I live on a farm!
Hi Everyone!

Last week I moved on to track three of Otzma. We could either have an internship, or work on a kibbutz (a communal farm). I chose the kibbutz option and am now living on Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu. Sde Eliyahu in in northern Israel, near Beit Shean. The kibbutz is conveniently located about two and a half miles from both the West Bank on one side and from Jordan on the other side. The location is absolutely beautiful - the mountains of Jordan to the east, Mt Gilboa and its surrounding hills to the west.

Sde Eliyahu is an organic, religious kibbutz founded in 1938 (for those keeping track, that's a full decade before the founding of the State of Israel). There's lots of information about it on their website. http://www.seliyahu.org.il/ The website includes information about the religious life, organic farming, various crops, and the history of Sde Eliyahu.

I was placed in the organic vegetable garden to work in every day. Everyone here simply refers to it as "gan mario," Mario's garden. Mario is one of the most adorable men I have ever met. He's 81 years old and he moved to Israel from Italy in 1939. He is known all around Israel and many parts of the world as the man who founded organic farming in Israel. People come from everywhere for his advice and to hear his story, but I mostly know him as the smiling man in his trademark white sun hat riding on his tractor. He works in the garden every day, supervising as well as helping in all aspects including weeding, watering, and harvesting.

The garden is huge, and we work six day a week from six in the morning until two-thirty in the afternoon. Mostly we weed, although twice a week is a harvest day. All the vegetables that are grown in Mario's garden go directly to the kitchen to be consumed by the kibbutznikim (kibbutz members) in the chadar ochel (dining room). We grow lettuce, cabbage, onions, leeks, garlic, beets, celery, parsley, potatoes, and more. I love working in the garden every day because I get to be outside, enjoying the sun and the fresh air and the breathtaking landscape. Also, watching an octogenarian on his hands and knees between the crops is quite inspiring.

I'm truly loving kibbutz life. Although there's not much to do here after work, there are other volunteers to hang out with and talk to. I'm here with two other Otzmaniks and we all share a room in a caravan style building. I love walking out my door in the afternoon to see goats munching at the grass, keeping it well mowed. One of my roommates has made a habit of playing with the sheep everyday after work. She works with me in gan mario, and our other roommate works in the refet (cow shed). The food here is great and everyone eats all three meals together in the communal chadar ochel. The volunteers all sit together and the kibbutznikim mainly sit separately. For dinner, children sit with their families but for breakfast and lunch all the children sit on some tables and the adults sit at other tables.

One of my favorite parts of life here is all the amazing smells. Walking to breakfast with the chirping of birds in my ears, I smell the simple but amazing scent of freshness and nature. As I head toward the chadar ochel, the pungent smells of the refet and all its cow manure greets me in case I'd forgotten that I live on a farm. On my way to the garden, I smell the fresh cut lawn in front of the synagogue before passing a small rose garden in front of one family's home. Although although these scents are amazing, the best smell comes at night as the jackals begin to howl; the flowers fill the air with indescribable sweetness, somewhere between honeysuckle and jasmine and lilac. I don't know what it is but I have no idea how I'm ever going to live without it.

In fact, I spent this past Shabbat with my friends in Jerusalem. As soon as I got off the bus I was overwhelmed by all the concrete. There were paved streets, paved sidewalks, tall buildings, and lots of cars! Though I slowly adjusted, I was relieved when I came back home Saturday night to dirt and gravel paths, green everything, and unlocked bicycles as the main means of transportation.

So that's kibbutz life in a nutshell. I'll let you know when something new and exciting happens, but that's most likely not going to occur here anytime soon.

Take Care and in case I don't write sooner, Have a Great Passover!
Sarah....
- posted by sarah @ 3/29/2004 10:25:00 PM

 
Adventures In and Around Jerusalem
Dear Friends and Family,
I know it's been a long while, again, since I last wrote. I had very limited internet access while in Jerusalem. I just moved up to a kibbutz today and will hopefully have more regular computer access from now on. However, I'm not going to tell you about kibbutz life just yet because 1) I've barely been here a day and 2) I can tell you more about my time Jerusalem.

We spent most of our days learning Jewish texts with a variety of teachers. I had lots and lots of fun and I learned loads. Not everyone on Otzma seemed to have a great time with the learning part, but I sure did. I'd never really experienced all-day Jewish learning before, and it was a blast and a half. And yes, I'm a huge dork.

