We then went to a Bedouin camp where we first had camel rides (5 years ago I did this late at night for maybe 5 minutes. This day it was in daylight for a long walk around the desert, so muc more worth it.). I shared my camel with Mia and we named him Major Major Major Major in honor of the Catch 22 character. A few people named their camels after Nativers, including Suzanne and Rivka naming theirs Jill Susan Katz; Ira and Yossi named theirs Lucy, but not after the girl in my track, short for Lucifer.
We spent the night with the Bedouins, where we had a really yummy dinner (we vegetarians ate our soy balls together, which were far more nutritious and delicious than we expected our food to be). That night everyone hung out outside our sleeping tents. It felt like camp with our campfire, guitars, and singing Jewish and secular songs.
On Friday we had a real hike! It wasn’t too difficult, but there were some places where we needed ropes or handles. Again, we saw more water and plant-life than one would expect to see in the desert. From this hike, I have a small group planning on doing Yam l’Yam (Sea to Sea- a very popular hike in Israel) during our Passover break.
We met the non-hiking group at Kibbutz Keturah, where we were to spend the next 3 nights. We split into rooms (I roomed with Sarah, but we were in a building that had 4 rooms and a shared kitchen and common room, which was really nice. It was fun to- in a way- also room with Ellie, Hayley, Courtney, Becca, Sarah, Sivan, Lucy, Julia, and Alisa.) and prepared for Shabbat. We had a tour to see just how cool this place is; it is not like any other kibbutz. They have an algae farm, an experimental orchard (growing fruits from other parts of the world), date orchards, the oldest tree in the world (only a few years in the ground, it was started from a date seed found in an archeological dig…hate to say that I cannot remember to when the seed was dated), cows, water desalination machines, the Arava Institute for environmental studies, and solar panels. Completely surrounded by mountains, it is also an absolutely beautiful place.
We had services all together with a few kibbutzniks. Everything was led by Nativers, and I must say there was a high Kfar representation. We had a good dinner (finally somewhere that knows how to feed vegetarians!), and then I hung out in my super-room for a while (the 11 of us were constantly coming and going), staying up just a little past midnight to wish Lucy a happy birthday.
Saturday morning, we had breakfast together in our super-room and services, lunch, and mincha like we normally would. We had a nice chofesh (free time), during which a large group hung out and read on the grass outside my building. We also played with these cats that were hanging around, tried to get them to leave, and upon failure, fed them yogurt and hardboiled eggs. Seeing the cat pounce on the egg was by far the most exciting event of the day.
On Sunday, I went on the hike while others either did de cupage, choreographed a dance (to a song from Lion King!), or made a movie (It was called “The Negover”, paralleling “The Hangover.” The kibbutz director, Leah, said, “Over the years I’ve seen a lot of movies made for this activity, and this is one of them,” but I thought it was hilarious.) The hike included a long, tedious walk to get to the mountain and a shorter but still tedious walk from the mountain to the kibbutz. The beginning was intense (to me, this means fun), which made it nice. On the top we looked out to see Keturah and how it was organized (e.g. the refet [dairy] is downwind) and all of the other kibbutzim in the area.
After lunch we had some much needed chofesh. There was an option to learn about the Arava Institute (environmental studies by a diverse group who live on Keturah), but I am glad I took this time to read in my bed. Then we went to sand dunes to frolic! This was extremely fine sand, very soft, so we ran and rolled down the hills, did flips we would be afraid to do on hard ground, tackled our friends, and played lap tag (aka sumo, this is a game that involves running, rolling, and tackling, but probably not flips. I’m not going to explain it here, but I dominated the game this day!). Later, we returned to the kibbutz and I took a much needed shower to later discover that my ears were still full of sand.
On Monday we had a very good hike, and if I remember correctly, there was water that we had to maneuver around and sections necessitating climbing. Then we went to Eilat and settled into the hotel (I roomed with Hannah and Sivan). We had a boat trip that reminded me of my 8th grade yacht trip: we got on the boat, on one level they played really loud music and people danced and on another level people looked out on the water and talked. The only difference was no one had cards in Eilat. Neither time did I find the experience worthwhile, but this time was much better and probably not just because I’m a less bitter person now than I was 5 years ago. After the boat, we had time to walk around and get dinner. Eilat reminded me of Navy Pier with the boats, rides, and food.
black mountains!
Tuesday was the final day of Tiyul Darom. The hard hike group ascended and descended Har Shlomo, but this was not nearly as difficult as Yossi made it sound. It was steep and challenging, but I think this is better than a slight incline which just makes me sore. That afternoon we had the opportunity to do water sports, but it was cold and looked like it would rain, so I indulged in my sleepiness and went back to the hotel. That night, I went with a group to a Beatles restaurant in honor of my Beatles-obsessed friend’s birthday, and they did not play a single Beatles song. So disappointing. Still, we had fun hanging out.
Sarah and me on Har Shlomo
Wednesday morning we said our goodbyes. Some people were sad, but I was mostly excited to finally get to Kfar Chasidim and be with my track only. Anyway, we’re all going to be together every few weeks. We got into our respective buses and parted ways.
Trivia: What do most (I assume most, at least) religious Israeli girls and others who have some reason to not go into combat do for the mandatory “army service”? They participate in Sherut Leumi for which they do national service by volunteering in different places all over Israel. There are 6 banot (girls) sherut volunteering with kids on the kfar who live down the hall from Rachel, the floor above the Nativ girls’ dorms.
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