MDA

   I traded my medical bag for a sleeping bag since it was so very cold at night.  This medical bag came from Hawaii when I graduated with Honors as a Medical Advocate.         I put it together with the help of a distributor of health supplies.  At that time, I did not have a good plan but knew I wanted to help people.  I'd get my chance but I had to go through some pain myself.   

     I caught a flight to Salt Lake City and a job at the University Medical Center on the Cancer ward. The work was hard and many times disappointing since everyone seemed to die.   I needed a long term job. The bills were rolling in. 

       My doctor friend recommended the Mayo Clinic as the best place to

 find a long term job in healthcare. I went to the public library and grabbed a phone book. It didn't matter. I was just trying to get ideas for work. 

       I was thumbing through the Chicago phone book when I saw an ad for Magen David Adom leaping out at me.  I sat down and wrote a letter to the Chicago Chapter of MDA. They replied.  I was to fly immediately to Tel Aviv. They arranged a seat on Canadian Airlines for $100. 

       This good fortune was because they were celebrating the formation of Israel. This was the fiftieth year of existence. Israel had survived intact and was being restored.  Something good might happen here. I was fifty years old.   Mayo could wait until I returned from this adventure.
      Signing on for ambulance street work in Tel Aviv was an extreme way to see Israel. Working in a war zone was my commitment and duty to serve.  My duties were to be of generalized service. My belief in God is still very strong within me.                      There were other motivations as well.  I once loved a Jewish girl and hoped to find another to love like her.    Israel was the best place to look for the Jewish compassion of a woman.         Magen David Adom was the National Ambulance Service for Israel.  There are many substations in the towns and villages all supported by Jews around the world. The cities are where most of the action takes place so I chose Tel Aviv as the best place to donate my services.
      I walked into headquarters and was assigned to a substation nearby with a female Tunisian as my guide and mentor. We became great friends and shared much knowledge. When she took me to a Seder in Bet Sheba I met her little sister who was adorable and just the sort of girl I was looking for.           

       The only trouble was she was too young for me.   She wanted me to come back to Israel.  She would wait for me.  I had to think twice about everything I did and said now.  This was so as not to offend anyone or build unrealistic hopes.  

      The job itself was simply showing up and waiting to be assigned to an ambulance. Some days, I got to go with Fast Eddie who was a powerfully built man with a 9 mm semi-automatic in his belt.  I hung the flak jacket they gave me on the back of the seat. If a stray round came through the back door, I might have a chance. This was an old, heavy flak jacket from WW II.

      I stayed in the many youth hostels that cater to the travelling poor.  I was now one of them.  Unless you have something to do with your time, your days are pretty much a waste.  The guys found out I played guitar so I sat in on many sessions improvising the blues as I always do.

      There were two traveling Rainbows on a pilgrimage to Kathmandu. These guys were barefoot in the city. This means the feet are toughed like animal hide. As they departed I said the best thing I could say at the moment.  Take care of your feet.
    There were many adventures with Eddie. We were called to the Suk which means Market. This is the most famous street market in Tel Aviv. We arrived to witness the tumultuous and a very crowded scene.  The people had heard calls for help in the above apt.  

    We investigated as was our prerogative since there were calls for help.  We broke the door open and found blood everywhere. On further investigation we found the victim had died of wounds to the back of the knees and arms. This suddenly became a murder investigation.          

     We backed off completely. The cops told us that this guy owed a lot of money to the Mafia and this was his payback. The knife wounds were strategically placed in the four locations. This was in order for him to bleed to death slowly and painfully. Not being able to control the bleeding with just two hands, he died in a final crash into the crystal tea setting.
     We had other grisly finds. We were called to an another apt. building. The resident was not answering the knocks and pleas to open the door. Again, we broke the door against good advice. We found the victim in bed completely black.  This is how death looks after a week of exposure. The man died in his sleep.
    We were on a call at the Mediterranean shore.  There was a crazy Russian on the restaurant roof shouting and causing a huge disturbance. Eddie finally got him down. He placed him in the back of the ambulance and he climbed in with this guy.   He closed the door.   I heard a loud pop.  

