Shnat

So, I ended with the first kibbutz we visited this past Tuesday.
After Neot Smadar, we visited kibbutz Lotan and kibbutz Ketora, both of which all the North Americans had been to on Mifgash, our trip to Israel, last winter. Lotan does a lot of ecological work, like filtering water from the toilets, having an organic garden, reusing garbage to make art and play structures, and using mud for some construction. Actually, all three of the kibbutzim we visited use mud and straw for construction and thats what we're using for our art/construction project on Holit as well. Last time we visited Ketora we had an awesome tour guide from Hashomer Hatzair USA named David Factor, and very unfortunately he wasn't there when we came this time. Our tour there was very brief, but we learned about the Arava Institute on the kibbutz. Its a school where people from all over the world come to learn about agriculture, techniques and ecology. A lot of agricultural experiments are done there and the goal is to bring new technologies all over the world and have a shared community of knowledge about bettering the environment in the ways we use our resources. At the end we had a discussion about ecology and how we can be more ecological, which was based mostly around how we can make compost, use less garbage and make fun things out of our trash, as they do on Lotan. One person was arguing that none of this really makes any difference, because it doesn't change anything, and the fact is that in our society, industry produces garbage, in their waste and in the things that are sold to us, that our world is formatted to be wasteful. We all joked about his idea of revolution and that he wasn't giving any practical insight, but the reality is that everyone knows they can do things in a more environmentally friendly way, that they can consume and waste less, but all of that is less convenient and often times more costly, so we don't. He was kind of dead on, and we all just talked with our heads in the clouds. Truth is, we could do things differently, we just don't.
Wednesdays are a day of discussion/classes for us, lead by people from Hashomer Hatzair. The European and Americans are lead by two fantastic people, Maydan, who was my kvutza's madricha for our summer trip to Israel two years ago and for our trip last winter, and Sharon, who lives with her kvutza on Holit, and she's so great. We learn about alternative education, and half-way through our time here we're going to switch to alternative societies. We're also supposed to have a class with Oren from the world movement, another fantastic person, about globalization, but right now he's doing a month or a few weeks in the army and we're having filler classes with various people, often short and with little content. At night we have a dance class with a young woman from the kibbutz. We learned some floor contact dancing, which made everyone feel a little strange, but it was new and interesting, and a lot of people participated. This week we learned Brazilian folk dancing to switch things up, and most people didn't come because they didn't expect something so fun, but I really enjoyed it.
Thursdays are our work days. We have a meeting every Wednesday night to decide who will do what jobs for the next day, and its actually one of the most annoying times we have, so I think from now on I'm just going to tell our madrich I'll do anything and skip it. its like having just the most annoying part of our nightly meetings at camp. Its just not worth it, I really don't care what I do. For the first two weeks I chose to work picking lemons. Crazy work. Never done anything like it before. Its not particularly difficult, except for the fact that we're in the sun and its pretty hot. It feels really good to be active in that way, though. I'm covered in scratches all over my arms. Makes me feel like a real worker of the world. This week no one worked picking lemons, and I was in a small team of people cleaning and preparing rooms for kibbutz guests to sleep in during Yom Kippur. It was really mild and non-taxing, and we finished before lunch so now I have time to blog...
So I guess thats pretty much what we do here... Now time for all the extra stuff thats been going on. Where to start...

Well, one night a week we have a peula about the kibbutz. The first one my roomates and I missed because that day we had lost our key and had no way to get in to our room. We went with some people form the kibbutz, Gigi, who is our mom, and Oren, who makes gardens on the kibbutz and is absolutely hilarious. This was one of our first real encounters with him. We found out we couldn't get the lock changed (which is what they usually do when a key is lost, but I'm not really sure why), so our only way of entry would be through a window. This right after Gigi had given us all a speech about how braking in through a window was not an appropriate means of getting in to your room if you didn't have a key. We ended up having to remove all the slats from a tiny window in our kitchen area and getting a lader. One of my roomates, Saar, first tried to climb in and couldn't quite make it, so Oren went up and literally just dove in through our window, in a handstand, feet dangling out for us to see. Incredible. After that he opened our larger window and we moved the ladder, creating our only means of entrance for a few days.

