Realities of living in a kibbutz

 I realise I haven't done a 'what is a kibbutz' type post really, so here goes with a few volunteer insights.

Kibbutz lliterally  means group in Hebrew. They were set up originally by Zionist group's at

Chilling on Sabbath day with the Beatles 

the start of the 20th century. They created a voluntary democratic society where everyone is equal. According to my sources (here) there are currently 256 kibbutzm in Israel but a lot of them don't take on volunteers.
Even after Economics degree that practically preached bow down before the Lord that is capitalism, I am still convinced there is something better out there.  And you know what? A world with out competition is great! The people here don't seem stressed, everyone just gets on with their own contribution to the communities economy, mainly agriculture here, and life is chilled. There is no locks on the door of our house, for example,  or on the bicycles. The feeling of trust is nice. When the kibbutz members get old and can't work any longer the kibbutz looks after them. Everyone here gets a wage of about £1,750 a month so 21,000 a year not bad going huh?

Well that is everyone but the volunteers. We get a 10th of this.  I'm not really objecting, as it make sense we are only here on a short term basis and its enough to live comfortably on the kibbutz. What does mystify me is that in the shop I have to put 2 prices on everything. One for the kibbutz members one for the volunteers. Guess who gets the high price? Us volunteers! Maybe I will try asking someone for an explanation at some point to try understand why this is but on the face of it, it doesn't seem so fair.

We aren't equal with the rest of the kibbutz and there is some stigma attached to being a volunteer due to our tendency to drink and such but I am enjoying it none the less! There is certainly equality between volunteers. We all get the same wage whether you are doing back breaking work in the field or drinking coffee and stacking shelves in the Cobal ( what the shop is called). It might not quite be living the dream but it's close enough!

After this: Israel shoots down rocket fired from Gaza strip hitting the news yesterday, I found out that the volunteers are the first ones to be evacuated if things get serious. Before woman and children for diplomatic reasons. A volunteer getting killed is not good press for Israel so mum (and anyone else who might be worried) I wasn't kidding when I said they are well prepared out here for anything if should happen.

One last thing on a more light hearted note.. I have been chatted up by all 3 of the delivery guys who look under the age of 30 at work. I am wondering if they have a bet running. One of them doesn't speak any English and had to get my colleague to translate! Kinda funny.

It's been one week since..

I have been on the kibbutz for one week and the Barenaked Ladies are in my head...not literally! I mean this

:

I discovered on my second day of work, which was Monday. The week starts on a Sunday and Friday night and Saturday, the Sabbath day, are the weekend over here. (Bye bye lazy Sundays!) Anyway I discovered after night of wine and beer, stacking shelves with a hangover is easy! Especially when you have unlimited cups of coffee.  

Since then I have only had one hangover free day and it was actually the only one where I fell asleep while at work. Not for long mind. You know when you feel your eyes close for a second and you have consciously wake yourself up?  

Starting work at 6:30am is actually good! Never thought I'd say that as I find getting up the morning a bit of a chore, luckily zombies make good shop assistants.  I usually come home after finishing work at 2 and have a bit of a nap if I'm feeling tired. Then chill out, get a shower, make some food and the evening of booze, bonfires and laughter follows.

Apologises to my liver. I am having another drinking free night tonight! Way to sound like an alcoholic but I am young and having fun. That's the excuse I'm sticking to anyway.
I think my highlight of this week's evening activities was last night, although it might just be the one I can recall most clearly. It was quiet and chilled. It was Lucas's (the Brazilian) last night, we had fire, BBQ, guitar, singing and drums made from bins and buckets. Hippietastic! I always seem to be one of the last to head to bed every night. I am sure this will change if I get moved to one of the more labour intensive jobs though.

Everything is changing all the time here. People leave and new people arrive its really interesting seeing how people's interactions change with each other. We had two German girls arrive the other day and some of the guys have clearly slipped into trying to impress mode, as when the two girls were cleaning  the kitchen they actually offered to help. When  Drees and I cleaned the kitchen on Saturday they weren't so helpful.

I need to remember to start taking some photos now and then!

First few days in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha!

Soldiers in Tel Aviv central bus station

On Thursday, after one final coffee and croissant, I set off on the bus ride to Ein Hashlosha. It took two buses to get here and by the second one it was just me and a whole lot of men  and women in uniform.. A definite reminder I was heading towards the Gaza strip.

I arrived around 3pm which meant most people had finished work and were around in the volunteer house when I arrived.  When I approached the house there was a woman lying in a hammock out the front. I went over and checked out I was in the right place and was greated by an English accent and a northen one at that!

The house for 16 volunteers!

