heading toward Ezuz. Tommy started wondering what was wrong with the one, mechanic that he is :) We walked on a little further and discovered an area in the road that was wet. Tommy bent over to inspect it and promptly announced that it was transmission fluid. We continued our walk back toward Ezuz and Tommy expressed his plan to offer his services if necessary. Before we got back to the community, the hummers had left.
... "that's not modest" ...
There were several times when the neighbor girls would visit Naomi and there would be discussions about modest clothing ... specifically - that their clothing wasn't modest! I couldn't understand all of the Hebrew, but at times Naomi would turn to me and ask me in English if I agreed with whatever point she was trying to make. I would agree and she would turn back to the neighbor girl and tell her what I said. It was amusing to see the expressions :)
(more coming later ... or sooner, depending on when I get a round tuit!)
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