Was Monday a
normal day at the petting zoo? We frequently
are given strange tasks (cut off leaf-catching wires around duck pond, put
boxes up for doves to lay eggs, etc.), so we don’t think it’s weird when we
stray from the everyday feeding, cleaning, and landscaping. On Monday I learned that, depending on what
we do, not everyone agrees.
The goats
have been taken away by the person to whom they belong, but 6 or 7 will be
brought back to belong to Kfar HaNoar HaDati, so we were assigned the task of
cleaning their pen. We worked for about
3 hours pitchforking and shoveling poop and pee-soaked hay. It smelled, and sometimes when we uncovered a
new wet spot we had to go to the other side of the pen and let it air out a
bit. It smelled a lot, but we didn’t
think this was an issue because once we left the goat pen we couldn’t smell it
anymore.
pic from Wednesday, but you get the idea
WE couldn’t smell it anymore. At lunch, some people (*cough cough everyone
cough*) made comments about our odor.
Sadly, it inhibited some people’s ability to eat. But not mine, Arielle’s, or Jake’s!
After lunch,
I went to my room, excited to shower.
Deena and Maya were already there getting ready to shower
themselves. Maya offered me first
shower, after she yelled at me to put all of my clothes outside. Arielle, from the room on the other side of
our bathroom, came in…
Maya: Jill
smells so bad!
Me: Arielle
should smell the same as me.
Arielle: I
can’t smell it anymore.
Maya:
[smells Arielle] Oh no!! Get out!
Arielle: We
smell!! Haha
And then
Arielle and I high fived, proud of the work we did this day and our inability
to smell the consequence ourselves.
Tuesday was
Yom Tzahal (=IDF=Israel Defense Forces).
This topic was not of greatest interest to me, so this is basically what
the day was. We listened to someone talk
about the air force, we compared army advertising in different countries, we
learned what beret color means, and we played capture the flag (no winner, we
were too evenly matched).
Tuesday
ended, Wednesday began. While eating
breakfast, Harari came into the cheder ochel holding the bottom half of a
cereal box (fun fact, the word for cereal in Hebrew is “cornflakes”). He walked over to where we were sitting, and
told us to look in the box. At first I
didn’t know what it was- it was gray and fuzzy.
Another mole? No, he grabbed it
and held it in his hand, so he wasn’t worried about being bitten and getting a disease. Then I saw the eyes. The eyes of a baby owl.
We spent
some time taking pictures; the owl flew onto Steph, and Louis (who volunteers
in the kitchen) yelled the quoted part of this post’s title. Then we took him to the petting zoo and put
him in a cage, gave him water, and cut up a piece of raw chicken into tiny
pieces.
If I
remember correctly, Jake said Harari said his friend saw the baby owl, so he
decided to take it and give it to Harari.
Of course, crazy Harari accepted the owl. The baby ate the chicken off of a twig on
which we held the meat out for him. Later,
Akiva came and saw him. According to Akiva,
it is illegal to take animals from the wild, but he seemed to like the owl too
much to not keep him. It was decided
to keep him a few days, and then let him go.
We continued
our normal work, plus finished the goat pen.
Even though we worked fewer hours on Wednesday than Monday, we smelled
worse. Even I could smell it at
lunch. I am very thankful for showers.
When we got
to work Thursday morning, we saw that the owl escaped from his cage (which we
expected to happen because the top wasn’t actually attached to the sides). Oh, well.
Chol (sand)
By Thursday
afternoon, the vast majority of our group had left. By dinnertime, 7 of our 30 were still on the
kfar. After much debate over what to do
this Shabbat, I decided to join 9 other kfarmers to camp out on a beach in
Chaifa. It was stressful getting food, packing
for myself (I didn’t have a sleeping bag, so I brought blankets which take up
too much room), and getting things others had forgotten (most people were
coming from a program that helps prepare you to work with Israeli staff at
Jewish camps). Then Barry and I left at
lunch time, bussed to Chaifa, bussed to another bus station in Chaifa, and
walked down the beach until we found our group, tents already pitched (partly because
a group of 4 had camped their Thursday night).
From here on out, the weekend was phenomenal.
Never before
this year would I consider going camping on a beach (granted, it’s not
necessarily legal and safe at your average American beach [not that it’s legal
and safe at all Israeli beaches either, but this one is). Never before did I have a group of friends who
wanted to do this. I was so relaxed
here. It was great.
Our group
was me, Lucy, Jake, Aryeh, Blue, Barry, Deena, Moshe, Dan, Julia, and Chaviva
(from Karmiel, who decided last minute to stay with us). We got there at different times, and didn’t
do much Friday afternoon. Some people
swam, but I just hung out and read. Later
in the afternoon, we started getting ready for Shabbat. A few guys had collected wood earlier. We dug a fire pit, and Blue set everything up
for what he hoped would be a wide, long lasting fire (you cannot add wood to a
flame on Shabbat). Some people cooked
cans of tuna (the Israeli way of putting toilet paper on it and lighting it on
fire). Then Blue started the campfire,
and we girls went over to our smaller “fire pit” to light candles. Well, the wind was too strong and our candles
wouldn’t stay lit. It also made our
campfire wild, huge, and hot.
Unfortunately, it would not be able to last the night as we had hoped.
What's going on with this fire?!
The sun
setting over the Mediterranean was absolutely beautiful. I think this was the best possible setting
for Kab Shab. Our fire provided ample
light for maariv. These services were so nice.
I love having small-group Nativ tfillot.
After davening, we ate dinner around the remains of our fire. We went around saying our highs and lows of
the week. Many people’s low was how one
Nativer in the Yerucham track left because his dad is very sick; we all miss
him and wish his family the best. But on
the other hand, most people’s high was that moment, being together on the
beautiful Chaifa beach. We sat talking
and singing for a long time after we finished eating. We sang a lot of our usual tisch songs, some
modern Israeli songs, a couple English songs too. Eventually (around 11:30 or 12, I think) we
went to sleep. For the first time in all
of my outdoor sleeping on Nativ, I slept in a tent, but most of our group slept
outside. My one complaint is the waves
were too loud.
a picture can't capture the beauty
We woke up
with the sun and spent the morning hanging out.
I played Frisbee, read, talked, played board games, and swam a lot (I
hadn’t swam in a long time, it felt so good!).
Then we ate lunch, and did more of the above activities. Most of us put on enough sunscreen, but a few
people got badly burnt, and this was the one non-perfect piece of our weekend.
We watched
the sun set over the sea one more time.
It’s ridiculous how easy it is to miss it. Then we watched the sky until we saw 3 stars
and did Havdallah (ok, also not perfect that the spices I picked in the kfar
greenhouse got thrown out, but Dan had mint gum that we found acceptable given
the circumstance). Every party has its
pooper, but not this one.
Today I am
back on the kfar. Thursday is the last
of volunteering for the other two tracks, but for us it’s Wednesday because on
Thursday there is a huge 75th anniversary party for the kfar. Many of us were upset today because we were
taken from our usual jobs and we want to have our last few volunteer days
there, but we did some necessary work for the celebration. (I wiped the grease off of poles for
signs.) I’m excited to be on the kfar
for this big day, even if it means a couple fewer days at the petting zoo.
Trivia: The most
popular cookie in Israel is probably the wafer cookie. I’m just guessing, though.
So, you're coming home shortly and I just figured out what I needed to do to be able to comment on your blog. Just figures!!!
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