Daily living with war

From a young high school teacher in Kiryat Malachi, e-mailed January 13, 2009

Thank you very much for your kind words, thoughts and pictures...It's always nice to know we are thought of on the other side of the world.

My kibbutz is about 22 KM from Gaza and I can hear the plains fly at night over my house. I can also hear the bombarding of Gaza. I jump at every sound I hear. On the first day of the bombing I was so afraid I went to my family in Tel-Aviv for two days just to relax. We had never been bombed before. Thank God my kibbutz wasn't hit by anything, I don't think I could bear it.

It is not a simple situation to live in, but your prayers and actions helps me feel a little bit better.

We have just returned to work and we teach the 11th and 12th graders for the winter matriculation exams, for, as you know they wait for no one. The students are half crazed with stress and boredom. We drilled them running to the shelters during lessons, and as you can imagine there wasn't much learning taking place after it. I'm sure they're doing their best in this situation, and we are too. My mother is also a teacher and she says it is the same at her school. I hope that it will soon end up and we all could return to our normal everyday lives.