Since being on the Kfar, many of us have compared our jobs to others’ jobs and our lives to other tracks’ lives. Recently, I’ve had the chance to experience some of these others.
It has been raining a lot in the North recently, which is fantastic for Israel, fantastic for the land, and really annoying and inconvenient for most of our jobs on the kfar (petting zoo, gardening, maintenance, fields). Because we need to volunteer on the kfar (I think more to establish that Nativ is serious about this than anything else), the outside workers are moved around to other jobs for the rainy days.
With the rain last Wednesday, we fed the animals and thoroughly cleaned all of the rat cages. We also had quiet reading time for a while. After lunch, unable to do the weeding that I wanted to do, I joined Lucy to paint a wall in the school. It was nice to hang out with Lucy and a little fun to paint. Thursday with more rain, again we fed the animals, and then I did maintenance with Harari, which was mostly me standing and watching him try to fix a boiler. I wasn’t much help besides finding tools and holding things so he could pull something in the opposite direction. He is only here until 12 on Thursdays, so after lunch I joined the kitchen crew and spent about 2 hours with the very loud dishwasher, loading and unloading trays on a conveyer belt. It was fun to work with some different people for a couple days, and it was nice to do different things, but I missed the petting zoo. I am now surer than ever that I was put into the perfect job for me.
Friday morning, I went to Karmiel. Brief recap of the day: feed the animals (Matilda begged for a lot of attention and managed to slip into the parakeet cage when I went in to change their water), wait for bus 72A, see 2 dogs fight and then trot along together as if it didn't happen, let bus pass by (we couldn’t see the number!), get ride in bus 11 to later 72A stop to still make the desired bus, take another bus to Karmiel, see Karmiel friends (Julia and Hannah [in whose room I stayed], Zach, Neil, Rozzie, Maddy, Teri, and Gila [visiting from Yerucham]), eat deep dish pizza, watch "The Prince of Egypt."
Karmiel Shabbat was great. We had Nativ Friday night services. Then dinner, which was amazing! In Karmiel, where Nativers stay in apartments and have to buy and cook their own food, often during the week two rooms will plan to have dinner together, and it can be even more on Shabbat. We ate the following food with the following people: fresh challah, barley soup, tofu and veggie stir fry, salad, schnitzel (which I obviously didn’t eat), fries, and chocolate chip cookies; Julia, Hannah, Teri, Mia (also visiting from kfar, along with Arielle, Suzanne, Leah, Steph, and Jesse), Gila, Zach, Neil, Maddy, Hadas (madricha), and me. It was so great to have home-cooked food! Pretty much right after dinner, I went to sleep.
Saturday morning, I woke up very early. I walked around the building for a while and read until it was time to go to shul. Only Hadas, Maddy, and I went- everyone else asleep- some until lunchtime. The same 10 of us ate together, but now a dairy meal of challah, lentil soup, a different salad, lasagna, potatoes, and banana bread. Yum! Julia and Hannah went back to sleep right after lunch, so I hung out with Gila, Mia, and Teri for a while, and when the last of them finally decided to go to sleep too, I hung out with Rozzie and Arielle. We didn’t have a minyan (10 people) for mincha, but I managed to chant the few lines of Torah for the service out of the siddur fairly well (not that we had a Torah to do it officially anyway). Then the 5 of us at mincha played yaniv (an Israeli card game) and ate challah, chumus, veggies, and cakes in Hadas’ room, followed by maariv and havdallah. Then I packed up and left to return to the kfar. It was really nice to be in Karmiel for Shabbat.
Karmiel is a city of about 40,000, a large percent of whom are recent Russian immigrants. Most of the volunteer jobs here are ganim (preschools), teaching English to children, teaching English to adults, and a Salvation Army-type place. But there are also jobs at a farm and a special needs kibbutz, where Nativers work with goats, horses, and dogs, and if this was my track, that’s what I’d want to do. The volunteer schedules are very different for each person. Nativers occupy the majority of a floor, but could easily not see their next-door neighbors for days at a time. Their laundry costs 4 shekels a load, instead of ours which has to be sent out for 4 shekels a kilo.
After this weekend, I got a glimpse of what it would be like to be on the Karmiel track, and I think I would have been happy. I really wish I could buy and cook my own food, and the atmosphere here was much less camp-like than the kfar. Still, I’m extremely happy with being on the kfar track. I’ll have my whole life for the independence of purchasing and preparing my own food, practicing keeping a kosher kitchen, and sticking to a budget, but I could see myself loving that life now, too.
Today, Monday, we had a break from our normal schedule to see a play and dance performances. Many of us wanted to stay at the kfar to do our jobs (finally, it’s sunny and the land is drying!), but the show was definitely worth it. The play was done by the students (I think 11th graders) and was about auditioning for a show, so it was full of impressive singing, dancing, and gymnastics. The whole show was in Hebrew, so I only understood some of the dialogue, but it was still great. The message was “Every child needs an adult to believe in him.” After this performance, there was a short video of kfar staff being silly in honor of Purim- it’s so weird to see the serious staff playing in a playground, the kitchen, and the petting zoo! After this, some professional break dancers performed, and they were incredible!
Trivia: I now need to scare the peacock away from me when I work because he’ll follow me around; he’s very intimidating. Seriously.
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