WHO ARE THOSE STRANGE PEOPLE?

I don't know what is that makes me have to give people new names, so I just go along with it. It took less than five minutes for the first two to come about. One of the groups providing support is called SHATIL, an acronym for something or other, so it was quite natural for me to come up a Hebrew nickname that is a play on the meaning of Shatil (a very young plant) to mushtalim (transplant recipients or spies), then, there were the Baby Shmutznikim. In Yiddish shmutz means dirt, but it's also the acronym for The Young Guard kibbutz movement, and is commonly used to designate kibbutzim and/or the members of that movement. Their youth group is very involved with social justice issues, and their members were along on the trip to act as our arms and legs. I can get away with calling calling them Baby Shmutznikim because I laerned Hebrew on one of their kibbutzim. Then, there was My Personal Communist. At our first meeting with him just about everyone was in awe of him because he is truly a legend in his time. I was a bit beligerant at that first meeting and somewhat less than awed by him. At the next meeting he asked if I remember his name, and I piped up as cheekily as only I can, "Of course, The Communist!" Talk about dead silence. But he had caught my eye as I said it and somehow managed to keep a straight face. It was one of those 'you had to be there' moments. We both understood that I did indeed know his name, and that reputations don't quite do it for me, and that he had to prove himself to me, the little nobody from Kiryat Shmonah who kept correcting his mispronounciation of our city's name. It wasn't long before he was calling me his Personal Capitalist! He really is an amazing man, and his reputation is well deserved. I quite openly adore him and wish we'd met twenty or so years ago.
The Titanic and Iceberg are still known by those names by The Five, but the Iceberg's muscle men are now Sheka and Teka. Those monikers were lifted from an old electric company commercial where two characters by those names which mean socket and plug explain about safe use of electricity. We are still not sure which is Sheka and which is Teka, but that's ok. They are pretty much interchangable and both are proud as can be to have been nicknamed by The Five. Sheka and Teka block an intersection.

As to The Five, we have Hezi, who is the most deserving of our respect, and remains Hezi, Savta (grandmother) Alberto because he reacts to so many things like a grandmother would and worries needlessly about just about everything, Alberto McGyver, who can fix or solve just about and technical issue, Moshe Rabbenu, my across the path neighbor who was our religious expert on the trip, and last but far from least, me, Golan. Our truck driver, Rafi, was divided into 5 parts and each of took one fifth of him so he'd be an inseparable part of The Five.
The five is still having regular meetings to plan our next move. On Sunday we have to go a meeting of all the organization heads in Tel Aviv. Could it be that our dream of a united front might at last come true? Anyone who knows the history of the various groups knows what a miracle that would be, and if it comes about, our trip far exceeded our expectations. The very fact that we already got them all to sit around the same table and talk is no small thing.