The educational part (Green Apprenticeship)
- jeremyskoler
- Apr 8, 2018
- 13 min read
1/14/18 - 2/9/18
I promised myself I would take the time at Kibbutz Lotan to sit down every night and write about the day, just to stay on top of my blog. I only lasted a third of my time there, but I don’t think that’s too awful. The beginning of this post is the log that I kept. I have made additions and edited the entries to make it a little more interesting, hopefully.
Day 1 I woke up at Josh’s and slowly headed out. The clerk in the lobby offered me a free breakfast voucher but, unfortunately, I didn’t have time. I bought some pastries then rented a bike. With my big backpack on and my smaller one strapped to the back of the bicycle I headed out. Riding a clunky rented bike with a top-heavy bulky bag through unfamiliar streets was definitely an adventure. I somehow managed to remain balanced and got to the station, however, once there I couldn't find the bike drop off spot. Someone eventually pointed me in the right direction, I quickly ditched the bike, and then raced into the station. At the ticket counter I was given my 8am bus ticket then immediately issued another one for an 8:30 bus. My bicycle adventure had cost me, during the ticket transaction my bus, 10 feet away, had left.
I got to the kibbutz (the green spot in the picture), and everyone in the program sat around getting to know each other. A short orientation included a tour of the neighborhood and communal kibbutz spaces. Then we did more introduction ice breaker type things on a slightly deeper lever exploring our motivations for coming and our goals. This was followed by a delicious quiche dinner. I’m very excited for the food here. Vegan mud cake for dessert, yum. We gathered in the central space, played cards and chatted. Now, I’m going to bed in the mud dome I share with two other participants.
Day 2
I woke up this morning in my dome and totally forgot where I was. After reality hit, I got ready for breakfast quickly. The veggie scrambled eggs went well with the typical Israeli breakfast of salad and cheese. Scrumptious! We learned our morning chores and mine was cleaning the composting toilet bathrooms (which hopefully won’t be a permanent position). Afterwards, we split into Hebrew speakers and English speakers for a lesson in compost. We each made small compost bins and ideally we will all have some nice humus soil by the end of the course, although that would have to be some pretty speedy decomposition. Our next class was mud
building. Once we finally mastered the correct mixture of sand, clay/earth, and straw we placed it in brick molds and set them all out to dry. Another delicious meal of assorted Middle Eastern dishes (I discovered the kibbutz dinning hall is not vegetarian, score!) and we were ready for team building exercises. One of the instructors led us blindfolded into the desert and dropped each of us at different points. Then, still blindfolded, we had to find our partners with an agreed upon call. I stumbled into someone who told me I had followed the wrong call and I had to retrace my steps until I finally located Adi by his hoots. Next we had to get the whole group across a toxic river using a couple fragile movable stepping stones. Every seven minutes we had to restart if we hadn’t all made it. After an hour, Channah, a member of the Kibbutz doing the Green Apprenticeship program, gave us a talk about how nobody wanted to be here and we needed to just focus and get the stupid game over with. It was hilarious but somehow it enabled us to pull it together and make it across that darn river. Our reward was dinner; the food here is so incredible and healthy and fresh. Afterwards, I wandered off into the desert, hammocked from a geodesic dome frame I found, and looked at the stars. A nice cold shower, an attempt to ukulele and I am ready for bed.
I want to briefly describe the place I’m in. The mud dome is shaped like an igloo. It is maybe five meters high and five meters in diameter with a meter long entrance hall about two and a half meters high. Everything is a sandstone colored mud that coats the hay bales that make up the interior of the wall. There are four widows sunken into the thick wall and each has a mosaic and/or painted decoration above it. Three cots and a small rickety shelf take up the walls with a low wooden table in the center. There are shelves lining the entrance hall. The neighborhood consists of 10 of these domes. A palm frond covered geodesic frame with mud benches around the base makes up the central gathering pavilion which sits amongst low desert trees and mud sculptures. There are composting toilets, a kitchen and a couple other mud buildings. The buildings form two rows facing each other across the compound. Everything is mud but it is painted with bright images and designs. This is my neighborhood. I love it.
