Sevta visits

Last weekend Ron's mom Noga came to visit. The kids were excited to see her & looked forward to what she always brings - kumradine. Basically apricot fruit leather - but much stickier and sweeter. It comes in a flat sheet - probably 9" X 30". They eat it for breakfast, lunch & supper.

She taught the kids to make Baklava. Kate was bit horrified by the fat content and made it a second time with much less fat but still delicious. It is very simple - phyllo pastry, walnuts, cardammon, a sugar syrup & butter.

I took her swimming - a shared passion she has with our kids. I looked over and saw her wearing a full scuba mask & snorkel. I knew about this but just wasn't emotionally prepared. Ron's sister had told me about it - and that one of her friends calls Noga "Sevterrian" (Sevta is grandma in Hebrew - the rest you can figure out.)

We went for Arabic food - falafels, hummous, foule, shwarma, etc. Absolutely delicious. Kate said afterwards she was over sushi - her new favourite food is Arabic.

We invited Holly & Cam over for dinner. The kids were very excited to have Noga tell them of life in the Kibbutz. Her (Jewish) family was deported from Iraq when she was 12 - and sent to refugee camps in Israel in 1949, a year after Israel became a nation. Noga's dad was out of the country at the time - seeking medical help because he was going blind. So Noga's mom flew in a overcrowded cargo plane with 5 kids to a refugee camp in Israel. They lived in tents. People came around asking if kids wanted to go to live in a kibbutz. Noga was too young but told us she took a hissy fit so they took her - at age 12. I'm sure it must have killed her mom to let her go. There was school in the kibbutz. Noga had an Arabic name (Nadre) - so the first order of business was to change it to a Hebrew name. A girl in her class suggested Noga - so that's what they changed it to. They also had chores - Noga mostly milked cows.

But this isn't the exciting part. They were being trained (from age 13!) for the army. They taught them how to scale down tall buildings. They learned to commando crawl. They were taught to navigate using the stars, were dropped off alone in the forest in the middle of the night & had to find their own way back to the kibbutz. The kids asked her if she learned to use semi-automatic weapons. (Our kids were joking around.) Noga doesn't get teasing. She answered seriously. "No. They taught that to the kids after I left. But they did teach us to use shotguns."

Holly & Cam sat there with their jaws on the ground. Kate & Dan sat there smugly thinking, "I am the only kid I know with a grandma who was a child soldier."

Noga's father came back after 5 years - blind. He found out that Noga was in a kibbutz & pulled her out at age 15. He was afraid a guy would try to have sex with her. We think this is funny - not the sex - but considering all her child soldier training, we feel sure she could fight off some guys advances.

Ron amused himself all weekend pretending Noga was an Israeli Massad agent. (She says she isn't but would a Massad agent tell you?). She called her cousin in Israel, spoke in Hebrew, and when she got off the phone Ron said, "where is the hit, Noga?" She looked at him blankly (as I mentioned she doesn't get joking around). She said, "I didn't call in a hit. I called my cousin to ask her what it means when people say in Arabic, "two bald me go out to plant onions together." Hmm... a likely story.