Work Week and Terrific Tiyul

The atmosphere at the kfar during the week of May 6 was pure excitement (and preparation-induced stress) for the 75^th anniversary party of Kfar HaNoar HaDati, which took place that Thursday, Lag B’Omer.  Most Nativers at the kfar were working away from their usual jobs to help get ready for the party.  I wiped the grease off of poles and helped put decorations on lamp posts.  I knew I was helping, but I really wanted to be at the petting zoo during this time.  Luckily, Arielle and I spent Thursday morning, before the party, there.  I’ll talk more about the party soon.

Despite the need for the labor of 30 able-bodied youths, Tuesday was Yom Nativ.  Well, no.  It was Laila Nativ, Nativ Night.  After afternoon and evening naps (I’m very impressed with the 3 hours of sleep I got), at 12 we boarded a bus to take us to a beach for a night hike.  We hiked in the sand, and hand programming and discussions about natural resources in Israel.  We saw a monument for all of the different waves of immigrations.  After davening, eating breakfast, and returning to the kfar, we slept the day away.

On Wednesday and Thursday morning, we were back to volunteering.  (We also had a bonfire and outdoor shaving party [for guys’ beards and heads] Wednesday night for Lag B’Omer.)  Kfar alumni from the past 75 years came that afternoon. Nativers who didn’t volunteer in the morning volunteered at stations throughout the kfar, but the rest of us simply wore our new kfar shirts (ones that all of the students here get) and were on call if help was needed.  It was really cool seeing this giant reunion, but many of us felt like outsiders having only been here for 3 months.  I let kids into the animal cages for, probably, the last time this afternoon. 

Hanging Out in Our New Kfar Shirts

At night there was a ceremony.  There was a tribute to the alumni fallen soldiers, and it was weird when after certain faces were shown groups near us would react, having known this person who is just a name to us.  There was a video of a woman from the school’s first graduating class talking about the kfar.  At the end of the ceremony, current students break-danced and fireworks were set off.  Overall, this was an exciting but exhausting day.

On Friday, I went to Karmiel, meeting about half of Nativ for the birthday celebration of Rozzie, Dani, and Teri.  It was great to hang out with everyone there.  We davened on the roof.  I ate dinner with Julia, Becca, Hannah, Eli, Sarah, and Leah, and then we joined about 20 others for a tisch.  Afterwards we hung out and more and played Anagrams (played with a Bananagrams set).

Of course, I woke up early in the morning.  I spent a lot of time walking up and down the outside stairs of the building where there was a pleasant breeze and a great view of the nearby mountains. Everyone ate lunch together on the roof.  Then many of us went to the park across the street to read, play games, and hang out.  It was a fun Shabbat, but afterwards I went back to the kfar to pack for the week of our Northern Tiyul.

Sunday through Thursday was our last tiyul, but it was a fantastic week.  On Sunday we visited a Druze village, learned about the religion (main aspects are monotheism and value of peace, but much of the religion is a secret to non-Druze people).  They fed us lunch, and I was pleasantly surprised at the vegetarian protein content.  Then we went on a beautiful short hike, that happened to have a few broken cars in the path.  We spent the night at a hotel in Akko that was designed like an ancient building that once stood there.  It was very open and had an amphitheatre in the middle.

Cars?

On Monday, we started the day at a winery.  Yes, Nativ took us to drink wine.  The legal drinking age in Israel is 18, but it is against Nativ policy for staff to drink with participants.  I felt sick this day, so I didn’t try any wine and did the easy hike option.  It was a piece of Har Meron, the second highest mountain in Israel, that I did during Yam l’Yam.  The hike wasn’t so special, but we had plenty of time to hang out before and after the hike, which was nice.  After this, we went to Degania.  Degania was the first kibbutz ever, but has more recently been extended to Degania B which has things like a chocolate factory.  The chocolate fumes were too strong for me this day, but everyone else made chocolate houses.  We also watched a poorly translated video about chocolate production.  Mmmmm…chocolate.

On Tuesday, after morning hikes (I hiked Nachal Chazuri, part of which was on the Lebanon border), we met for lunch, followed by rafting.  I shared a raft with Mia, Julia, Chaviva, Dana, and Becca down the Jordan River.  This event included jumping out of our raft, paddle battles, being taken as a hostage, meeting Canadians on a birthright trip, rescuing lost shoes, trying to be a motor for our raft, and other shenanigans.  Hiking and rafting is exhausting, but we were given a couple hours to be in Tiberius that night.  They called it a free night, except we had to be there when many of us would have preferred to just sleep.  Still, it was fun.

The hike Wednesday was probably the most exciting thing I have ever done and at the most beautiful place I have ever been.  We hiked down into a canyon, through the canyon, jumped 15 feet or so into the water, swam across to where we self-rappelled down an 80 foot rock wall (my first time rappelling- it was hard!), hiked some more, rappelled down a 50 foot waterfall (easier this time), hiked up out of the canyon, and hiked the distance back to our bus.  Everything we had got soaking wet, included many people’s not perfectly wrapped sandwiches.  Everything in the canyon was green, brown, and pink, and at the end it looked like Lion King on one side and a different view of the canyon on the other.  This day included about 4 hours of hiking and 5 hours of waiting for others to rappel.  We all got bruised and scraped, but had no major injuries.  It was incredible.

Just Your Average Rappelling

We woke up relatively late Thursday morning (davening at 7:45 instead of 7, 6:30, or 6) because all we had to do was here sad announcements about the scheduling for our last week and half, pack up, and go to one place- the Sachne Pools.  These are natural, fresh water pools.  The water is the same temperature all year long, and it was the perfect temperature for this hot day.  We swam in the clear water for a few hours.  We stood under the waterfall, let fish eat our feet, jumped off of the short cliffs where we weren’t supposed to, and enjoyed the serenity of the pools.  Yossi was having such a good time that he gave us more time there.

Early afternoon we loaded our buses back to the places that will be our homes until Monday morning.  This bus ride was just like our first from the airport to Beit Nativ in August- there were 30 of us plus Ira and Rachel, we were tired, and Rachel was asking who wanted to read Torah and lead tfillot.

Back in our room, Maya, Lucy, Deena and I unpacked our tiyul bags and started packing up to return to the US.

Trivia: What is the best way to deal with having to return to the States?  Denial.