Sof Sof...Yesh li Bayit

Ok so it wasn't the brighest idea to come back to Israel and not have organised a place to live...but you know everything works out in the end and now I have an amazing apartment towards the end of Emek...a few doors down from my favourite Cafe Hillel where I am sitting right now. Chanukat Bayit pending... I really wanted to put up some pics from the past few weeks but I forgot to download them...been a bit pre-occupied with painting my walls...buying Armenian tiles and harassing the bed makers to deliver my bed.

Work is you know...going....I am starting to wonder who is working in all the hospitals in Russia since litereally every Doctor here is Russian. Standards of health care are amazing...(not) I noticed today that one of the windows in a room was being kept open by a wooden stool...interesting solution. I can't help but notice that at least half the patients are Arab. Hebrew is not enough to work here you need Arabic and Russian as well. So now I can say breathe deeply in about 5 languages...always a great pick up line.

Going back to the whole Arab issue...despite what you read in the headlines etc, it is interesting to see that they are being treated equally and better than in their own hospitals here. We often get referrals from their hospitals, and they come here out of choice as well. Where their own 'government' is failing them...Israel picks up the pieces anyway...despite politics, they are treated the same as any other patient, when raising this issue with workmates they mentioned stories of terrorists who injured themselves while carrying out attacks and have been treated in Israeli hospitals.

I think it's important to recognise these acts of Israel which they do not always get credit for and aren't reported in the news, that we would provide social services to someone who decides to blow themselves up in the middle of town...That for me speaks louder about Israel's moral identity than building a wall. I'd also be upset about a wall being build that would block access to decent medical services and I will now have to rely on my own regime who don't care about their people. This reminds me of Dr Ticho...the husband to the artist Anna ticho who would provide eyecare to anyone around his area pf his house...Arab and Jew alike.

Sitting in a taxi I request to go to Baka which is actually the old Arabic name for the area...the new name Geulim is hardly used...the taxi driver asks me if I know where the name Baka comes from..."Do I know that this area used to all be Arab?" he asks me...I tread carefully...I know...and I think to myself... we are both probably a lot better off now that it isn't, since I now have a home their to live in, and he has a good hospital that he can attend if necessary, without predjudice.