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‘From the Promised Land to The Lucky Country'

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--- an autobiography by Renate

---- It is 1933, and Eretz Israel, which the British call Palestine, is for the better part, a hot, dry and desolate place
----of desert and swamps. An inhospitable, neglected part of the world, harbouring amongst others things, several
----severe ailments such as malaria, dysentery, typhoid and trachoma: a land in waiting for-those who yearn to
----reclaim her.

----Scantily dispersed here and there, often bordered by fruit-bearing cactus and low stonewalls, are some small and
----poor Arab Falach villages. Their box-like houses, attached to each other, piled up or stuck to the side of a hill or -----------mountain, as the terrain dictates, merge into their surroundings. Houses, no larger than a couple of rooms at
----most and accommodating man and beast alike, built from sun-dried bricks of local soil mixed with straw, glisten
----in the sun from the drying hay on their flat roof tops. They have neither kitchens nor conveniences, and water is
----carried in large clay vessels from the local well, or river, on the heads of their-beautiful, yet always pregnant
----women...

***

----Even-Yehuda is our home now, and it is one year old; a small settlement in the centre of the Israeli plains of
----Shfelat Hasharon not far from the Arab township of Tul-karem. Around us, and for as far as the eye can see,
----the land is reddish and virgin with not a tree in sight, yet alive with constantly flying sand, ants, flies,
----cockroaches and many other insects of the sub-tropical climate. Complementing these, and in the not so far
----distance, are the malaria-carrying mosquitoes that make their home in the many existing swamps.

------
---------------- - ------Our home -------------------- Dad's clinic in build - the only bulding...

----Like all our neighbours we live in a large converted wooden crate, normally used for transporting furniture and
----household goods around the world. Their wooden planks, covered in black-tarred sheathing to shield them from
----seawater, make our home hot like a furnace. We have one room, a floor consisting of one of the crate's walls, and
----a-kitchen which is just a designated corner in the room with no sink or water. There, our few saucepans and
----utensils -hang on nails hammered into the crate's wall, and Mum has a single-flame kerosene burner called a
----Primus to cook on. It consists of a brass container in the shape of a round bread loaf with a pump protruding
----from its side, and a hollow vertical tube from its centre. At the top of this tube is a lighting mechanism with a
----small metal saucer underneath. This is filled with methylated spirits, which is then fired and pumped to get the
----thing going. Over the lighting mechanism is a small, flat, rounded piece of metal on which the saucepans are
----precariously balanced. It is always hard to light, often clogs, and is liable to explode. And when we are all down
----with malaria and Mother has a sudden violent attack of it while boiling laundry on the Primus, she gets burnt,

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***

----I'm all alone in the darkened rear of the ambulance's cabin; the body on the stretcher, on the floor between the
----two bunks lining the cabin's sides, is covered by a grey army blanket. The ambulance is swaying from side to
----side on the unsealed, rocky road, and so is the stretcher. I place my foot on its frame, trying to keep it from moving.
----As I look down, I see a bluish-white toe protruding out of the blanket pointing at me; and I am afraid.

----No. That‘s not right; it's not a feeling of fright. It's an eerie feeling of an outstanding loneliness, of the greatest
----loneliness in the world - such as I have never felt before. But why? I don't know. The falling bombs outside ...

***

----Nagel and Marg have a second-hand motorbike with a sidecar. Being very handy, they repair it and fix both the
----bike and the sidecar to look like new. Loving it, and in need of some type of transportation to get to work and
----back, we purchase one as well for the princely sum of £ 50, thinking we can do the same with our motorbike.
----Well, the one we buy badly needs an overhaul and new upholstery. The overhaul costs £ 25 as quoted, plus a £6
----charge for a part the mechanic broke in the process, and the work is so badly done Moshiko has to redo it. This
----is a very expensive lesson. From now on, if we want a job to turn out well, we will have to do it ourselves.

----The re-upholstering, though, does not turn out as it should; we buy a very good, brand-new sewing machine,
----some vinyl off-cuts in red and some in green, some fillings, a pair of large scissors and thread, and I start
----working. I cut the vinyl into elongated triangular strips which I sew together alternating the colours. It is
----designed to fit over the fillings I place on the seat's backrest, to hold it in place, but it does not work. Stretching
----it in every direction, talking to it, cursing it, re-sewing it - nothing works. Frustrated and long out of pocket...

----At the point where Brazil meets with Argentina and Paraguay, the Parana River changes from an extremely calm
----river in Argentina to become “The Falls of Iguacu” on both sides of the Argentinean/Brazilian boarder, before it
----continues its way across Brazil. The curtains of Niagara Falls, as impressive as they are, dwarf to the size of an
----ant against a giant of an elephant, when compared with the Falls of Iguacu; and if superimposed here, you may
----not even recognise their existence. The largest falls in the world, though...

***

----With the inside of the hull exposed, we are going to fill its bottom with the required seven tons of ballast before
----the deck is put on. It is to go into two pre-prepared cavities, located along both sides of the boat's centre drop
----keel housing.

-------
From the sailboat's open hull to the finished yacht

----... I forget to ask Gerry how many bags I can take at one time, so I ask the man whom we buy them from,
----‘The bags are very heavy, aren't they?' I say, ‘How many do you think is safe to carry in one go?
----'‘Don't worry,' the man replies, ‘you can take the lot. She'll be right.'
----Well, Moke's brakes are known to be not of the best, so I think I'd better travel very slowly. Halfway back, I
----realise ‘She is not right' ...

***

----For months I have dreaded the minute of arriving to write about this period, which is now here. I did not know
----how to handle it and I was afraid. I was afraid to lift the thousands and thousands of band-aids I have put on it
----and lay my wound open again. But if I do not deal with it now I’ll never be able to do so, and then, I’ll be unable
----to finish my book. And I am sure that at one time or another I must face it again, to help it heal.
----I woke up at 3 o’clock this morning. My pillow wet from tears and my eyes swollen...

***

----The Judge enters. He looks as ancient as can be, and is made to look even more so, with the white, straw looking
----like the wig he is wearing, and we wonder if he is still all here. We have been assured he is well versed with
----compensation cases, and is good in what he is doing, so we hope for the best.
----“Yes?” He says to our barrister, prompting the start of the case.
---- Tension grows. We straiten in our seats, and look...

***
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