Reality Sets In
Wow...
I was just evacuated from a country at war...
After four days of going, going, going the reality of what has just happened has finally set in. How does one talk about an experience like this. Very few people could even understand.
I'll never forget the balls of fire we saw to the north on Friday night, the dozens of aircraft flying north and then later flying south on that same night or my last time at Hippos. On the way down Kristina asked Dr. Schuler what would happen to us. Essentially he said we would stay at the dig and keep doing what we were doing unless..."Tiberias is hit...that's too close for comfort. If Tiberias is hit then we'll get the students out of here." Who could have guessed that less than two hours later Tiberias would in fact be hit...
I'll never forget that Saturday afternoon. Sitting in the dining hall we heard the explosion and felt the repurcusions as the windows rattled. "Tiberias just got hit," was my gut reaction. "That was just a low-flying plane," was what my heart wanted. In the end my gut got the better of my mind and we were on our way to Jerusalem. The rest is a whirlwind...
After a taxi and three buses we were at the Tel Aviv airport. Hours later we watched Amanda and Jessica go through security. A few hours after that it was Kristina's turn. She was followed by Stephanie and then Arny. A little over 24 hours later we were all safely through security, but this didn't come without it's scares either...
As we sat in the airport waiting for our chance to finally go through the security check and get out tickets (you can't go through security until about 3 hours before your flight, so we had a long wait when we got to the airport at 7 PM and didn't fly out until 7 AM) we were swiftly approached by security who told us to get up and move back.
I'll never forget those words, "Please move back here...leave your bags...move back here...LEAVE YOUR BAGS AND MOVE BACK HERE PLEASE EVERYONE!!!"
My stomach dropped to the floor.
Thankfully nothing ever came from this scare which I'm assuming was from an abandoned car or piece of luggage.
Food For Thought:
Have you ever watched Ice Age in Greek?
I was just evacuated from a country at war...
After four days of going, going, going the reality of what has just happened has finally set in. How does one talk about an experience like this. Very few people could even understand.
I'll never forget the balls of fire we saw to the north on Friday night, the dozens of aircraft flying north and then later flying south on that same night or my last time at Hippos. On the way down Kristina asked Dr. Schuler what would happen to us. Essentially he said we would stay at the dig and keep doing what we were doing unless..."Tiberias is hit...that's too close for comfort. If Tiberias is hit then we'll get the students out of here." Who could have guessed that less than two hours later Tiberias would in fact be hit...
I'll never forget that Saturday afternoon. Sitting in the dining hall we heard the explosion and felt the repurcusions as the windows rattled. "Tiberias just got hit," was my gut reaction. "That was just a low-flying plane," was what my heart wanted. In the end my gut got the better of my mind and we were on our way to Jerusalem. The rest is a whirlwind...
After a taxi and three buses we were at the Tel Aviv airport. Hours later we watched Amanda and Jessica go through security. A few hours after that it was Kristina's turn. She was followed by Stephanie and then Arny. A little over 24 hours later we were all safely through security, but this didn't come without it's scares either...
As we sat in the airport waiting for our chance to finally go through the security check and get out tickets (you can't go through security until about 3 hours before your flight, so we had a long wait when we got to the airport at 7 PM and didn't fly out until 7 AM) we were swiftly approached by security who told us to get up and move back.
I'll never forget those words, "Please move back here...leave your bags...move back here...LEAVE YOUR BAGS AND MOVE BACK HERE PLEASE EVERYONE!!!"
My stomach dropped to the floor.
Thankfully nothing ever came from this scare which I'm assuming was from an abandoned car or piece of luggage.
Food For Thought:
Have you ever watched Ice Age in Greek?
1 Comments:
Cameron,
I'm replying to the Goldstar and Pols entry (couldn't find anywhere to leave a comment there). May I suggest a better term for "old people"? "Mature adults" would be one option; "those with more life experience," a phrase used by one of the parents regarding Darryl and me during the evacuation, would be another suggestion. I may feel every day of my middle age on the dig site, but I'm a long way from being old!
Glad you are still blogging!
Rhoda
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