{"id":2741,"date":"2010-01-01T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T07:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=2741"},"modified":"2010-01-01T06:43:10","modified_gmt":"2010-01-01T13:43:10","slug":"scenes-from-the-life-of-a-lonely-soldier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=2741","title":{"rendered":"Scenes from the Life of a Lonely Soldier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Hafter is 19 years old. Formerly an American high school student, now an Israeli soldier writing about life in the army, the differences between Israeli and American culture and what it means to be a “lonely soldier.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the Nachal infantry brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, we have a little joke regarding free time.\u00a0For the sanity of all soldiers, the army mandates an hour each night to do, well, whatever we want. This is referred to by an acronym that translates to: \u201cThe hour required by the conditions of service,\u201d or \u201cSha\u2019at Tash.\u201d But in Nachal, there is no \u201cSha\u2019at Tash,\u201d just a \u201cSapash.\u201d It is an endearing term describing more realistically that same period of time. During what should be free time, we are really having \u201csidurim po ve\u2019sham:\u201d \u201cgetting things in order here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In a sense this *is* free time such that every little task isn\u2019t metered. The commander doesn\u2019t shout: \u201cYou have five minutes to shower, three to polish your boots, three more to brush your teeth\u2026\u201d He gives us one hour. I set my stopper and go. I have one hour to shower, brush my teeth, fix up my sleeping bag, ensure that my gear is in order, and on and on. Just getting things in order here and there.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If I am lucky, there is no line to shower. After a shower and shave the first half hour is trickling down the drain. It takes five minutes to change into some warm cloths for bed, and another five to arrange towels around my sleeping bag to keep from freezing to death in the frigid desert. A snack is necessary, of course. What does that leave? About fifteen minutes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I take out my phone and dial the codes for my calling card. It\u2019s funny how every second counts even in something like this. All the useless announcements on the automated menu system seem like wastes of time. I know what keys to press and when \u2013 I\u2019d just rather make my call and get it over with. Destination number invalid? Another minute wasted just because the reception was too poor to register my perhaps too rapid entry of digits. I re-type my dad\u2019s number with just a little bit more care.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now it\u2019s ringing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cDad?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHey Mark! I know you\u2019re short on time, but I gotta call you
\nback. I\u2019m in the middle of a meeting!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cOK, I have about ten minutes.\u201d I hang up. Might as well check
\nmy e-mail by way of the phone, and make a few more adjustments to my bags.
\nThe more work I do now, the less scrambling I will do tomorrow to find stuff
\nwhen we\u2019re on a tighter clock.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My phone rings and I answer it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHey Dad!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHey Mark, how\u2019s the army going?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019d love to tell you, but I\u2019ve got two minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Hafter is 19 years old. Formerly an American high school student, now an Israeli soldier writing about life in the army, the differences between Israeli and American culture and what it means to be a “lonely soldier.” \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the Nachal infantry brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, we have a little joke regarding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}