my life on a Kibbutz in Israel: volunteering on a kibbutz

July 24 2009

The day of my flight to Israel, I really had no idea what I would be getting into. My flight is 7h30am this would be my first time flying, first time leaving home, first time alone. I always wanted to go to Israel and now it's happening. The travel agency told me there were two brothers that were going to be on the same flight as me, they were also going to be volunteering on a kibbutz.

So arriving at the airport the first thing I do is look out for them. I had no idea how they looked but I knew them instantly when I saw them standing inline to get there boarding past. I stood behind them in the line and we started chatting a little. Their names were Philip (21) and Nic(26), they were very friendly and I ended up in between them on the flight to Tel Aviv airport. It was not a direct flight we had to stop in Ethiopia for a few hours to transfer flights. We arrived in Tel Aviv early morning, then we had to find our way to the Kibbutz office to be placed on a kibbutz. By then we were quite comfortable with each other, and when we finally made our way to the office it was still closed and we ended up sitting at the beach down the road until it opened at 9h00.

picture of the beach in Tel Aviv that morning..

At the office..

The woman at the desk instructed us to have a seat, there was three other people that were also waiting to be placed. Once she had finished with each of them individually she called us to her desk. She was very nice she asked us how we doing and we were like ''yeah, good, tired blah blah'' then she said "you do know I cant place all three of you at the same kibbutz right?" we were shattered, didnt see that coming at all. Philip protested, and she said she will make a few calls we can leave our luggage here and go out to get a drink and come back in 30minutes. We did just that and upon our return she said that there is a kibbutz that will take all three of us, and that we very lucky because this never happens. She gave us the directions to the Kibbutz and off we went.

While waiting at the Tel Aviv central station for our bus to the kibbutz we were totally over whelmed with the amount of soldiers at the station, so young all armed and ready for battle. Philip took it bad
Nic had to keep saying ''it's okay, it's okay" and Philip will be like " we going to die bro, why did we come here?!"

Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha

The Kibbutz is located in the northern Negev dessert. It is a small Kibbutz with around 350 residents it was formed by South American Jews in the 1950's.The main source of income on this kibbutz was it's export of potatoes,paprika as well as milk from it's 400 cows and requiring a lot of hard work from the kibbutz's residents.

The Kibbutz also shares a border with the Gaza Strip, in which Gaza city was a mere 2km away, paroling the area was a Israeli military base, sometimes we would have soldiers chilling at our house while off duty allowing us enough time to get a few pictures with there guns.

There was been an occasion when a few Palestinians escaped the boarder and were hiding in the fields, this happened at night and being care free volunteers we tried to see what was happening and walked to the back of the kibbutz to overlook the fields when Tony an ex-volunteer from england who married one of the residence now in his mid-fifties came riding past in his car telling us this is'nt a game we could get hurt standing there. So we had to go back to the house, but the experience was so exciting I remember a girl called Channa from Holland falling over while we were running back to the house "Channa come we got to go.." we said and she was like " no..go on without me, save yourselves" we all laughed and she got back up and off we went.

We arrived at the Kibbutz that afternoon by bus and was greeted by a volunteer named Tom from London. He helped me carry my bags to the volunteers house. The house was a mess, a serious dump, as you enter through the door there is a huge cupboard full of clothes left by previous volunteers just shoved in no order. The walls were covered in writing from past volunteers, I remember once asking Martin a volunteer from Equator what one of the sentences on the door read because it was written in Spanish and at the end of the sentence was a long arrow pointing to a circle just below the bottom half of the door" what does it say" I asked, Martin answered "oh.. it says I pissed here". The kitchen was stacked with dirty dishes, the couch was so worn out that it had dents in the seats. The volunteers house had five rooms and one common room and kitchen,two rooms were really big with bunk beds and double beds in it, the rest of the rooms just had bunk beds. My room was in one of the big rooms, but it will only be a few weeks before I got to claim the double bed.Philip and Nic shared the other big room with a volunteer from Italy who had also arrived the same day as we did. I shared a room with a german girl, a dutch girl and a girl from wales and a israeli girl who had family on the Kibbutz. Also occupying the other rooms was another south african girl, a guy from canada, three koreans, a belguim guy, a russian guy, and of cause Tom from London.

That first day Nic, Philip, Carlo the Italian and I was met by the volunteer leaders and life-long resident of the kibbutz. She was a little too happy to see us she actually seemed fake and freaky, she explained our appointed jobs to us nic worked maintenance, Carlo fixed odd jobs, Philip milked the cows and I worked at the daycare. She told us we would be given the next day off to adapt and explore the kibbutz. When we returned to the volunteers house we started chatting to the other volunteers.. I came to learn that the volunteer leader was a monstrous person and if volunteers get on her wrong side she will kick them off the Kibbutz instantly, non of the volunteers liked her not even the residents on the kibbutz. At 1h00 the kibbutz serves a buffet lunch that first day was fish day.. the worse day of the week. The fish was tasteless and gross and they make this thing called fish balls. its huge balls that is whats seems like a mixture of fish, carrots, bread and sugar the first fork full i put in my mouth I had to spit out.. as much as I tried I couldn't get it down. Not all the food on the kibbutz was that bad though they had some really nice stuff, and on sundays we would all go to the hall for shabbat dinner which was the only day of the week that the kibbutz served dinner, breakfast and dinner you have to cater for yourself on a kibbutz.