I put my stuff in the room I share with the 
English girl and a Korean girl and met all the other 15 volunteers. It was a quick succession of names I had no chance of remembering. There is a good mix of nationalities too making names even harder to remember. There are a few guys from South Africa, Mexico, Spain, America,Japan , South Korea, Paraguay, Germany and us Brits of course. I've probably forgotten one but as you can see it's a big jumble of cultures.

Some photos from my walk

Thursday and Fridays the kibbutz has an evening meal on offer for everyone.  So we headed down to the dining room for some food. The food was good! Spinach cannelloni type thing with lots of salad and some bread.  Later a few of us headed down to the woods just outside the kibbutz gates for a bonfire with a few beers and a guitar. It was a good time. Nice and chilled and got to hear some amusing stories. I did hear my first, and only so far, bang out here. A missile going off somewhere in the distance. Bit scary.

Unlike nearly everyone else I didn't have work yesterday so I spent the day having a wander around the kibbutz and sleeping a little too much..oops. 

After another delicious meal in the kibbutz dining room Friday evening kicked off with wine, beer and bbq. Having dinner and a bbq may sound glutinous but I was glad I wasn't relying on the relatively small amount of bbq food to support my alcohol consumption.

I had left it to late to get to the shop as it closes at 2:30 on a Friday but I didn't realise

Farming equipment

this till 3pm. So I was reliant on the generosity of my fellow volunteers. One of the guys owed me a beer from the previous evening and so we shared a bottle of wine.

Later on a group of us headed to Mafia. Mafia being the kibbutz pub/club. Basically a bunker with a bar, loud music and a dance floor.  Aside from the hangover the dancing was fun. They played lots Latino music, (due to the Kibbutz South American roots I'm guessing) which is always good to dance to.

Today has been filled with eating schnitzel, the only thing available from the kitchen on Sabbath day. I also helped another volunteer clean the kitchen so it was safe to cook in there again, which involved a lot of washing up. The sink has now been refilled with dirty plates..didnt last long.

Tomorrow is my first day at work. I'll be working in the shop, which isn't too strenuous but I do start at 6:30am. So I best be off for some shut eye.

Green and white army

My first full day in Tel Aviv. Big chocolate croissant and a cappuccino for breakfast. Sat outside in the sunshine and did some  people watching on the busy street corner. Perfect start to the day.

Next I headed for the beach. Tel Aviv has the wonderfully warm Mediterranean Sea. I am

Tel Aviv beach

wandering along taking some photos and a middle aged man in a Northern Ireland football says hello and starts chatting away to me.  Him and his friends are here for the football match tonight Israel vs Northern Ireland. They are heading off in the opposite direction for a drink and let me know where they are heading in case I fancy joining. Bare in mind this is at about 11am.. a little early I feel to be hitting the pints. So I carry on enjoying the warm sand beneath my feet and think nothing more of it.

It isn't until I head down Allenby st in search of some lunch that I see the same bunch of northern Irish guys Sat in one of the pubs waiting for their beers to arrive. I wave and say hello and end up joining them for a drink...

Many pints later and after divulging that my dad is from Belfast I end up at a football stadium listening to chants of "green and white army." My first ever football match.  I did manage to up grade my company to 3 guys in their 20s too! Paul Joel and Richard! There's your mention!  It was an entertaining night.

I do have to admit for the whole the first half I was thinking "this has got to be the worst decision in my life." It was boring! That ball was not going anywhere near the net..well apart from Israel's goal early on.  Why I had left the bar was a mystery.

Then Northern Ireland finally scored and I joined in the up roar! The second half was actually quite exciting! I think I also got my own chant at one point in the game.

The game finished with a draw 1 all and we headed back to the bar on the sea front, Mike's Place and the drinking continued. Think I got in around 2 and stuffed my face with a beef sadndwich. I managed to get a sandwich without pickles too!  They really love pickles out here.

This morning I was suffering but I managed to drag myself down to the Kibbutz volunteer centre and I'm off tomorrow morning to Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. It's  very close to the Gaza Strip. Yes I did say Gaza. Don't freak out. There are 16 volunteers out there already ( I could have gone to a kibbutz somewhere else if I'd wanted but where's the adventure in that?!) and most of the Kibbutz members are South American.

An Isreali collective community made up mostly of south Americans situated close to the Palestinian territories..definitely going to be interesting.

I have some great pictures from the drinking session and beach but sadly I didn't think the idea of only bring my kindle no laptop through properly. No way to get my photos off my sd card. I will work on getting a usb card reader and update with some amusing images.

Landing in Isreal

I have been in Israel 2 and a bit days and I am already stacking up a backlog of stories and finding it hard to fit in the writing up of my notes but here goes...

