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We left San Jose and went to Monteverde, where there is an old forest with old trees, and also many rainbows. We didn't realise how touristy it is, and that there isn't much to see or do if you don't go in the special tours. We spent the first day walking around looking for a place to stay and rainbow connections, but it was no good. We found a cheap-enough hostel, and went to the supermarket to buy some food. There we found scales, and Ela put Sequoia on the scales, and found out she weighs 7.6kg!
It was a shock for us. We hadn't weighed her in six months, and we had known that she's a little thin, but she was 8kg in October! We started to worry. We bought everything in the supermarket that we hoped she would it, including jars of baby food and salami. She wouldn't touch the jars, but she liked the salami. We promised to be totally aware that we feed her a lot.
The day after we went for a walk in the forest. It was awesome. Some very big trees with trunks that go in irregular directions. We had lunch under one of them, and for the first time I felt the energy that flows in the tree while I was touching it, and even got energised myself. It was a wonderful feeling, especially since I always complain that all the weird hippies around me hug trees and touch auras, and I'm blind to it.
We went back, and ran into some rainbow friends who invited us to stay with them, but we declined, since Ela felt fed up with Costa Rica, and the rainbow house was "bad access". We went to Liberia (A very expensive and boring town) and the day after to Nicaragua, all the way to Ometepe Island in the Lago Nicaragua.
The island is two volcanoes in the middle of the lake. We stayed there for 6 days, for no good reason - we didn't like the place, and moved around in order to find a better place ... we moved from the biggest village to a small village on the other side, and got stuck there because it was the weekend and there were no buses. It would be an amazing place if the lake wasn't so polluted and we could swim. We've tried, but you don't feel refreshed but dirty.
Meanwhile, Sequoia generally refused to eat, refused to go in her push chair, and had diarrhoea. On Monday we left early and planned to catch the ferry out of the island. Walking from the bus to the ferry, Ela fell and sprained her ankle.
We were stuck! Ela could not walk and had bad pain, and Sequoia just wanted her to pick her all the time... We stayed for a few hours in the street. The locals brought us ice and suggested we go to the hospital. I carried Ela on my back to the nearest hostel and we spent the night there, not before Ela got a shot of pain killers and prescription for drugs.
The day after we left the Island. Ela used the push chair as crutches, and somehow I managed to carry everything else. We hopped to the ferry; some guys on the ferry gave us a ride to the bus station, and quite easily we found ourselves in Granada, in the Bearded Monkey Hostel. Granada is quite nice, with a distinct Spanish feel and nice people. Ela couldn't see it. She stayed in our room, trying to deal with her painful ankle and painfully annoying Sequoia. I was walking about town, looking for things to buy, cheap internet, food etc.
We realised that Sequoia is in bad shape and we went to a private doctor, recommended by the hostel's owner, who has a two year old kid. The doctor said Sequoia is very sick, has parasites, infections, fungus, bad cough,... and gave us antibiotics and other medicines. Sequoia, on her side, refused violently to take the medicine and concentrated on walking. That is, she can walk now if someone holds her hands, which means that Ela or I have to walk around with her all day long. We never really understood why we need to give her the antibiotics, so we didn't.
And two days later I had my bus ticket back to San Jose and to my flight! What to do? We were both very stressed about it (Ela more, of course), and I left.
Ten hours to San Jose (including a two hours queue in the border). The day after an eleven hours flight to Toronto, including stops in San Salvador and in Havana. Then 22 hours waiting in Toronto airport, a very expensive and annoying place, though they let me sleep on the chairs. Somehow I got cheated in change three times and was too tired to make the correct calculations, which made me pissed off.
Then the flight to Israel. Eleven hours with El Al, which turns out to be quite a good company, so it wasn't too bad, and then home.
Home is weird. I still look at people and think "This guy looks so Israeli". People are nervous and the political situation is terrible: I arrived to see Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza with the Arabs molesting their bodies.
So I'm getting myself acquainted with life in Israel. I catch up with friends. I got a cellular phone (052-2339487, if you're interested). I resolve my bank account mysteries. I look for a job and for a used guitar... and I miss Ela and Sequoia.
The news from them is that they both feel much better. Sequoia had a blood test which shows she doesn't need to take the antibiotics but some other thing, and she eats more and shits less. Ela's foot is better as well and she can walk now (but not run), so we assume everything will be alright.
