Wyoming woman shares daily life in a war zone

Last week, Marla Winters showed me emails from her daughter. Rachel is going to school in Tel Aviv. Below are some excerpts from those emails. God bless her. How blessed we are to live our normal day to day lives.  Prayers for her, our military and all the innocents who are living this life. 

March 4:  There apparently is a war going on over here. I am safe and well. The first few days were really intense, but recently, the sirens have been less frequent. The university plans on opening for classes the week of March 15.. Our branch president counseled us to spend some time in prayer and scripture study rather than constantly on our phones for war updates. Despite the devastating effects of war, I’ve also witnessed miracles and goodness of others during this difficult time. I feel protected and blessed. Thanks to those who have reached out and prayed. Hopefully, this won’t last too much longer.

March 6: Sometimes, I stand at the entrance of my bathroom and wonder whether I’ll have time to shower, use the toilet, wash my face, or brush my teeth before another siren goes off. Kudos to the guy who created this website: https://canishower.com/. Unfortunately, it’s more comical than accurate. The real-time risk assessment based on the statistical analysis from past historical alerts hasn’t given me the confidence to practice good hygiene. I’ll keep my distance, so you don’t have to smell me. Actually, the sirens are much less frequent in my area now. The most recent one was at 10:16 a.m., and the one that preceded it rang loud and clear at 11:04 p.m. It looks like northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, is currently dealing with more attacks. Restrictions are being lifted in my area. I have sufficient food and toilet paper. My Ukrainian buddy has been sending words of encouragement, and we also had the opportunity to talk and joke about our situations. She’s been dealing with this for much longer. I address my anxiety by thinking about things she’s told me, listening to music, praying, reading my scriptures, or watching silly videos. I try to work on my research papers when I have the ability to focus.  All is well. Thanks for your prayers.

March 12: I took a selfie, so you can see the effect this war has had on me. I’m afraid that I no longer resemble the photo in my passport, which may cause security concerns if I try to leave. Therefore, I will stay put for now. Since the sirens do not have a regular schedule, neither do I. If a rocket is detected from Iran, those in my area typically will get a warning on our phones a few minutes before the siren goes off. Once the siren goes off, we have 90 seconds to get to a safe space. Since Lebanon is closer, we don’t get a warning before the siren goes off. However, we also have 90 seconds once the siren goes off to reach a safe place.

Each floor in my building has a safe room, so I feel fortunate that I don’t have to go very far to reach safety. The safe room on this floor is an apartment whose occupants were traveling abroad when the war broke out. At the beginning, it felt awkward entering someone else’s apartment, but now we’ve become accustomed to it. There are usually about 5-8 other students who also go to the same safe room.

Not long after the siren goes off, we can hear the booms when the rockets/missiles/drones are intercepted and destroyed in the air. Since the debris can fall and cause damage, we stay in our safe room until we get notifications on our phones that it is safe to leave. These notifications usually come about 10 minutes after the weapon has been intercepted.

While the safe room on our floor is relatively clean, there was a stench that was making it unpleasant. One student opened the fridge and revealed the culprit. Another student kindly cleaned out the fridge. However, the handle on the safety door is now broken and requires quite an effort to shut it. Hopefully, maintenance will be able to fix it soon.

I will be glad when the war ends. As for now, I am still alive and well.