I called my Romanian friend and asked him if he wanted to hang with me on the January 1st. That I was visiting an Israeli couple who dwell in the desert among the Bedouins. And then afterwards, I’d be picking up our Russian chess team and on to Beersheva for a tournament game.
My friend was all for it.
My Romanian friend is very thrifty with money, he really has to make it stretch. When I stopped to purchase two 6 packs of large bottles of water, he didn’t understand! I said it was for the couple we were visiting. He still didn’t understand.
When we arrived, he than discovered that they had neither running water nor a brook nor stream to fetch any from!
On the way home my friend looked like he was holding back the tears. I asked if he was okay. He said, “Those people could die out there!”
I said, “Yes, I know. Every now and then we need to check on them.”
Edwin Beckford
01/01/04