Hospital and Things

I awoke on Tuesday morning, my wife looked at me (yes, she still does even after 45 years!!) and in shock told me that I had gone yellow skinned.

This started a train of events that led me within 3 hours to the emergency ward of the Benei Zion hospital in Haifa and a 3 day sojourn.

Cutting out all the gory details, it appears that a couple of small stones and some “botz” (this can be roughly translated as “mud” but the term is also used colloquially for Turkish coffee) had caused a blockage in the gall bladder. The tests and preparation were carried out within 3 hours and I then found myself in a ward awaiting a cat scan and ultimately a procedure to remove the offending “intruders”.

This short stay gave me my own personal insight into our so called “Apartheid State”.In the emergency room, I could be forgiven for thinking I was in Russia, it seemed to be the dominant language in use and even the television was screening a Russian language programme.

In the ward I was taken to, there was a really friendly guy, a Druze, from Daliyat el Carmel http://www.druzehistoryandculture.com/other_places.htm in the first bed, we had some great conversation but it came to an abrupt end when he was released and sent home. Then there was an Arab citizen from Shfaram http://groups.msn.com/waldorfs with whom I spent a lot of time talking. One subject we all agreed upon was the tremendous health care facilities available to all throughout the country. I really wonder if any of our opponents pushing the apartheid story really know what life is like here. Probably not – it would destroy their “agenda”.

And so after three days, I am back at home, the only criticism of my time in hospital was the absence of Wi-Fi but then one does need a break from the computer now and again – no?