KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
For the “older” people — age forty or fifty — who had arthritis and other ailments, a woman maintained special tubs of mud from the Dead Sea. Because of my condition, I was given a key to ac- cess them and could go there whenever I wanted to take a shower or bath. I felt comfortable taking off my shoes there because it was private. Within a few days, I went to have my feet examined. The kibbutz doctors sent me to specialists in Haifa, including a plastic surgeon who decided to remove the metatarsal bones and much of the scar tissue. The surgery was performed at Carmel Hospital. After two weeks of excellent treatment, I was fitted with orthopedic shoes and released. Back at Yagur, I stayed in bed for a while, and my friends visited me every day. Gradually, my condition improved and life became much easier. I had much less pain when I walked. I became a normal guy, almost like everyone else. At the kibbutz, we were tested and grouped by level of education — some of the Dror children had never gone to school. Two madri- chim (counselors), Shoshana and Shlomo, were assigned to be our teachers and leaders, and they stayed with us from morning until late in the evening. We went to them with our problems. Shoshana was a sabra (a native-born Israeli) and not yet married. She taught the more advanced group, of which I was a part. Shlomo taught the other class. I am not sure whether he was born in Israel. He was married with three children. Being back in school was exciting, and we all worked very hard to advance our studies. There were problems to overcome, such as sickness and the emotional scars from the war, but we received unbelievably sensi- tive care. For instance, if the housemother found lice on one of the girls, she waited until the middle of the night to wash her hair, to spare her embarrassment, although her wet hair still gave her away in the morning. Kerosene was used for treating lice. If a child had a habit of bed-wetting, the night patrol would wake him up and take him to the bathroom. If someone needed medication in the middle of the night, they always got it. About five of the children in our
158
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online