Skip to main content

Asaf's Trip to Poland

There is a common practice in Israel to take a 12th grade trip to Poland.  In the religious circles, the trip is bi-polar.  One the one hand, you go to all the major concentration and death camps, seeing the worst of the German's atrocities.  On the other hand, you go to shtetels and towns to see how we lived before the war.  Its a very intense trip.  I went with my oldest' class two year ago and I will never forget the images, the pain and the people who were with me on that trip.

This year, my son Asaf went on the Poland trip.  As you probably know, Asaf is suffering from Chronic Kidney Disease and is in the process of finding a donor for a transplant.  We got special permission for his trip from the doctors, the school and the health management organization (HMO).  The problem is not that he is too unhealthy to go, but that first, he might suddenly get worse because of the stress and secondly, because Poland is one of the places that people go to purchase "grey market" kidneys.

The school tries very hard to isolate the students during the trip. They are immersed in Polish life and death.   The good news is that we haven't heard anything from the school.  As my mother says: "No News is Good News".  This means that Asaf is healthy and somehow handling the stress.

I'm very proud of Asaf.  He is an introvert and it has always been hard for him to handle confrontation.  It seems to me that in his world, confrontation is equivalent to new people and places.  The fact that he is working his way through this trip is a powerful sign that he has matured.


Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A change of pace (Kidney Failure)

I have been trying to keep this blog focused on hospitality and food.  God though has other plans for his creations and I find now that I will have to expand the scope to cover new topics.  I'll try to continue blogging about my menus and our guests, but expect more posts that have little or nothing to do with food. In February of this year, My second oldest son, Asaf was diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure. Simply put, both his kidneys are damaged and scarred from some infection or defect that happened years ago.  They will likely cease to function sometime within the next six months. The good news is that there is no immediate danger to his life.  Kidney Dialysis is a viable option and can maintain his health for up to ten or more years if necessary.  Unfortunately, the process is not easy and there are potential side effects. Given Asaf's generally excellent health and age, Kidney Dialysis is considered only a stop-gap measure and not a long term solution. The best solutio...
13 comments
Read more

Pesach 5768 (2008) Overview

Pesach is just around the corner and preparations are already underway.  Our current guest list includes 7 gentlemen from a post-high school yeshiva program and two young ladies.  Our total count stands at 17 for all five meals. My wife and family are already working on cleaning the house.    Some of the dry goods purchases have been completed, and now we are looking at the protein purchase (butchers bill) and the fresh produce.  To get the process started off on the right foot, we are making menus.  In the general way of things, I expect these menus to change over the next 10 days.  Yet, I want to keep them online and get your input.  Do you think they are too light, too heavy, or just plain not enough for our hungry guests?  Let us know! There are five major meals that we need to prepare. Friday Night Dinner Early Shabbat Lunch (which must be eaten before 9:30am and that needs to include bread) Shabbat Lunch (around 1:30pm, that cannot include bread or matzoh) Seder Dinner First Day ...
3 comments
Read more

Family, Friends and Guests

Another week, and this Shabbat is going to be busy.  We have four guests from NCSY who are in Israel for a summer program.  They will be eating dinner with us, but eating lunch with the rest of their group.  My sister and her family are coming over from Alon Shvut.  Her husband works with groups from the states during the summers and is almost never home for summer Shabbatot.  To top it off, we have a few friends who are temporarily alone. Their wife or husband is away for Shabbat.  They will add some flavor to tomorrow's lunch. Menus are pretty simple this week.  All stuff I've made before.  I'm in a bit of a rut, partially because the vegetables this year are less plentiful than last year.  Its a shmita year and even though we hold heter mechira, there is just less good produce.  Partially, its because I need some ideas.  I havn't read a new cookbook in while.  I'll try and review some old ones this weekend.  I've talked to professional chef's who go throu...
1 comment
Read more