A Day in Even Shmuel
So we’ve settled in to our new lives quite nicely. This year marks the first year when all of our daughters are in school. My oldest, Elizabeth or Lizzy as her friends call her, is now in 5th grade (Kitah Hey). She really enjoys the freedom she has to walk to and from school and her friends’ houses. Even thought the adjustment was difficult for her, this year promises to be much easier. My next oldest, Yaffa, is in 3rd grade (Kitah Gimel). She struggles with learning so adding a whole new language on top of that was very challenging for her. I am very impressed with how our school continues to help her feel comfortable learning. My next daughter is Chaya. She’s in 1st grade (Kital Alef) now. This is a super exciting year because she is learning to read. She picked up the language faster than I ever thought possible. Within three months of our move last year, she was already understanding and speaking. My youngest, Rina just started preschool (Gan). She is enjoying it so much and I’m confident she’ll be speaking in no time flat.
As for me, well, I decided that I wanted to work from home. This was a tough decision for me because pre-Aliyah I was an education director at a synagogue and spent a great deal of time working within our community. I was so thankful that within six months I was able to find an opportunity to do audio transcribing. I currently work for a company that is based here in Israel but receives jobs from the Unites States. I love the work that I do and I love the flexible hours. I typically work when the girls are at school but if God forbid someone is sick or needs something I am available and can work in the evening if necessary.
The community here is truly amazing. We have about 150 families and there are two sections, the “old” part and the “new” part. In the new part there is constant construction and the Yeshuv is expanding and improving on a daily basis. We can see it happening before our very eyes. I love the location as well. The closest city is Kirat Gat. We go there for all of our daily needs. It’s less than a 10 minutes drive. We have three different grocery stores; Victory, which is my favorite because the prices are the best, Supersol, which is also nice because it has a larger selection and Megabol. You can pretty much find anything you need. There is a small mall and a variety of stores with everything from clothing to household items. There is also a small but very fun shuk in the center of town every Wednesday.
There are times however when I have an itch to go to a bigger city to find more of a selection. When I get that feeling all I have to do is either hop on a bus or take my car and drive to Beersheva, only 30 minutes away. We are also so lucky because we are only 25 minutes away from the most beautiful beaches in Ashkelon, where we pretty much spent every waking moment this past summer. This is one of the best parts because being from Cincinnati, Ohio we had no beaches anywhere near us. My husband who has a strong connection to Jerusalem is also thrilled that we are only a little more than an hour from there. We can take family trips there on school breaks.
All in all I am very eager to continue to become more comfortable in my surrounding as well as be as helpful as possible to those new to our Yeshuv as well as new Olim in the south.