Love, Moddy.
Today is the best day to wish the love of your life a happy birthday.
It has been a long time since I've last written. My reasons are mainly that my life is boring and I have nothing to write about, and on the other hand I'm too busy to write. It seems contradicting, but I never promise to be consistent.
I did find a job, and a car, and a guitar. The last really makes me happy � I never was a good player, and this is an understatement. I believed it would stay this way, but I started to take online guitar lessons ( www.wholenote.com and www.guitarnoise.com ) and I play a lot. Some fingering methods that seemed impossible to me at first, and at second and third, became almost possible after a few days. I even learned to tune my guitar more-or-less.
My car is a Suzuki Swift 93. I love it except for two things � it is dark gray, which makes it impossible in the Israeli summer, and it has automatic gear. Everyone told me that since I live in the city and confront the Tel Aviv traffic, it is better to have it that way. I still hate it. I have nothing to do with my left foot and my right hand, and they fidget. I say to myself "Relax, you'll get used to it", but I can't wait.
The job is in the computer industry which gives me a lot of money and a lot of headache. It is not all boring, but most of it is. My main objection is that I have a responsibility that something would be done, but I don't have the authority to actually do it, set the priorities, or tell my men (since they are not mine). It becomes a managing job instead of thinking job, and it is really not my cup of tea. Besides, the boss hates my barefootedness (I know it is not a word, but there's nothing I can do about it.)
Of the events that occurred to me since leaving America, the only memorable one is waking up on one Saturday morning with my left foot swollen and burning in pain. I was rushed to the hospital and got IV of antibiotics. Turns out that I had a malicious fly hatched an egg in my shin, and it turned into a big infectious dead creature. Nobody knew what it was accept for Ela (Sequoia had the same after I'd left), so they just gave me nasty antibiotics and "if it doesn't work we'll do something else". Luckily, it did work, but the pain of the first four days was record breaking.
I still live with my parents, which has its advantages like free food and laundry, and its disadvantages, like being called up at 11pm "where are you? We're worried". Next week I move to Tel Aviv, as my tenant was gracious to leave a week earlier. I need to get a pan, a pot, and a laundry machine.
So I've finished my brief, and I anticipate the questions "how is Sequoia? Where is Ela?" etc. Surely, their life is way more interesting. They go to gatherings, they cross borders, they hitch- hike with hippies, they learn to walk� Basically, they are in Canada, they are healthy, and they come to Israel in mid-September.
I'm healthy too. Not too well (as every good Jew has to say), my knee hurts a bit and I get depressed and lonely once in a while, and I gain weight and lose hair, instead of the opposite. The worse part is that I've discovered to my horror that I'm still me. Traveling and rainbowing and becoming a father didn't change me too much, and what I lacked before, I still lack. I guess I'll just have to live with it for a while. Being healthy, rich, talented and loved really helps.
Love you, Moddy.
Today is a good day to sit in an air-conditioned room and play guitar.
It will be a fairly short message, since I'm not in a mood for alborating. I just want to tell you that I moved to my apartment in Tel Aviv, and have a new address and phone, and I have a different cellular number
Moddy Te'eni
Weizel 3/1
Tel Aviv 64241
ISRAEL
Tel: +972-3-5241672 (03-5241672 if you happen to be in Israel) Cell: 054-2166641 (+972-54-2166641 if you can afford it)
International phone calls became really cheap here lately, so if you send me your phone number, I'll probably use it.
Now that we are finished with business, all I say is that - I moved. It's great to be in Tel-Aviv. I still have loads of things to arrange in my place, e.g. fix the shower and install curtains and paint the door.
Last week I did an Insight Seminar, which is some self-improving I-Am style thing. It taught me nothing much, and I basically discovered that I don't need much self improvement, that my life is good, there is nothing I really want and don't get.
For example, since I have a lot of things to do, I have a big list of things, and it is getting bigger and bigger the more I work on them. The item of "buy a new oven" turned (after it was done) to "Fix a date with the movers" "buy baking dish" "buy yeast and flour" "get the recipe for chocolate cake from Ela". It just gets worse! I found out I don't do anything on the list because I get tired, and on a day that many things were done, I can't sleep well and am zombying around the next day. Which means: I'm not efficient because being inefficient works better for me.
