Next Year in Jerusalem

My five months in Israel have been jam-packed with Jewish Holiday awesomeness. This is the first time I spent the High Holy Days in the Holy Land.  For Rosh Hashannah, I stayed with my friend Matan’s family in Jerusalem.  For Yom Kippur, I stayed with my instructor Rina’s family, also in Jerusalem, and for Sukkot, we celebrated the harvest together on the farm and then commenced on a 3.5 day hike from the farm to the kotel in Jerusalem. Most recently, we had a Chanukah break where I traveled to Eilat and Petra, and then ended the holiday visiting friends in Jerusalem.

Rosh Hashannah:

            I was so excited to reunite with my friend Matan upon his return to Israel after several months in the states, We spent the summer working on the camping staff together at Ramah, after which he traveled around North America with friends.  His dad was nice enough to pick me up from the farm on the way back from picking Matan up from the airport, so I completely crashed his homecoming.  Matan’s family has a lovely apartment in Jerusalem, right near the Goldstein Youth Village, where I stayed five years ago on Ramah Seminar.  His family was so warm and welcoming to me and I felt like one of the family right away.  We arrived on Friday and Matan took me out to Abu Gosh with ALL of his friends for hummus, limonana and nargillah.  It was pretty overwhelming to hear all that Hebrew, but the food was delicious and it was great to meet his friends.  Shabbat was spent relaxing at home with his family and going on walks around the nearby parks, playing Frisbee, and meeting up with his friends.  On Saturday night, we drove off to a nearby spring to go camping and make poyke.  Poyke is a slow-cooked stew in a large cast iron cauldron set over a campfire.  You basically just throw whatever ingredients you have around into the pot and let it cook forever.  It was delicious. 

            Matan’s whole family converged at his parent’s apartment for Rosh Hashannah. This included Matan and his three older sisters, two brother-in-laws, and two young nephews aged two months and one and a half years. I had such a great time playing with the adorable babies.  Every meal also included other neighbors, friends, and more distant relatives.  Like in the states, Rosh Hashannah is a very family-oriented holiday. The first day of Rosh Hashannah I went to Matan’s mother’s orthodox synagogue.  I enjoyed the service for its beautiful singing.  The shul was relatively egalitarian compared to other orthodox shuls I have been to.  The two sides of the mechitza were equal in size and only separated by a sheer cloth so you could see the service pretty clearly. In the evening we had a traditional Rosh Hashonnah Seder.  There are seven species of Israel that you must include on the Rosh Hashannah table; wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pemegranates, dates, and olives,  as well as other traditional Rosh Hashannah foods, including apples and honey, a fish head, carrots, nuts, black-eyed peas, fenugreek, cabbage, and beets. Each food was paired with a blessing.  For example, for the pomegranate, you wish for the next year to be plentiful with mitzvot, like the seeds of a pomegranate. The dinner consisted of matzo ball soup, chopped liver, potato kugel and loads of salad and veggie dishes. It was all very delicious. The second day f Rosh Hashanah I went to Matan’s father, Ilan’s’s reform shul.  When I walked in, I was immediately welcomed and given a part opening the ark during the service. Ilan had a big role leading several of the services and has a beautiful voice. I spent the rest of the holiday hanging out with Matan’s family and friends. We went to the stream in the Goldstein Youth Village for tashlich, a symbolic tossing of breadcrumbs into the water as a release of sins.  It was so fun walking around the campus and remembering all the fun times I had on Ramah Seminar.  There were heaps of people there, and Matan’s family knew everyone.  After tossing their sins, the family stayed around chatting and sitting in the park. It seemed like a very tight-knit community. After the holiday finished, I went out to downtown Jerusalem and met up with a big group of friends from the Mishlachat at camp.  It was so great to see everyone and a wonderful end to a very restful and beautiful holiday.

Yom Kippur:

            For Yom Kippur Lauren and I stayed in Jerusalem again, this time with the family of my madricha, Rina.  They lived in a beautiful house with gardens and in mixed Arab-Israeli neighborhood called Abu Tor.  For services, we walked along a park that lined former train tracks to their temple, Kol Hanishamah.  The services were really nice, with lots of singing.  It was a huge crowd, but everyone seemed to know each other.  Part way through the service, Rina’s little sister, Avital, insisted that we take a break and go on a quick walk outside.  The streets of Jerusalem during Yom Kippur are amazing!  There isn’t a single car in the road.  Instead, the streets are filled with people.  Children on bikes and scooters are the kings, speeding around without fear in their little gangs.  Adults walk along on the side of the road, stopping every few minutes to chat with neighbors and friends.  Everyone is out and about.   We returned to the house in the afternoon to nap from the fasting, and then in the evening, we went to an interesting alternative service. The service took place in the natural history museum gardens. A tent was set up, draped with so many dazzling, multicolored tapestries.  Everyone was gathered in a circle under the tapestries, clapping and singing with little kids on their shoulders.  There was so much spirit and energy.  Everyone brought some food to share with the community for breaking the fast. It was so nice to spend both high holy days with real Israeli families.  I felt so well taken care of and really got into the spirit of the holidays. 

