Shnat

So we moved from Holit to Nahariya about three weeks ago to begin the communa chapter of our shnat.
Before leaving Holit we had a communa seminar for a weekend where we discussed and decided a few things about our communa. We spent a very considerable amount of time figuring out our rooming situation, because as we were with our name and really all decisions we make, we want to end with things everyone feels good and comfortable with. In the end, we have 6 rooms of three people each, with 4 rooms in the main house where our kitchen and living room are and 2 rooms in a second house across the alleyway from ours. I'm with Itai, from New Jersey, and Alexis from Venezuela. Its great.
During the seminar we also spent time deciding how we would spend our communal money, given to our kvutza from the program. We discussed that we wanted this money to cover our "needs", meaning generally the things we need to consume in life to make ourselves happy. Its a tricky thing, because every person has different needs. To me, it only made sense to cover all these needs, to encourage a change in lifestyle for people to think more about what they consume, not to have excess or extravagance, and give everyone equal opportunity to enjoy what they will, together and as individuals. This would mean no one could do anything, from buying food to traveling, without doing it as a responsible member of the kvutza and having their expenses covered by our collective money. This also would mean that the money we have from the program would not be the only money used, that personal money would also be needed in this kupa. Considering my very negative feelings towards money, its distortion of value, the separation it creates between people and between the opportunities people have, it didn't make sense to me to set up our kupa any way else. In the discussion I learned that I was the only one who really felt it made sense for us to do things in this way, although many agreed with my view, because people didn't feel comfortable or enough trust with the group or see the value in taking on something like this when our communa lasts only three months. I don't really understand why people feel this way, but I understand that they do and that they have their reasons for believing what they do, and it definitely does not make sense to have an arrangement that people don't agree with, so its all okay. We left it that food, cleaning supplies, including personal cleaning, and materials for activities or general use in the communa would be covered by the kupa and we would reopen discussion if we felt we could change or add more. Since then we have furthered ourselves to include snacks and any food purchases as long as you are on the communa and not traveling, so no one is capable of going out and buying a bag of chips without it being done in the context of responsibility for the kvutza, and no one is more capable of purchasing snacks than any other person. There is still more for us to discuss, because as much as certain food is necessary for some, other things are necessary for others, and there are other things that we all generally consume that might make sense to add to our kupa. For this reason, I had a hard time warming up to the idea of growing our kupa, because it really took a lot from me to accept that food and cleaning supplies were the only general needs being covered in the kupa, and with the things that we add, there is still so much being left out and held at an unjust level, but in actuality I am very happy to add any more to our kupa. If we add more, though, I don't know how much sense it makes to continue taking the money only from what we receive in the program, because we can do bigger and better things with our money rather than spend it on what we would normally spend personal money on, but we will talk.
During our seminar we also created our committees for different aspects of our communa life. We have a kitchen staff, who plans the meals and makes the shopping list, with items requested by the kvutza. Food is difficult, it is a bit of a stressful job for those in charge, I think because it is difficult for them to share the responsibility and decision making with the rest of us as ideally it should be shared. Our fridge and the car our landlord/neighbor drives us in to get groceries doesn't fit enough for us to have a constant full stock of food, so things need to be bought based on what specific meals are planned for. Its tricky.
We also have a team in charge of cultural activities, planning fun stuff for us to do together, a team in charge of decoration, and someone in charge of cleaning, meaning they ensure we keep our general space clean and that the necessary cleaning supplies are purchased. Cleaning has been bit of an issue for us, because things get messy and dirty very fast when 18 people share a kitchen and living room, and its very easy to think that one of the other 17 people will clean something or do the dishes or what ever. We keep pretty clean, though, especially considering how many we are. We also have a team responsible for the kvutza, which means planing or arranging our kvutza day, which is every Wednesday, ensuring we have meetings where the things that need to be discussed are discussed, talking about our kvutza with our guide, Sharon, and having any other activities we feel are good for the kvutza. I'm on this team, and we're very much in touch with the kvutza, working very much with them as opposed to for them, as we all discussed that we should.

So, what do we do here? Well, Sundays we have a discussion/activity with our pseudo-guide, Sigal, who is here for us because Sharon lives on Holit, which is far, and she can be more responsible for us here and help with our volunteer jobs better. Our volunteer jobs? Well, there are a few different ones we do. Most people work in an after school program for elementary school kids with low socioeconomic background and poor home life. There is also a team helping teach English in an elementary school, others in a night time youth center for similarly troubled teens, and a group in a community organization that helps fix up things in apartment buildings, provided that the people there are trying to take more control in their building. Most people are in a mix of these jobs, and I am in the afterschool program and the community repair team, wonderfully titled "work commando."
The after school program is awesome, I'm with generally very well behaved kids and my Hebrew is getting a lot of great practice. The kids don't know English. And I love little kids, so its awesome. They spend a good amount of time teaching me Hebrew, either reading me books and having me ask about every word I don't understand or me just asking what a word they say means, with all their answers in Hebrew, and its really a great lesson for me as well as a wonderful and seemingly very fun exercise for them. They're also really cute and sweet and fun. They come to eat, do homework and have fun. For some, the lunch and dinner they have there are the only real meals in their day, and although we haven't been told the personal tragedy stories that the people working in other after school programs have been told, many of the sad home lives are evident, and its difficult. The program director I don't think has the best attitude, either... the kids are in school all day and do work assigned in the after school program, and their time when they finish those lessons is really an excellent time for them to have some constructive, healthy, quality fun, for them to be loud and run around together and play games, but he seems to have a very negative attitude towards that kind of thing. He also has at the end of every day a meeting with all the kids where they are each individually given between 1 and 3 points based on their behavior that day. The kids who act out get a low number of points and continue to act out, clearly hurt. The system just isn't positive for them. As a part of our kvutza day last week we all went to a Hanukkah party at this program. It was revealing to see some of the kid's parents, and really cute and nice to see them do performances and answer trivia questions, but there was also a portion where Chanukiot made by some of the kids were voted on, by the kids, and the kids who got the most votes were given prizes. It was sad, really sad. It was a popularity contest, and instead of making the party a fun, happy time for everyone, ones who lost were crying, when they should have just been enjoying all the beautiful, creative things they made and feeling great about themselves. It was really messed up.
The work commando is also fun, we work with old Russian men, many of whom do not speak Hebrew and definitely not English. So far with them we've prepared and painted a metal staircase in one building and went to an amazing community Hanukkah party they hosted. It was more of a traditional Jewish gathering, which I really, really enjoyed, in that we all sat around tables of food, lots and lots of cake, doughnuts, dried fruit and nuts, sang every Hanukkah song we knew and listened to some divrei Torah. We all very much enjoyed ourselves and were a bit the life of the party, making up about half the singing participants.

Oye, all for now, layla tov!!