So I have a good life. I choose to live this way, and I don't have any good reason to make any changes. Wonderful.
I do miss you all though.
Love, Moddy.
Today is a good day to stop arguing for your limitations.
I've been bitching about my life lately, and it all feels irrelevant, since when they come, everything changes. I have no idea where it will take us, but it will sure be different, and good, holding them again after more than 4 months will be just great.
So what happened? The big picture is pretty small - I go to work everyday, then go home, sometimes I go out with friends or alone, sometimes I just sit at home reading books and getting addicted to the interent. That last thing is new to me, since I never had a computer (since my Commodore 64), and having a fast-internet-24x7 next to my bed really changes my behaviour. The event corrolated with finding a really wonderful site about raising children in the natural way. I spend at least two hours a day reading it and writing comments.
I feel weird being addicted. I've never been addicted to anything (well, except for sugar), and feeling that I actually would prefer to go to sleep but 'just finish this page' and it links to another...
The small pictures are, as usual, way more interesting, but like any short story, they are difficult to write about. There was a trip to Jerusalem mountains, looking for springs and finding unkept fig trees and grape vines, full of delicious (and organic) fruit. The funniest part (A Kodak moment, as Guy called it) was Amir sitting on the top of a fig tree, wearing a kafia, while his cellphone rings. He begins a long conversation (on the speaker) with a friend, about the bible, and how Jacob had cheated Lavan... it was spooky.
Another memorable evening was an Israeli homage to the burning man festival. A few Israelis who have been in Nevada a few times were trying to import the concept to Israel. I only heard about it half an hour before it started. About 50 people came (the original gets about 30,000) and we burned a 3-meter man (the original is about 30m). On the othr hand, we didn't have to pay $200 to enter. Some people read poetry. I met an old friend I had lost 5 years ago. Some girl read out a manifet of "the good fairies club" - a club of girls who will pick desparate guys in pubs and show them that life is good. We said we'll meet next year.
That's about it... I wonder if I should keep on writing this traveling journal since I'm not traveling anymore and it is, well, a little boring, isn't it?
Be happy and wonderful. Happy Rosh Hashana.
Love, Moddy.
Today is a good day to treat all news as good news.
First, an appology to Klarki. In my last message appears a story of "Amir sitting on a fig tree...". Amir is Klarki, to whomever knows him by that name.
So Ela and Sequoia are here. We live in a small appartment in the middle of Tel Aviv, which is much much better than the last place we had (in Bney-Braq), and we have a laundry machine and a tree that grows just outside the window. Sequoia felt at home at once. roaming in the flat and touching everything. It took Ela longer time, and she is still adjusting. Israel is not the easiest place to live in, especially if you don't speak the language and don't know what goes on.
Next to the house there is a nice boulevard and loads of small playgrounds with swings and slides and other kids playing. Sequoia loves it. She climbs up the slide by herself and runs around. Other parents are worried and try to protet their kids, even kids who are twice Sequoia's age can't go around without mummy at a meter's distance. The mums are scolding Ela "she might fall", but she never falls. She seems to be practiced enough, and very agile.
Sequoia even have better times at my parents house, where there is a big garden, a slide, 40 years accumulation of toys, and grand- parents, and cousins. Everyone loves her, though my father disapproves of her walking naked and diaperless. She is diaperless since she is more-or-less potty trained.
Sequoia is in the habit of taking her diaper and/or dress off everywhere, so we had to potty-train her. We got a small yellow potty, and she loves it. She poops nowhere else, unless she has diarrhea, and will hold in if there is no potty around. She wees mostly in the potty, but sometimes on the floor or on Ela, especially when she is upset.
She is extremely cute. It is scary to realize how much cuteness can be stored in one baby. She is also beautiful and smart and friendly.
On the less happy sides, she is very small, and she eats very little. We took her to the doctor, and went to do blood tests for parasites (since she had them in America, and good chance she has them again). Blood taking was a traumatic experience. The expert doctor simply treated her as an object, and us as idiots, and then she butchered both her arms with a niddle. Sequoia screamed, Ela screemed at the doctor, and for two weeks baby had blue marks as if she was a junky. The tests found nothing, and the doctor is happy. We still believe there are parasites since she has diarrhea again since 3 days ago.