Sukkot:

            For Sukkot, we started the celebration with a feast on the farm.  My friend Nomi came to visit and we spent the day preparing for the meal.  Our group built a huge sukkah, covered with palm fronds and decorated with bouquets of flowers, huge handmade candles, and strings of old cds we found that glittered in the light.  We picked heaps of veggies in the fields and then cooked curried lentils, coconut-vegetable rice, greek salad, corn salad, baked eggplant-tomato salad, challah and bread, and completed the table with the seven species of Israel.  We invited the whole community for dinner.  After dinner, we celebrated the full moon by building a massive bonfire.  We danced around the fire to drums, guitar and tambourines, singing every song we knew, and covered ourselves with face paint.  If was the first evening of rain that we experienced in Israel- not hard rain- but it felt like a blessing and we thought it was so exciting.   

            We completed the Sukkot holiday by aliyah ha’regel.  In the time of the temple, Jews all over would take the best of their harvest with them and walk to the temple for the Sukkot celebration.  We brought back this tradition for ourselves by picking some of our harvest and then hiking from our farm, to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.  The hike was an amazing experience that really brought our group together.  We hiked long hours through the day, up and down mountains and valleys, jumping in water holes, and exploring old caves and ancient ruins.  At night, we camped under the stars, taking turns with “guard duty” and cuddling up close when the nights grew cold.  It was such a great feeling of accomplishment when we made it to the kotel, said the shema and stuck our prayer notes into the Wall.  I can only imagine how our ancient ancestors must have felt when they made it to the temple after their own long journeys.  We made it to the Wall just in time for the end of Sukkot and the start of Simchat Torah.

Chanukah:

            Though not a High Holy Day, we most recently experienced Chanukah in Israel.  Chanukah is not as big of a deal in Israel as it is in the States, but still fun the see.  We got a week off from the farm for the holiday.  I traveled to Eilat, Petra and Wadi Rum for most of our break, making my own Chanukah candles by burning strips of paper in the sand, but I finished off the holiday visiting my friend Nomi in Jerusalem. Jerusalem during Chanukah is quite a sight.  Every window has a Chanukah menorah.  Even the stores had them glowing next to their cash registers.  There were huge electric ones at many street corners.  Every restaurant and coffee shop sold piles of sufganiyot- traditional Chanukah jelly doughnuts filled with every flavor imaginable- from strawberry to pistachio to tiramisu. For Chanukah Shabbat, Nomi and I went to the home of our friend Hannah’s family.  It was a huge party, with over thirty people from their family there and endless piles of food, candles, dreidels, and singing of Chanukah songs- most of which I’ve never heard.  It was great fun, but made me miss Chanukah with my own family.  We walked the hour and a half back to Nomi’s apartment on Mount Scopus in the evening, admiring the beautiful, cold city at night.

I can’t believe I only have a month left in Israel.  It has been a whirlwind!  I’m sorry for not updating my blog but I will try to fit in as much as I can now that my time here is quickly coming to an end and I have been reflecting on al I have felt and experienced here!  I hope I will be able to experience these beautiful holidays in Israel again one day.

Tour de Farm

So, I finally have pictures.  Maybe these will help you get an idea about what life is like on the farm.

 This is Ecoville.  We live in yurts and geodesic domes overlooking the fields of the farm.  This area is often referred to as “Upstairs”.

 

This is my yurt!  Home sweet home.

 

 This is my part of the room.  My bed, complete with mosquito net.  I share the yurt with two other people, Zoe and Gabby.

Every dome and yurt has its own garden that we get to take care of and experiment with different crops and growing techniques. 

Pomegranates! Yum!

        

Surrounding Ecoville, there and fields in different rows of a huge variety of crops, interspersed with fruit trees.  All the crops are planted to work together to produce the most food for the amount of space.

The very scary scarecrow.