       Eddie had apparently slapped the guy hard to bring him back to reality since he was tripping and drunk to boot. He sobered immediately and was completely quiet for the ride to the hospital.   Drugs and addiction are rampant in Israel especially among the Russian Jews who have trouble making Aliya or so called acceptance in the Jewish Family.
   One morning, another driver and I were called to a high rise. We climbed the stairs eight floors to find a woman sitting on the bathroom floor. She had just given birth and almost lost her baby in the toilet. This was my first human birth attendance.  I never saw such much blood before. She was sitting in a pool of blood and excrement.              Birth is never a beautiful thing unless you have Blue Cross.  We were so flustered with this scene. She needed fluids so the driver tried to start an IV. On his first insertion he hit an artery so there was now even more blood spurting all over.  

    Panic was taking over this scene. We called the hospital. They said transport immediately. We loaded her into our stair chair and slowly negotiated our way back to the ambulance.  Baby and Mother were doing fine. However, I had nightmares that night.
     Accidents happen at the worst time of the day usually during rush hour. We pulled up on this truck accident with the driver hanging out of the shattered windshield. Mercifully, he was unconscious. It was a logistics problem. We had to get him on a backboard before trying to move him from the cab.  He had various injuries. He was huge.            

    Manpower is the secret to good accident management.   This is why there are fire departments.   When you need manpower you call the fire department.
     In Tel Aviv, when we were stopped in traffic, we just took to the sidewalks. Tel Aviv sidewalks were built very wide for such contingencies especially during war time. There are also huge planters on the sidewalk to deter car bombs and occasionally used as protective barriers. 

    One of these occasions, I took a day off to wander the streets of Tel Aviv. I was walking down Ben Gurion when suddenly an IDF jeep pulled up. The soldiers told me to get to cover immediately behind the planter as they were doing.  Down the street was a bus that was stopped with the doors open.   No one was in the bus. Suddenly a explosion happened as the bus disintegrated sending shrapnel everywhere.               

     Everyone was safe do to the vigilance of one man who noticed an untended package.  The response was instant. They all sought shelter in the doorways and alleys as the bomb detonated.  Life in Tel Aviv was risky.
     The sidewalks are wide for a reason. They keep it clear because when an emergency vehicle is stopped in traffic, the only way forward is to mount the sidewalk and continue to the emergency. We used these passageways many times to move the seriously ill to the hospital. In times of war, this secondary avenue is essential for moving armored vehicles.  

      Every handheld weapon is a .9 mm weapon. This simplifies things for the solider.   Every solider carries his weapon at all times with two clips of spare ammo taped together. Just enough to hold a shooter off until backup arrives. Everyone has a cell phone so communication is well established.   Israel is built for defense with much redundancy.  Israel is prepared to defend herself should the need arise.  Long live Israel.
       I  traveled to Jerusalem and visited the old walled city where there is so much history.  I went to the Church of the Holy Seplacure and followed a tour. We were told this is where Golgatha is. A pile of ancient rocks. There is a socket where Jesus' Cross stood.  Embedded in the rocks was the Skull of Adam.  Sure enough, a rock looks exactly like the head of an ancient man. The scriptures tell the same story. 

       The artifacts were continuous and enticing.  As I followed along, I became aware of the Armenian monks who care for this ancient church. They are constantly fighting with the Greek Orthodox monks for the right to protect the tomb. 

     There are 7 entrances to the Old City.  I saw the bullet holes from the Ottoman Empire takeover at the East entrance.  I circumambulated the whole city.   It was super cold in the city.  It was April and nearing Easter. I was invited to Passover or Seder as it is called by my MDA workmates.   

        It is entirely different type of celebration in a Jewish home.  The celebration was uniquely charming as the father sweeps the house with a feather gathering all the crumbs of the unleavened bread from each surface including the bookshelves as the household watched.

      There are two sinks in the kitchen. One for dairy and one for meat. One has to be trained in the kitchen scene.  It was easy to make a mistake by helping in the wrong manner.  

     They put me in a room on the third floor.  I woke up and had to pee. The only bathroom was on the first floor. I stumbled down the stairs and as soon as my foot touched the first floor the house alarms went off.  I was surrounded by armed family members.  All Israeli houses have this nighttime alarm system. 

     As soon as they recognized me they trundled off to bed again. This particular family sold diamond dust. They work in close association with the diamond cutting industry. Their work takes place after closing time.         Recovering diamond dust is done with a vacuum. It is a slow and demanding process. Over time, you begin to see the value of this work.
   During my down time, I worked as a restaurant cleaner to generate money to buy the violin I wanted. Shekels were hard to come by. I finally had the money.   I bought the thing to replace the one I had with Debra that I sold for $100 in Portland. 

