Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Summer's Almost Over

I know there are places in the Northern Hemisphere no longer on summer vacation.  They start it much earlier, June rather than July, so the kids, and teachers, must go back to school in August, not September.

In Israel, most summer camps are only for a month.  Working mothers and some fathers, too, who have young kids really suffer figuring out how to keep their kids safely cared for, while not blowing their salaries plus.  Not all parents are teachers who have vacation when their kids do.   I have no doubt that if Israel adopts Sunday as a day off, it will turn out to be a weekly August day for many.

Some of the people I work with are having a nightmare of a time.  The salary we get isn't enough to pay for childcare and end up with enough money to make working a financially sound investment of time and energy.  As an older woman, my salary is "pure gravy," of the cheaper variety.

My daughter isn't a teacher either and the logistics of how to care for the kids gets complicated.

In the Jewish Calendar, we're now in the second half of Av, humidity is increasing, and G-d willing we'll have a blessed and rainy winter.  There are night and morning mists.  Sometimes faux rain clouds cover the sun even until mid-morning.  May it not be just a tease.  May we deserve G-d's blessings.

We will G-d willing celebrate Women's Rosh Chodesh  (the first of the Jewish Month of) Elul Prayers on August 30 at Tel Shiloh with a special program at 8:30am.  Details to follow.

No comments: