Slowly, Slowly

Tuesday January 20, 2009

We’re beginning to settle into a routine, with everyone reporting to their particular warehouse (and two of the women helping out in the dining hall). Finding enough to do in Warehouse No. 4 remains a challenge. Late in the morning, Lior had an animated discussion with the two men in charge, David and Eli. They insisted they had lots and lots of work for us to do.

With some prompting, they pointed us to a pile of pallets containing more truck tire rims, and we unpacked them and re-loaded them for storage. The good news was that we stayed busy most of the rest of the morning and finished the load of truck rims. The bad news was that we apparently worked “too fast,” and failed to pay sufficient attention to the repeated admonition, “le-hat, le-hat,” “slowly, slowly.” As a result, we probably finished most of the afternoon’s work as well!

After lunch, we did a bit more rearranging and cleaned the receiving area. I suspect the place hasn’t looked this good since the day it opened.

Everyone – and I mean everyone – was keenly aware of the inauguration of President Obama, which took place at 7 p.m. Israel time. The radio played American songs all day (“Oklahoma,” “This Land is Your Land,” “America” from West Side Story and the like) and the civilian workers kept asking us: “Obama. Good?”

Our madricha somehow managed to commandeer a new television set for the soldier’s lounge, and after dinner we call gathered to watch the ceremony. It was a heavily pro-Obama crowd, but even the non-Americans and the three Israelis watched intently. (Our madricha was accompanied by two soldiers who were assigned to warehouse work for three months as punishment for infractions. An artillery soldier smuggled a smoke grenade from his base and was caught at the bus station, and an air force soldier was caught driving a tractor without a license. Nice to know that we were assigned to the place they send soldiers for punishment!)

As someone who watched 9/11 from a hotel room in Jerusalem, it was very special to watch these happier proceedings from afar. We all felt very good about being Americans today, even including those who suggested that giving Vice President Cheney a push down the stairs on his wheelchair might be a good idea.

After the speech, more good news. Instead of having to negotiate our way from the nearby Golani Junction, Sar-El has arranged a bus to take us to Tel Aviv on Thursday afternoon. Even better, we are apparently being sent to bases in the south on Sunday morning to help with arrangements for the withdrawing troops next week … so long as the cease‑fire holds. We are told that the need for volunteers is greater there than here, and most of us are entirely in favor of the relocation.