Today has been quite dramatic for me in Be'er Sheva. There were sirens, explosions, and gushing blood, but those are NOT all related, so don’t worry :D Just keep reading.
I'll start at the beginning of this whole skirmish and follow it chronologically. On Thursday afternoon, we were in class on the 6th floor of Soroka Hospital, receiving instructions on how to test at MSIH (which is quite interesting, btw), when we hear a helicopter landing in the field just outside our window. The man in the front of the room said a tragedy had just occurred in Eilat, and I quickly searched the news on my iPhone. I read that 36 were injured and 8 killed in a multiple attack by terrorists in the southern city. This included open fire on a civilian bus (transporting many soldiers for the weekend), a suicide bomber, roadside bombs, and other forms of violent things intended to injure and kill people. You can read about it here: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/coordinated-attacks-in-south-israel-kill-8-1.379428. Anyway, I looked up from the phone and out the window to see this:
They were rushing in the trauma victims to the ER right underneath me. Soroka is the closest Level I Trauma Hospital so we get people from everywhere.
We lingered for a little while before realizing that we were going to miss our train to Tel Aviv if we didn't book it. I thought it was pretty epic, running under the whir of a helicopter engine, wind blowing everywhere, carrying my backpack, and trying to get to the train station on time. I've had another moment like that in my life - it was when there was a spawning tornado over my head and I was running across a field. . .anyway, for another day.
We caught our train, and soon we were on our way to Tel Aviv. Trying to find seats was awesome, though. Everyone and their mom and great aunt were on that train.
Tel Aviv was great fun! We started off by shopping in the mall at H&M (one of my favorite stores), where, in my normal routine, I go crazy, grab a bunch of stuff, try it all on (90% fits), decide I can only buy one thing, whittle it down to one, my absolute favorite, wander around the store looking for accessories, pick some shoes, get in line to check out, get out of line because I'm not sure, get back in line, then put everything back because I can't bring myself to spend $80 on a dress and shoes.
I had a similar incidence later that night in another store. I tried on a bunch of dresses, they all fit, I picked three, almost bought them all, then put one back, walked up to the counter to buy two, then ran back and put another one back. I got one. I like it. I'm wearing it in this picture:
So now that you know my shopping habits . . .
We had a bit of drama trying to get a hotel, but once we got all that figured out, we got all dressed up and went to the beach at midnight. It was soooo beautiful!!!!
So, it was dark and pics of the actual beach didn't work out too well, sorry :(
The next day we got breakfast at the Upside Down Man Hotel across the street (we named it such because there are two upside down men on either side of the entrance and another inside).
Then I bought a swimsuit and we went and played in the water for quite some time, swam out to the rocks, laid in the cross-current. Yes, it was pretty magical. I love water. Here we are just before our time at the beach!
After Beach Time, we began our journey to find the art market in Tel Aviv. After searching for a few hours and making pit stops for glida (גלידה - ice cream), we found it! It happens twice a week, and it was super awesome! Below are some pictures of cool stuff:
That is soap.
Also, I saw an amazing display of intense black and white photographs taken by a man and his father at the Western Wall. I almost bought two prints, but I decided against it. Instead, I bought the postcard versions of my three favorites, which are below:
Amazing, right?
Then, we went back to Be'er Sheva, and I crashed until morning.
Church on Saturday was good, as usual. I'm still getting used to having two languages being pumped into my ears and the smotheringly hot environment, but it's great! Speaking of which, we're having a prayer meeting for Israel tomorrow night, just FYI.
Afterwards, we had ice cream at the best place in Be'er Sheva, THEN lunch (and not before) at Tiv Tam, which is also a grocery store. I was seeking some aloe to slather onto my sunburned skin from the beautiful sunny beach. Small bottle of aloe? $13! Forget that! I bought a large tub of imported Dove lotion for $11. It does the job.
