On being a nudnik. The Big Storm. And other matters.

After months and months of fighting, we have finally won our war regarding Jojo’s gan. He now gets to go home at 1pm. Not ideal, as lunch is still a little late, in my opinion, for 2 small boys but its a lot better than it was. For a brief period, after our temporary ishur ran out, we were subjecting him to 2pm pick up times and the results were disastrous. To quote Husband “Where is my son.” The poor kid was tired, lying on the floor catatonic, unable to shift his cough. By the time he got back from gan and ate it was too late for a nap, and we fell into a hideous routine of just trying to survive til bedtime. Dinner was not really possible. Eventually he started saying he didn’t want to go to gan. I let him stay at home for 2 days because he was so exhausted.

Now we are back to 1pm, he comes home tired but not too tired do eat, there is a chance for some rest and he is able to do an afternoon activity, whereas previously he didn’t even have enough energy for a puzzle. He has not complained about going to gan, and comes home smiling again. I have my kid back. I have told other mums that they too can have a happy kid, if they fight for it. I am not sure whether there is something in the mindset here that discourages people attempting to fight the system [some sort of institutionalisation, perhaps] or whether people secretly enjoy that “extra hours peace”/free babysitting. All I can tell you is, I regard it as detrimental to my child’s physical and mental health, and to our family life.

How did we achieve this? I am proud to say that Husband has learnt to be a nudnik, as they say. He may be a polite Englishman, but he has learned that in this country, those who shout the loudest get what they want. I also emailed the Misrad Hachinuch. Husband drove them crazy with emails, including a video of Jojo lying on the floor, totally out of it, unable to communicate his needs, at around 4:30pm after a typical day at gan. We also sent them a scanned copy of an old ladybird book [anyone read it? its about telling the time. fabulous book] showing “Its 12 o’clock. The Children are EATING LUNCH.” Hint hint. Eventually, Husband received a response saying “Ok, here is the official form to say you can take him out at 1pm. Just PLEASE STOP EMAILING US.” !!!!

This Shout The Loudest technique is also the only way we have got our current landlords to show any interest in their house. We appear to have hideous luck with landlords. Currently, the house we are living in is in the centre of a divorce. And most unfortunately our rental contract ends on my due date! [See early posts about moving house with baby on way. Been there, done that.] The landlady has kindly agreed to “give me another month” which essentially means i get to give birth, move house and make pesach all in a few weeks. We have no idea why they are booting us out as there has not been a house sale in this yeshuv in 4 years. I can only imagine she feels the house will be easier to sell if its empty. Unfortunately, most of the original houses in the street are the product of lousy building. Most tenants have done them up, but there are several who are renting out their properties, and there seems to be a trend of Painting Over the Mould. When the rentees notice, they are told the problem will be dealt with in the summer. Then the rentees move out, the house gets painted and the next set of mugs move in to a cold damp house. Its atrocious. Until now, we have only found 1 or 2 damp spots and have been able to clean off the damage, but after 2 days of national flooding [and more to come] our house finally caved in. I could hear it during the night, and said to Husband “I can promise you, this old house is not going to weather the storm”. Sure enough Husband was up at 6 to discover water gushing through the roof via the electricity. To his credit, the landlord did finally turn up once we explained how dangerous this was. But we cannot use the upstairs and I dread to think what’s happening to our stuff up there. Even now, over one year after we left our last damp mouldy house, I am still reminded of it every time I open the sock drawer in my bedside table. The smell is still there.

Many of our friends on the yishuv suffered similar nightmares in these old creaky houses, which they rent whilst they build their own dream home. We have heard of friends, family of 4, living in 40 square metres. One couple informed me that their house was so incredibly cold and damp that they slept in hats! I am currently sitting here wearing Husbands camping jumper [why dont they make warm maternity clothes???], hiking socks and a blanket. Next to to the heater. Just to give those of you not living here an idea of how cold an Israeli house can actually get. I am so happy Jojo gets to go to gan and be warm for a few hours. I see the other kids sitting there wrapped in layers of fleece and I don’t get it as the place is a furnace, or perhaps it just feels like it as our house is so cold. Last week, during a lovely warm spell, a little girl was leaving gan and I overheard the ganenet saying “Did’t your mum send you in a Jumper? In this cold???” IT WAS TWENTY DEGREES CELSIUS. A summers day as far as I’m concerned. This woman should spend a day in our house if she wants to see what real cold is. Even our dog would rather be outside in her warm cosy kennel.

As usual Jojo requested his bedtime story this evening, so I told him the one about where there is a big storm coming so God tells him to build an ark for his family and put in his favourite animals from the yishuv. [sound familiar?] Anyway he loves anything involving building and animals plus we had the sound effects from outside so it went down well. “You’re the funniest mummy,” he declared happily at the end of the story, when after 4 days and 4 nights the ark floated back to dry land and we could all get off. Always nice when your kids appreciate you, but telling the story really made me commiserate with Mrs Noah. I mean, people always say the family were saved because Noah was a good guy, but I think he was chosen because frankly his wife is perhaps the only woman on earth who would have put up with such living conditions. Currently marooned on a hilltop for 4 days, with constant sheets of rain and no supermarket for miles, 2 small boys, 2 hamsters and a dog for company, I am starting to realise just how tough her life must have been. Plus she had to deal with the noise and smell of all those animals, goodness knows how she cooked (what did the family eat? They were vegetarians! Presumably she was a real whizz with lentils). I have no idea how she managed all the cooking, childcare and housework whilst her Husband walked around dealing with the animals and checking for leaks. I can’t imagine that Ark would have been so waterproof, being made from wood. No sealants around back then.

The weather report says we have 2 more days of storm. I have honestly never seen anything like it in my life. Apparently the Kinneret rose 10cms LAST NIGHT ALONE. I can quite imagine that. The storm was the noisiest one I have ever heard. The state of this house is making me slightly nervous about my plans for a home birth. Who wants to have a baby in a cold leaky room? On the other hand, having sat though the entire series of “Call the Midwife” (absolutely brilliant series) I am quite confident that babies can happily be born anywhere and fare very well. Whats a leaky roof compared to a 1930’s East End slum??!