Reblogged from writerchristophfischer:

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My special treat on World Book Day: A great story about a lesser known subject told in a beautiful way by an amazing new indie author. Everyone should read something special on World Book Day, this would make an excellent choice. I saved this as a highlight for today.

Short synopsis:

“Daughters of Iraq” is the compelling story of three women from the same family.

Read more… 1,792 more words

The answer is not a simple one (I guess that nothing in life is simple), and this move is far from being easy or simple. We live now back in our house that we were supposed to sell; instead, we are selling the nice house in Tel Aviv.

Our family is in the US now, and again needs to adjust. How do we make this happen again? Slowly… The kids are back in their old schools, for some of them it feels like they never left, some of the kids misses their friends back in Israel, before, they missed their friends here…

Everyday life in Israel is not easy. There were so many times I asked myself how do they do it? How people In Israel do not give up like we did?

There are many aspects that are challenging in Israel. I would like to present some of them to you. This post speaks about hope for life in Israel. In the next posts I will talk about different life aspects, but this post is about life, security and safety, I mean the sense of being safe and secure. Just living simply everyday life, feeling protected, feeling that you start the day and everything will be ok in the evening, every day, just having regular life, regular schedule; this is not so obvious in Israel. There are too many times people are being exposed to unwanted and unexpected circumstances. I guess that this is one of the reasons Israelis tend to be more flexible than average American, they are used to be forced to adjust to life.

I can give many examples, but chose to present a personal one. The south of Israel is being bombed for the last 12 years. People can never predict how their day will look like. We have very close friends, who lives in one of the Moshavim next to Kiryat-Malachi.  They have four kids. This area is being bombed very often; it is so hard to maintain just normal life when you are forced to be exposing your kids to war and cruelty. I think about them a lot. How tough they are! How they will never give up and stay there. I believe that I could have being living there had I not moved to the US and was able to experience life somewhere else. I remember how shocked I was over twenty years ago, the first time I lived abroad. We lived in London for a year, when we were not even married and didn`t have kids. I just could not understand how it can be, that the people are bothered by the weather, and by their plans for the weekends. I came from a place that was complicated, that peace and everyday life were not so obvious. At the beginning, it made me laugh, and think how shallow life was there, and then it hit me: I was the one who is being so weird: Actually, life in Israel is not normal. People should be focusing on their lives. People should be focusing on having fun, on the weather, just simple things and that should be it. But, in a twenty year old mind, my country was the best, my country was worth fighting for, and at the age of twenty I still believed the day peace would come is close. The day that every Israeli would be able to focus on everyday life, and not just how to survive, is very close. I would just need to wait. That day is so close, I could have sensed that.

Over twenty years went by, I am a mother of four boys, that day never seemed farther than what I ever thought it would be. I am ashamed to say the naked truth: I do not have hope anymore for a better future. I believe that what we have is what we are going to get too. Israel would have to fight for its life always. And in that thought in mind, us, Israelis need to rethink about our children`s future, about what we would like for them to have, where is hope for us?

I know that what I am writing is going to bring many comments about hope, and about sacrifying, about “the only way” and about me being selfish. I only have one thing to say in that matter: I love Israel with all my heart and soul, and would always see it as my home, but without hope there is no future.

http://www.amazon.com/Daughters-of-Iraq-ebook/dp/B004U34YM8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346048374&sr=8-2&keywords=daughters+of+iraq

Here is the link to the mania:

http://www.amazon.com/lm/R28WDNNKZF6OAV/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_view?ie=UTF8&lm_bb

When I think of Indian culture in England, I think of women wrapped in thick coats and scarves, buying fruit and vegetables from Indian shops.  I see men, working in factories and shops for little money to keep their family comfortable in England’s wintry months and scorching summers.

I am talking about the 1970’s when Indians immigrated to England from India and Africa. So used to the hot climate, they were shocked with the harsh weather conditions. But they embraced a life here and took the good with the bad. My mother used to say “The winters are nothing now compared to when we arrived. We had snow so thick, it came up to our knees!’

My Ba – paternal grandmother, would only wear saris and as soon as she came to this cold country, she put on a cardigan. She was never without one the whole time she was here; I don’t ever remember her taking it off!

Indian Culture brought Indian spices and foods as well as local businesses to England, the famous one being the local corner shop – a convenience store for everyone. Soon, many Indian businesses came about – jewellery shops, shops that sold bulk items such as chapatti flour, rice grains, spices, coconuts, coriander leaves, exotic fruits from India, masala powder and pastes and more.

Restaurants were opened with skilled Indian cooks – this was very popular, especially to the British white population who found the Indian culinary a delight!

As years passed, temples, gurdwaras and mosques were built, then Indian areas came about and were most popular, to name a few – Green Street in East London, Ealing Road in West London, Green Lane Road and Belgrave Road in Leicester and Stratford Road in Birmingham. These areas became the place where Indian’s liked to shop for Indian items. Anything could be found, from Indian floor sweepers to steel pots and pans.

