Myla Katzav

A few weeks ago, I experienced the worst heart-stopping event in my short life in Israel. I had a turbulent sleepless night (this happens to me once Ben wakes up to feed) and so was able to catch a deep sleep early in the morning. At exactly 8 am, the siren was on. This siren alarms the citizens of an incoming attack in the form of bombs or missile and you have only a few seconds to take shelter. I jumped the second my ears got hold of its sound and without thinking for a second, ran to the kitchen and hauled as many bottled water, baby bottles and milk that my just woken-up arms can take!!! Throwing all these on sleeping Rachel's bed, I ran to the kitchen to get more. My commotion and not the siren, woke up my babies!!! I took the phone with me as well and started calling my husband....his phone was off and you can just imagine what was playing in my mind at this moment. After many unsuccessfull calls, I called my sister-in-law and what do I get as reply? more rings.....I tried calling her and calling her but she just doesnt pick up. So, this is it..we are under attack I thought....I dont care which neighboring country has decided to wage a war...i havent thought that perhaps all of them has come together just like the six-day war in the 70's...all I cared was if my husband was safe, why his phone was off and what will I do next.....check out the news..and call my brother-in-law. So, I checked the news..there wasnt anything that speaks of an impending war and finally I got hold of my brother-in-law who asked me to call again because he was busy....hmmmm....without listening to him, I just asked him what this siren was all about and to my relief, it was just a drill!!!!! Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!! Why has anyone kept this from me? My husband usually tells me of scheduled drills and it turned out that he himself didnt know about it. Tsk-tsk-tsk..this is what happens when you live like a hermit and try to be an island.

The older buildings have a separate bomb shelter usually located at the basement while the newer ones have a shelter within the unit. Our unit has its own shelter, thank goodness! Imagine if I had to go to the basement....what an embarrassment!! A bomb shelter is a typical room in a house and ours is the kids' room. It is just built in a "special" way but the interiors are just like any typical bed room.

And so it goes...a day in my life in Israel. Just when it felt like I have found a balance walking on a rope and can lift my head up to enjoy the view, the rope suddenly vibrates and gets me back to my original position...good it turned out false!