Almost done

On the way back to my family I want to share some images to give you a general impression of the many aspects of being here.  This will be the last post from Israel.

One of the first days working here was for the farmer Roy, who has sheep and goats.  He got us some coffee during break time.  When he heard some of us like milk in the coffee, he took a cup, walked over to one of the goats, and milked it a little.  The coffee was good!

During my stay I was a driver to bring the volunteers to the farms.  I also drove a group to the Nova festival area, which was in full swing on October 7.  Many young people died there.  It is a place of remembrance now, for those missing (hostages) as well as for the ones who perished.  Some visitors left this sign.  It says: There will be more good days.  There is an indestructible force here which always leads back to a positive outlook on the future.

The farmers in the desert are all close together.  Greenhouses are normally all grouped, and driving among them you cannot tell which greenhouse belongs to which farmer.  Nobody here lives on his farm; they all live in one of the surrounding towns, with secured fences and gates around them.  That said, the farms all have very nice areas to relax and sit in relatively shady cool.  The picture is from the farm of Boaz.

One of the volunteers got quite ill, and one other man and myself took him to the hospital in Beer Sheva, about a 45-minute drive.  The waiting there was very long, so I went out for a stroll.  I stumbled upon this bit of art work somewhere in the city.

And then there are treasures of nature!

While working in the vineyard I heard leaves rustling just ahead.  I noticed that a bird flew off.  And a little further I discovered why it had been there in the first place ...

The feast of Pesach came and went, and still no word of the hostages.  There were many statements to remind the world of that.  In Nitzana they arranged a table as is customary for Pesach, with empty seats.  The meal on the first evening is called a 'seder'.  But the word also means 'order'.  So the sign on the back of the chairs says: It is not in order (it is not okay) that they are not here.

 

There is the annual Remembrance day here in Israel, to commemorate the victims of the Second World War and the persecution of the Jews.  In Kadesh Barnea, close to Nitzana, we attended a ceremony.  All citizens of the area who have ancestors who survived the camps placed a stone in memory of their lost ones.  Holland too was named several times.  The detail picture shows a stone with the name Heijmans on it.

There is also the annual Independence day.  We went to the town of Beer Milcah.  People from all the surrounding villages came to celebrate this day.  Our volunteers helped to organize the location of the celebrities.

And some more nature.  This critter came crawling out of the vines and raced to other vines.  Between him and us humans, I wonder which one is more wary of the other.

I hope you enjoy it.  It was quite the adventure.

In my previous post I ended by expressing my fondness of being part of life here in Israel.  It is true.  But having been here this extended period has also made me aware of the fact that there are some people even nearer to my heart, and I will be really happy to see them again.  I love my wife and I love my children.

Thanks to everyone who read my posts.  I hope I succeeded in letting you tune in on the adventure, even if from a distance!

The good life!

Last week Sunday evening was the start of Yom HaShoa, the day of remembrance for all the Jewish victims of the Second World War.  On Monday morning at 10:00 the sirens sounded for two minutes while we all stood still and silently commemorated them.  But something special happened: In this dry and arid desert area it rained exactly during those moments while we stood there!  It was as if heaven too cried for all the victims and the suffering.

I don’t know what you are reading and watching on the news about the events in Gaza.  Beginning of last week while we were working in a greenhouse, I heard the sirens go off at a distance.  Later that day the news told us three soldiers were killed at the border crossing Kerem Shalom, which is on the southern part of the border between Israel and Gaza.  The soldiers were transferring humanitarian goods onto a truck that was to bring them into Rafa.  Two more soldiers succumbed to their wounds from that attack in the days following.  Since that incident Israel has begun to operate in Rafa.  We heard the pounding of the artillery every day for the past week.

This past Friday we had very high temperatures: 41 degrees (106 Fahrenheit).  Around four in the afternoon a sand storm came up, which lasted about one hour.  The sounds are like a thunderstorm, but there is no rain.  You really need to go inside when it happens; even breathing is impaired when the dust and the sand flies around.  The heat power of the sun decreased during this storm.  This haziness lasted well into the sabbath.

 

So when we arrived at Golan’s farm early Sunday morning, we discovered that a section of his vines had bowled over from the strong winds.

 

It took us all morning to raise them up again and to secure them so it won’t happen again too soon.

Being here in Israel is always interesting.  There is the activity for which I came here to start with: helping the farmers.  Every day we get up at 5:00 in the morning.  We work from somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00 to 12:00.  Then we eat lunch back at the dining room of the village where we stay.  Around 15:00 we head back to the farmers, and we work there until about 18:00.  So we keep busy.  But through all that we hear the sounds of war from a distance, and we follow the news around the world somewhat, amazed at what is happening there because of a war here, and all the while enjoying being here.  I love the people and I love the land.  It is amazing to see everything that grows here.

Normal life

Living life in Israel is very good.  The weather is great almost all the time, and very consistent.  The work we do is somewhat demanding at times, but even young fellows (14 and 15 years old) help with the tasks.  The busyness keeps us occupied to the point we have hardly any time to keep up with the news.  Contrast that with the many places where unrest seems to occupy the many who may have never been in Israel.  Their only source of information would be the media.  It is my objective to show normal life here.

These past days I worked for Shaul in the mornings.  He has 10 greenhouses with tomatoes and one with cucumbers.

Currently we are cleaning out the old tomato plants.  Last week we pulled the plant roots out of the ground.  They were left to dry for a week.  Now we have been stripping the plants from the strings which hang from the top to support them.  At some point the plants are turned to compost, and new tomato plants will occupy the greenhouse.

I asked Shaul about the pounding we hear every day, even though there is little news from actions in Gaza.  He explained that there is a military base close to Nitzana which houses an artillery unit, and which is in training every day.  Outside of the farm areas, there is a large portion of the desert alloted as a firing range.  Tank and mortar operators need practice too.

It is comforting to see soldiers and military equipment around here regularly.  For one thing, they could be working with us in a greenhouse tomorrow as they also volunteer to help the farmers.  For another, they protect life here.  There is a unit called Caracal.  This unit integrates male and female soldiers into the same unit.  The specific task for the Caracal here in the area is to watch out for drugs smugglers from just across the border in Egypt.  That area of the Sinai houses many IS militants who raise money from drugs.  The word Caracal refers to a lynx-like wildcat which lives in Africa and in the Middle-East, among other areas.

Since this week we also work afternoons.  This past week we harvested potatoes for the Rosenbergs.  Their farm has the name 'Yarok bamidbar', Greens in the Desert.  They grow their crops organically, so no chemicals.  A tractor 'loosens' the potatoes in the ground by running with a cultivator.  Then we harvest the potatoes by hand.  I have not seen that in Holland.  Potatoes there are harvested mechanincally.  But there were many foreign workers from Thailand here not too long ago who were well able to do this.  So no machines yet.

Since we are here in Nitzana the local managers of Nitzana told our group: You are part of us here, we want you to stay regardless of what will happen.  This is a significant recognition of the work we do.

It is amazing how productive the desert can be.  It seems that all it takes is a seed or plant, and a little water every now and then.  There is no sprinkling here; instead they place tubes with dripping points on them.  It works, because everywhere there are plants they flourish.

 

The desert really blooms here.

Life in the desert is fascinating.  Beautiful bee-eaters and other birds roam the fields.  Here is a short video of a special kind of tracks I noticed on a dirt road at a farm.  Try to guess what makes these tracks before you see it (about 25 seconds into the video).

Let me know if you guessed it right!