Israeli Graffiti Art

Happy Thanksgiving!

We North Americans celebrated Thanksgiving with smoothies and french fries. It was a fun way to spend my last night in the lap of luxury in Haifa. Sheer leaves for Switzerland today (have fun!) and Adam and I head south to Tel Aviv.
More to come soon...
-Katie

An Ending and a Beginning

Yesterday was my last day on Lotan and it was mostly spent packing and running around doing last minute things. The previous day (Sunday) was when I really said goodbye. It was a lovely day - chi gong in the morning, a final lesson with Mike, a closing circle, and then the certificate ceremony with dinner

I had an absolutely wonderful time on Lotan. I strongly recommend the Green Apprenticeship for anyone who is interested in living sustainably and has a few months to spare. I learned amazing skills and I am impatient to put them into practice upon my return to Seattle. I am thankful to the members of Kibbutz Lotan and the staff of the Center for Creative Ecology for their time and energy. The GA is a wonderful program because of them.

Farewell images:
Sunrise over the Jordanian Mountains, just East of Lotan:


I planted these sunflowers as seeds!


Award Ceremony (I am a certified permaculture and ecovillage designer. bahahahaha!):


Goodbye GA. It was a blast!


As I struggle with the transition out of Lotan, I am fortunate that Sheer is incredibly generous and offered to put me up for three nights in her family's apartment in Haifa. I don't know if I would have survived if it hadn't been for the condo on the 18th floor of an apartment building on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. It's been a difficult transition but at least I have a king size bed and balcony to make it a little bit easier. (Thanks to Sheer and her family for their generosity. This apartment is, without a doubt, going to be the nicest place I'll sleep for the next six months.)

Goodbye Lotan...
Hello Haifa!
-Katie

More Lotan Adventures

My time is winding down on Lotan, but I still have another week so I’ll do the whole “it’s been great and I’m going to miss it” thing then. I had a good week and one of the highlights was going to Timna which is like a national park. It has these ancient copper mines and beautiful landscapes. It was an all day hike and we had a ball.

Check it out:

We also saw Solomon’s Pillars:

At the end of the week we went to Neot Smedar which is another kibbutz that some people think is a cult, but I think it’s all a big misunderstanding. The members built this crazy craft center and it’s kind of... ugly, but still impressive, no?


Then, I had my second to last shabbat dinner on Lotan and enjoyed the quiet weekend.
-Katie

Weekend Travels

Dude. I was in Egypt over the weekend. What the hell, right? Here's the deal. A bunch of us have been talking about going to Sinai (Egypt) for a while. We decided a few weeks ago that we were going to go this past weekend. Then, the equivalent of the Israeli Homeland Security Department released this scary thing saying that people shouldn't go to Sinai because someone's going to kidnap people and hold them hostage. So, I wasn't going to go and I was totally bummed because it was going to rock. But then, I went. It doesn't really make sense, but it did rock and I didn't get kidnapped so I'm thrilled I went (except for the mosquito bites all over my FACE).

We stayed with Ahab on Diana Beach. Ahab is Bedouin and his beach has been passed down through a few generations and now he's building mud houses there. One of the GA's (Amit) has a boyfriend who volunteers with Ahab so we decided to come down and help, too. It was fun to be useful and relax at the same time.

Here's the hut I slept in on the first night:

Here's the umbrella thing I slept under the second night (the sun's coming up on the Red Sea, whoa):

Mud building:

Ohad and I are wearing orange:

Despite the previous week's difficulties, I managed to have a perfectly lovely time this weekend (so there, Andrew).
-Katie

Kvetching

For some unknown reason this was kind of a rough week for me. I’ve been in Israel for two months and I think it’s a little too much time here. Perhaps part of it is kibbutz life, I have discovered some problems or shall we say challenges about this lifestyle.
“WHAT?!” say you?
Yes... I know it’s damn near impossible to believe that there are some hard components to living on a commune. But, it’s true.
For instance, I share a house with three other people and a room with one of those three. The door to our shared room in our shared house has been broken for oh... three weeks now. In a country where cockroaches are not really seen as a pest problem, I miss having a door to shut out undesirables: bugs, sights, smells, the occasional stray cat etc. And I have a hunch that the kibbutz isn’t going to get that door back on its hinges until well after we leave. Just a hunch.
Additionally, there is this expectation that “what’s mine is yours” or more precisely "what's yours is mine." While I appreciate that things should be shared (sharing is caring) and that personal property can be a problem (I mean, property is theft), I grew up in America. As a middle child. What's mine is mine and what's yours is yours. If I want to share mine with yours (which I do), let me offer it to you. I am not suggesting that all Americans are selfish little shits. I am suggesting that all American middle-children (ahem) are selfish little shits. Thus, the kibbutz mentality just doesn’t jive with me.

That being said it was still a pretty good week on Lotan.
We baked brownies in a solar oven:

We visited an Anarchist Kibbutz (What the hell, right? I just go on the trips I don’t plan them) where they had crazy boob houses:

I went snorkeling in Eilat:

And I made a mug (!):

The finished mug (just for you, Alex):

I’m in Israel for another month and then I think I will welcome the change of scenery as I venture to my second (and last) “I” country for this trip around the world: India.
-Katie

As We've Discussed, Shit isn't Waste... That Goes for Us, too

I've written before that the Arava desert, in which Lotan is situated, is an “extremely arid” desert. Needless to say water is a highly valuable resource. Flushing water down the toilet bowl is a ridiculous thing to do in this environment and as a result areas of the kibbutz utilize composting toilets to reduce water consumption.

Composting toilets convert human waste into organic compost and usable soil. Generally speaking, people don't use "humanure" (yes, it's a ridiculous term but I assume the opportunity was too good to pass up) as fertilizer or soil on annual garden plants. Not only is there a fundamental "icky" factor, but there are some potential health concerns as well. Instead it is used on trees and flowers.

I have seen a handful of composting toilets in my day and not all of them have been pleasant experiences. The Lotan composting toileting experience, however, is a dream.

Check it out, here is the bathroom building from the outside:

One of the FOUR stalls:

A close up:

The sink:

I am totally impressed with these babies. There is no god-I-hope-it-doesn’t-smell anxiety before I enter, it is fun (a handful of straw into the pot after you do your thing does the trick), and it’s good for the environment! Hats off to Lotan for making composting toilets respectable.
-Katie

Note: I apologize for back-to-back postings discussing shit. I will avoid all things fecal in my next installment.