Chapter 64, Be'er Ora

When you get to high school in Israel you start pre military training, it is called GAD’NA. Once a month a soldier would come to the school and teach us about guns and some theoretical tactics. Once or twice a year we went to a military camp somewhere in a remote location. We would stay in a big tent with about 20 low beds lined up in two rows along the tent. For about one or two weeks we learned navigating and other important survival skills.

“Attention!” Hezi Akerman the cadet on duty called.

We stood up next to our beds as the corporal stepped in to check on us. He walked and looked at each of us from top to bottom. He checked to see what’s on our beds, next to it or under it.

“It looks like we have a lot to do in the next few hours,” he said. “For now, everyone out and line up in triplets.”

“Attention!” Yelled Hezi again. We all stood in triplets in sort of straight lines. Corporal Yona stood in front of us smiling a mean smile. 

“We have a lot of work to do,” Corporal Yona said. “First, you need to learn what the standing positions are called. The ‘attention’ command means; stand up straight, legs spread out hands behind your back stretched under your butt.”

“Like so?” asked Mean Shimon. 

“No talking in the ranks!!!” Yelled Corporal Yona, “and yes like so. When I say ‘at ease’, it doesn’t mean you are dismissed, it means your hands are relaxed and not as tense under your butt, they can rest on top of it, on your lower back. At ease!” He yelled again. And we all relaxed our arms.

 “Stand Still!” He yelled once more. “For that one you need to bring your heels together, hands to the side of your body and fist tight. Heads up, you there, the second row on the right!”  Anni jumped and stood up straight. She was whispering with Daniella next to her, Daniela jumped to the “Stand Still” position just as well.

“One more thing before we start moving, your lines. Shoulders Up! When I call this command all of you except for the first triplet look to the left, raise your left arm and bring it to the shoulder height of your friend on the left. Now you at the far end bring your left arm forward to the shoulder of the person in front of you. Everyone lineup accordingly, Hands Down! Left Turn! I will show you the correct way to do it tomorrow. Now Forward March! Left, Right, Left, Right, Left…”

After a few marches around camp, we were back at the tents. The camp was located at the south of Israel in the Negev Desert. It was hot during the day and cold at night. There for we were supplied with thick blankets. We were taught how to do a military blanket fold. It had to never show the blanket’s edges. It has to be folded inwards and show one-fold on one side, two on the opposite side, and four on the two other sides. We received three blankets each. One of them was to be stretched on the bed. It must be so tight that when the corporal dropped a coin on our bed it would bounce back. 

Running, is not one of my strong interests. To run in the desert isn’t fun. I was told to inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth. And so, I did. Except that my nose started to burn after the first 100 Meters. Next, I felt my chest hurting. I finished the kilometer run walking. Even the girls did a better job, well, most of them. Something about running simply didn’t agree with me. I could walk for ever or even dance for days, but the bouncing and the heavy breathing didn’t work for me. Not short or long distance. Only on the beach, where the salty air was filling my lungs and the wet soft sand under my feet, was I ever able to run. What I was good at was “sit ups” I could do 80 sit ups in ninety second. Unfortunately for me, we had to run every morning and do some calisthenics, but some days we had trips and other chores. The first chore was to weed an onion field for the kibbutz Yotveta. I can tell you for sure, even if you never cried in your life, you are going to cry if you are in that field, no matter what. We each had a pointy how in our hands and we had to carefully dig out the weeds around each onion. Carefully, not to hurt the onion. It wasn’t easy, the onions already smelled strongly and sometimes the weeds were a little too close to the onion and you bound to have an accident and hit the onion with your how. So, imagine, each one of us working close to each other and everyone keeps missing and hitting the onions. The only saving grace was the snacks we received. Kibbutz Yotveta is famous for two products: Dates and the milk. The cows of the kibbutz were grazing on very nutritious grass that grows only in that area of the prairie. Their milk was very thick and sweet. Adding chocolate to that milk made it the best “Choco” drink. The dates were also a product of that hot and semidry prairie. They were big, juicy and sweet. Every day for the 2 weeks we spent at camp Be’er Orah we received this wonderful snack; dates and Choco. 

   On the second day, we went on a hike. We went to the old King Solomon copper mines and saw the archeological digs. The beauty of Israel appears in many places; In one day, you can go skiing in the morning, drive south for a few hours, and SCUBA dive in the afternoon. Israel has everything the USA has but in much smaller scale. The beauty of the snow mountains in the north, the green valleys, and a few canyons in the Negev desert. We left early, right after the morning exercise to avoid the heat of our long walk to the Red Canyon. The name of the canyon fits its name. the water and wind shaped red rocks to the side of the canyon. The shape of the rock was also very interesting. We got to see a huge stone mushroom and at one part of the canyon we found a few sand pits; each had a different color sand. Red sand from the iron, green sand from the copper, yellow from the sulfur and more. We collected a little of the sand in different bags and brought them back to camp. I found an empty glass bottle and started pouring the colored sand in layers. Using a long stick, I pushed the different color layers to create shapes in the bottle. It came out so nicely that I kept the sand with me to make more of these once we get back to school and I could get other bottles. 

 

 

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Stuffing

 

  Stuffing for turkey, chicken or any fowl. It could be served as stuffing or outside of the bird.

 

Ingredients:

2 Slices Whole Wheat Bread

2 Slices Corn Bread

1 Granny Smith Apple

1 Celery Stalk 

1 Onion

1 Garlic Clove

¼ Buch Parsley 

3 Pealed Pecans

½ tsp Salt

1 TBSP Olive Oil

¼ tsp Black Pepper

 

 

Toast the bread slices and crush them. Sauté the onion and garlic to soften. Chop up the pealed apple, celery, parsley and pecans. Mix all and bake to crisp. Or stuff in turkey.

 

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