Day 3 My morning lessons took a more in depth look into composting and the science behind it. Then we created a massive compost pile with our new knowledge. The greens we used for the nitrogen rich material came from two unproductive garden rows we demolished in the greenhouse. Next, we had a lesson on how to make garden beds. We prepared the two rows for a new, soon to be decided, crop. After lunch we had a lesson on ecological design. First, we covered the basics of what information is needed about site and climate in order to construct anything ever. Then we learned how to ideally plan a home, neighborhood and city for optimal passive solar heating. It was a whole lot of information in a very short time and it left me stunned and enlightened. My mind is exploding with the ingenious simple techniques to avoid wasting any light. My dome was cooking so I helped make shakshuka for dinner. The biogas (a compost tank that generates methane for human use) stove stopped working so it was my job to keep the little fire running in the rocket stove. A rocket stove is essentially a small meter high chimney with
a opening in the bottom. A tiny fire is lit through the opening and the stove’s narrow confines force the heat and flames upwards highly efficiently to a waiting pot on top. It enables you to cook with minimal fuel, although the fire has to be constantly tended. We also made flatbread on big metal trays over coals. After dinner one of the other participants, my roommate Ilan, led us in a folk dancing lesson. To finish the night I took another nice solo hammock session in the desert dome and read a bit. Now it is time to sleep. Day 4
We spent the morning planting and harvesting a few crops. After lunch we discussed seed saving and then wandered through the garden collecting seeds. We made seed bombs, balls of clay, dirt and seeds, to be dispersed around the kibbutz. I seem to be bogged down with a cold so I have been sleeping basically every moment I’m not in class or eating. After dinner we had a drawing lesson from one of the other green apprentices. Day 5 Once again I slept during my non-busy hours. For class we had a morning lesson on the un-sustainable mindset within our society and we discussed the needed paradigm shift. It was fascinating but unfortunately my poor health kept me from being able to fully immerse myself. Then we had another ecological design lesson this time on building materials and heat loss. It was once again a lot of information but fascinating. After lunch we learned about the solar ovens, rocket stoves, mass ovens and other alternative cooking methods. I played a game of chess and rested a lot.
Day 6 Today we had a morning lesson on mud building and we reinforced and added to some existing mud walls. My partner, Dina, and I struggled to make the correct mud consistency and kept adding too much water then too much sand to balance it out. It was a viscous cycle. The hilarious effort ended with one of the instructors telling us we were the most inept pair she had ever seen. Afterwards, we were released for the weekend. I played a couple chess matches and wrote some letters. It was nice to lounge around a bit. There was a round of frisbee golf and then some ultimate frisbee with a few of the kibbutz teens. Kibbutz Lotan has one of the two frisbee golf courses in all of Israel! We had Shabbat dinner with the kibbutz then I went home and tried to sleep. Day 7
After a nice late breakfast, I got ready for a hike. It took as an hour to organize and decide where to go but finally we headed out of the compound and into the desert. We walked across cracked clay fields and dunes. I was wearing my keffiyeh for sun protection, which wasn't too culturally appropriate, but my Palestinian friend said it was okay as long as I understood the implications. Unfortunately, no one had any clue how guys wrap it so someone stepped up and improvised, I looked bad but didn't get burned! After trudging through the sand for a while, we reached a date palm orchard. From amidst the rows of tall trees came donkeys ambling towards us. They are kept there to eat the weeds. We left the grove and headed back across the desert to a farther stand of trees. We entered and were followed by some slightly more menacing donkeys. After they started braying and trying to bite each other and our dog, we picked up our pace. Eventually we reached the end of the grove and the kibbutznik who was leading us brought us to a shady oasis. We sat n a blanket in the shade beside a small empty pool and ate some hummus and homemade pita. We sang some songs and joked around. Then, we ventured just east of the trees to take a nap in the sunny warm desert sand. I decided I wanted to walk to Jordan so I got up to go find the border. Luckily for me Dina, who said she
had seen the border sands before, decided to join. East of Lotan is the Jordanian border. Between the two countries is a strip of perfectly raked sand. If a single footprint is found in it the Israeli army descends on the area and their Bedouin trackers find the culprit. We were told not to go east. But Dina said she would recognize the border before we stepped on it, so we headed off. Suddenly, in the distance loomed some odd buildings. By now, I thought we should’ve hit the border but I guess the Lotan people tried to scare us with how close it was. The buildings turned out to be massive covered pepper fields. They stretched on and on in the middle of the desert. It was eerie, nothing moved. After reaching the end of the net houses (which took forever) we gave up in our border search thinking we should probably head back. We rejoined the group and went home. Dinner was a hectic potluck, that was of course delicious, and we spent the rest of the night relaxing and hanging out. Everyone went to bed for an early class the next morning. A couple weeks later I found out that the border passes right next to Lotan then swings away from Israel to dodge around the fields we found. If we had kept walking past the peppers we would have hit Jordan almost immediately. Day 8
