Tough days

4th July, 2004

Location: Adora settlement, West Bank.
Last night, me and Ido were patrolling for almost the whole night. Our guys (soldiers from my battery who currently serve with us in protecting Adora) had a barbecue and fried chips, but they didn't allow us to stay and wait until the food is ready - we had to start our patrol. Despite my radio request to inform us when it's ready so we could come and take our portions, they completely forgot about us and ate everything.

The citizens of Adora gathered around a campfire and made barbecue as well, but they didn't offer us any, although we were ordered to guard them (and drool in the process...)

Later, Oren, one of the soldiers, made us pancakes and scrambled eggs. Thanks! :) Even though I try to eat only healthy food, it's almost impossible to maintain any form of diet in the army, especially in the territories - where the food supply is very limited.

This morning, a Palestinian fired on one of our military trucks. The soldiers in the truck didn't respond and drove away instead. It happened on the road somewhere, a mile or two from here.

After guarding around 8 hours at night, sleeping 3 hours, cleaning "the villa" (that's how we call our settlement's 5-star barracks here, and it's literally a big villa house), cleaning the weapon, preparing for our morning's disciplinary (takes 2 hours) and eating nothing but a piece of bread with jam (we ran out of food supply), me and Ido were called to provide a reinforcement to the existing forces.

I only had to guard 30 minutes. Ido (who's also younger than me, in military terms) is stil there. I'm supposed to guard 8 hours again tonight and in addition be awake for 1.5 hours, in charge of the radio communications, listening and waking everyone up if something happens. If I don't collapse, I will become a lunatic - something that has happened to me tonight...

According to my teammates, I woke up at 2a.m. - 2 hours before my shift, sat on the bed and mumbled a few phrases in Russian, then I climbed down from my upper bed when Oren entered the room, finishing his patrol and asked me what I was doing, awake in the middle of the night and I said: "NEED TO PROTECT THE SETTLEMENT". This is the third time that during my military service that guys say I was talking in my sleep. But this time I was like LUNATIC! Gosh! Also - I normally don't snore, at least not before I was drafted, but now everyone tells me I snore very loudly every night! Some people kick my bed while I sleep so I'd stop snoring, others put ear plugs because of me. *sigh* I think I need a psychiatrist...

This morning Palestinian militants opened fire at an Israeli vehicle near Mavo Dotan - the Israeli driver was killed. Mavo Dotan and Hermesh are two nearby settlements that are located near Jenin and it's where me and my battery used to serve half a year ago. Some of my friends from the battery recognized this man from the picture in the newspaper. That's really sad...

You know, some people in the army have gray hair - they're only 18-21 years old and already have most of their head covered in gray hair. I really hope my hair will stay blonde just as it is.

In our barracks there are soldiers from my battery and some reservist soldiers (who have replaced the rookie soldiers from "Egoz" - the ones I mentioned in the previous post)

During my patrol this evening, I've noticed how 2 of these reservists knocked on somebody's door in the settlement. I wondered why... Later we were told that 2 men have robbed a woman whle pretending to be hungry soldiers. I confirmed that and told the commanders who they were. It appears that the two asked the woman for food, complaining that the army doesn't feed them. As the woman let them in, the two probably didn't even ask for her permission before reaching out for the refrigerator and stealing food.

Even though we are low on food most of the time, it is unacceptable for us, soldiers, to knock on people's doors, beg for food, or worse - grab it without permission from someone's refrigerator.