Israel 21,
April 2, 2024
Hi Everyone,
After my last blog yesterday describing the drone attack, several of you kindly sent notes asking if I am ok and telling me to be safe. Yes, I am safe. As I am continuing to write my blog, I am still alive, in 1 piece and a have not been captured by the ‘evil forces’.
Yesterday was a completely new experience for most of us. We have 400 to 500 soldiers and sailors on the base. There are several ships in the port. We can see the mountains of Jordan in the distance as well as the city of Aqaba Jordon. The border lies somewhere in the middle of the gulf of Aqaba. In the distance we can see Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The sun rises in the morning over the Jordanian mountains which are a reddish colour. The gulf is 4-5 km across, a good swim and an arrest by the authorities if you dare to try.
Our job at the base is to provide the food for the IDF men and women. This means kitchen work of all types. There are 12 of us, all men from the States, Canada, Holland and France. They split us into small groups to perform our tasks. Very little training is involved but the chef wants perfection and occasionally corrects us if we make small errors. The chief chef is a great fellow. He is married, has 2 children and lives in a house off the base. He was in high tech before but did not like the job. He always wanted to be a chef so he studied and got this job. He explained to us that much of the young kitchen staff come from troubled backgrounds. Some had trouble adapting to regular army life. He takes them under his wing and teaches them kitchen work giving them some pride in themselves and their work. I think that they will turn out better with his coaching and his personalized care. It is not everyone who can do this.
Soldiers often ask us where we are from. They are all appreciative of the work that we do for Israel. 300,000 reservists were called up to help the regular army. This leaves the country with 300,000 less hands to do the regular army and civilian work. 100,000 Palestinians came from Gaza and the West Bank everyday to work in Israel. Since the war started, the border is closed. There is no construction going on. There is a major problem with food production, picking and planting fruit and vegetables. There are no tourists except the volunteer workers. The economy is going to be really in trouble. On the weekend there are over 100,000 Israeli demonstrators in a central plaza in Tel Aviv demanding the resignation of Bi-Bi and the immediate return of the hostages under any condition. I don’t know what will happen. I support Israel and continue doing my small job to help. `
Yesterday, I placed veal steaks on a platter and then dipped them in bread crumbs. We were 3 for this work, 1 dipped the steaks in oil and the other 2 dipped them in bread crumbs before placing them on a platter. This is rather specialized work and so each of us had a designated job. Not necessarily in order, we took the stems off tomatoes, put cucumbers into the cutting machine, sliced beets, cut oranges in small pieces, placed cinnamon buns on platters interspaced with croissants, dipped chicken legs in oil, prepared steaks with garlic, put carrots in the carrot cutting machine, opened fish packages and placed them on a platter…. Other tasks consisted of mixing the vegetables in a sauce to be poured onto the fish, mixing spaghetti with a long spatula, mixing and mashing potatoes…. I could go on but it might boring to describe everything.
Last evening we were invited down to the dock to see the ships. There are 2 or 3 PT boats, 1 destroyer and a bigger boat that might be a frigate. The destroyer put out to sea, led by a smaller PT or tug boat. A small Jordanian boat of the same size came out to the border line to patrol. There is no trouble between the 2 countries in spite of the war now. The enemy was probably trying to hit our ships with their drone but missed and hit a building 50 meters away and 100 meters from where we had taken shelter in the bomb shelter. We saw the hit on Twitter. We think that the drone came from Iraq or the Houthis.
After this we were given permission to go into Eilat, accompanied by our commanders. We were like a bunch of kids at summer camp that were getting an evening off. We walked into town, 20 minutes away, and picked out a nice restaurant overlooking the sea. We ordered refreshments and enjoyed the cool air while taking in the view of the Red Sea. A few of us took off our shoes and got our feet wet.
This morning we had flag raising with all the soldiers on the base. We all stood at attention, and then did ‘attention, at ease’, when ordered to do so. We then all saluted the flag at flag raising while singing Hatikvah. It is a moving, sad and uplifting experience all at the same time. Everyone knows in his/her heart why he/ she is here. Tonight we have a bar-b-q with the soldiers. We will eat the fish, steaks and vegetables that we prepared today.
Love,
Brian
Photos to come
gobriantravel 