Craters, glass and shrapnel

Throughout Saturday afternoon, I heard a number of alarms followed by a number of loud explosions as several rockets hit Sderot. I did not know where they had hit and I decided to go looking for them when the sun went down and the Sabbath ended.

A constant problem here is that we hear the loud KABOOM! when the rocket lands, but we often have no way of knowing exactly where the explosion occurred - unless, of course, the rocket went through the roof of someone's house. We too are dependent on the news media to learn exactly what has happened, but the TV and radio do not mention the address where the rocket fell, because most of their audience does not live in Sderot.

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A typical day in Sderot

I begin the week working for Sderot Media Center in Sderot, realizing that I am coming to work in a middle of a war-zone. There are all kinds of indicators of Sderot being a rocket-shelled city besides the sirens and rocket explosions. Streets are emptier than usual, Sapir college usually teeming with life, has few students on campus, schools have let out traumatized students early, and the list goes on. 

Simply speaking to residents makes one understand that the Israelis of this region live in fear for 24 hours, seven days a week, even on days where there are only three rocket attacks.

Everyday errands like buying food in the supermarket or mailing letters in the post office have become routines of terror and fear as these routines are punctuated by red alert sirens and rocket attacks.

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Teaching the value of life

Last week, a group of 40 American tourists, from Michigan, California and Florida, came to visit Sderot. It was their first time in Sderot, and probably the first time that any one of them had visited a rocket-shelled region. The group was pretty cheerful, although several expressed their fear of actually being in the city.
 
I am always encouraged by groups like these who come to Sderot to show their solidarity with the shell-shocked residents. Having grown up in Maine all my life, I know that to come to a city like Sderot at a time like this, is not easy. The residents of Sderot, however, have been living through this rocket terror for the past seven years. Not a day goes by, where they can experience life as I knew it back in Maine - quiet, peaceful, and safe.

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