Snow in Whitley Bay, Sunshine in Eilat, 34 degrees in Ein HaShlosha

Earlier this evening when I went to the Cobal I watched a video of the snow falling in Whitley Bay ( Where I lived before I came to Israel. It is on the North East coast of England for anyone who isn't familar with the UK)  a week or so ago.  One of the kibutzniks ex husband lives in Whitley Bay would you believe.  I have met her briefly before but today we had an in depth conversation about the joys of Newcastle and Whitley Bay, as she has never been to visit. Even said she might think about taking her kids and flying back with me in July, which would be so cool! 

This is the hottest winter I have ever experienced it reached 34 degrees today!  Crazy desert weather.  I do miss being able to see the seasons though.  Autumnal orange and red carpets of leaves, and being jammy when you manage to get just the right amount of layers to stay warm despite the chilling wind. 

Ein Hashloshaians on the beach!

My weekend away in Eilat was lush.   On the Friday we left the kibbutz at 6:30am got to Eilat around 1pm.  That's cos it takes 3 buses to get there.  It's actually only 2 and a half hour drive away but public transport is cheap here so cant complain.   The four of us who went met up with Debra and some of her friends from the Go Eco project she is working on.  We all stayed in the same hostel and spent the day chilling on the beach and the evening getting drunk at the hostel (of course) on beer and Garam's great tasting punch/cocktail.  Then we headed to a night club and owned the dance floor with our moves, as you do.  

Let's put my hand in front of Alex's face

The next day we went snorkeling   I've never been snorkeling before and its such an unnatrual thing to do so takes a bit of egtting used to the whole breathing on through your mouth but I saw so many cool fish.  one of them was massive! It's definitely something I want to do again and it only cost me 6 shekels!  Bargain!  we rented two snorkels between all of us.  

I also managed to injure my foot, scraping it across a rock.  I just ignored the ropes that told me I'd reached the shallow bit.  Genius. Now I have a nice big graze on my left foot as a reminder of Eilat. 

Me and Garam and the amazing Negev sunset 

On the Saturday evening most of the people that had come along with Debra went their separate ways. It was just the four of us from Ein Hashlosha and Debra and her two fellow volunteers at the nature reserve Kay and William.  We all went back to their place at the nature reserve in the middle of the desert.  

Whilst there we saw them feeding the animals, went on safari,  had a bbq,  danced around a campfire.  Had a really nice chilled night. It was also ultra quite aside from the music we were blasting.  There were no sounds of bombs or things blowing up.  It was kinda strange as we have got so used to here stuff going off around us all the time.  

We spent the night camping in tents, which for me was a bit of a mistake.  I was (and still am) ill at this point.  I was feeling so much better i think the snorkeling had even helped clear my sinuses but it gets pretty cold in the desert at 2 or 3 in the morning.  I woke up at 3:30am my ears were frozen and I had such a bad head cold.  I felt like I was so close to being rid of this cold and then I went and made it worse.  I did go and sleep in side after I woke up but the damage was already done.   Noted camping in desert and being ill not a  good idea.  

Here's some of the animals:

I also finally borrowed someones computer so all my photos from Tel Aviv football game, Jaffe sunsets and a few more from Eilat are now online.  You can check them out here if you like: Israel Photos

New Brit brings first rain storm!

Wow I haven't posted anything in over a week. I have been off work these past two days with a bug an  right now I am trying to keep myself awake so I can get a normal nights sleep an  go to work tomorrow.

My last post I talked about the big volunteer meeting. As a result of that we got invited to go to a Rock n Roll party on another kibbutz last Friday. 6 of us went along from Ein Hashlosha an  two guys from kibbutz Reim. We had mattresses to sleep on in the kindergarten so we were set to drink and dance the night away. Unfortunately the DJ was rubbish. He even left at one point and they just played dubstep but we still managed have fun playing drinking games and amusing ourselves.  It was a change from the Mafia and nice have some different people to drink with.

Amazing acrobatics

Oh yeah last Thursday the kibbutz had a free trip to Jerusalem for the knights festival. They had these amazing acrobatics doing a performance. There was a crane with a ring with a drum kit and drummer inside hanging from it and then below that was like a metal sphere cage with three female performers doing absolutely amazing stuff all suspended in mid air. This was the highlight of my night as I got a bit tired cold and grumpy towards the end of the night. I managed to lose everyone in the massive crowds and had forgotten to bring a jacket with me.

