The Epic Adventures of 30 11 11

Once upon a time in a land called Karmiel,  seven roommates just left for about 3 to 4 hours to go see a movie in the next town.  The remaining two, we'll call them R and A, are planning on going the cheap-Shnat way and downloading a movie online to watch for free.  They are arguing about which movie to watch, when suddenly a loud clicking erupts.  They quickly determine the source of the clicking (NOT a pipe bomb, HPPP fans): it is the gas stove.  A moves to fix the problem, while R begins to panic.  Then, without notice, the power to the entire flat shuts off.  R screams and thinks she is going to die, and convinces A to evacuate.  They do, and they call their madricha, G.  R explains to G how they are about to die in a hysterical manner, which causes G to ask to talk to A instead.  They discuss a plan of action, which A carried out.  He fiddles with something under the sink and then flips some grand master hidden switch.  The lights come back on, but so does the clicking, and then the power goes out again.  R runs away, A follows eventually.  R reluctantly agrees to go back to give A another chance at fiddling with things under the sink, and this time the lights come back without the clicking.  At this point, however, R is already convinced that they are going to die in a fiery explosion, so they go to the park to wait out the imminent  detonation.  When it does not occur and it gets too cold to be outside, they go back.  A turns the lights back on despite R's protests, and they work.  For now.
If you don't hear from me (I am R, if you didn't figure that out) soon, blame A (Ariel).

More musings

I'm sure this will surprise my family and most of you who know me well enough, but I have become That Roommate that does everyone else's dishes and cleans not only my own space, but all the communal areas compulsively.  I know, I can barely believe it either.  But I just cleaned the dishes and put away the dry ones without being asked or provoked.  My bed and the area around is spotless (I can't say the same for my roommates, however), and I am in the process of cleaning the kitchen and living room.  It's not my stuff, I didn't make the mess, but I'm cleaning it anyway.  I barely even recognize myself anymore.  I can't tell if this is the advertised responsibility/growing up part of Shnat, or if my eight roommates are just that disgusting.
In other news, I have 333 new vocabulary words to learn for the MDA course.  I am dreading making those note cards, but thankfully my host sister is a seasoned MDA volunteer, so I plan on begging her for help memorizing these.

Today (the day after I wrote the above^), I saw two occurrences that would warm the heart of even the biggest kid-hater.  First, there were three kids, two giraffe toys.  Anyone who knows the nature of children can see what comes next.  One girl was rightfully playing with one toy, but two boys were fighting over the other (shall I enter a comment on gender inequality of maturity?).  Eventually the fighting got so bad that I took that giraffe away.  One of the boys went off and found something else to do.  The other boy cried relentlessly for what seemed like hours.  After realizing that he wasn't going to get any better any time soon, the girl got up and gave the crying boy her giraffe toy and a hug.  He immediately stopped crying and one of those too-adorable-to-be-real smiles lit up his face.
The other situation happened when one girl was obviously having a very difficult day; she would break down in tears every few minutes.  I was sitting on the ground holding her when another little girl came up.  She was holding two dolls.   She gave one doll to the girl in my lap and said, 'b'yachad.'  B'yachad means together.  They played together without a single problem for the rest of the day.
So yes, kids are crazy and like to fight and they sometimes smell very bad, but they most definitely have their redeeming moments.
Later in the day, during the kids's nap time, one of the teachers left and brought back a huge tub of glidah (ice cream) and toppings.  If you saw it, you would think we were a bunch of preteen girls at a sleepover, not professional caretakers.
After the glidah, we set up snack for the kids to have when they woke up, and then I had an entire conversation with one of the teachers in only Hebrew!  I asked if we had any more work to do, and then told her I had to leave because I had a class soon.  My Hebrew may be coming along slowly, but it's definitely getting better.  I can talk easily to the kids now, too.

One last note about the kids: the most amazing feeling in the world is seeing almost thirty three year olds ignore their breakfast, jump up, and run to hug you as soon as you walk in the door, despite the teacher's protests.

