Oliver finished his “mock” (practice in American English) exams this week. The whole family, especially Nadia, was supporting him by encouraging him to study, making sure he arrived to school on time and that he would do his best. It was nice on Monday morning to ride to school with the whole family on the way to his mathematics exam. Often in the mornings, Oliver and Ocean walk to school to get the most possible sleep. We only live 800 meters from school. We only have a month of Oliver regularly attending school before they go on study leave and take the IB exams in May.
On Tuesday evening Nadia and I attended a screening of the film, #Nova, produced by a small Israeli production company called Yes Studios. The documentary shows the night of October 6 and the morning of October 7 at the NOVA music festival. The documentary is entirely made from mobile phone and Go Pro footage from the Nova Music Festival. This is the psychadelic dance music festival that took place in the fields of southern Israel, just across the border from Gaza. There are no interviews or explanatory dialogue. Most of the documentary are mobile phone videos of concert goers supplemented with some footage from the terrorists. It reminded me how much today’s youth documents their lives and how comfortable they are with doing this, even in times of high stress.
My reaction to the video was horror, anger, and sadness. The heartbreaking calls from kids to their parents were too much. It could have been my daughter calling us. I was angered over the loss of young lives. The documentary focused more on the concert attendees rather than the terrorists, but the film shared the Gazan soldiers calls to Allah to bring them strength to murder unarmed Israelis. The statistics are horrifying. Of the roughly 3,500 in attendance at the festival, 364 people were murdered and 40 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza. The film captured the “fog of war” well. We had the perspective of the concert goers and they were unsure how big the attack was going to be, when the police or Israeli army was going to arrive, whether to stay at the venue or drive away. What was the safest option? Many ended up running into the countryside and hiding.
The Israeli Ambassador had a lot of courage to put on an event like this. It was uncomfortable for us all and not your typical diplomatic event. She reserved 5 seats in front with photos and a flower for five of the women who were taken hostage by the terrorists. I can’t imagine what they are going through.
A virus has come to our family. Nadia and I stayed home from school yesterday with fever, headache, cough, etc. Ocean was sick as well, but she had two school exams. Oliver was the only one who escaped it. We are taking this 3-day weekend to rest and recover.
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