Last weekend was Rosh Hashana, and being more religious than most members of my community here, I felt in necessary to leave and stay with religious friends for the weekend. I wanted to see my friend from NCSY at home, who is in seminary this year, and when I talked to her I found out she was spending the holiday with one of my best friends from NCSY who's family moved to Israel two years ago. Super exciting, since I hadn't seen her since she moved. She lives in Beit Shemesh, a religious town about 45 minutes from Jerusalem. The experience was a little strange, because it also turns out that her neighborhood is all American/English speakers. It was fantastic getting to see my friends and spend time in a real house, with no bugs. It was the lap of luxury compared to Holit. We slept and ate and talked lots. It wasn't at all what I expected, or really hoped for, though. I didn't really get the chance to think about the holiday as I usually do at home, but there was ample meaning in the day none the less. Traveling to and from definitely added a down side, though. Traveling in Israel is much cheaper and in many ways less complicated than in the US, but the cost still took a major toll on my budget, and having to travel for hours to get there wasn't so fun either. At home, I don't mind long bus rides or waits for a bus to arrive, but here I don't speak the language and I can't call up friends to chat while I bide my time, so it was bothersome to say the least. For Yom Kippur I'm staying on Holit, because thankfully I found out that the closest synagogue is on an Orthodox moshav about a half-hour walk away. Really not so trecherous in comparison, and I won't be the only one going, so it'll be great. Spending so much time away also made returning a little overwhelming, so I'm glad I won't have to go through that again either.

What else... one night we did what is called "alternative gardening" with one of the teachers from Hashomer Hatzair. Its a form of vandalism, started somewhere in Europe, where people find an abandoned, poorly taken care of public plot of land, clean it up and create a garden. The next day, people find something beautiful where it used to be ugly, and the government doesn't really do anything against it because its a nice thing to do. We did it on the kibbutz, and we knew the members wouldn't mind, so it didn't have quite the same thrill, but it was pretty cute and fun. We moved dirt around, planted flowers and built a scare crow wearing a shirt and hat from our movement. Our material for hair was red, and there's someone here with red hair and villain-beard, actually one of my favorite people, the one who was talking about an ecological industrial revolution, so last night I got some people and we put a baobob flower as a beard on the scarecrow. Its pretty suddle, which I'm happy about, but I can't wait for when people start to notice.

Before we left to go to Israel my kvutza decided that we want to continue our process while we're here and have regular activities, discussions and check-ins together. We've had two-ish so far, which is definitely less than I think we would have hoped for, but its not the easiest thing to take away from time off, when people want to socialize or take care of themselves. I really wanted to have an intense Rosh Hashana peula, but we didn't have time, and there's no time with us all together to have something for Yom Kippur before the holiday, so afterwards when we're all back together I think we'll do something sicknasty. I have some good ideas brewing.

So some random bits... The people on the kibbutz are great, adorable little kids, babies, puppies, and many hilarious characters. The stars here are awesome. I wish I had a star chart. I want to find Orion so badly. There isn't any real coffee, its all instant, and that really, really sucks. My kvutza all went out to dinner one night with our friend Sapir, who worked with us at our camp this summer, so between those expenses and that of Rosh Hashana traveling I've gone over my $70 a month budget, and my debit card still hasn't come in the mail from the bank to my parents at home, so money sucks and I'm never going to spend any, and that sounds good to me. I eat a lot of awesome vegetables here. It feels super. I miss rap music, no one from other countries listens to it or understands its quality and I really wish that weren't true. Its really fun to watch people come alive when they're talking and joking in their own languages, but I wish I could understand how funny they are and why they're laughing so much.

I guess I'm done for now. I don't really know what else to say. I love all of you who are far away, and those who are in the Holy Land but have not had the chance to bless me with their presence yet, know that I count the days. Please, all, be in touch. I love you. USA.