Some things I've learned working with the Israeli kids:

1. Kids drool and drip snot and spit and are generally perpetually covered in a combination of mucus, saliva, and/or slime.  They either don't notice or don't care.
2. They also exhibit signs of mental illness.  Examples: crying and screaming bloody murder one moment, then laughing the next and talking to oneself for hours on end.
3. When given a simple command (such as: 'sit here') they will either obey immediately or absolutely defy anything and everything you say.
4. It really doesn't matter whether you speak their language or not, because almost all boo-boo's can be fixed with a hug.
5. Although language is not necessary, it helps to know whether that three year old is babbling nonsense at you or trying to tell you something very important.
6. With kids of a certain age, you can teach each other.  You point to an object ask, 'what is it?' (ma zeh, in Hebrew) and they'll answer.  Then, you can help them learn how to count the objects.  This procedure works with many scenarios.
7. Kids are hungry until they push their plates away, but if you try to clean it up, they're suddenly ravenous again.
8. 'No more,' (lo od, in Hebrew) as it applies to food is misunderstood regardless of the language or tone of voice.
9. Taking a coffee break is always, always recommended.
10. A tummy rub is the instant cure for too-much-energy-at-bed-time.
11. To calm down, some kids need to be held, stroked, and hugged.  Others need to be distracted by a toy.  Still others simply forget right away (my favorites, stam!).
12. Just because those two kids are working together and playing so adorably by themselves right now does not mean that a blood curdling scream will not erupt from them soon.
13. Kids really enjoy pulling hair and swinging fists wildly at each other when angry.  Pushing is also a local favorite.
14. A small child covered with sand, the aforementioned mucus/snot/saliva, food, and mysterious other substances will not even notice that he/she looks absolutely disgusting.  And yet they'll still manage to look adorable at the same time.

Having learned and experienced all of this, I still choose to spend 100% of my volunteer with these little yeladim.

First day of work!

I am definitely taking advantage of our amazing internet connection here.  In Lotan, the wifi was scarce, but here we have our own personal wifi network that works reliably 24/7 (jealous, kibbutzniks?).  Anyway, today we all had our first day of work!  I got up and had breakfast, and then left for work.  It is literally just down the street from us; I walked there in less than three minutes.  When I got there it was a little awkward because the only English speaker was not there yet, so no one knew why I was there or who I was.  Eventually, however, it worked out and I was sent to help watch around 27 three year olds.  They played and fought and cried and laughed and fell and climbed on things and dug up sand for hours, and I got to be there watching and playing!  It was interesting because of the language barrier: I would hold up something, like a blue ball, and ask, 'mah zeh?'  They would answer, 'cadu cachol,' and I would learn the color blue is cachol.  Then we would count the blocks, and I would help them learn their numbers.  Later, I helped feed them snacks and put them to bed for their naps.  We cleaned the entire play area and, when they woke up, cleaned the nap area, too.  The ladies who work there are so nice, even though we couldn't speak to each other they made me coffee and food, it was all so comfortable there!  At four I walked home and helped clean the apartment for our weekly meeting with the local Reform rabbi, which was very interesting.  We've been hanging out, eating, going for walks, and even more eating since then, but now it's time for sleep because I have another 8:30am shift tomorrow.  Lailah tov!

Karmiel has started!

For the next few weeks, I will work three days at a nursery with kids around the ages of two to three, and one day a week at an elementary school helping fifth and sixth grade students learn to speak English.  I'll start tomorrow morning at the nursery.  Luckily, both places are close enough to walk to.
The other days of the week and afternoons will have tiyulim, meetings, classes, and other activities.  Tonight, however, I'm just about to leave to meet my new host family!
Earlier today we had our first shopping trip.  We split into two groups and went to different stores to buy food for this week and for the rest of our time here.  While my group ended up going way over budget, the other group was a little under, so it ended up working nicely.  When we got home, Noa and I organized the kitchen until it was looking perfectly clean and put away.  Our room, on the other hand, is a disaster!