Another crazy thing about her is that she wouldn't let Ela take a shower. As soon as she hears the water, she runs to the shower, opens the door and freaks out, watching Ela and sobbing as if the world in ending. We guess that in any of her previouls lives her mother had a shower accident.
Meanwhile I'm trying to introduce my girls to all my friends-and- relations, so she will feel less lonely. Though she has friends in Israel, she finds it difficult to contact them, mainly because Sequoia in interupting. They have to do everything together, so if Ela is studying Hebrew, Sequoia comes, grabs her pen, and draws on the book. And if she goes to the computer, baby helps by pressing the wrong button and eliminating long messages, etc. So Ela is frustrated, and I can't expect coming home to a clean house with dinner set on the table by my loving wife.
Work is still boring, and our social life is slow since I don't have the time to call all the people I want to call (so YOU should call ME). We began to deal with Ela's papers, which we expect to be a tedious mission.
Last week we went to the Israeli gathering. There is a lot to write, but I feel a bit tired now, so maybe next message. Basically, we had a good time.
Plans? The next world gathering in Turkey in May. Ela wants to scout, and I need to take a long holiday... let us not make plans for now, OK?
Love you all, Moddy.
Today is a good day to get out and smell the roses.
The rainbow was great, and we generally had a good time. It was very far (in Israeli standards) and the location was kept secret, which made us feel a little humiliated. We would call people up and ask where it is, and they wouldn't tell us. Eventually we got the address of a secret website which prompted us with a username/password to fill-up according to hints (the hints were "What do we call from the hills" and "What do we call talking freely in a circle"). So the rainbow was meant for old-timers, and that's how it was. There were almost no first-timers, which is kind of against what I think rainbow is for.
It was in the middle of a desert. We brought water with a tank, and there was always lack of water in the camp. We met many people we had met before all over the world, and after two days I felt myself settled in. Ela gave some rebirthing workshop while leaving Sequoia with me, and of course everybody loved her� I felt recharged.
The main problem was hygiene. Lack of water and advice to save water when washing hands. Serving with taking everyone's bowls. Shallow shit-pits and people cover them with rocks (the result was numerous piles of stones covered by flies). Ela tried a few times to call for better hygiene in serving, got annoyed because people wouldn't listen to her, and then Sequoia got diarrhea, and we left � not before Ela had shouted in the circle "Fuck you all". We really felt being pushed away from our home.
Is it turned out, after we left things got better and many more of our friends arrived, and it rained� so we missed quite a good bit.
Anyway, we came home. Sequoia started to be un-potty-trained, which drived us crazy, and Ela almost had a nervous breakdown (can't blame her. I get to go off to work 4 days a week!). We began to look for help, and looking for some things for Ela to do. We started by finding a babysitter that comes once a week for a few hours to take Sequoia away and let Ela rest. Ela also published in the rainbow website that everyone is invited to visit her and get some banana icecream, and we began to receive guests and friends we haven't known before, so Ela got a little social life, and twice we left Sequoia with friends and went to a movie. The highlight was the visit of an angel.
I won't mention her name. She's a girl we met in the rainbow, and she came to visit us one afternoon, listened to Ela's complaints and played with Sequoia. When she left, Sequoia wanted to go with her, and she said "I'll take her and bring her back when I feel she needs to. I might even take her all night�" We agreed, waiting by the phone for her rescue call. It was 5 in the afternoon. We went to see a movie. And waited. Slept well. She returned only 24 hours later. Happy, and not too excited to see mama and aba again. She had slept quite well and was generally very good (said the angel). This gave Ela hopes for a more challenging idea: going to a scout council in Turkey.
So, this was my anniversary gift: A ticket to Antalya for Ela, and looking after baby by myself for the weekend, while Ela meets rainbow friends and supporting the scouting mission.
So Ela is now in Turkey. Sequoia plays with her grandparents, and it is raining outside. She slept a lot in the night (three sleeps in one night), and I'm tired (my parents, too, since she woke everybody up), and Ela is � well � On Wednesday the scouts in Turkey decided it is too cold and they canceled the council. Since we already had the ticket, she went anyway hoping to have a good time.
So life goes on. Nothing much happens, and I'm pretty bored and semi- depressed. See what happens next�
Love, Moddy.
Today is a good day to sit by the fire and roast chestnuts.
