Goodbye Israel

I woke up early because it was FREEZING and the wind was howling. It was Saturday and Rafa and I were leaving that evening. I looked over at Rafa’s bunk and I was not too surprised to find it the way he left it the day before. I got up, showered and then went walking down to the beach seeing what I could find.

I had a hot dog for breakfast. I took a few photos and that’s it. Most of the stores were still closed so I just wandered around until I got a text message from Rafa about meeting up at 1PM. We finally met up and had lunch on the beach. We saw a crafts flea market and were looking around. Some old guy was selling his old stuff and he had personalized signed photos of Ella Fitzgerald and Mahalia Jackson. I bargained with him and got them both for 70 bucks! Now I have something to take to the Antiques Roadshow! We spent the day roaming around and talking. Evening was approaching and on the advice of everyone I spoke to I said we should get to the airport 3-4 hours early, becasue of security checks.

Not to my suprise Rafa said he was going to stay until after Christmas so he could get to know Zohar more and maybe go to Egypt. A part of me was jealous about Egypt, but for me, it’s time to go home to my wife. Egypt will be there next time. It’s been waiting thousands of years for me already. I could tell Zohar was happy about and I was happy for him. Maybe she’ll be Mrs. Rafa someday. She is a sweet girl and they clicked really well. So about 6 PM I gave them both a hug and told him to be careful, god bless and take care! I’m terrible with goodbyes and I always get sad, if not a little teary..why? I don’t know. So it was with a little sadness that I jumped into the cab and rode to the airport in silence, just taking in my last glimpses of Israel.