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July 30, 2006 - 12:21 AM by Allison

Haifa wasn’t exactly back to normal over the weekend, but there were definitely signs of things returning to something closer to normal than the events of the past two weeks…

Some residents of the north have decided that they have had enough of refugee life and are willing to take risks for the comforts of home. Melly is one of them.

Tomorrow will be a week since we left northern Israel’s war zone. By now everybody’s feeling homesick and is willing to risk a couple of days at home with the sirens, the rockets, the explosions and the blasts.

So tomorrow, Sunday, we’re going back. A few of us might even try to go back to work. We’ll see. We don’t want to fall into a false sense of security arising from staying in the south for a week and not feeling the immediate danger.

I have mixed feelings about going back north, of course, but even I feel the need for some home comforts in between the sirens and the rockets.

I’m not sitting at the cafe I’ve been using, by the way. It’s closed. I guess for the Shabbat. I’m sitting outside, on the stairs and somehow manage to get the signal. People look at me and it’s funny.

I read all your supporting comments, including friends and family from Canada and the US and you have no idea how much it helps and how much it means to me to read them all. Especially today when I have to mount up the strength to go back.

Already my stomach is reacting. That (by now) familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach that dissipated this past week is beginning to return today as the decision has been made to return.

I’ve just heard of more encouraging and positive voices from Lebanon against the Hezbollah. I hope it helps somehow. I’m not sure why Rice is taking her time to come here again. We all want to resolve this as soon as possible. We need relief. Israelis, Lebanese. We need to start rebuilding our towns and our economies, mourn our dead and heal our wounded. Building is so much better than destroying.

I’ve been toying with the idea of volunteering to supply food in shelters around more northern towns where only the elderly and people with less means remained (it is estimated that about 2/3 of the northern population left the north). I don’t know if I’m courageous enough to do this, though. Hopping between one rocket to the next to supply food, TP and water. I’ll keep you posted.

I’ll have better access to internet when I go back to my parents’ tomorrow. I just hope I won’t be too much of a wreck to post.

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