Working and talking

Tonight we celebrate Pesach.  The dining room here in Nitzana was closed for about one week to make it kosher for Pesach.  That means: free of any yeast holding materials.  All the utensils are stored away, the dining room and the kitchen are rinsed thoroughly to make sure there is no crumb left.  Apart from the religious demands, this is required by law in Israel for public places such as educational institutions.  That is what Nitzana really is: a place where groups of young people come to follow an agricultural or nature reservation program.  Bedouin youngsters come to learn to treat their livestock in a more humane way.  Some come from abroad for a year to prepare for the military.  A smaller group of Russian young people is here in the process of making aliyah, to settle in Israel.

And then there is our group of volunteers helping out where we can.  Yesterday we worked for the farmer Adi.  I had heard many stories about him, and yesterday the stories were confirmed.  We usually work from about 7:00 to 12:30, and as usual we took a break at about 10:00 for coffee and some rest.  But with Adi, that was the end of the work day.  He told us that the work we do is not relevant in his eyes.  The fact that we travel to a war zone to help out, ‘rationally you must be out of your mind’.  He told us that on October 7, his daughter and her husband and children, who live in a village just outside Gaza, spent 36 hours in the safe room.  He said: We are in a black tunnel with no light.  It feels good, it is a comfort for you to come and place your hand on our shoulder to let us know we are not alone.  Adi was an officer in the air force during his military service, but he feels like he does not know how to move on now for Israel.  The complexity of politics, multi-front war, and threats like Iran, and the turmoil worldwide make it difficult for a rational approach.

Meanwhile we plant, weed, harvest, and maintain products on the farms here.  Very varying plants, from cucumbers and egg plant to vines for grapes or to make wine, to tomatoes and to many herbs.  The farmer Golan came to tell us about the many herbs he grows and their effects on the human body (and mind sometimes) when applied to the skin or extracting tea from them.  And we have very good, consistent nice weather here.

Life in Israel

Many things have happened since the previous entry. This past Sunday around 2:00 a.m. the alarms went off, telling us to head to the safe room. It is a room in the house with walls of about 30cm and a roof of 40cm of concrete. We heard later that a rocket was indeed headed for our area. It was shot down before it got here. There is a small military base just outside town; that might have been the target.

But life continues here. We work on the farms every day. Most farmers carry a machine gun and a revolver on them everywhere they go.

And at the close of the work activities they thank us profusely for helping them.

This morning I helped Golan to apply a cement layer in a new building at his home. And this afternoon I accompanied a fellow volunteer from Amsterdam who got sick five days ago and whose health is not restoring. So the days are always filled, whether with work or with helping others.

Yesterday Golan held a presentation in which he talked about the many herbs he grows on his farm and the health benefits their use have.

Catching a cold in the hot desert

Time for an update from Israel.  Sorry guys, for letting you wait this long.  I have been battling a bad cold now for several days, feverish and coughing up whatever is in my lungs.

I do work every day as most of it is not a very heavy load.

Yesterday and the day before I was part of a group which pruned tomato vines.  The objective is to take the leaves out; this enables the light to maximize on the fruit, which makes them turn red quicker.  It is not hard work, but the plant leaves hard stains on your skin which is quite persistent when you try to remove them.  The solution: pick a small green unripe tomato, squeeze it so the juice comes out, and rub this on the stain.  And it works!

This farmer is Sharon.  He told us how he settled here with one friend sometime around the year 2000.  The two of them built up the farm we were working on.  Once that was set up, Sharon continued with this farm while Yiftach moved a little futher to start a dairy.  By now the place has become a village with seven families.  Yiftach was a very motivating person, Sharon said.  On October 7, the local commander of all the village defense forces (= those who have firearms) ordered half the men to go with him to meet the terrorists in the west, while the other half was to stay behind for security.  Nobody had an idea of what exactly was going on.  Sharon told us that Yiftach was killed in the ensuing fighting.  Besides the dairy and a flock of 200 sheep, he had a wife and five children.  So now Sharon is tending both farms.  He told me: If I could turn back time I would have gone to Gaza immediately.  He probably sat and waited, not knowing that his comrades fought to save them as well.

So the farmers appreciate our coming and what we contribute in a practical sense.  But most of all they appreciate a listening ear.  It gives them an opportunity to process the events for themselves.  And they are very good to us: treat us on lots of goods with coffee, and, of course (how could I forget), tomatoes!  They are really good.

Going at it

Our work days start around 7:00.  Yesterday we rolled out and fixated wiring for an electric fence.  Boaz is a farmer who grows grapes bio-dynamically (even more ‘natural’ than organic growing, in his own words) for wine.  Quite exclusive wines in my experience: a bottle will cost you around $40.  Aside from Michelin rated restaurants, the main market consists of people who come by the farm to buy the wine.

Boaz planted some new vines recently.  The deer in the area discovered that; they eat them at night before they get to grow strong.  So he placed an electric fence around the patch.  The fench is 3 feet high at most, but Boaz says the deer are so used to crawling through it that it does not occur to them they can easily jump over it.  So they are in for a ‘shocking’ surprise!  It will not kill or even hurt them, but it will scare them off.

And today we continued on the fence and did some weeding of the new vines.  It is a pity, because what are called ‘weeds’ are actually pretty flowers.  But the flowers don’t earn anything, so they have to go.