15th Jan
One of the kibbutz members was giving out sheets of plastic and tape to seal the rooms against a chemical attack. Felt a bit of a fool walking back into the dining hall with it all folded up under my arm. Put it safely away in a drawer. (Yeh, I'll do it... sometime.)

16th Jan
While working last night, told we could collect our gas masks from the volunteer leader today at 1pm. A few of the other volunteers breathed a sigh of relief. Now everyone was thinking what it would be like to share a room for a prolonged period of time with the others vols. Almost everyone has unique attributes: a chess-playing lunatic French guy; an extremely studious, money mad Swiss; a Belgian who's English is interspersed with simple Hebrew (the study bug's got to him too); three English guys and a South African (all of whom are semi-sane); an alchoholic Brazilian and a suspected Venezuelan spy. With a few others thrown in the total came to two girls and thirteen guys. Not good

17th Jan
War starts. Many people pleased. Could feel it in the air in the dining hall. The volunteer leader advised us to carry gas masks at all times. OK, we said. But no - we all felt a little too stupid carrying the cardboard box around with us.