End of Lotan, Beginning of Karmiel

Our last days on Lotan were full of amazing last-minute group bonding and fun!  We had peulot, services, gifts for each other, hikes, and lots of other fun activities.  We walked out to the sand dunes in complete silence, had a ma'amod, and then walked back singing songs as loud as we could.  We had a talent show featuring the ever popular box-game, rap performance, and the story of one guy's life from ages 11 to 17.  We watched a slideshow that was artfully prepared (by me) to depict our memories.  The kibbutz group made a lip-dub for us, and we wrote twelve letters for them to open, one for every week we are apart.  Eventually, however, our group of nineteen broke into nine and ten.  Ten of us stayed on Kibbutz Lotan to work in the refet (cows), din (goats), tourism, noi (garden), kitchen, and cheese manufacturing.
The better group (the one I'm in) left for Karmiel, a city in the north of Israel.  We stepped in from the hot, dusty Arava desert into the bus and got out again in the cold and windy north.  Our flat in Karmiel is really nice, four bedrooms and two bathrooms for all nine of us (plus our floor-crashing Aussie friend).  Aside from gas and hot waters problems, it's perfect.  We have a brand-new kitchen here, wifi, an outside yard area, storage room, and an amazing heater.  We walked around the city last night (and ate some of the best yogurt ever) and today our madricha showed us two nurseries and an elementary school that we can spend our time volunteering in.  We'll visit other places tomorrow, such as a zoo and soup kitchen.  In addition, I will start work with the Magen David Adom in mid-December.  After an extensive application and interview process, I will attend a ten day course in Jerusalem and then volunteer five days a week in Karmiel with the MDA.  During our time here, we'll also take classes with a local rabbi, a Netzer representative, out madricha herself, and many others.  We'll also have a tiyul day one a week.  Around our busy schedules, we'll also need to budget, cook for ourselves, clean the flat, have asefot, and build our own community.  For now, however, we're just set on working out who needs to wash the dishes from dinner.

Our final days on Lotan

It's weird to think about how one chapter of Shnat is already coming to an end.  In just a few days, I'll be leaving Lotan and about half our our Shnat group for Karmiel.  We've taken our last tiyul, had our last Ulpan class, finished our last practical work, and Celebrated our last Morning.  We have no more classes about ecology, compost toilets, the history of the Bustan neighborhood, Judaism, spiritualism, Zionism.  There'll be no more late night meetings in the White House about Hadracha and we will all go through either a tea or hot chocolate withdrawal.  We won't be fighting over the couch in the Moadome or the comfy spots in the Green Room.  We'll get to stop complaining about the spotty internet connection here in the Bustan and we'll finally get to eat something other than eggs for breakfast.  I think it's safe to say that we're all going to miss Kibbutz Lotan (those of us who are leaving, at least).
For our last tiyul, we saw ancient and archeological hot spots in the Arava, and me and a few others raced down a gigantic Sahara sand dune.  We played football and Sardines and truth or dare and hung out with the Shalatnikim (they have chocolate and cheese, two delicacies we haven't seen in a while).  Today we finished our mini-golf course, which is why I'm sitting here covered in mud and paint.  We're about to have our last ever class here and tonight we'll make our last meal in the Bustan.  It's actually really sad to be leaving the kibbutz, I know I'm going to miss it.  However, I am excited for Karmiel and the experiences to be had there.

Lotan Update

Wednesday was a more, 'normal,' day for us on the kibbutz.  We had a class on Reform Zionism with a kibbutz member, Ulpan classes, and worked on the mini-golf holes we are making.  Later that night, a bus took us, along with others from Lotan, to a memorial service for Yizhak Rabin near Yotvata.  The service itself was in Hebrew, but then we had discussion groups in both Hebrew and English.  Thursday was more of the same, until about 4pm.  Then, we had a tearful good-bye as we left the Southern group.  We had made them all cards, so we presented them, and then all hung around talking and comforting the friends we won't see for a very long time.  At 4:30, a bus came and took the Northerners to Eilat for the night, and as we drove away the Southerners left us with a sight we will never forget.  After the hour long bus ride, we got to Eilat, settled into our hostel that we pre-booked, and left for dinner.  On our way, however, 8 of us got piercings.  Ben, Benjy, and Jess got their eyebrows pierced, Becca got her second holes done on her ears, Alyson and Naomi did their noses, Abby got a little bar put through an inner part of her ear, and I got my belly button pierced.  From there we went to dinner, and most of us could barely move after all the great food we had eaten.  We went back to the hostel and took naps, and then went out for the night.  The next day, we lazed around on the beach for hours, only getting up to go swimming or for lunch.  Half of us left on the noon bus back to Lotan, but some (myself included) opted to stay and return on the 4:00 bus.  However, when 4 o'clock rolled around and the bus didn't, we realized that the noon bus was the last one.  Naomi, our fluent Hebrew speaker, bargained with a taxi driver to get us a very low price, so we rode back in two taxis.  We attended the Friday night service for the bar mitzvah of a kibbutz kid here, it was a really nice service.  Today, most of us slept in, but were sure to wake up in time for the elaborate lunch that was provided in honor of the bar mitzvah.  After, a few of us went on a walk to the sand dunes, and then it was time for the weekly soccer game (no injuries!), and now we're enjoying our Shabbat lazy time!
Kibbutz life is great, and I'm definitely going to miss it when we leave next week.