Jewish traditional dress

Let's start at the beginning: getting here. Unlike my recent experience with trains everything went smoothly. 5 hour direct flight from Manchester to Tel Aviv. However I did feel like I should have brought a hat to wear on the plane.

A Magritte painting

This is especially for my friends who asked if Israel was really that Jewish. The plane felt like it could have been a Rene Magritte painting. If Easyjet had existed in his day and his hats more Jewish of course. More than half the men on board we're bearded and wearing black hats. It was a little surreal.

Oh and Tel Aviv looks great at night! A thousand tiny lights scattered below you. Seems to be less blaring consumerism than Chinese cities anyway.

Anyway I arrived at the hostel and was met by the night manager who gave me a map and told me the good spots to check out. Local knowledge always welcome. Got settled in and went for a drink and food with the American girl who was staying in the same room at the hostel. Pretty standard few quiet drinks..it wasn't till the next day when things started to get interesting.

The Biggest Idiot In The World Award goes to...

Do you ever have days were you wonder if there actually any intelligent life sitting in that head of yours? I have certainly had my doubts, about what's going on in mine, today!

It's 4 days until I fly off to Israel so time to pay my sister a visit up in Edinburgh. Getting the train up from Newcastle and spending the day together. Great. Simple... or so you would think.

Roughly a month previously I had missed my train from Newcastle to London. I had bought an advanced single for about 30 quid and ran down the platform just in time to see the train roll away right in front of my eyes. Gutted. Then with additional sting of having to pay 80 quid for an on the day ticket for the next train. That's 110 quid to go to London and I wasn't even travelling first class! As it happened I had a fantastic time down there so it didn't really matter..but anyway back to today's trip.

After the London experience I was determined to get there on time. I did I was about half an hour early. Got my self a classy cup of coffee at Burger King. Go through the ticket barriers 10 minutes before my train is due to arrive. We are good to go.

I don't think I looked this dignified running for my train

Wrong! Seems I can't read in the morning if I haven't eaten breakfast. Guess who proceeds to the wrong platform and gets on a train to London!? The opposite direction! Yup that would be me...

IDIOT!!

Luckily my brain finally kicked in when I heard them say they would be arriving at London Kings Cross at such and such a time. I managed to get off before it actually left the station.  However the train I had booked a seat on to Edinburgh had been and gone by the time I got  to where I should have been in the first place! This prompted a long series of expletives to irrupt from my lips.

15 mins later, after blowing off some steam on the phone to a friend, I was on a train in the right direction. I sat down and heard the ticket man coming down the aisle saying "all tickets from Newcastle please." I braced myself for the expensive hit.

But finally my luck changed!  Using my smile and charm I managed to convince the lovely ticket man to let me go without buying a new ticket. Woohoo! So aside from being half an hour late to meet my sis, no harm done and I got a story about my spectacular stupidity for you guys to laugh at.

The rest of my day has turned out great too. Met sister, had tea and delicious cream filled Sicilian pastries, watched the new Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine, helped my sis make moussaka, ate said glorious food with a bottle red wine AND successfully got a train down to my mum's, here in Lancashire.

Tune in next week for more mishaps!

Go go go!

Woohoo!  Plane ticket!

Check it out! I have the green light from Israel! Flights are booked. I am off on the 14th of this month. Time for 10 days of chaos running around trying to get organised. Exciting! 

Just as I had started thinking there was no chance of me getting out there before November came around the Kibbutz agency emails me to say can you get here before the 15th October?!  

I had even started looking around for a back up plan, after my GP  had refused to write me the letter the agency had been asking for regarding my Measles outbreak back in 2011.  My doctor said it was an unnecessary letter as it was so long ago and refused to write one.  I thought this was pretty mean seeing as I would be the one paying for it.   Luckily my ingenious mother came up with the idea of calling up the UK Health Protection Agency to see if they could help out. A link to the national measles guidelines and 5 days later, waiting for a response to my email, we are sorted!   

Time for a to do list:

• Buy some shorts that don't have a big gapping hole in front of them. (busted the seam playing capoeira after a few beers)  
• Buy some travel insurance
• Packing and re-packing when backpack is too heavy or everything inevitably doesn't fit in.
• Check medical supplies are sufficient.  
• Decide whether to take musical instrument with me and or which one.  Guitar or Berimbau?
• Get a kindle and fill it with some books.  Book swapping wasn't very easy on the road in China. 
• Visit sister in Edinburgh before I go.

That's all for now.

   

I am also looking forward going to see this tonight! Will be watching in the Dr Who style trench coat I just purchased for a bargain 9 pounds.