Going home...and leaving Yeshaya

[Guest guest]

This is it, the last night of our present Israel trip. Tonight after

Sabbath, some of the yeshivah boys came by to clear us out of any

leftover food, then we packed and dumped our cases at El Al's advance

checkin service, so tomorrow we only have hand luggage. Tavya and

Dov who are coming home with us (till Wednesday unless Zehava shows

imminent signs of getting engaged in which case they will stay

longer) have a more upmarket check in system than we poor mortals,

(the King Club) so they don't bother with the advanced checkin.

Zehava has been a bit iffy about whether she wants Tavya around when

she goes out on her first " shidduch " after all. Part of her needs

her sister's support, and help with getting dressed/madeup etc, but

another part wants to be the total focus of all attention at home,

and not have it diluted by having T & D & Rafi around. Tavya, astute as

always, guessed this, and offered to stay with her in laws instead,

but I think it has all been resolved during my Sabbath afternoon nap.

Tavya has promised to be around only when needed and to make herself

scarce (well she does have a LOT of Dov's family to visit, and

shopping to do) when Zehava wants space.

Meanwhile Yeshaya has been putting on a bit of emotional blackmail

which made me a bit distressed. Last night he actually asked DH to

sit and learn the Talmudic texts with him (an almost unheard of

event...he has always avoided learning with DH like the plague) and

afterwards said that now he is in Israel in yeshivah, we have nothing

to keep us in London, and we should move here. He said he needs us!

I felt terrible leaving him here if he needs us so much. I told him

that it wasn't feasible to emigrate but we would spend much more time

here now he was here and we had no one in school in London.

Today Zehava told me that he had more or less told her that he could

get us to agree to move here as a kind of dare!!! ( " I can get Mum to

do what I want! " ) So I felt much better about the guilt!

We were a bit worried about what he would do with himself for the

next few days until the new term begins on Thursday of this week, but

the yeshivah boys have arranged a two day hiking trip up north to the

Galilee : Tiberias, Lake Kinneret, (known as the Sea of Galilee) etc,

with what seemed to me to be life-threateningly exciting activities

planned, such as banana boating and APV'ing, but the boys assured me

it's all fun and not TOO dangerous. Gee thanks! They are camping

out under the stars, making a BBQ, etc. They have a bus with driver

to take them there and back. I have paid about 50 quid for the trip,

and he seems very excited about it.

So tomorrow we leave this house around 2 pm. In the morning I want

to help Yeshaya get his stuff back to his flat which he shares with

four other guys, and make his bed. My God what squalor the boys live

in, but it's not the flat itself, it's the way they keep it, or don't

keep it. Rubbish everywhere, no cleaning done that I could see, etc.

They'd need a full time cleaner to pick up after them, to make any

difference.

We'll come back here whenever we can; I can see the next trip being

sometime Dec or Jan.

Ruthie