These our a few of our lovely Chickens! I really enjoy bringing them food and collecting their eggs.

One of the roosters that LOVES to wake us up in the morning.

And their duck friend that thinks it is a chicken.

On the farm there is no sewage system and therefore no waste of water… or of waste!  Therefore, we use greywater systems, where waste water from sinks and showers goes into watering plants in the gardens. We also have extensive compost bins like the ones below to compost yard waste and food scraps and use compost toilets that turn even human waste into manure that can be used to fertilize trees.

The outdoor shower is one of the favorite spots on the farm, especially at night when you can light it up with candles. 

The last Eco group made an awesome mosaic in the shower.  We also have two “indoor” showers.  

 

All showers on the farm are heated with these solar water heaters.  We also use solar panels for our other electricity and lighting needs.

 

The kitchen is always a popular place to be.  We take turns preparing meals for the group every day. 

 

Our ovens are wood heated. We are still adjusting to how to bake things at the right temperature, especially for bread, and many of the Ecos have gotten really good at it.  

 

Just about every day we collect baskets full of farm produce to use in the kitchen.  The majority of al our meals are made up of food from the farm.

I like to hang out in the alcove by the kitchen that is called the “Café”.  It’s breezy and a wonderful place to sit and drink coffee or read a book.  Some of these benches and many throughout the farm are made of mud and tires. Behind you can see a banana tree, fed my one of the kitchen sinks, and a pretty view of the farm and hills beyond it. 

After working on the farm in the mornings, we take classes during the hot hours of the afternoon.  This is the “Kita,” one of our main classrooms. 

The Zula is our outdoor area for meals and group meetings at the beginning of the day. We use the insulated “Big Dome” for winter meals and meetings.

Here Nadav is going over the weekly schedule.  Nadav coordinates our program and is also in charge of agriculture on the farm.  He knows so much about EVERYTHING and is just the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.

Well, that’s all the pictures for now.  I’ll try to post more soon.  I hope this gives you an idea of what day-to-day life is like on our beautiful farm!

Home Yurt Home

So, another week and a half has past and we are now getting the hang of our daily schedule.  I start off the day waking up to the simultaneous call of my alarm clock and the roosters at around 5:45 am. I grab a cup of coffee and then head over to the chicken coop to feed the chickens and search for eggs. The chickens must be happy because they give up heaps of huge, white, fresh eggs. I have grown to be very fond of our flock of hens and their raucous roosters.  Like puppies, they all come running up to me when I arrive at the coop in the morning. I brought them fresh straw from the giant pile we collected last week and they were so excited to scratch through it and settle down.  Hopefully that will mean extra eggs soon!

Next, we start avodah, or work, while it is still cool outside.  Work jobs have ranged from collecting straw from a nearby wheat field, working in the gardens, clearing off roofs for the rainwater catchment, or preparing domes with extra insulation for winter.  Last week I got the job of cleaning out these big bottle-shaped barrel containers for use in the rainwater catchment.  To clean them, I had to take off my shoes and squeeze into the barrel to clean the inside with a rag, getting covered in mud in the process.  It was actually really fun and I enjoyed singing to myself in the amplified echoes of the barrel.  I’ve also had to go clean inside this big covered pool area used for water storage.  I probably got more mud out of the pool in my clothes than I did with the buckets and rags we were using to clean.  When I emerged for lunch, I got some pretty funny looks.  I felt a little like that scene from Slumdog Millionaire when the little kid has to fall through the toilets to run and get an autograph from his favorite movie star. My most recent avodah jobs were to create a drainage hole for our greywater system and weeding and mulching our community garden beds.

After avodah is breakfast.  Our breakfasts usually consist of a variety of fruit and oatmeal, though my favorite breakfast is called “Bowl of Life”, which is a mixture of oats and all the nuts, seeds, and fruit you can find, along with date honey and cinnamon.  It’s delectable. Lunch is always a huge group meal with all of Eco-Israel, as well as the Shinshinim and other volunteers.  At the beginning of each week, two people are assigned to cook each meal and we always have a wide variety of delicious vegetarian dishes.