front view of volunteers house..

entering through the door.

door to the left is my room, going straight you will find two rest rooms and two shower rooms.

our beautiful kitchen, this is when its clean. For the first two weeks Philip and I slept on the check couch by the table. It's weird looking back now because the couch was so small, but we refused to sleep in our own beds I think cause everything was still so unfamiliar to us. Nic adjusted easily or he just hide his feelings well. By our third month Philip was really home-sick and by my 4th fourth month both Nic and Philip were gone back home.

these photos were taken by a dutch girl called michelle who spent her friday afternoon spring cleaning the house.

Almost every single night the volunteers would make a fire outside and we would all be gathered outside smoking sheesha/hookah, playing guitar and singing..it was really nice because the more we were together the more of a family we became..even with the young residence on the kibbutz, they would always be coming in and out of the volunteers house or phoning the volunteers house and inviting us all to their house for drinks and hookah, on the kibbutz everything was walking distance away, the daycare, the school, the store, the synagogue, the dinning hall, the tennis court, the nurses room, the bus stop, the pub, the gas station and all your friends... after work the pool on the kibbutz would be open and we would go there, then one of us would always go to the store and buy 17 shekels ($3.50) vodka for the night and we would drink outside with the hookah burning. Tuesdays and Fridays the pub on the kibbutz would be open and we would go there to party.

my second night on the Kibbutz ..

from left, rhiaan on the hammock from Whales, carlise from south africa, tina germany (with blue top on), liat (she was a resident on the kibbutz lived there her whole life), in red is Avia also from israel but stayed as a volunteer, another residence and sarah from south africa. I shared a room with rhiaan, tina, and avia when I arrived.

volunteers in the pool after work.

Carlo the Italian.

Philip.

My first day at work was a disaster, I had no previous experience with working with children, and arriving to work I found out they were not children they were babies ranging between 03-09months old. I worked with two older ladies Lidia who became my mother away from home and Lilli who didnt speak a word of english and then there was Tali a beautiful young girl who was 22 years old. Lilli was the one in charge of the daycare, she spent most of her time running around the Kibbutz or on the phone. Ladia was a philipino lady who married a man from the kibbutz and lived here ever since, she would always talk about home back in the Philippians I think she really missed it. Part of living on the kibbutz is that after you completed high school you serve the army for two years after that two years you work on the kibbutz for two years then you will be allowed to go to university all expenses paid. Tali had completed her service to the army and was now working on the kibbutz, she had been working at the daycare for a year already before I came. The first few weeks at the daycare was pure hell for me. I had to have lunch at the daycare while all the other volunteers got to eat together at the dinning hall, I felt like I was missing out on so much. thats the only time we could get to catch up before going back to work, but like everything in life I got into my routine at work and didnt even think about stuff like that anymore. I became a pro at changing diapers, making bottles, feeding and burping the babies. I loved the days were the babies would take long naps and I would which Lidia bake the most amazing jewish bread, the ones with the braids in it. she would make mini ones two and send it home with the babies, she would make danish rolls with chocolate inside, long twisted dough deep fried in oil then my job would be to sprinkle sugar on afterwards.

when I started these two couldn't walk yet, I got to see them grow up

when I left they knew how to kick, hit, bite and scratch each other. (I didn't teach it to them)

this was a jewish holiday were they line the outside of the house with leaves and eat outside for a week

this is Rotem, one of my favs!

I think this was the jewish new year, all I remember is standing on a chair trying to get them all to look in the same direction while Lidia took the photo.

A few weeks into my life on the kibbutz I was introduces to Thai nights. There was a group of Thai men who lived on the kibbutz they worked in the field, basically they did all the hard work and were not allowed to kibbutz facilities like the lunch in the dinning hall and shabbat dinner. They lived right at he back of the kibbutz in what looked like those tin storage boxes.There has never been a night were you would go to the "Thai nights'' and come back sober. Normally the volunteer working on the fields will come home and say " yo the Thais invited us tonight'' then the news will travel around ''did you hear, its Thai night tonight".. when we get to the Thai's they always have a BBQ going with the weirdest of things ranging from pig intestines, chicken feet to frogs. Once me and another volunteer Anna watched them kill a duck with a brick to the head, it was so sad yet so interesting.. they knew what they were doing I don't think the duck even suffered, well actually a brick to the head couldn't have been painless, I am not even think it died straight away.. they then put the dead duck in a bucket of boiling water for a few minutes and asked me and Anna to pull out the feathers, while they made laughed at us, by the time we had left the duck was already on the BBQ. They would always served fresh meat when we came. The Thai's couldn't speak good english maybe around 50words for the most, when they served the meat they would say "see chicken? I catch, kill today at 5h00..is taste good no?''
While we sitting at the table there is always a rotating shot glass it would be a offenseto the Thai's to refuse it, which is why we were always shit faced by the time we would leave, also when a new volunteer comes to the Thai night for the first time they have to eat a chilli. I remember when I went with Philip, Nic and Carlo for the first time having to eat a chilli, you don't have to eat the whole one just bite at least half and swallow. I swallowed mine without chewing it so it was not that bad, Nic disappeared after he had his never to be seen again for that night.

