She Got In

Apparently a little guilt goes a long way. Yesterday an Olim advocate took me to the Iriya to "mention" again how we'd like to switch our daughter to the Gan we requested. I opened by reminding the secretary Sara that we got here 6 days before the war started, and that we are real newbies in Israel life. She remembered that the first time she saw me I was crying over the first Ketushyas landing on people's homes in Haifa. She even had gone to get me a cup of water.

Yesterday Sara said that when a class is full, it's full. And when you register your kids late, that's the risk you take. My advocate told her we didn't register late. We just made Aliyah, and made our kids' education our top priority. She said it's not fair to treat Olim as if they were just lazy and didn't get around to registration in February. Sara was very sympathetic and said she would see what she could do.

We left and I said to my friend, "What can she even do? It's full in all the Ganim we requested." She knowingly smiled and told me it's all part of the game. There is a list of kids who are on the waiting list. It's up to the staff at the Iriya who is first on the list. She said I should call them on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and she would call the other days. We would annoy them into granting us our request.

It wasn't even necessary to call once. About an hour after we left someone cancelled for the Gan and we were put in. Sara called this morning to tell me.

I feel sorry for the people who were on the list before me, but this is life here. And really I have to think about my little girly.