Most of the rest of our days consist of classes.   In our agriculture classes we have learned about the history of agriculture, and how to plant seedlings in the greenhouse, and about water, and soil.  These lessons are expanded in our permaculture classes, where we have learned about the principles of permaculture and are studying permaculture design methods. In our most recent permaculture class, we went around the farm doing analyses of all the greywater systems, figuring out how they worked and why.  It’s amazing how much thought and planning must go into every little piece of the farm. We also have a medicinal herbs class, where we have learned methods of drying and preserving herbs in oils and are learning the wide variety of uses of many common types of herbs found on the farm.  Soon we will learn haw to make soaps, shampoos and lotions.  We also have a class called Land and People, in which we discuss Jewish and Israeli history and culture.  In out most recent class, we collected all the symbolic foods for Rosh Hashanah on the farm and discussed the prayers and symbolism of these foods.  It was really interesting and fun.  Finally, we also are taking weekly Hebrew classes.  Yesterday’s class went over words and phrases that can be useful for traveling around Israel. A few of them have already come in handy, especially now that I am in Jerusalem for the holiday.

I really love all the people I have been getting to know in the Eco-Israel program. We are quite the eclectic group, all of different ages and backgrounds, but all with a passion for community and sustainability.  I share a big yurt with Gabby, a recent Duke graduate from Maryland, and Zoe, from South Africa.  In my non-biased opinion, our yurt is the nicest in Eco-ville because it is spacious, with coveted airflow.  It’s a popular place for other group members to hang out after work. Other people on my program include Lisa, Jacob, and Ilana from California.  Ilana, oddly enough, happens to be one of my good Barnard friend’s close friend from home. There is also Jesse from Boston, Max from Evanston/Chicago, Jacob and Karina from New York, Lauren from Miami (who just spent two years teaching English in Japan), Liam from Amsterdam, and Raul from Brazil. 

One of our group members, Max from Portland, Oregon, sadly had to leave the program a few days ago. He had been feeling very ill since before he came to Israel and felt like he couldn’t stay on the farm.  He will be missed.  Because he had to leave, I was reassigned to his job as the Community Facilitator.  This means that I have to run all our meetings, make sure everyone is accounted for in classes and work, and facilitate any conflicts between group members.  I also am supposed to coordinate activities with the Shinshinim and the Brazilian volunteers.  It has been a lot of fun getting to know these other volunteers on the farm.  Most nights after dinner we go down to the Shinhinim house, or the fire pit by the Brazilian’s house, and all sit in a circle singing and drinking tea while people pass around the guitars, drums and other instruments.  It’s always a relaxing time that everyone enjoys.

Weekends are the time to explore Israel outside the farm.  Last weekend, a bunch of us went to Tel Aviv.  I spent most of the weekend on the beach, enjoying the beautiful Mediterranean waters, eating falafel, and trying not to get hit by balls from the five-zillion people playing a game called Kadima on the beach.  I also did a lot of walking around and exploring the city. My favorite area was a part of Tel Aviv where man of the refugees from other counties had settled.  There was just so much life there, with interesting looking restaurants and outdoor markets and awesome people watching.  Zoe, Jesse and I stayed at the apartment of a former Eco-Israel participant named Sara, who is in the process of making Aliyah and helped out during out orientation the first week on the farm.  Sara showed us some good cafes and bars and we had a lot of fun dancing and hanging out in the city on Friday night.  It was so strange to be in the big city after spending two weeks on the farm.  We were so shocked by things like ice water and air conditioning and toilets that flush! It made us appreciate the little things so much more, but also appreciate the amazing lifestyle we get to enjoy on the farm.

Right now I am in Jerusalem.  I am spending the weekend and Rosh Hashanah with the family of my friend Matan, who I worked with on the camping staff at Ramah this summer.  He just arrived back in Israel from four months in the U.S. and actually picked me up from the farm on his way home from the airport.  He and his father gave me a little tour of the city and then Matan and I went out to get hummus and limonana with all his friends.  The food was delicious and it was so much fun meeting all his friends, though I was a little overwhelmed by all the Hebrew!  I have a new sympathy for all the Israelis at camp who had to listen to English all the time- it is exhausting!  I tried really hard to concentrate on their conversations so that I might learn some Hebrew. Hopefully if I keep this up I will!  Matan’s parents are Americans that made aliyah many years ago, so they speak English at home, which is a nice break from all the Hebrew.  Matan has three older sisters that no longer live at home, and two baby nephews that will also be visiting for Rosh Hashanah.  It will be a full house!  I brought the family a bouquet of flowers and fresh herbs from the farm, as well as freshly picked pomegranates and a soap and tea made in our medicinal herb house.

Tonight I will be going camping with Matan and his friends before the family comes together for the holiday.  I’m excited to experience a real Israeli Rosh Hashanah!

