Misunderstandings - report by our Aliyah fieldworker Koen Carlier

You have days when everything appears to go wrong. We experienced this quite recently, when we had to take some families to Kiev for their departure to Israel.

The flights normally depart from Kiev at 23:00, but departure times may be changed. We checked, the day before departure, to ensure that things had not changed. We reached our olim family (the family that was leaving for Israel) well in time. While conversing with family and friends and sharing the story of the 12 spies, we had the pleasure of enjoying coffee and pastry. The weather was splendid, the folks were relaxed and the atmosphere was jovial and companionable. However, when we started loading, the baggage door handle broke off when a zealous helper pulled too hard, leaving us unable to open the door. We were forced to call for a replacement van, because the enclosed compartment was inaccessible.

Phonecall
Once that was accomplished, the Jewish Agency phoned to say they made a mistake: the flight was leaving at 20:00 instead of 23:00. We left immediately, forcing the olim to say a hasty good bye to their family. We, of course, reached the airport much too late but the mediation of a representative of the Jewish Agency, responsible for distributing the air tickets, assured that the family could still go.

Wrong airport
Another driver was on his way, with an olim family from Kirovograd, to the airport in Dnepropetrovsk, in the east of the Ukraine. On his way there, he discovered that he needed to go to the airport of Kiev. Here, too, the misunderstanding was discovered, and the olim arrived half an hour before departure, at the airport in Kiev. Once again negotiations had to take place and, but when the airline made an exception, the family could still leave for Israel. It was a long day full of stress but… all’s well that ends well!

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