      I had acquired the first one in Honolulu prior to departing for the South Pacific. It was a basket case. I finally got it into reasonable playing condition. It entertained us for many seasons.   It was West German and of excellent quality.  I bought a cheap flight to Ireland from Tel Aviv then to Santo Domingo and finally Jacksonville to see my relatives.  I then caught a bus to New Orleans to see the folks.

     I received a letter from the Theosophical Society in Chicago.  They were offering me a job at  Headquarters. I immediately grabbed it.   Saying goodbye to Israel was hard and the screening they do was tedious.

    Since I was computer savvy, I went into the job editing recordings of lectures and making copies to be sold in the bookstore.  A dream job.          However there was a catch.  There is always a catch.  The pay was low for this kind of work and the demands placed on my creative talents were high.
     I found myself staying in the Old Jaffo Hostel which overlooks Gaza to the south from Tel Aviv. Rather than get a rack inside I elected to sleep on the roof simply because it was so much cooler.  Many Jordanians stayed there sort of vacationing but also looking for work which amounts to unloading delivery trucks at night. These are shipping containers filled with the odds and ends of business ventures such as hand crafted furniture and the like. I worked with them to make a few Shekels. I also worked for the Arabs but they worked me way too hard. They were asking me to clean toilets and such.  I told them where to put it.
    I saved the life of one of these guys while swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. Our group was bouncing off the bottom trying to get to the rocky breakwaters that turn into defensive sites during wartime. This skinny young man did not know how to swim.  He suddenly jumped into a hole and was in trouble gasping for air. I approached him remembering my lifesaving skills.   Repeatedly, I told him to try and stay calm and not climb on me. 

      With the help of everyone we got him in position to do a shoulder push to the rocks. Another life saved.  I had many such rescues while in Israel.
   Jaffa is interesting since this is where Richard the Lionhearted came with his legions of stone masons to build that old city with cathedral arches and other typical English structures that remain as his legacy on the shores of the Mediterranean. One can stand there and peer back into time and see the Knights Templar making their way to Jerusalem. 

      I met a woman in distress. Her feet were cracked at the heel. I had my sewing kit so I gave it to her to sew some stitches to close the fissures in her heel. This beautiful woman was staying at the hostel with her only child. It was her heels that were drying out and cracking so badly she could not continue. She was holed up in the Old Jaffa Hostel like so many others.

      The Jaffa was built like a fortified castle with parapets and gun slits with huge windows let in the sunlight and sea breezes.  It was charming to stay there. These hostels are beyond description.
      I'd spend my free days in the Park entertaining myself with my new violin that I acquired in some Arabian music shop in Jaffa.                 Busking is hard no matter where you do it.  Unfortunately, this violin had no voice being Chinese built in a few days. It was not like the West German Strad copy I had previously acquired in Honolulu and sold when I was with Debra.
      I tried to work for Mount Sinai in LA but the interview never happened so I left for Mayo. Mayo picked up my ticket and I joined the float pool working the night shift. It was hard work that paid more than minimum. I stayed at the Mayo for 7 long years until they told me I was too old for this kind of work. This was bullshit so I quit.     

     My boots that I bought in SLC were still with me. I had them re-soled with a crepe sole in Weaton. I was now singing with these boots that were made for stalking which suited my catlike disposition.  I suddenly left Israel.

       I had to fly to London to meet   my plane back to the USA via the Dominican Republic.  This was the cheapest route I could find. I eventually landed in Jacksonville and called my Uncle Bill to see if I could stay with them for a few days. He  came to pick me up after a grueling interview about why I was in Israel.  So there I was in Jacksonville living with my extended family. 

     Their water well was plugged and not siphoning so we tackled the project. I had to pull up yards and yards of steel tubing until we got down to the screen which had rotted out. This was the problem.       

      We installed a new foot valve and mesh screen and reinserted the tube. We waited for like an hour for the tube to prime itself. I heard a low rumbling. My Uncle Bill wanted to investigate the noise and leaned over the well head.  Suddenly with a great whoosh mud and water exploded from the tube right in Bill's face. It was such a comical mistake I could help myself but doubled over in hysterics.  Bill glumly went inside to change his clothes and take a shower. Every time I think of this incident I smile at my long lost uncle.
      I don't think he ever missed a Sunday church meeting.  He took me to every meeting as well.  He is the son of a full blooded Cherokee chief.         After the Civil War, General Sherman marched the Cherokee nation to Oklahoma his tribe settled in Florida. It is called the Trail of Tears. The history books tell this story.