Living with Rockets: Small-town girl in Kassam City

I come from Maine, which is considered rather unusual among most American olim. I suppose it is even more unusual that I've chosen to live part-time in Sderot this year.

I arrived in Sderot four months ago to begin an internship in the Sderot Media Center. As a native English speaker, I translate, edit, write articles, and work as an international coordinator and correspondent.

The most abnormal part of this job is living with the daily red alerts and the Kassam rocket attacks. I already have a foray of images etched into my mind of the people in Sderot and their struggles to live through this Kassam rocket reality: an elderly woman trembling violently, a baby crying, a group of children huddling together for safety, as the police search for the Kassam rocket in the dark of night--these are moments that make you wonder how people learn to live with fear.

After one particular rocket attack, I remember a mother telling me how she lives with the rocket siren in her head daily. "Every day, I tensely wait for that siren to sound and for the rockets to fall," she told me. "I can't function normally without taking relaxation pills, and my children do as well."

It is such an extreme transition for me, moving to Sderot. Growing up in a small, quiet town on the Canadian border in Maine, and moving to Israel three years ago, did not prepare me for this kind of life.

What really amazes me is that one can live in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and also have no concept of what goes on in the southern region of Israel. I suppose you have to live in Sderot to understand that behind the headlines and news stories, there are human beings who are truly suffering and wishing for a better life.