Across the Atlantic we flew
As the night spread west cross the blue
We stopped in Tel Aviv
And you can believe
That I talked with a group from Peru.
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 out-of-the-way places in Alaska, Nebraska, Iowa, and New Zealand. After 3 Community Health years, I took temporary gigs in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Canada, and Alaska. Since the pandemic, I worked telemedicine, a COVID-19 clinic, a VA clinic, and spots Texas, Iowa, and Pennsylvania. I am back in Iowa, circuit riding rural clinics.
Right now I’m on vacation in Israel. I’m Jewish and I don’t write about religion or politics. See my post https://walkaboutdoc.wordpress.com/2010/09/13/why-i-dont-write-about-religion-politics-or-sex/
ISRAEL TRIP DAY 1
I tried a new strategy for avoiding jet lag: pulling an all-nighter.
I gravitated towards bad sleep management in elementary school, before the diagnosis of ADD, when I found the only time I could study was after everyone went to bed. High school poured on the academic pressure with surprise assignments at the last minute, figuring to teach us how to work under pressure. And after we found out we could do that, and at the same time found out that working ahead did no good, we became experts at the undergraduate’s game of procrastination and put everything off till the last minute. Radio, med school, residency, and obstetrics taught me further sleep deprivation skills. I know how to stay up all night, yet, surprisingly, I didn’t make coffee a habit till the pandemic.
But through the long dark hours over the Atlantic I took a cup of coffee every 2 to 4 hours, only yielding to sleep when I thought I might develop motion sickness from reading through turbulence.
I forgot to take melatonin last night, though I had brought it with me.
Today we walked around Tel Aviv, taking in history and street celebrations, but still I nodded off in the tour bus.
I found the people visibly stressed. Perhaps because of a large city’s population density, perhaps because everyone was touched by the October 7 slaughter and kidnappings, and almost everyone has connections to the 57 who remain in captivity.
And perhaps because in the entirety of human history the Middle East has never known peace, thus everyone lives in a war zone.
At dinner in Kibbutz Lavi, we ran into a group dressed in blue gowns trimmed in gold, from Lima, Peru. Our bunch had thought them priests and nuns, but in fact these ten people belong to the Evangelical Association of the Israelite Mission of the New Universal Covenant, or AEMINDP. I struck up a conversation. Their beliefs include Sabbath observance, Jewish dietary laws, the divinity of Jesus, and male circumcision, among others. None speak Hebrew, all speak Spanish, and most speak Quechua. I expressed regret that I don’t speak even a single word of that language, and asked that they teach me to say Thank You; I learned anyay (last syllable stressed); later using Google I found a different word if thanking more than one person.
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