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!