One day after class (and skirt shopping), my friend Nomi invited me to go see Peter Pan with her. It was a children's performance put on by a group of religious scouts. Let me tell you, for five shekel it was quite the Israeli cultural experience. It was a mix between a dance performance, a talent show, and a school play - all on the absolute amateur level. The entire thing was co-ed, but the boys and the girls always stood and danced on opposite sides of the stage. In general, they were big fans of keeping their backs to the audience.

Nomi and I had trouble finding the Peter Pan part of the story. The spoken lines were completely unintelligible in any language. The musical bits (every other scene) were just random popular Israeli songs. Every scene had a different group of about thirty children on stage. As soon as one scene was over, the entire group tramped down the stairs at the front of the stage and another group stomped up. They sang and danced and yelled their lines as parents crowded the aisles with digital cameras while talking into their cellphones. [My favorite part of the evening was a rap that ended, "Tnu harbeh respect l'Aviel." (Give a lot of respect to Aviel.) It seems silly but listening to rap in Hebrew, with lots of English words, like 'respect,' thrown in, never ceases to amuse me.]

Another day, Otzma had planned a walking tour of the Old City and Me'a She'arim in Jerusalem. Seeing as I've spent lots of time in the Old City and thought that a tour of a religious neighborhood would be pretty boring, I decided to go on an independent hike with my friend Rob. Well it turns out that while in Me'a She'arim, an ultra-Orthodox man actually threw garbage on some of my friends. When I found out about it I was so jealous. I've always heard stories about that happening, but never to me. The one day I skip out is the one day I miss having that story made for me. But I did get spit on once, in Ramat Beit Shemesh, for wearing pants, if that 'counts.'

Anyway, Rob and I set off, picked up some food for a picnic lunch, and hailed a cab willing to take us to a small moshav called Bar Giora. Sixty shekel later our wonderfully talkative and informative cab driver dropped us off exactly where the trail began. We thanked him and set off. We started by taking a trail that led to some ruins. We explored the ruins a bit, but there were a few high school classes on a field trip there, too, so we didn't stay long. We switched trails, hiked for a bit more, and then decided to strike out on our own.

We spent about two and a half hours of bushwhacking and trailblazing up a hill and eventually back down again. I bloodied legs and palms, ripped my pants, and enjoyed some of the most amazing views. It's spring time, the flowers are in bloom, the hills are all green, and it's all absolutely spectacular. We followed deer trails down, eventually found a real trail, and kept going. We ran into some goats, some Bedouins, a few roads, and some construction sites. Then we hiked a bit more, through some fields of grass and a field of wheat, stopped for lunch, climbed up another hill, and eventually reached Beit Jamal. Beit Jamal is a monastery outside of Beit Shemesh where we walked around and talked to some monks. Rob bought some apparently not-so-good wine there, too. We then returned to Jerusalem by car-and-bus.

Total Time: 10:15am - 6:15pm
Actual Hiking: 10:45am - 3:45pm
Total Distance: Ten miles?
Area Covered: most of the way from Jerusalem to Beit Shemesh.
Final Reaction: Absolutely Incredible.

Just remembering makes me glow.
- posted by sarah @ 3/23/2004 12:04:00 AM

 
Chag Purim Sameach M'Kipa Aduma!
Chag Purim Sameach M'Kipa Aduma!
Happy Purim from Little Red Riding Hood!

I'm sorry that I wasn't able to email you last week and I'm sorry that my holiday greetings are nearly a week late - we have very limited internet access right now. But before I tell you all about my Purim adventures, some f you may be interested to know what this Purim thing is.

Quick Background:
Purim is based on the story found in the Book of Esther. Set in Persia 2,300 years ago, King Achashverosh throws a huge six-month party and the queen refuses to follow orders, she is replaced by a new queen - Esther the Jewess. Esther's uncle Mordechai, the leader of the Jews, uncovers a plot to assassinate the king -- putting him also in a favorable position with the king. All this comes in handy when Haman, the king's top advisor, obtains a decree to have all the Jews destroyed. In the end, through a complex twist of events, Esther gets the decree reversed, Haman is hanged on the gallows, and Mordechai becomes prime minister.