And what did Moddy and Sequoia do in this time? well, Sequoia got to play a lot with saba and savta, and Moddy didn't get much sleep, since his breasts aren't too developed and he's not lactating, Sequoia kept him awake a lot. So he got a taste of my life. (Serves him right for getting me pregnant! ;-) )
Since then, things have been quite settled, Moddy works now five days a week, he took a new contract, after being stressed out for a long time about whether or not to take it, or stick to the old contract (in a job where he wasn't really happy) or to take a completely different job which he was offered. The other job was to work in Java, something Moddy has little experience in, but was interested to learn. Anyway, he took the new contract with the same company, which means he is now in a better position, and doing work that really interests him. It also means he works 5 days a week instead of 4, but he also gets paid 25% extra (though he pays more tax, so it doesn't work out to be much). Moddy decided that with the extra pay he can afford to put Sequoia into a kindergarten or get a baby-sitter 2 days a week, to take some of the strain off me having to look after Sequoia alone for an extra day.
So we have a nice baby-sitter, a friend who just got let off from the
army and doesn't have anything else to do and it works out very nicely.
Moddy is much happier with his new job, and I have a job now too, just
a day or 2 each week in a little cafe next to an alternative
revolutionary library/bookstore. It's really nice and there's a lot
of cool people to hang out with. The cafe is run by 2 rainbow sisters
whom I've known for a few years, and it's all good. So if you're
reading this from Tel Aviv, drop in to Salon Mazal, on Simta Almonit.
Sequoia is growing up to be an AMAZING little person. She is learning
to READ already!!! yes, really! She knows all the letters in English,
and even where most of them are on the keyboard, and she knows about
half of the Hebrew letters too! Sequoia can even see A-B-A and know
that it means "aba"! Its incredible, and almost scary, but we have a
genius. It can be hard to bring up a baby who is way smarter than we
are, but we're doing okay.
so this is a little message typed by sequoia:
hi this is sequoia why.
I guess that's all from me now, Moddy is back...
Hmmm. It's good to have someone doing your job, but they never do it as well as yourself, so I need to take over. (Actually, she did a great job and there is not much more I want to say).
Sequoia is the most amazing baby that ever was. And I say it not only because I'm her father, but because everybody else says so. She is well known and liked in the neighbourhood, and many times we meet her friends and wonder how come they know her. I'm getting used to being a father. When I sang to her her favourite song (Pizmon LaYakinton - strangely enough she likes my singing), I feared I was going to hate this song, but I began to like it even more since I see it through her eyes. It is a whole new experience.
She has been sick quite often though. Finally we found the reason � she is allergic to milk. We just cut it off her diet and she is fine, though she still asks for it and wants it, and we can't have ice cream. She is getting healthier and bigger and stronger and can climb ladders and jump around like a four year old. And she uses the potty most of the time now, probably because we stopped insisting. She just likes it this way better.
Her weak point is sleeping. She goes to sleep not before midnight, fussing through the night troubling Ela, and wakes up irritable, not before ten in the morning. We tried to wake her up earlier, not let her sleep in the afternoon, but she just falls asleep whenever she wants, and if we don't let her she screams. I guess we raise her to be independent and it backfires on us.
About my job � I stay in the same office, same chair, but I do other stuff. The main improvement is that I'm actually interested in what I'm doing, I do it well, and I feel better about myself. The last few months I thought that I'm not good anymore; that I don't have it; that I've been out travelling for too long and I can't work. But just put me in the right position, and I'm as talented as ever.
So I've done showing off myself and my baby, who is right now playing with her shadow instead of getting dressed and go to bed (it's 10 pm). What else happened? New Year's Day and Xmas are not a big thing in Israel, so we didn't celebrate much, though Ela bought a midget plastic Christmas tree with flashing lights, and we received a big package from Ela's parents (I got a handkerchief ). Chanuka was much better. We lit candles every day and almost burned the apartment down, since we used my Commodore-64 as a Chanukiya, and the old plastic didn't like it. The whole room was filled with smoke, and it settled Everywhere. A long cleaning mission, but we survived.
So have a happy new year, new moon and why not a few more happy years and dates?
Oh.. I almost forgot. Ela's parents just bought a plane ticket and they come to visit us!
Love you all, Moddy.
Today is a good day to take your baby for a walk in the park.
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