My first time at a Thai night.. from left Michael from Canada, Tina, Philip, Pablo from Equador, Hack a always drunk Thai, Martin from Equador.

Carlo, Rhiaan, and forever shit-faced Hack

Carlo and I

Rhiaan with the Thais

Philip, hack the drunk, and Carlo..

somehow in hacks always drunk state he would still attempt to ride his bike and will go zing-zagging down the roads on his own little mission.

Through out the kibbutz you will find bunkers which is basically underground basements where you have to go when to alarm sounds to let everyone know that there is either a bomb or rocket coming towards the kibbutz. When you hear the recording of a women saying "shava adom" which means "red alert" you got a total of 5 seconds to run to one of those bunkers. The alarm must have went off about seven times during my complete stay on the Kibbutz. I remember a day when Tali and I were watching the babies outside when the alarm went off. Their was babies flying everywhere I would take one and pass it to Tali she runs inside gives it to Lili, Lidia runs outside grabs two babies and runs inside, I gab a baby and came inside then Tali and Lilli comes back with the last of the babies that were outside and we all wait in the one room were the babies have their naps for the phone call to say its ok to come out. The schools and Daycares are built with a protective covering over it to protect it from any bombs or rockets, but even though the rocket went past the Kibbutz it was a scary experience for me.

that is one of the Daycares where the babies I looked after goes after 22months old

the part covering it with the blue pillars is the protective covering

and this is the bunker for the volunteers, we messed it up badly, we would really only go down there when the alarm goes off, it was always hot and dusty. Somedays we would claim on top of the bunker and sun tan, there was about 4-5 times I actually slept on top of there right through the night most of the time after coming from theThais or pub ( which is actually just a big bunker, for the people in the dinning hall to run to if the alarm goes off that they just turned into a underground pub)

In 2003 there was a volunteer from Ecuador that worked on the field, that had been sniped by a Hamas Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, they say the bullet entered through his lower back and was found near his heart, he died instantly. there is a memorial bench next to the volunteers house for him. Sometimes we would sit there and have a drink in his honor. Hearing bombings and shooting throughout the day became so normal for me. sometimes my mom would call and she would hear the bombs going off and totally flip, the day I told her I was staying 2km away from the Gaza Strip she said she had almost thrown up after the call. About 3 months into my stay a girl from South Africa arrived, she became my new roommate, by then most of the old volunteers had left. Andrea and I shared the big room alone together for a few months before anyone else came. one night I woke up and Andrea was next to me in my bed " Cass they bombing, as soon as she said that another bomb went off.. by far the loudest since I heard since I had been there, the windows raddled and we jerked so much the bed moved we both got up to wake the others but when we went out the room they were all up already, we were all like " what do we do?" they didn't sound the alarm so we came to the conclusion that it could have been us bombing them?'' we stayed up a little longer until the bombing stopped then one by one we started going back to bed. Sometimes because our kibbutz is so close to the boarder when they bomb us the bombs go right over the kibbutz onto the fields. A lot of little rockets called quassarms can be found around the field, its a type of rocket that when it lands it shoots out tiny bits of metal which if you close to it would be the same effect as bullets.

we would collect bullets on the fields and burn the gun powder for fun..

quassarm brought home from the field

hahaha you missed us now we will make some art out of your quassarm!

At the volunteers house we also had a Labrador called Eleven, legend has it when he first arrived there was eleven volunteers at the time and thats how he got his name. That has been the only dog to date that I had a bond with and ever since then I made a promise that one day I will have a lab of my own.

I hope that this blog inspires at least one person to volunteer on a kibbutz, not only will you meet amazing people, make amazing memories and travel to places like Jerusalem, Galilee, the Dead sea, Egypt, Jordan and Petra, you will grow as a person and do things you never thought you could do.

Or even if you don't want to be a volunteer just go to Israel and feel the magic.

I shall leave you with so more inspiring pictures of my stay on the kibbutz..

eleven the volunteers dog

the kibbutz yoga instructor (with the with drums)

my bed.

Andreas bed

Andrea, Eleven and ME..

Nic, Philip and I our first night at the pub

lets start cleaning.. Get the vodka

That's cleaning volunteer style

some chilled nights outside..

jamming

who needs drums if we got buckets and tins

poker night..

Alaska vodka only $3.50.. that's how we roll!!

I got a feeling... that tonight wanna be a good night.

Jello shots for everyone!!

one day after work me, Andrea and Ben from Canada planned to cycle to the Gaza strip boarder..

That's Gaza City, we didn't make it all the way to the gates.. we chickened out cause we could see the sniper towers in the distance and didn't want to get shot. We could also see Israeli tankers coming on down our path so we turned around in case they reported us to the kibbutz because we were not allowed to go far out as we did.