Me and Cory before losing everyone.

We had a new girl arrive on Sunday! A fellow Brit! I got back from playing a game of football with 3 other volunteers and 4 guys who live on the kibbutz and she was here. The football game we lost terribly. 8-4 I think was the final score. We were doing well to start of with but seemed to get steadily worse but it was good fun.

Later that evening it rained! Really rained. The whole time I have been here it has drizzled for about a minute one day and that was it.  I had almost started missing the rain. Felt like home for a second haha except it wasn't bitterly cold at the same time.

It's great to have another British girl back in the house some things just don't translate to other countries.

I am off to Eilat with Garam an Alex on Friday to meet up with Debra who was my room mate from Manchester and the first volunteer I met on my arrival! She is now working on a nature reserve and we are visiting to celebrate her Birthday. My first holiday taken on the kibbutz I better not still be ill!

When in doubt, shake your arse!

Friday's Tequila tasted like bubble gum...that's what you get for 50 shekels! but it did the job everyone got drunk and had a fun night. I only have 3 photos from the start of that night. The third one is a terrible photo, you can't really tell what's going on, so I think the tequila must have been taking effect..

Tequila session #1

Tequila session#2

The gathering of  the kibbutz volunteers in this area, last night was good too! Although it was a bit like being back in school. Organized activities all the time. Would have been nice just to have sat everyone in a room together to chat, preferably with some alcohol to loosen people up a bit. 

We had a talk from one of the kibbutznik, residents of the kibbutz, who had been at Kibbutz Reim since the 60s. She had loads of interesting stories about the changing ideology of the kibbutz and the education system. Up until 1990s children didn't  live with their parents, as there was not the facilities in the kibbutz housing for families to feed, bathe etc their kids. So the children all lived together, ate together, grew together and doing chores was part of their daily lives. I came across this in China a little as the primary kids had to clean their own classrooms. There was no caretaker like in England. We had a walk around the day care centre and the school which now acts a place for informal education. The kids come home from school in the early afternoon and get help with their homework, time to play and such until their parents finish work on the kibbutz at 4:30.

After we split into two teams for some basic drama exercises. I really enjoyed it, which was cool as not so long ago on the spot improvisation would have scared the bejeebers out of me! There was inevitably the get to know people activities like saying your name with action that everyone in the circle then had to copy, that kind of thing.

Next was dinner time, thankfully! We were all starving by this point. We enjoyed food (i think the food at Ein Hashlosha is better) and wine sat and chatted to some new people but inevitably ended up with some people from Ein Hashlosha on the table as we had by far the most volunteers on our kibbutz.  I had Ecuador, Columbia and a load of South Koreans at my table. There was only one other fellow Brit at this gathering! It was interesting

Scaredy cat Cory getting turned down 

comparing kibbutz experiences with different people. I seemed to meet a fair few who worked on a chicken farm.

While everyone was finishing up dinner I headed outside and me and a few of my fellow Hashloshians decide to climb the kids climbing frame in the playground, outside the dining
room. Including Cory who is scared of heights, he was freaking out at the top of a rope ladder. Don't ask me why he joined in, he's American.

The final activity of the evening was Israeli folk dancing followed by a bit of salsa. The folk dancing everyone pretty much got the jist of but when it came to salsa I was getting lost all the time! No need to worry though I just went with what I have learned from the Brazilians. When in doubt just shake your arse and go with the music!

4 Germans and a chefs hat

It's been a while since I wrote a post and a fair amount has happened in the last week. I have moved jobs and there's been some positive changes in the volunteer house.

Volunteer photo before Debra left. 

The kitchen is now where I go at 7am Sunday to Friday. It's so nice to be busy all day. I have made so much food. Work doesn't drag anymore and as a result my coffee consumption has plummeted! From about 6 cups everyday and quite often still managing to drift off at work, I have just one with breakfast. Wandering around the shop singing along to the radio was pretty fun though. I got laughed at by the chef the other day for dancing around  the kitchen. Have to do something to make cleaning more fun. All in all I am really enjoying working in the kitchen. We get chocolate brownie for breakfast!

