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| Ben Gurion airport |
Entering Israel, the first sentence I uttered in Hebrew was a semi linguistic disaster but somewhat funny . Just escaping the bottleneck of passport control, where laughing and hilarity would be as welcomed as they would be in a funeral.. I found myself facing 2 young women, possibly just out of the army, chattering in the information booth at the Ben Gurion airport. They were probably the first official personnel you meet entering the land. The way they were dressed and lounging in their chairs however gave a completely different impression, more like 2 school girls leisurely chatting about some personal matters in a bar.
Hesitating I approached them, and then I have made my big Hebrew blooper, I asked in Hebrew "on what carouselah the luggage of flight 254 from Zurich is arriving"? The one on the left starts laughing which puzzled me, so I asked her in a joking quizzical tone, why are you laughing, is it not your thing? (telling people were their suitcases are arriving), which of course was a preposterous suggestion since that was their reason for being there.
Then I received my Hebrew and English lesson, "it is not called acarouselah" she was giggling" but a belt". "Yes but how do we call it in Hebrew?" I insisted, not being really happy she identified me as a foreigner. "In Hebrew we call it masoa'ah" she clarified. I bit my forehead in a mock disappointment, of course it is a massoa'ah, how could I have forgotten that. "masoa'ah, masoa'ah masoa'ah" I mumbled to myself, retreating away from that embracing moment, how could I have forgetten that, I will never forget that again, after all I am a Hebrew teacher.
Moments earlier I was pushing my way together with hundreds of other Israelis towards the passport control booth, the end of a long bureaucratic via dolorosa through faceless airports. I was pretty sure my luggage would not be as lucky as I was, I did not have a great faith in the luggage delivery system since I had so many flight changes, so when they were not spewed with the other suitcases out of the conveyor belt I was quite ready to follow the "lost baggage procedure". They did arrive the next day however.
Just 30 minutes prior to that I was still suspended between heaven and earth scrutinizing the blue Mediterranean below for the first hint of land. It came so abruptly. One minute we were hovering above endless blue sea an far as could be seen and in a brief second the Jaffa old city and beach appeared on the right , then the coastal road, then the (in)famous highway 6, the rugged hills, I did not realized we were flying so low, what a majestic moment, when the airplane is struggling with the winds and finding the right approach for landing. Israel is such a narrow country, before you know it you are already on the ground taxiing towards the gate.
I am not a Swissair agent and I get no commission to say the following: I had never enjoyed a flight as much as I enjoyed flying with this airline. Much more space, convenience, courtesy, cleanness, it was a pleasure. Switzerland douze points.
From the holy land
Boaz Pnini
Greetings,
