Stairway to Heaven

Lots of stairs on our hilly base. We are located between Haifa and Tiberias at the skinniest part of Israel. It is a tank base and we are a communications unit set in the middle. We all work in one three story building and eat our lunch there too. Breakfast and dinner are in the main dining hall, one staircase down from our dorm. At dinner time  it is pitch black and there is no outside lighting so we have to depend on our flashlights.

Our workday goes like this. Up about 6:30, shower and dress in uniform. Walk down two flights of stairs to street level and walk along narrow path to another set of stairs.

Go down and short walk to breakfast at 7:30. Then we walk back up to dorm level, go behind the dorm and climb a steep flight of stairs to the next level.

Walk a ways and go behind a supply building to climb another flight of stairs.

That is the street in front of the work building. Up more stairs at 8:15 for the flag raising where all the communication workers are present.

The regulars have role call and may have to show their work papers. One regular and one volunteer raise and salute the flag. Afterwards we have a short meeting and get a world news update.

Now we trudge up a few steps into our building and then up to the third floor where we work and eat lunch.

We have a unisex bathroom on the third floor, the ladies only bathroom is on the first floor so I rarely use it. Needless to say there are no elevators anywhere. We work until 4:30 with a break in the morning and afternoon. There are picnic tables outside in the back and we usually congregate there. There is a little store with snacks and ice cream on the second floor, but it is never open when we want it. After work we go back down all the stairs and then up the two flights to our room.

Women on the third floor, men on the second. It's not as bad as it sounds, but in the dark it's a little tricky. Sometimes I go outside to read and get fresh air before dinner so that means more stairs. Dinner is at 6:30 in the main dining hall so we go down and then all the way back up to the work floor for our evening activity at 7:45. When that is over we saunter back to the dorms to pass out. As I am writing this I realize how much walking and climbing we do each day. Very good exercise!

 Today was a regular work day and beautiful weather. We are wearing army work uniforms that are drab green.

Shirt and pants with lots of pockets and a mesh belt. I usually wear a tee shirt under my shirt and we have a heavy green jacket to wear at night. We wear our own shoes and mine are sneakers with socks. We were given a maroon tee shirt and khaki cap and had gotten a green tee shirt by mail before we left. We need to wear the hat for the morning flag raising.

We were also issued sleeping bags and I use mine as an extra mattress and sleep on top of it with my sleep sack. Each metal frame bed has a mattress with green cover and a blanket. Jeff and I purchased pillows here and brought old pillowcases from home.

So that is our typical day and with all the walking and climbing we should be in better shape. Also the dairy breakfast and dinner should not add too many calories. This morning they had omelettes. Not like anything you have ever seen before. They were flatter than pancakes and very salty. It was just a flat egg. So disappointing. One bite which I could not swallow and I went back for a hard boiled egg.

It is almost time for dinner so I will finish later.

Tonight we had shashouka again over rice. Chocolate pudding for dessert. Tonight's activity was geographical bingo with cities of Israel. Jeff and I did well and the entire group enjoyed it.