In the early days to today, Indian women would shop and shop for Indian clothes – saris, salwaar kameez, chanya-cholis and accessories such as bangles, necklace and earring sets, colourful shiny bags and shoes which matched.

Indians visiting relatives in India – I must talk about this because every Indian is guilty of this! When a family went back to India for the first time since moving to England, they were (and still are) required to bring presents from the foreign country – the UK. Items such as Badam, Kaju, Kesar and other Indian food items were expected to be packed with the other hundred or so items in the already over-flowing ten suitcases.

“You can get all this in India – it’s where it came from!” I would say.

“But it is cheaper in the UK, beta,” they would tell me. My mum would reprimand me to be quiet and respectful to the elders. I would shake my head in disbelief.

On the odd occasion that we did not manage to be their courier, or we pretended to have forgotten, the disappointment is clear on their faces.

Summer arrives and out goes the thick coats, gloves and scarves. The Indian wedding season has arrived! An Indian wedding is not a wedding if it is not week long, loud and with 600-800 guests. This was true fifteen-twenty years ago but has since changed to three hundred. Still, a hefty number compared to the modest, one hundred to two hundred for English weddings. During this week long wedding, pre-wedding parties and festivals, visits to the temple and inviting the Gods into the house, wedding guests drink, eat and are merry. It’s a time for celebration!

So you see, Indian culture is vast and very much varied. I have only touched on a few things but the list is endless. Even though, as an Indian myself, I find all these customs tiresome at times, I would never let go of such a brilliant, colourful heritage. This is what makes us Indian – our Indian culture.

It is a beautiful early Friday morning in Tel Aviv. The sun is shining, the dogs are not barking (a crazy neighbor with two huge dogs that kept barking all day long, had just moved away from our neighborhood, yay!). I am finally able to sit in my office and write. My dog is sitting next to me; she is following me wherever I go, always looking for my next move. It is time to wrap up the summer, put it behind me, and look with hope and a prayer for a much better year to come.

It is the Jewish New Year in two weeks. I feel that it really made sense to start the New Year after this long hot summer in Biblical days. Israel has a very hot and humid summer, and the fall always brings a feeling of hope for a better weather, and hope for a better Jewish year. The evenings become a bit cooler, so it is nice to take a walk, and wonder around the streets of our neighborhood.

We spent most of the summer in our Seattle home. It brought good memories, and it brought lots of thoughts. “Did we do the right thing, by moving back to Israel?”

Summers in Seattle are the best; you will never find a better place in the whole world. It has cooler mornings and evenings, but warm and sunny days, where you can chill in the lakes, have picnics on the beaches, have a long day with light until very late, beautiful sunsets, and so many places to drive to. I love the feeling of an open and a huge place and space, where I can just tack our car with kids, food and games, with music and just no special plan, and just drive. Israel is so tiny and crowded. I very often feel that I am trapped in here; roads are always so busy, especially on weekends and holidays. We never go anywhere on these days, because it is so busy.  

We left a great life behind us, especially peaceful, and moved to the Middle East. There is never a dull moment in here. We sit here and wait for our Prime minister to decide whether we are going to strike Iran or not. If we will, they will hit us so bad, I am not sure what would be left here, and if we don`t, it is just a matter of time that this crazy man Achmadinijad will try and finish what Hitler started. So the situation here is really not simple.

Every day in the south of Israel (it is only one hour drive from the center…Told you Israel is tiny…) Chamas is bombing the cities, the Kibbutzim, and the Moshaving around Gaza. We gave them Gaza, thinking they would let us live peacefully, and ended up being bombed every single day for the last ten years. Do you know about any other nation that would tolerate that? We are much stronger than them, but we are too nice, and human to just be more aggressive.

Where do I belong? And where should I raise my kids? My husband and I were born here, Hebrew is our native language, and we have so many memories from this place, friends and family. But we also learned that we could live peaceful life, and it is not a must staying here if we have other options, which we do.

I am wondering if we, Jews, in our own country, will forever need to fight, will forever need to send our kids to the Army, and I am just so sad with the answer.

Where do I really belong? I belong here and in the US, and I also do not belong anywhere. Complicated…Told you so…

Happy Labor Day, and a great weekend everyone. May peace and happiness be with you, wherever you are.   

These days, we are almost closing on a year in Israel. What an experience it was for us, full with new learning about the world that is surrounding us, and mostly about our immediate family and ourselves. Coming here was a really good choice. I am still not sure we will stay here, I still do not feel like this is actually my home (maybe it is a matter of time…), but there are so many things I am thankful for.

I am thankful for the fact that our kids adjusted well here. They learned Hebrew, now they can read and write fluently. I feel like they made a closer connection with their Judaism too.  They made new friends, and our house is starting to fill with kids, like it used to be in the US. When we left, a whole bunch of kids came to say goodbye, saying how our house was like a home to them for many years. I remember how I was touched by this. Our kids also met with our extended family many times, starting to match faces with names. I love my house here, and enjoy the sun and the beautiful beaches, I enjoy the Hebrew too.