There are four specific ways Purim is celebrated today.
1. Reading the Megilla (Scroll of Esther) at night and the next day.
2. Festivity and rejoicing during the Purim meals and throughout the holiday. This translates to the best-known part of Purim, dressing-up in costumes and getting drunk.
3. Sending food to friends. (Mishloach Manot)
4. Giving gifts to the poor. (Matanot La'evyonim)

Although I had originally planned on dressing-up as a monk, my costume ended up being Little Red Riding Hood (known in Hebrew as Kipa Aduma). With lots of layers on underneath (it was freezing out!), I wore a red bed-sheet as a cape, my blue hair in braids, and carried a cute wicker basket lined in red. Sunday night (being in Jerusalem, I actually celebrated Shushan Purim) a large group of us went to Pardes to hear the Megilla reading there. The most exciting part was, of course, looking at everyone else's costumes and trying to figure out what everyone was dressed as. There were lots of adorable puns as well as very creative costumes. I was pleased that almost everyone (except for the Brits, for some reason) guessed correctly what I was supposed to be.

Following the Megilla reading, the drinking immediately commenced. [According to some, we are obliged to imbibe alcohol until one doesn't know the difference between "cursed is Haman" and "blessed is Mordechai." In other words, really really freaking drunk.] I don't mean to offend the proper sensibilities of many reading this, so I'll simply tell you plainly that my evening began with vodka, progressed to gin, was followed by wine, and rounded out nicely with beer. Around three am I passed out on my bed, still dressed as Miss Riding Hood.

The next morning those of us sober enough went to hear the Megilla reading again. Then we went to deliver mishloach manot (food baskets) for an organization that aids victims of terror. Besides giving out mishloach manot to my friends, I was also able to prepare some for "chayalim bodedim" (soldiers without family in Israel) and Jerusalem city bus drivers. It's absolutely incredible to be living in an entire country where everyone celebrates the same holidays. Where we can prepare baskets and baggies for complete strangers and knock on their door and be greeted with a smile and a "Happy Holiday to you, too!"

In fact, walking down the street that afternoon, carrying a basket of treats to be delivered, it struck me how much Purim really does resemble Halloween, and yet how different the two are. On Halloween, mainly just children dress up, and only for one day. On Purim in Israel, people of all ages get dressed up, many starting a few days or even weeks before the holiday. Buses pass with people going to work dressed as clowns and trees or simply wearing bizarre wigs - a week before Purim! Also, on Halloween kids go door-to-door collecting candy. On Purim, people of all ages visit their neighbors to give them candy and food.

Monday afternoon I ventured back to Ben Yehuda, the famous pedestrian mall, to see what festivities were going on there. (I'd been there the night before, but I wasn't quite in the best position to remember anything.) Everyone was dressed up, from the newborns bundled up in strollers to the religious men in black coats, funny Purim hats, and long beards. There were teenagers going nuts with cans of shaving cream, spraying everyone in their path and screaming Happy Purim! There were small groups of people circled around religious men who, it turned out, were reading them the Megilla if they hadn't been able to hear it earlier. And of course there were drunk Chabadniks waving bright yellow flags up and down the street and screaming about the Messiah. I was on my way to an afternoon meal, but as I passed some soldiers standing guard at the top of Ben Yehuda, I took a quick detour into a store. After buying some assorted candy I went back to the soldiers' post and left it for them as mishloach manot. It was the least I could do for boys younger than me who were stuck watching other revelers enjoy the holiday while they provided security.

At the afternoon meal I went to, we ate, drank, and made merry. As the sun started to sink below the hilltops, the door began to receive many knocks. First came neighbors rushing to finish delivering all their mishlochay manot before the holiday ended. Then came an old man and later, an old woman begging for money. Even though I had given over twenty-five shekel away to the poor over the past day, you can't turn down anyone who asks on Purim. Eager to fulfill our obligation, each time a beggar knocked, we jumped up from our meal and dug through our purses for a few more shekel. Did I mention how much I love Israel?

As the holiday ended and we said our goodbyes, the battle against traffic began. Everyone was leaving their various meals and parties and there was no way a taxi was going to stop for us. So we began our hour and a half walk home, dodging drunk drivers and drunker yeshiva boys staggering to their dorms. But we had lots of new candy and treats to keep us awake and before I knew it I was flopped back on my bed, too exhausted to take a much needed shower before fading off to dreamland.

I'm sorry this email was so delayed in reaching you, but I hope you have a good weekend.
--Sarah....
- posted by sarah @ 3/12/2004 12:33:00 PM