According to the local paper, two children aged 3.5 and 4 disappeared from gan (preschool) without anyone realizing. At around 11 AM, the ganenet noticed that they didn’t return to the gan after playtime in the fenced area outside. After a thorough search of the premises failed to locate the children, the staff realized that they must have gotten out. The ganenet set off in search of them, going as far as the children’s homes.
During this entire time the ganenet failed to alert any authorities about the disappearance. Finally, at 1:15, she called the police and the children’s parents. The children were found at 2:20, about five blocks from the gan. They would have had to have crossed several busy streets.
Update:
I’ve been thinking about this since I posted, and all I can say is, “What was this ganenet thinking?” The fact that the kids escaped is scandalous enough, although that is not an uncommon occurrence in Israel. But once she realized they were lost, she chose her own reputation over the safety of the children. She hoped to find them herself, and no one would be the wiser. But even if she had found them, they were old enough to talk and presumably would not have been able to keep such an adventure a secret.
Just think how much easier it would have been to find them, had they only been gone ten minutes when she called the police.
Another bizarre part of the story is that no one found the children wandering around this busy area of town (they ended up near the bus station). Israelis tend to get involved when they see children in dangerous situations.
This scene on the floor of my kitchen spoke to me somehow. So let your imagination run wild; I will publish the best captions next week (bli neder).
On Sunday I tore a tendon or muscle in my calf and have to stay off my feet for a few days (by now I can limp around a bit). So while I am exempted from housework (by whom I don’t know) and have plenty time to sit at my computer, I am busy with other things. The blogging muse seems to have abandoned me for the time being.
It’s my mother’s yahrzeit (anniversary of death) today; it’s a good time to repost my (unfinished) series from last year about motherhood. Introduction and Part I.
In the excellent book On Writing Well by William Zinsser (see my Library Thing sidebar–thank you Wolf), the author suggests improving your writing by imitating other writers you admire. My most recent post on cooking is modelled on Frugal Journey, Raanana Ramblings inspired my post on Efi, and the following is the kind of story that Rafi would tell.
On Friday we made a shiva call (visit to comfort a mourner) to our neighbor, who lost his mother. While there the neighbor mentioned that his father’s family has run the hevra kadisha (burial society) in Jerusalem for generations, and told the following story.
During the forties, young Arabs disrupted the funerals on Har Hazeitim (Mt. of Olives) by yelling and throwing stones. Our neighbor’s grandfather, head of the hevra kadisha, decided to put a stop to this once and for all. He dressed in tachrichim (traditional burial garments) and had the hevra kadisha carry him on a stretcher to the cemetery. When the stones started flying, the hevra kadisha ran away and left the grandfather on the ground. The stonethrowers cautiously approached the “corpse,” who suddenly came to life and started shouting. He had a long beard and cut quite a formidable figure; they probably thought he was the Angel of Death.
Afterward the funerals at Har Hazeitim proceeded without interruption, at least until 1948 when the Jews were denied access for the next nineteen years.
I recently gave a talk to young mothers entitled, “Is there anything to eat in this house?” We all want to open our refrigerators and find delicious healthy food, but it won’t get there by itself. I spoke generally, trying to break down the different cooking tasks — those things that experienced homemakers hardly think about. Through awareness of what exactly makes cooking time-consuming and difficult, struggling cooks can develop useful strategies for kitchen management.
Most people figure out how to manage in the kitchen eventually. But I also meet some who are floundering under meal preparations, and rely on prepared foods or take-out more than they would like. Even many experienced homemakers never learned how to store food properly, operate appliances efficiently, or use up leftovers. It’s just one more example of how the art of homemaking has been lost.
During the talk I touched on a few ways to save time in each of five categories (with a lot of overlap).
Shabbat shalom and happy cooking.
I go into more detail about efficient cooking at CookingManager.Com.
Related: Is Homemade Food Worth the Effort?
Scandal Tarnishes Holy Land Baseball Diamonds
Hat tip: TR
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