Remembrance and celebrations

Monday was national remembrance day for all the soldiers who have died in Israel Defence Force and the civilians who have been victims of terrorist attacks. Much the same as Yom the whole of Israel came to a stand still for one minutes silence. Here's the IDF video explaining it all:

Post by Israel Defence Forces.

There was also a memorial service at the kibbutz on Sunday evening, that I and most of the  other volunteers attended. All in Hebrew of course but you could get the gist of it from the atmosphere and what was going on visually. The first three people that were named in the ceremony were the first 3 kibbutz members to fall in the war of independence, which is how the kibbutz got its name. Ein Hashlosha roughly translates to this. There were 6 other son and daughters of the kibbutz, each one a flame was lit for. One was for Carlos, an Ecuadorian volunteer at the kibbutz back in 2008 who got shot by a Palestinian sniper, whilst working in the fields. (The only volunteer to die here.)

A sad evening, living next to Gaza really made it hit home, it meant a lot to the people here. The feeling on Monday evening was quite different. The 6th of May is a national holiday in Israel as it is Independence day, when Israel kicked out the British.  The kibbutz put on a party with free beer and falafel, a DJ and even dancers all the way from Tel Aviv.

I was "working"  helping the kitchen make and serve the falafel and then clearing the tables after everyone had finished. By the time it got to clearing the tables I'd had enough beer to be dancing around the tables as I went.  It was such a  fun night and I got talking to a couple of Israelis who now live in London and run their own gardening company doing irrigation work in the south of England.  One of them was born and bred on the kibbutz and ended up in England after falling in love with an English volunteer many years ago.  I am currently looking at getting a job in gardening when I return to England in two months so that was pretty cool too.

Sunset photo time

As I write this my skin feels like its on fire. Yogev and Nitai took us volunteers for a  weekend of camping at the beach and quite a few people are looking a little on the crispy side this evening.   We went to Ziqim beach, which is the first beach to the north of the Gaza strip.  It was so nice to be out of the house and the kibbutz for Shabbat.  

We had potjiekos and beer, went swimming, sat around the fire. We didn't get much sleep as, some idiots arrived at midnight with a generator and two big speakers and decided to play trance music all night and morning. It was also pretty damn cold.  I slept next to the fire in a sleeping bag and warm clothes and it was still chilly!    The lack of sleep didn't really matter that much though we had the rest of the day to fall asleep in the sun, plus a few cups of turkish coffee and Nitai's delicious homemade biscuits helped.