Back on the West Bank—temps hover at 0 Centigrade
And Electricity cuts are routine. Israel started cutting power in November to selected areas because of unpaid bills. This happened in 2015 as well. Life is tough here!
I am told the temps in the lower 30s Fahrenheit this morning are unusually cold. It will continue for the next 2 days. Coming from the Midwest and most recently the Northeastern US, these are not unfamiliar to me. But here schools started an hour later. Some buildings are not well heated. I’m living in one of those.
My Tiger and Mickey Mouse blankets keep me warm along with my space heater. I pull it after me like a dog on a leash, except when I sleep. Then I crawl into my sleeping bag with an additional blanket on top and thick socks on my feet. I know how to layer.
But lots of space heaters use extra electricity, more consumption, more money, hence the continued cuts.
Yesterday, a colleague who lives in a town near the border was without electricity for 7 hours and she couldn't use the nebulizer for her child with asthma. Her husband couldn’t run his coffee café. That’s a day of lost wages. Today at the medical school many faculty and students wore their coats even when the electricity was on. When it turned off, the generator ran the lights, but no computers, no space heaters, and the internet didn't function. How much work can you do ?
But people steel themselves, hunker down and soldier on. Sunday lectures continued as the professor opened the window shades for light. The doctors switched their focus to her laptop instead of the white board where the projector had projected the images of the Ottawa Rule for ordering x-rays for an ankle injury. Ten minutes later the generator kicked in.
My personal experience with no electricity at home occurred when I returned from a late afternoon walk planning to call family in the US. 4 PM here and 9 AM there, a reasonable time to check in on a Sunday. No lights as evening approached. No internet. I put a flashlight in my pocket and piled up my blankets—no space heater without electricity. No hot water for tea. Would family worry? They were expecting my call. How long would this last? I’d dealt with this in Ingushetia/Chechnya in 2000 on the MSF mission. Every evening, I put a flashlight in my pocket and grew pretty adept at tolerating cold showers and eating cold food.
To ratchet up the pain, Israel banned the import of agricultural products from Palestine at the end of January. In return, I am told, Palestine won’t import products. “There go the strawberries,” someone said. "Watch the stores."
But people seem used to the inconvenience or have adjusted to tolerating it. "The cold will pass in 2 weeks," the family medicine department chair told me. Spring comes. Life goes on and the electricity did come back on in an hour, so I uploaded this post.
And I can see the beginning evidence. Everything is greener. I noticed Persian cyclamen hidden in the grass and pink and white blooms cover the branches of the almond trees. The birdman, a professor I met last fall, who shivered in his coat as he fought off an upper respiratory infection, reminded me that the spring migration would start soon. Birds wintering in Africa fly to Europe and Asia to breed. "Quite a sight to behold." This is the time and place to be as a bird watcher! Stay tuned.