This morning had me waking up in Jerusalem and heading off to Yad Vashem – the Israeli Holocaust museum.  Now I’ve been to the Holocaust museum in Washington before and spent a lot of time there, but nothing prepared me for the emotion and depth of tragedy I felt while I went through.  As it was the eve of Shabbat, it was only open until 14:00.  I was there from the minute it opened at 09:00 until 14:00 and I still hadn’t gone through it all when I had to leave.  I can only shake my head.  It wasn’t the pictures or the facts, so much as the stories that were told.  I don’t recommend it for the faint of heart.  Perhaps some people rush through, but my emotions were pretty raw by the time I left.  In one room, there was just a pile of shoes … a lot of old, leather shoes … and it wasn’t art.

The there was the airport incident.  I don’t have a lot of time to tell the full story, but as I’m arriving at Ben Gurion to pick up Coralie and Merri, I get an email from Harry saying that Coralie missed a connection and won’t be here until tomorrow at 05:25.  I feel bad for her – that can’t be fun.  So I wait for Merri.  I believe I recall her telling me that she’s flying through Milan, but I can’t be sure.  I wait and wait for half an hour for her to come out – but no Merri.  I really begin to second guess myself on the flight and kicking myself that I didn’t have the foresight to ask her for flight numbers.  After 45 minutes, I think I better call Andrew to see if she called him with a canceled flight or something.  Nope.  He confirms that she’s on the flight I thought she was.  (BTW – any emergencies and you can call me on my mobile number – I’ll answer.)  I don’t want him to worry so I tell him that she’s probably just not through yet.  I mean, with 400 people on the plane going through Immigration, who knows what happened?  After an hour or so, I go to Alitalia to check if she made her connection.  "I’m sorry sir.  For security and privacy reasons, we can’t divulge that information."  They can’t tell me anything.  Crazy.  What happened if she was lost, kidnapped, or fell out the window.  Anyway, after an hour and a half, I have them page her.  Nothing.  Now I don’t want to worry or anything, but there have been at least a dozen flights since hers came in, and there’s no way that it takes two hours to go through security and pick up bags.

Well … apparently it does if they think you’re a menace to society.  Does Merri look like a menace to society to you?  For almost two full hours they interrogated her on itinerary, schedule, plans, etc.  She told them that she didn’t have it, but that at any minute her sister would be coming through with all the information (not knowing that Coralie was delayed), but no bananas.  Eventually, they let her go.  For the full details, check on Merri’s site.  Oh wait, you can call her when she’s home.  Right now she’s sleeping.

I don’t get worried – and I was worried.  Thankfully all persons are present and accounted for – and should be sleeping.  Like me. Smile! 🙂