In Hebrew I have limited speech
In Netanya when down at the beach
I saw a man with a pole
And I missed out on my goal:
For fishing he had something to teach.
Synopsis: I’m a Family Practitioner from Sioux City, Iowa. In 2010 I danced back from the brink of burnout, and, honoring a 1 year non-compete clause, traveled and worked in out0of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. I followed 3 years Community Health Center work with more travel and adventures in temporary positions in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Canada, and Alaska. 2019 included hospitalist work in my home town and rural medicine in northern British Columbia. Since the pandemic started, I did 10 months of telemedicine in my basement, staffed a COVID-19 clinic in southeast Iowa, visited family, attended funerals, and worked as a contractor for the Veterans Administration in South Dakota. We recently traveled to Israel.
Because of travel and internet access problems, some posts are out of order.
We traveled to Jerusalem the Sunday after Passover.
Israel has very good public transportation. We took the bus from Be’er Sheva; the train would route us through Tel Aviv. We hadn’t counted on the heavy traffic of Easter Sunday. Nor on the heavy pedestrian traffic in the Old City.
From the bus station we took the light rail to the edge of the Old City. We joined the throngs and walked narrow streets polished by uncountable number of shoes. I worry that people will slip and fall during the rare rains. Not a problem during our stay.
Our visit to the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism, evoked a depth of emotion I hadn’t expected, and which I cannot explain.
Afterwards, at the opposite side of the plaza, I chatted in Spanish with a Jewish family from Mexico City. When asked, I told them I come from Sioux City, Iowa, but I didn’t stick around to explain why I speak Spanish.
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Two days later, Adam, our son-in-law, took us to the beach in Netanya. I found the water cold (not as thrillingly cold as my swim in Barrow: https://walkaboutdoc.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/the-tourists-tundra-tour-a-visit-to-browers-cafe-and-a-polar-bear-plunge/) and the shells in the sand unfriendly. I didn’t go in further than my navel. On ramp up from the beach, we chatted with a man carrying a fishing pole.
I don’t have enough Hebrew to do the fisherman’s banter that starts with “You doin’ any good?” I could do no better than “You pull out fish?” That casual sportsman’s conversation thinly masks the desire to get better at angling. I couldn’t learn anything about how to fish the Mediterranean.
We ate at a restaurant owned by a Jewish French-Israeli family. For French, Adam has fluent, I have very rough, and Bethany understands pretty well.
Different immigrants tend to different places in Israel, and judging from signage and the language heard in the street, France sent a lot of people to Netanya.
A lot of Israelis take time off during the 8-day Passover holiday and travel inside and outside the country. Netanya’s crowds reminded me of Estes Park, Colorado, in the summer: shoulder-to-shoulder pedestrians, but in Israel without the elk, and 5 critical blocks of heaviest traffic had no cars.
I’m Jewish and I visited Israel. I don’t write about politics, religion, or sex. See https://walkaboutdoc.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/why-i-dont-write-about-religion-politics-or-sex/
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