So. I've been on Kibbutz Holit for the last two and a half weeks. Its been pretty crazy.
The kibbutz is beautiful, in the Eshkol region of the Negev, sandy, sunny, grass growing, date trees, and irrigated gardens. I love being here. I really, really want to climb a date tree and see if they'll ripen in my freezer.
I'm with about 30 other people from Hashomer Hatzair worldwide. There are people from the US, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina. Its pretty crazy having people from all over the world, everyone has their different things, different senses of humor, and although almost everyone knows English at least a little, the language barrier is a little wild. Half the group is speaking to each other in Spanish most of the time, and I'm not so good with languages, so I find myself learning broken English more than anything else. I'm practicing my Hebrew a little, but from my few experiences in the outside world, it really needs a lot of improvement.
Our schedule changes day to day. Friday and Saturday we usually have off. Sundays we have Hebrew classes and art classes taught by members of the kibbutz. We're only split into two Hebrew classes, so they have a wide range of levels. My Hebrew isn't so good, so for now I'm in the lower level, with people who have never seen the Hebrew alphabet before as well as people around my level. The teacher is also actually just not so great. There are some new words we go over, but I'm not sure I'll stay there because I don't know how much I'll learn, but the other class is taught all in Hebrew, so I'll probably try it and see if I can follow enough that I'll be able to learn with them.
Mondays we work in an artistic construction project on the kibbutz and we have a class in Jewish thought taught by a professor from a small nearby university. A lot of people aren't so enthusiastic about having a class in Judaism, and although I'm interested, I really don't think the teacher is teaching from an angle that applies to the group as very critical, secular Jews, or to myself, as a more traditional, equally as critical Jew. Definitely has a lot of potential though.
Tuesdays are our tour days. We go out to see different places in Israel. The first Tuesday we went to a few random places. We went to a memorial with a tall tower where you can walk up the stairs to the top and see Gaza on the horizon. We talked briefly there about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, and it was a little intense. We also went to a historical site where you can see the mosaic floor of an ancient synagogue, which was really cool. We finished the day with a stop at a beautiful spot in the desert. There was a long wooden bridge over a lagoon that swung when we walked on it, super fun, and then sand/rock hill after sand/rock hill to create a gorgeous landscape. I really enjoyed climbing up, down and across a number of the hills, and on a far side I found a ton of seashells, which were really wild to find in such an incredibly dry place that, when you looked at it, was so evident of having hosted water long ago.
Yesterday on our tour we visited three kibbutzim in the Arava, a desert region near Jordan. All three were shitufi, meaning they maintain the traditional, communal lifestyle of a kibbutz in many aspects, whereas most kibbutzim today are much more largely privatized, and all three also were involved in some ecological way of life.
The first kibbutz we visited was Neot Smadar, where my brother worked for a while when visiting the Middle East. It was fantastic. Beautiful gardens, fountains and buildings, including this arts and crafts building that looked like Jasmine's palace from Aladdin. Insane. More than that, what really intruiged me about this kibbutz more than others I've been to, is the fact that it isn't based in any real ideological goal or purpose, but simply in the idea that this communal way of life is one that better suits human beings. The kibbutz is young, and our guide was in love with the place, so its hard to say how real its success truly is, but as it was presented to us, the kibbutz functions without many social or economic issues because there is no concrete socialist ideology used to judge its members and their actions or worth. A typical kibbutz is founded by a movement with a clear ideology, or at least a group of people with set beliefs and goals, and through these they hold meetings to make decisions, create committees, evaluate new members and so on. Becoming a member often takes a long time because the potential member needs to first know the community and then be approved as someone who will work as a positive member, and this process takes years. Often kibbutzim have issues with newer people joining and not fully believing in the ideology, so they don't work hard and try to get what they can of a free ride. There is a need to privatize in many kibbutzim because people stop being responsible members of the community, and many people work outside of the kibbutz to make their own personal money and the kibbutz hires people from outside to do the labor kibbutz members aren't interested in doing. Its often pretty far from a socialist community. On Neot Smadar, people take responsibility to work with the community and spend responsibly. They are wealthy because they all come together to work in many profitable mini-industries on the kibbutz, inlcuding a date plantation, winery, coffee shop and the craft center. When people ask for money, they are given. When people want more with their life, to buy more, to work more, to be more ambitious, they leave, and no one is forced out. When people want to be members, they are. This interests me so much because I feel that very often in ideological communities, such as the one I am in now, ideology gets in the way of personal relationships, and people forget that they are dealing with their friends, with real people, and instead see them as objects of their ideology, under high scrutiny and judgement, and it seems so far from what any socialist belief should lead one to believe. Socialism is about people, about living together in harmony, not about objectifying another because it feels awesome to know you believe in something high and mighty and they have been judged negetively in that eye.
I'll go on in this tangent for just a little longer. There have been issues within the movement at home where people have reverted to viewing their friends through this ideological, objectifying glass, and I was upset, but not shocked, to find that happen here as well. Two girls in the program from Belgium are not from Hashomer Hatzair, and one of them is not Jewish and doesn't speak any English, either, but know the movement through a friend of theirs who is here. They are fantastic people. The one who knows English is very critical and honest when it counts, asking very interesting questions with an open mind everywhere we go. The one who doesn't know English, I honestly find incredibly inspirational, for the fact that this is something she is so interested in doing and being a part of that she is willingly putting herself through what most would see as an impossible process of education, and she is thriving. I encountered people on this program who don't really see their being here the same way I do, don't understand why there here and don't think they should be here, because in their mind, the rest of us are all here from the same movement, which means we have had similar educations and experiences, and come to this program with similar goals and things we will bring back home to the movement in our countries. This is true, although the movement is different in every country, we each have our own feelings and experiences with the movement, we all have gone through different processes leading up to this year, and all have different futures with our movements when we get home. Beyond and above that, these girls are bringing something wonderful to our experience, and the fact is that they are here. We are doing this together. I don't really understand how people can get so caught up in the fact that they are a part of some fantastic movement that they would ignore all the great things these people are bringing and forget the fact that we're here to live intentionally together. Ah. I could go on for days. Ask me to if you want.
But also, no worries, because we're all already on the path to figuring all this stuff out. We have a year of living together ahead of us. Theres no way any issue can last for long. No one wants to live unhappily, everythings going to hit the fan, everythings going to get discussed to death and a solution.

Long post. Not even done with Tuesdays. But its time for dinner. Love.