the bubble gets pricked

Living in sede boqer is like living in a bubble. We are so far from the rest of Israel that nothing seems to affect us. The nearest town ie Be'er sheva is 40 km away (also the nearest pub i must add). A recent terrorist attack in tel-aviv hardly caused a ripple in the day to day life of desert dwelling sedeboqerians. I even know people who went to tel-aviv only twice in two years: once when they came and once when they left. So it was rather suprising that the general strike called by the unions all over israel had such an impact on sede boqer. The biggest crisis was due to the MASHAV course. The israeli foreign ministry organises various short term training courses in different disciplines every year for foreign students and the ecology course is held in sede boqer. This year the mashav was supposed to start tomorrow, and hence people from all over the world were travelling to israel. Now because of the strike, the airlines stopped flying to israel and consequently several students were stranded in various transit countries wondering what to do. A friend of Felix's, from Peru was stuck in Frankfurt and they were threatening to send her back because she did not have a visa for Germany. Luckily the strike is ebbing and now there is only a partial strike. Airlines have resumed flying and people should start arriving any day now.

In other news, Jaime is leaving soon, back to Colombia, and we had a farewell party. It was a crazy latin american dance trip that went on till 3 am. For sure all the neighbours will ostracize us for years to come. If not for the loud music then atleast for the drunken singing.