Bringing you up to date

Here in Shlomi we are used to the occasional '‘boom’', I have nicknamed them ‘love-messages’ from Hizbollah.

So the first boom on Wednesday was no big deal. Even when a friend from Shlomit, the new part of Shlomi which is closer to the border, phoned to say she couldn'’t come round because they had been ordered into the shelters I wasn’'t too concerned. It’'s not that unusual and I knew the summer camp staff would be well versed in safety procedures.

But I did turn both my Internet and the TV to the news and then I began to appreciate that this was serious.

At 11am the Matnas phoned to ask us to take the children home from summer camp. I don'’t drive but my father offered a lift and we kept to our plan of visiting my parents for lunch.

They live only about 1 km from the border and can see that green ridge of separation from their house. We spent most of the afternoon in their security room in the company of several terrified pet dogs, eyes glued to the TV news with the constant boom and rattle of gun and artillery fire in our ears. Whenever there was a particularly loud explosion my daughter would leap into my arms.

On his return from work my husband came to pick us up and as we drove home we could see the brown smoke of battle billowing up from behind the ridge and there was strong smell of gunfire in the air.

Our home is about 2 km from the border on the other side of Shlomi and it was a lot quieter than at my parents'. We could only hear the loudest booms and, of course, all the air traffic. Even so our children slept in the security room.

Thursday morning the boom of the katuyshas woke me as they passed over us on the way to Naharia. After checking the internet and TV news there were phone calls: some to friends in Naharia and many from friends elsewhere in Israel offering us help and a place to escape. Even our friends from the Reform Movement in Jerusalem phoned to show their support and to ask if they could help in anyway. Our friends abroad also sent emails to check we are ok.

One pleasant surprise at 9am: my husband arrived back home. All places of business had been closed so an impromptu holiday.

Later in the evening a quick check in our kitchen brought the realisation that our supplies just weren'’t up to the task of feeding 4 people at least 3 times a day for heaven knows how long. We would need plenty of snacks to munch our way through the boredom of being stuck in the house.

We ran through a mental list of all the supermarkets in the area getting further and further away until we decided that the Kirion (The Mall of the North) was far enough away to be safe.

Naturally as we wandered round we met most of my husband's family and about a dozen of his work colleagues so it took a lot longer than expected. I had great time in the supermarket, armed with an unassailable excuse to buy all those special treats that are really beyond our budget.

When we got home we rushed the children into the security room and even before tidying away the shopping we turned on the news.. and heard about the missile landing in Haifa.

ES