8 11 11

Today, we had Morning Celebration, and then left for a tiyul.  This tiyul consisted of going to a sand dune near Kibbutz Samar and learning about how a business is taking the sand from Israel's largest dune and using it for development elsewhere.  We saw first hand the destruction it caused and even met with students who stay at the dune almost all the time to try to stop the devastation.  Then we rolled down the dunes and got sand everywhere.
After that, we went to Timna park and saw a piece of land that is going to become a gigantic conference hall/ hotel/ theme park.  We heard about the mining there and what changes the development will have on the land.  We got to see a huge crack in the ground where developers where looking for a certain kind of element (but didn't find).  It was just left there as a crevice, with piles of dirt and sand sitting next to it.  When we were done with that part of the walk (we took a 'tour' of the hotel that was going to be built.  Our guide would point out a rock mountain and introduce it to us as the water park, etc), we were taken to a huge sand dune.  Hopefully I'll have pictures soon, so you can see just how humongous this is.  We got maybe a fourth of the way up and collapsed from exhaustion.  Eventually we made it to the top, but it took a while.  Our thighs and lungs were burning, but rolling back down was much easier!
When we got back, we had a class with Mark about Sustainable Communities and the Economy, which was depressing, to say the least.
From the class, Ariel and I (joined later by Ben, Benjy, and Dan), ran to join the soccer game, which our friend Mitch had set up as his last game on Lotan.  The kibbutz has regular games on Sunday, but Mitch and the rest of the Southern Shnat group leaves this Friday.  About 12 of us played until it got too dark to see the ball.  Of course, I was the only girl, but after Weight Training at Colfax, I'm used to being, 'The Girl.'
Then, the Shnatties, along with other kibbutzim and volunteer groups, got on a bus to go to the regional center for a memorial service for Yitchak Rabin.  It was a ma'amod entirely in Hebrew, with discussion groups after.  It was interesting, but freezing cold, despite being in the desert.
Back at Lotan for now, we're about to improvise some food and hang out with the Southerners before they go in a few days.  But not for too long, because we have an 8 am class tomorrow morning!

Some pictures

For those of you who don't have Facebook, here are some choice pictures for now.

More on Kibbutz life, Keshet, Birthday, etc...

As it's been a while since I've written anything for this, I have a lot to say.  And yes, it is past midnight.  And yes, I have to wake up very early tomorrow (later today, actually).  Anyway: we've started Ulpan (intensive Hebrew classes) and we are still doing more Green Apprenticeship work.  We built a bench around a fire pit on the kibbutz, made compost piles, planted, transplanted, harvested, and decorated pots in the garden, and we've taken many tiyulim (field trips).  We've bonded with the ShinShin-im (Israeli army soldiers gap year), kibbutz members, and other volunteers.  We've had to made our own meals on the solar appliances and we've had to clean our neighborhood (including peepee patrol once a week).  There have been three birthdays since we've been here: Jeff turned 19, Abby turned 19, and then I finally turned 18!  We've taken a bus down to Eilat for shopping and a night out, and we've played some intense games of football and ultimate frisbee (my face is almost healed!).  The Southern Shnatties led a Shabbat B'Yachad, where we had two themed services (laughter and Juno), many competitive games, and some… interesting games.  They also took us out to the Red Door, which is a red door in the desert.  We've experienced other kibbutzim, also.  Yotvata, makers of the best ice cream EVER, and Qetura, where we learned about the on-going plethora of research experiments. They have the only solar field in Israel now (although plans are being made for others), and they are currently implementing many research experiments.  We also learned about the Arava Institute on Qetura, which is a graduate program or year abroad that focuses on environmental studies with a side-focus on peace and cooperative-ness in the Arava and whole of the area.  They take students from Israel, Jordan, Egypt, the US, and many other countries, and assimilate how-to-get-along-to-fix-problems into their curriculum.