One last update: My instructors chose me to be the representative of the Eco-Israel program at the Masa opening ceremonies. I will be interviewed and the interview will be shown to thousands of people at the ceremony in October, where all the Masa participants will come together to celebrate in a huge event that includes an Idan Raichel concert.  I’m a little nervous about it but feel really honored!  I’ll give you updates when I find out more details.

Shana Tova!

Genesis

I am currently at the mall in Modi’in stealing some internet to post this blog.  The mall is huge and much nicer than the Tallahassee malls, though Modi’in is smaller in population.  It is nice to get some air conditioning and chocolate bars! J

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Shabbat Shalom!  I’m currently relaxing on my bed in my yurt, sweating up a storm, enjoying the gentle breeze that flows in through the door, along with the occasional passion fruit, picked straight from the vine winding around my door frame.  I can’t believe it has only been about a week (almost) since I left for Israel.  I feel like I have been here for months.

 I arrived at the farm in the late afternoon on Monday, schlepping my heavy suitcase and backpack, tired and sweaty.  I was immediately greeted with enthusiasm by many of the other participants in my program, who helped me carry my bags into the yurt and handed me a passion fruit. Slurping up the juice, I felt immediately refreshed and sighed in relief—I knew this would be an amazing five months.  That night, when the weather cooled down, we all gathered around the bonfire, along with the Shinshinim (the Israeli volunteers) as well as a group of South Americans who are volunteering for a few weeks.  We told stories and sang songs in English, Hebrew and Portuguese.  Some people played guitar, others drums.  There were even harmonicas and didgeridoos.  It was amazing.  We had all only met that day, but we already felt like we were a community.

The last few days have been are orientation to the farm and farm life. On Tuesday, we had the full tour of the farm.  The farm is huge, not so much in size, but in the amount they are able to fit in the space.  The area designated for my group is called Domeville. It consists of a mixture of domes and yurts where we live, as well as a yurt used as a classroom, the “Big Dome” which has couches, games and bookshelves.  Outside each dome there are beautiful gardens full of vegetables, herbs and flowers.  We are responsible for the gardens directly outside of our domes.  They are our own experimental gardens, and we can grow whatever we want in them.   My garden currently has some beautiful ripe melons, beans, an olive tree, strawberries, basil, parsline – which is a delicious edible plant that is said to have more omega-3’s than fish oil, and of course our passion fruit vines.  There are also communal gardens throughout Domeville that we can adopt and work on. 

Also in Domeville, there is a line of compost toilets.  Though the concept took many people on the program some time to get used to, they really aren’t that bad.  Really, you just have to make sure you dump some mulch in the toilet after you go, and close the seat when you leave to keep bugs from getting inside.  Someone forgot to do this once and I saw a lizard crawling around in the toilet the next day.  That was interesting.  Whoever has toilet duty has to move the big, wheeled bins from under the stalls and switch them with new ones while the compost processes.  If all goes well, the bathrooms don’t smell bad at all, especially when the person on toilet duty puts jars of flowers and herbs from the garden in the stalls.

Up the hill, next to the kitchens, we have two solar-powered indoor showers, and in a secluded spot further away, we have a solar outdoor shower, which is everyone’s favorite. Because it is so sunny in Israel, we never seem to run out of hot water.  The water is actually way too hot most of the time and we prefer to use as much cold water as possible.  The water from the showers are used to water plants.  For example, the water from the outdoor shower flows through a pipe under ground and feeds a patch of bamboo, which loves moist soil.  This is why we can only use biodegradable shampoos and soaps. Mud walls and carob trees seclude the outdoor shower.  The walls are covered with an awesome mosaic of a mermaid.  It is the coolest, breeziest place on the farm and attracts a lot of visitors from other volunteer groups.

The kitchen is the place to be on the farm.  The indoor part of the kitchen consists of stacks of spices and dry goods, pots and pans, a big sink that is attached to a grey-water system, a gas stove and tiny gas-powered refrigerator. There are two outdoor kitchen areas with a sitting area, more sinks and drying racks, countertops, a grill, and a wood-burning oven.  We have some great cooks in the group and I haven’t eaten so well in my life.  Just about everything we cook comes in part from the farm and it all is fresh and delicious.

Apart from Domeville, there are heaps more farm areas with vegetables and fruits, chickens, donkeys, two cats and two dogs.  There is a recycled art studio, a clay pottery studio, a woodworking studio, a sewing studio, an herbal medicine workshop, more classrooms and housing for other volunteers, a stage, a nursery/greenhouse, and an area with big wood burning stoves for baking bread.  It’s quite an awesome operation. 