Back to the conflict situation, below is a timeline of the escalation of events in the southern region of Israel, taken from a reliable Israeli news source:
Friday 8/19/11
7:55 am – Grad rocket explodes in Ashdod, injuring 10
4:04 pm – Two rockets explode in Be’er Tuvia Regional Council
5:40 pm – Qassam rocket strikes Eshkol Regional Council
6:30 pm – Iron Dome system intercepts rocket over Ashkelon
6:50 pm – Qassam rocket explodes in Sha’ar Henegev Regional Council
7:45 pm – A barrage of anti-tank missiles strike Eshkol Regional Council
10:05 pm – Two rockets strike Eshkol Regional Council
Saturday 8/20/11
7:48 am – Three critically injured from a rocket attack on an Ashdod religious school
9:09 am – Rocket explodes outside Be’er Sheva
9:57 am – Two rockets strike open areas in Be’er Tuvia Regional Council
11:24 am – Rocket strikes a building in a kibbutz in Sha’ar Henegev Regional Council
11:37 am – Anti-tank missile explodes in Sha’ar Henegev Regional Council, one injury reported
12:29 pm – Seven anti-tank missiles explode in Sha’ar Henegev Regional Council
12:56 pm – Highway 35 closes near Kiryat Gat after a rocket lands in the area
1:15 pm –Grad rocket is intercepted by Iron Dome system
2:26 pm – Four more anti-tank missiles explode in Sha’ar Henegev Regional Council
8:14 pm – Four rockets explode in Ofakim, one of them hits a house
9:18 pm –Grad rocket strikes a street, killing one, injuring 13
Sunday 8/21/11
5:30 am – A round of mortars strike communities in the Eshkol Regional Council
6:53 am – Three rockets strike Ashkelon area, causing damage to one building
8:00 am – Iron Dome system intercepts three Grad rockets over Ashkelon
8:20 am – Three rockets strike Be’er Sheva
9:05 am – Another rocket barrage strikes Be’er Sheva
10:23 am – A third barrage of rockets hits Be’er Sheva, one Grad rocket hits a school gym
11:00 am – Four rockets strike Ashkelon, no injuries were reported
11:50 am – IAF strikes Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip after 24 hours of restraint
12:11 am – Two rockets land in open areas near Ashkelon
This timeline is taken from <http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/timeline-three-days-of-rocket-strikes-on-southern-israel-1.379825>
This list doesn't include the non-damaging rockets that landed in open fields. We had one siren around 6am Friday morning, but I was relaxing in my hotel room in Tel Aviv :) We had three rocket attacks in Be'er Sheva on Saturday: one in the morning and two in the evening. The last one in the evening was quite a barrage (10 or 11 rockets), and a number of people were injured and one was killed. This morning, however, had to have been the most interesting. . .
Saturday night: We're notified by the director of the program that in light of the current situation, our classes are being relocated to safer areas.
Sunday morning (~8am): I get ready for class, and pull my bike out the door to head to one of these safer areas and whoooOOOOOOOOOOOOO the siren blares, so I run to safety in the safe area of my house. After the bombs hit, and I hear the boom, I wait around to go to class about 15 more minutes (getting caught out in the open is the dangerous part - if you're in shelter, you're fine). I get up the courage to book it to class on my bicycle, which came with few obstructions other than the ginormous piece of construction machinery that blocked my way. Eventually he stopped doing whatever it was he was doing and let me pass. So I get to the "safer place" building, and they lead us into a computer lab in the basement of a building. Having a computer in front of your face isn't the best thing for Hebrew class, so I was curious. Then, they moved us to another room that didn't have computers. By the time we got there and sat down and started our class, whoooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Yep, I straight up sprinted to the bomb shelter a few meters away. It's actually a classroom, too. So, we just decided to stay there after the bombs hit and the commotion settled. We had Hebrew class in a bomb shelter.
Then, around 10am, just in time for our "hafsaka" (break), whoooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Yep. Again. Good thing we're already in the air-tight, explosion-proof room. So everyone else came in and joined us as we waited for yet another round of rockets to hit.
Let me take a break here to explain that I was never in any immediate danger. As long as I sought proper shelter, the rockets couldn't get to me. They're really weak and can only get through one wall, so as long as I'm in an inner room and not on the top floor of a building, I'm good :)
But the day was still pretty dramatic. The Director of MSIH called an impromptu security meeting during lunch. We had BGU security and people in the know there. It looked like this:
I feel safe here, and I wasn't really worried about any of it. The sirens give us at least 60 seconds of warning, so we can find shelter before the rockets hit. That's enough for me :D
For added safety, we had our afternoon Emergency Medicine in the bomb shelter as well. I got a picture of that:
Class in a bomb shelter! Woohoo!
In Emergency Medicine today, we learned how to insert IV catheters. The "gushing blood" statement at the beginning is referring to my arm and what it does when I offer it to be stabbed upon. I wanted to take a picture, but I resisted.
We also learned how to wrap specific bandages. I got wrapped:
So sad that I'm injured.
To wrap up this post, I have some GREAT NEWS! A cease-fire agreement is being negotiated! I just read that they fired on Ashkelon again, so I guess they're not obeying it, but it's in the works. Be'er Sheva was expected to be hit multiple times tonight, and we weren't, so it seems to have some sort of positive impact.
but then. . .
Oh, well. Classes in bomb shelters aren't that bad :D
Lehitra'ot!
P.S. I will post pics of that house later. This blog has already taken over two hours, so I'm done with it tonight :D Hold on, and someday you'll get to see my new place of dwelling!