On Lotan, there have been many current events.  We had the birthday celebrations, improvised night activities, pub nights, Halloween, and many other fun things.  My Toms are barely holding up in the desert, but I only wear shoes when it is absolutely necessary (hikes and working in the eco-kef)  My legs are so mosquito bitten, I look like I have small pox.  I'm wearing jeans in the middle of the Arava because of the mosquitoes.  It's not as bad as it sounds because it does get quite cold there, not only at night.  Yesterday, we had a morning tiyulim to the Lotan Southern Nature Trail (I picked the very first date I have ever eaten.  I'm pretty sure I'm allergic).  We then went on a tiyul to various historically significant locations.  We stopped at a military bunker that dates from the Romans and at a place called Timna Park.  We watched a movie about how Timna park came to be such an important site (coal mining owned by a series of different nationalities) and then walked through the mountains.  We saw actual hieroglyphics and cave drawings, as well as a fairly elderly man climb mountains faster than a group of teenagers.   

Right now, however, I am Kiryat Moriah in Jerusalem for a Keshet Seminar.  This is a three day program intended to connect various youth movements on gap years in Israel.  We are here with FZY, Young Judea, and Noam.  We had ice breakers, peulim, and a tiyul already (tonight/today is the first day of three).  The Keshet Seminars were created for the British movements, but other countries can attend as well.  For example, Netzer Olami contains both RSY Netzer and LJY Netzer, which are British youth movements.  Thus, Netzer Olami as a whole is invited to the Keshet Seminar, and hence I am here because I am a part of NFTY, which is a part of Netzer.  There are also French, German, Spanish, and other nationalities here.  I think the weirdest accent is still Naomi's.  She's from Chi-caaah-go.

"What's next in my journey?" asks the inquisitive mind.  The knowledgable mind (mine) answers: I have two weeks left on Kibbutz Lotan as part of the Green Apprenticeship and Group Experience.  We'll continue using our compost toilets and working out on the football pitch.  The cows will be ridden eventually, and maybe we'll clean our moadome (a moadone is a club house, ours is dome-shaped…).  We'll say good-bye to our good friends, the Southerners, and tiyul to Qetura and Eilat.  We'll learn Hebrew but forget to do our Ulpan homework.  We'll sit around playing music for hours and play games for even longer.  We'll get more football injuries and send more Shnatties to the clinic because of sickness.  We'll continue to freak out every time we see a huge beetle and continue to say, 'I can wait to shower tomorrow…'  Late nights in the Green Room will be held.  Some people (me!) will go for runs in and around the kibbutz, while other people will go for "runs."  I'll drink too much shoko cham (hot chocolate), and everyone except me will eat too many apples.  I'll keep losing my shoes and stubbing my toes.  We'll grow really close as a group and become the epitome of kehillah.  We'll all get crazy bad fomo when we have to split up in two weeks for Options.

Basically, I'm loving it here.  And I may be in the desert with spotty internet, but I do get e-mail and Facebook and you can comment on this blog, and we can all keep in touch!

P.S.  I'm sorry if this whole post is disjointed and hard to follow.  It's past 1am here, and I've had such a crazy day.  My current situation involves me tipping my chair back to dangerous angles and heroically pulling myself back at the last moment, listening to music and singing way too loud, and wondering how my feet still aren't clean, among other things.  I'll save posting this until later, the internet here is sketch.  Until then, I'm going to go wash the Arava off my feet and, 'some sleep for me!'