Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I'd Trust Him

As you must know, I have to hitchhike. It's the only way for me to get to and from work.

Since I've been made to understand that many drivers prefer silence, I just enter the car with a thank you and only ask minimal things.

Today, I was feeling pretty depressed when I saw the crowd waiting to leave Beit El. Of course, not everybody was intending to go in my direction, but there were a lot of kids. And there were no rides northeast, none at all.

Finally, this dinky old car pulled up; the driver didn't look any better. He said:

"One to Tapuach!" (Tapuach is north of Shiloh)

I asked the crowd if anyone was going north of Shiloh, and they all backed away. So I got in.

We got to talking. It ends up that he has a business. He's an exterminator. He even has other people working for him. He said that he's very careful, since the material he uses is poison, dangerous. What I found most encouraging is that he said that it's better to live with some ants than use his services. Only if you really can't function and the ants are in everything should one have their home treated.

I like that. As safe as today's materials are, they are still poisons.

2 comments:

NYC Educator said...

Israel must be a lot safer than NY if you can hitchhike. If I heard my daughter were hitchhiking, God forbid, I think I'd have a heart attack.

Batya said...

In general, Israel is lots safer than most people think.

Hitchhiking isn't acceptable all over, and I only hitch to places I'm familiar with. I trust my instincts.