Later in the evening on Tuesday we had an activity with the Shinshinim to get to know each other and our countries.  We separated into groups for each country and then had to dress up as someone from that country and sing a representative song.  In my program, we have students from the US, Brazil , South Africa, and the Netherlands.  We also had a group for Israel.  It escalated into a hilarious show and we all had a lot of fun.

On Wednesday we had our garden tour.  We were shown all the different gardens on the farm and taught about the different things that grow there.  We also got some time to work on our own dome gardens.  Later, we went over all the different chores on the farm, including toilets, showers, kitchens, compost, common spaces, food coordinator, educator coordinator, etc.  We switch jobs every two weeks.  This week I’m on compost duty, which isn’t too hard, but a little gross. 

In the evening, we had opening ceremonies. We took a moonlit hike to a hill that overlooked the farm where we sat separately and thought about our intentions coming into the farm.  We were then led into a candlelit cave, where we sat and talked about what led us to this program and what we wanted to give and gain from the experience.  We each brought a gift, something we owned, to offer to the group.  At the end of the program we will distribute the gifts to each person.  I gave a shirt I made at Artluck for the Columbia University Food Sustainability Project that says, “I dig gardens.”  It was a really emotional and beautiful experience all together in the cave and really brought us closer together as a group.  At the end, Rena, one of our instructors, played guitar and we all sang songs together.  It was so much fun.

On Thursday, we started our morning tradition of yoga, which was delightful. We then had a tour of the kitchens and learned some basic cooking skills useful for the farm.  Later, we planned for Shabbat.  We made candles and challot and planned activities for the next couple days. 

Friday and today we celebrated Shabbat together as a community, preparing meals together, singing songs and prayers together, and just hanging out and eating food. In the afternoon, Nadav, one of our awesome instructors, taught us how to juggle and do other circus tricks and then took us to an amazing watering hole a short hike from the farm.  You have to crawl through a small hole to get into the cave-like pool but it was so refreshing after such a long hot day!  I think I found my new favorite hangout spot!

Well that’s all for now.  I will write more ASAP, especially if we get our internet back soon! Thanks for reading!

Taking off

At the Jacksonville Airport and ready to go!

Exodus

My bags are just about packed.  I have heaps of t-shirts, work gloves, a mosquito net, and biodegradable soaps, shampoos, and toothpaste.  I have my pink rain boots and cowboy hat.  When Sunday comes, I will be boarding a plane in Jacksonville to begin my journey to Hava & Adam Eco-Educational Farm in Modi’in, Israel.  It won’t be an easy trip.  I will first fly to Charlotte, then Munich, and then Tel Aviv.  After that, I will take the train to Modi’in, and then a taxi to the farm.  Still, it will be worth it.

I came across the Eco-Israel program while teaching organic farming and sustainability at Camp Ramah Darom, a Jewish summer camp in northern Georgia.  I loved working on the farm, spending my days caring for (and eating) beautiful vegetables outside in the sun.  Most of all, I loved the community that formed around the farm, an appreciation for working together to achieve something, especially when we were already bound by the connection of our Jewish heritage.  It was all so different from the cutthroat, competitive academics of my college career.  I ended the summer wanting to learn and experience more. 

Eco-Israel is an intensive five-month program on permaculture, sustainability, communal living, Israel and Jewish peoplehood.  The farm is extremely sustainable, with solar power, compost toilets, geodesic dome living spaces, and organic gardens from which food is gathered to feed the whole community.  About half of my time will be spent working outside on the farm, preparing meals and completing other projects with my classmates.  The other half will be in classes, learning about permaculture design, studying Israel’s history, current events and the Hebrew language, as well as exploring others areas, such as medicinal herbs, natural building, and more.  At the end of the program, I receive an internationally recognized certificate in permacuture design (PDC). Along the way, I will also be taking weekend trips, going on hikes and visiting friends around Israel.

My decision to participate in this program was a little bit spontaneous.  Within a two-week period I applied, was accepted, and am now leaving for Israel.  But why waste time?  This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to really test myself and what I am passionate about.  Throughout my classes for my environmental biology major at Barnard, I was told about the desperate need for protection of our water, land and air resources from pollution and exploitation.  It’s time I lived what I was taught.  I need to experience what really works and doesn’t work for myself, so that I can pass on this knowledge to others and formulate creative solutions to today’s environmental crises. 

This blog will follow my life on the farm, as well as in my travels, as I experience everything I can in sustainable living and Israeli culture. Thanks for reading!