After Debra and Adru leaving we got two new volunteers, one of them replacing me in the shop.  One of them is Mario from Guatemala, who's hanging out with his fellow South Americans at the Cobal and Marian from Germany. That means we have 4 Germans in the house which is more than any other country, so guess they are winning the war for once. There are 17 of us in the house again and we aren't getting any more volunteers until after winter is over. This is nice we have a good bunch of people here. I have heard stories from two month previous to me arriving of furniture being smashed an fights breaking out. Right now everyone seems pretty chilled, hope we all stay that way for the most part.

Speaking of chilled. Joel and  Wesley, two of the South African guys here built a really nice chill out area under the tin roof outside. Loads of sofas cushions, a table, great place to chat, smoke and relax. We had a big meeting and agreed we should start doing some work on the house to get it looking nice. We have a new cleaning schedule and Saturday afternoons are going to be spent painting walls, mending so.etching or making something new for the house. There is such a nice atmosphere here at the moment.

Last night we went to Bersheva, the nearest town, which took about 40 min car drive to get to..well actually we went to the mall, which was like any other shopping centre but massive. The biggest in Israel apparently. I had planned to buy a big needle and thick thread/wool to fix the hole in the hammock, but I forgot. I think my brain was overwhelmed by the awesomeness and the fact things cost almost the same as back home but I dont get paid that much. The only shop I enjoyed was the puzzle shop. Literally you walk In andone of the guys working there hands you a puzzle to work out. Took me about 20 mins to open a box!

On Sunday is a gathering of all the volunteers who work on the kibbutz in this area so I am looking forward to that should be interesting. Tequila is the public booze of choice for tomorrow. Set to be a fun few days.

Forget trick or teat and horror movies, try helicopters and gun fire for Halloween!

Last night was seriously the scariest Halloween of my life. Israel blew up the tunnel that was on the news a while back, where Hamas were supposedly trying to target the kibbutz kindergarten but it is actually about 3km away from the kibbutz parameters. All this meant the Israelis crossed the boarder last night and Gaza kicked off about it. 

Around 11 I was out walking with Debra and Garam who are my room mates and we heard the the bangs as they blew up the tunnel. This was fine we had been told in advance that it was going to be happening but there were loads of helicopters circling over head too.

Keep calm. Look at the cute kittens!

Probably to patrol the boarder. 

Anyway about 5 mins after we get back to the house. We hear shots, they are going of in quick succession like a rifle firing a round and a helicopter flies so close it sounds like it's right on top of us.  By this point I had run into the bunker with a few other people in the house and was freaking out a bit.

It didn't take for things to die down again mind and after a visit from one of the kibbutz members to calm everyone down everyone went off to bed. Everyone was fine and it all went quiet.

On the radio at work today we hear that 5 Israeli soldiers were injured and one was killed last night. I can't really describe how it feels to be so close to an active army base. But I quite often eat lunch with a few soldiers. Definitely going to be something I remember about living here.

Earlier on the day I also had my worst morning at work. It was Debra and Adru's leaving party the night before (two of the people I get on best with in the house) so yes it was another one of those hungover mornings. Unfortunately my normal tasks changed slightly. I spent about an hour and a half shovelling rotting garbage! This is not something normally expected of the Cobal staff and it was kinda my own doing that landed me the ordeal in the first place...

As we have already established in this blog I can be a bit of a numpty at times. In light of this it may not surprise you to know that on my first few days of working inn the Cobal I was putting garbage in the wrong place, until Marcello, my boss picked up on it. 

Cardboard bins outside the Cobal

I knew I had to separate the rubbish from the cardboard boxes so I was putting all rubbish in the green gated container and all cardboard in the obvious cardboard filled trailer. As you can see on the picture. Turns out they are both for cardboard. The rotting vegetables go in the wheely bin across the road. Doh! 

That wasn't too pleasant but my boss was very nice. After I'd finished he told me I was 'number one' and let me pick out one of the pastries from the shop for breakfast. Yum. So my day got better and then scary. In contrast today has seen very mundane but it's Friday so time for drinking and dancing in Mafia! Beer o'clock!