Blog/October 2007/October 19th

October 19th (See this week's devar torah)

Hi all -

I meant to tell you last week, that I finally got on my bicycle and rode it to the center of town (a 10-15 minute walk, about 5 minutes by bike). I could scarcely believe I made it all the way without dropping over from the exertion, but I did. I even made it back home safely...

Speaking of incredible physical exertion, Sarah had her first Israeli "tiul" - her school took her class went to some river (dry of course) where the girls hiked around for several hours. Sarah came back exhausted, and was in pretty painful condition the next day. But now she's back to normal, I think.

This week I used my medical insurance, and was again impressed with the system here. I have several medications I've been taking for a number of years, and the supply I brought from the States is almost gone. So I called up the "sick fund" and asked to see a doctor. They gave me an appointment the very next day. I went to the doctor, and she told me that some of the medicines I take aren't used here, but there are similar replacements and she would research the matter and give me a call back. After my prior experiences with officialdom, I was pretty sure I would never hear back. As it turns out, she did call me back that very day, and told me what she was able to figure out. I went in the next day, got my prescriptions: 71 NIS (about 17 dollars) for a month's supply of medication. Not only was the care much faster than anything I ever received in the US, but is was much cheaper.

It would be nice if everything here were as efficient, but you already know from my previous missives that that's not the case. This time I went to "fight city hall", literally. As new immigrants, we are entitled to a major reduction in our property taxes. The city is supposed to give us a refund. In fact, we have been waiting almost two months for the refund, and have been by city hall several times to "check up" on the status of our refund. This time, I went and was told the reason our refund didn't get issued was because there was a "prior unpaid bill" on the account. It came as a surprise to me, since our prior bill (the one we paid) made no mention of outstanding amounts.

• getting hit with tsedaka
• fighting city hall Don Rickles
• the job front
• perfect faith