When Autumn arrives and the weather in Northern Europe turns damp and windy, it’s nice to think back on pleasant times in recovery. I attended the regional convention in Israel in May 2015. It was a lovely venue. As the convention was ending, we heard that there was going to be an SA tent camp by Lake Galilee afterwards, organized by a UK old-timer and Israeli members. I signed up straightaway.
We traveled in a small private coach from Jerusalem to Tiberius and the lake. I remember coming over the top of the hill a mile or so from Tiberius and seeing the pale blue waters of the lake set among the sandy hills. We had to clear the camp site first, tidy it up and remove cigarette butts and litter from the ground before setting the tents up. Then we cordoned off the area to create a kind of “eruv”, which is traditionally an urban area enclosed by a wire boundary which symbolically extends the private domain of Jewish households into public areas, permitting activities within it that are normally forbidden in public on the Sabbath.
Evening was setting in so we got the food prepared. It was a pleasant evening, and I ended up going for a walk with a Jewish member. We wandered around and found the tomb of the Rabbi of Miracles. There was some kind of festival going on, so we went up to have a look. They were playing loud trance music from speakers placed on top of brightly-colored VW vans. My friend did some dancing but I was carrying an injury so unfortunately, I was unable to. We entered the shrine and I touched the tomb. It was a very local event. I felt a bit out of place, but no one said anything. Everyone was in good humor, celebrating, eating and drinking, dancing and singing.
It was great to be with other members, to be eating nice food, having everything catered for, you know, doing your own stuff. At one point, I swam in the Sea of Galilee which was a lovely experience. From what I remember, I think there were about 30 members.
Unfortunately, we had a deadline at Ben Gurion Airport if we were to make our own convention in Galway the next weekend. It was a special feeling to finish the Israeli convention and return to an Irish convention the very next weekend. It’s great to have that memory.
On conventions generally, I go for the weekend and maybe spend a couple of days on either side. It’s nice to go to all of these places, particularly for us in Western and Northern Europe to go to conventions in warm places and enjoy the fine weather in an atmosphere of friendliness and fellowship.
Patrick O., Ireland