I got sick here, and learned the best lesson someone should learn: our bodies needs to be maintained…We need to put energy in making our bodies strong, it is after all our shells, and we need our souls to be strong too, just so we can function, be healthy and happy. Only when you get sick you start appreciating the little things in life, really tiny little things, like even getting out of bed, cooking for your family, and even walking your dog.  I saw how hard it was for my kids and husband when I was sick. Everything had changed: the everyday routine, their moods, I saw how worried they were. I never want to go back there. I wish and pray for all of us to be healthy and strong.

Where do we go from here? And if life in Israel were such a great experience, then why even reconsider moving back to the US? Like everything in life, nothing has a simple answer. First of all we have our oldest son studding in the US we miss him so much every single day, and second, as most of you know, Israel is a unique place in the Middle East. It is the only Democracy, and it is the only Jewish country in the world. Israel is struggling every day to make this place “normal”. Every kid 18 years old needs to serve in the Military for three years. Kids go to College after their Military service. Taxes are so high, that people find it very hard to make it through everyday life. This is a hot place; people are emotional and sometimes even violence. They say what they think; even if you are not prepared to hear it…I am not sure this place is for me anymore. You can defiantly find here people who have golden hearts, but again, after so many years abroad, I am not sure I can get used to the so fast life paste here.

Will we find ourselves back in the US? The future is a mystery for me too. I promise to keep you posted…

It is now over two months, since I had my Thyroid removed. What can I say? Not very pleasant or friendly time…I had my surgery in a public hospital in Israel. I have lived in the US for many years, and did not imagine how bad hospitals in Israel were.

I have to be honest and very clear regarding this matter, I think it is crucial that people will understand and know, how hard life are for people who are sick in Israel. It is a social system; would the American really like to have this kind of systems?

I guess it is a little complicated to understand what I am saying here, so I better start from the beginning:

I was scheduled to have a surgery three weeks after I was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer, usually it takes longer (that is what I have being told…), but since I had my son`s Bar-Mitzvah a month later, the hospital tried its best and schedule earlier than  they usually do. When I arrived that morning, I was told to choose a bed in the hallway, whatever bed that was available, since some of them were occupied already.  I was totally shocked. In the beginning of the 21^st century, not in a third world country, in a respected Hospital, not enough beds? Yes, this is the situation here every day. Not enough beds, not enough staff: actually, really 30 hours shifts for doctors, not enough nurses in any of the shifts, family members need to stay with the patients and care for them. My husband had to spend the night with me in one bed, just to make sure that if I need something, there will be someone there to care for me.

On another subject – schools

In Israel there are 40 kids in a class room, and I am wondering: Where does the money go? There are so many donations to Hospitals, research, and I have no idea what else, where does the money go?

Money that do come from abroad, needs to find its way to the quality life of the Israeli people, and this means – help with staff, bigger hospitals, more rooms, just help people with everyday life. I would highly recommend leaving research for other countries, and helping bring more quality to people here. I know that so many communities in the world support Israel, you should check where your money is actually needed, and make sure it gets there!

Wishing you all good health, happiness and peace

Love, Revital

I was also busy promoting my book “Daughters of Iraq” last weekend that brought its ranking to a high place in Historical fiction. I was also busy with everyday life, with the most important people in my life and a one small dog. Those filed my days with joy and happiness. But the nights; the nights is a totally different story. At nights I try to fall asleep as late as possible, and if I could give sleeping up at all, I would do it with pleasure, since the moment I fall asleep my dreams are haunted, all the devils gets out of the bottle…

I am afraid, yes I say it clearly. I am so much afraid, and I do not have the energy to now stay strong. I am afraid of the surgery and of the things that will follow. If I could wake up in a month I would do it with pleasure, but there isn`t yet any “Time Machine” that I could use, and as for now, I do need to go through that “reality tunnel”. I spent some time at the hospital last week, did all the procedures and preparations, and was told that I should get a phone call the next day to tell me the time of the surgery. The next day I missed some phone calls, did not notice I had some messages, and by the end of the day got a pretty hysteric phone call telling me, that the hospital people were trying to reach me all day. I knew they were supposed to call me, but somehow I just forgot about it. I guess that the mind has its own way getting over things, by just letting them go…

I try to take my mind to a happy places, restful ones, just to be able to relax the soul and the body, and yet to prepare myself. I am trying to avoid any bad feelings, and focus on the good. I am still learning how to take the good and happy and stay away from any sadness. I think that this can help me be stronger, even if I just need it for now. I am still learning how to get, as I am used to give…And I am learning again and again to appreciate the “usual” and the “obvious”, but fear won`t let go… I promise to update, please pray for me.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart, love, Revital.