By Adrienne Luz, UJIA

Two armoured busses donated in 2002 for the protection of the residents of Shlomi, carrying 45 teenagers, 45 elderly and 10 social workers and volunteer assistants, left Shlomi for the first in a long line of Fun Days aimed at helping the residents overcome the recent antiaircraft missile attack on their homes that killed 16 year old Haviv Dadon and wounded 5 others.

First to arrive at their destination were the teenagers aged 14 - 18 years old.  Dressed in Jewish Agency-UJIA Partnership 2000 T-shirts they poured off the bus and into the Luna Gal, a water park on the shores of the Kinneret.  The heat was very oppressive and before you could tell them to go and enjoy themselves, they were in the water.  Breakfast consisted of bags of chocolate milk with rolls and chocolate spread.  Slowly after the first excitement they trickled back to the meeting point for something to eat.  At this point I managed to talk to a few of the teenagers.

Andre made Aliyah with his father 9 years ago after his mother passed away in the Ukraine.  Today at 14 years old he is a good looking, thoughtful and introverted young man.  He loves computers, Ayal Golan, the seaside and attends the Korn Multicentre regularly.  In 2 weeks he will be going to live at the Carmiel Children's Village.  He hopes to learn computers and the Cramim High School in Carmiel.  On the day of the missile attack he was in the bomb shelter beside his home playing table tennis.  He heard the explosion but thought is was just another in a long line of missile attacks. He didn't really take any notice as this is not the first time this has happened.  It was only when he finished playing table tennis and came out above ground he realised that Haviv,  who he knew from the neighbourhood, had been killed.  Andre doesn't smile.  He says he is very sad but is glad to be going to live at the Children's Village as it is much farther away from the line of fire.
Riki

Riki, aged 15 years old, was born in Shlomi and attends the Ma'aleh Yosef Regional High School at Kabri.  I caught up to her in the line for the "Inner Tube" ride.  Her social worker joined us for the conversation.  She, like Andre, doesn't smile and is very cynical in her outlook.  She was at home, 5 minutes away from the bomb site.  She was a good friend of Haviv's. Since that day (and her social worker confirms) she has not left her house for fear.  She also says that she didn't want to come to the fun day as she felt embarrassed and upset that she was being allowed to enjoy herself and that her life was continuing while so many others' lives cannot.  She admitted that many Shlomi teenagers feel the same.  Her social worker added that Riki is still in denial and has not absorbed the enormity of the situation.

Zameret the youth social worker explained that antiaircraft missiles as opposed to Katyusha rockets don't make any noise as they fly through the air towards a target.  This means that you cant hear them until they land close to you spreading their shrapnel.  She tells me that they is a new feeling in Shlomi.  The residents have reverted into themselves.  There is a need to be together with family and there is very little "going out of an evening". People are staying close to home.  This is most noticeable with the teenagers.  Usually, teenagers don't like to be seen having fun with their parents.  Zameret says that it was difficult persuading many children to come on the fun day with other teenagers.  They all wanted to sign up for the family fun day to stay close to their parents.

The second group consisted of 45 elderly residents with social workers and volunteer assistants.  Most were religious veterans from the founding residents of the township and a few immigrants.  They went to the Hamat Gader Therapeutic Hot Springs and Nature Reserve on the Golan Heights.  I met up with them after they had been in the sulphur pools and were on their way for lunch.  All were sporting Jewish Agency UJIA-Partnership 2000 hats, including the women who had put them on top of their normal head coverings.  Lunch was served in a huge restaurant and consisted of a salads, pita, chips, rice, and a choice between chicken, shnitzel or fish.  Strawberry sorbet was served for dessert.  After lunch we all retired to the shady lawn outside the restaurant for a sing song and impromptu ethnic dance session.

Between songs I managed to chat to Batia, a 64 year old who was very close to the site of the attack as it happened since she lives in that street and shops at the grocers where it fell.  She remembers Haviv coming to this street all the time and remembers that he always stopped to chat to the old people sitting out on their verandas just as she was doing that day.  Batia fainted and spent the next 2 days in bed.  Her daughter who also lives in Shlomi cried all day.  I asked her if she is more scared today than she was before the last attack.  She says no.  Her level of fear rose and has not abated since the 6-day war when missiles fell on the Maimon School where her children were studying and she ran to the school to hear if they had been hurt or killed.  She says that this is the first time since then that it has fallen so close to her.
Avraham

Avraham is 65 years old and is the father of one of the victims of a recent suicide bomb in Jerusalem.  His son is still hospitalised in Hadassah and he almost didn't come to Hammat Gader as he has not had a taste for enjoyment for so long.  His social worker managed to persuade him to come and even he realised that sitting home all day frightened and thinking about his son is not healthy.  He has lived 42 years in Shlomi and as he puts it "all our life has been like this, and now it returns, sometimes close by, sometimes further away but I never know when".  He felt relaxed a bit at Hammat Gader but was fearful of the return to Shlomi.

After Hammat Gader and on the way back to Shlomi the group travelled to Tiberius to pray at the grave of one of the towns major Zadikim.