Our morning lessons were on ‘What is permaculture?’ and then ‘What is community?’ After that we started building a mud wall for our mud project. We arranged the tire interior structure and applied a first coat of mud. I made some guacamole to go with dinner. Afterwards, we had a program where we painted and talked. It was nice. Night. Day 9
Morning classes consisted of another lesson about the history of permaculture and then worm composting. After lunch was the second coat on the mud wall we are building around the star gazing area. I headed to the sports field afterwards for pickup soccer. It was lots of fun and I’m getting to know the kibbutzniks which is definitely cool. They live such a different life from me in their small community yet they are constantly surrounded by strangers who step into their lives briefly for only a month. Day 10 We spent the morning learning about permaculture, this time focused on practices. Then, after our break, we had a lesson about the trees on the kibbutz. I loved it. We walked around with the head gardener and he told us stories about all the trees. Fascinating! This was followed by a long wait, lots of chess and then finally a pizza dinner cooked in our mud mass ovens, of course. I helped build a fire in the living dome (a geodesic dome made out of vines) and then Jess presented on Nihilism. We wrote letters to ourselves and talked about how nothing matters. Lots of fun! Day 11
After breakfast and cleaning we headed to the Ecokef (translates to eco fun). The Ecokef is where the main gardens, living dome, outdoor classrooms and massive mud art park are. There we learned about sheet bed gardening. It is a technique of creating soil in places where there is absolutely no usable earth. We made one on a sandy patch of desert. It is essentially a special compost pile that will decompose into a garden bed in 6 to 12 months. Then we went to a class on composting toilets. We looked at the onsite ones and talked a lot about the different types and recent adaptations. Lotan claims to have the most luxurious composting toilets complete with background music and all the modern bathroom comforts. It was really cool; some day I think all toilets will need to be composting. We had our lunch and then lounged around until our next class. It was a mud wall finishing class. We learned about the final coat needed and how to make sculpting and painting mud. Finally we practiced decorating some walls with sculpting mud.
When we got back to the Bustan, our neighborhood, I decided I wanted to go meet the Kenyan workers who we knew lived on part of the kibbutz. Ilan and I decided we should bring them something so we grabbed a bottle of wine. When we got to their compound we found no one home except for the Indians living next door. The bottle of wine was not appreciated there, but we did meet and get to know them. They came to the kibbutz thinking they were doing a program to learn about agriculture and volunteer. Instead, they are working in the kitchen or date factory for very little pay, six days a week, ten hours a day on foot. They are told if they aren’t happy they can just go home, which isn’t an option for most who already have return tickets booked. It seems I stumbled on the darker side of the kibbutz. I left them with a heavy heart.
When I got back to the Bustan I hung around a bit, showered, then decided I wanted to try again. I headed back out, without the wine this time, and walked to the Kenyan’s area. They were home! I was greeted warmly, shown inside and given a tour. They are living in outfitted shipping containers. They insisted I join them for dinner and I struggled through the hand eaten meal. It was incredible! We chatted a little more and there was some talk of me joining them for a day working in the fields and then maybe going to church with them in Eilat, the nearest big city. They work five days a week in the pepper houses we found and onion fields and then get agriculture classes a sixth day. It was a great experience and I’m excited to go back tomorrow. After that we had a presentation by Dina, the only Palestinian member of the course. She talked with us about Rawabi, the first all Palestinian planned city, which her father designed and is currently being built. It was fascinating and illuminated yet another side of the complicated conflict enveloping the two nations. Then, after some star gazing it was time for bed.
The rest of the program passed in a similarly wonderful fashion. I feel so fortunate to have gotten such a unique, fascinating experience. During the week we would study permaculture, gardening, natural construction, ecology, compost, geodesic domes, building alternative ovens and other sustainable techniques. Weekends were used to go on adventures to nearby places: another kibbutz, a hidden lake (pictured), Eilat, a hike into a wadi (valley/dried water route), and an abandoned bunker. We took turns cooking vegetarian dinners with fresh garden veggies. Life was relaxing and simple. I grew pretty close with most people in the program. I also became better friends with the Kenyans who started teaching me a little Swahili and were constantly feeding me. We were surrounded by the Israeli hills on one side and the Jordanian mountains on the other. The stunning natural beauty surrounding us was a perfect representation of the blissful life we were living.
There were definitely some especially enjoyable moments. One night the shinshinim (members of Israel's equivalent of a gap year, where you do service for a year between high school and the army) opened the pub located on the outskirts of the kibbutz. It was a blast! There was such diversity from kibbutzniks to green apprentices, from volunteers to international students. I played pool with some of the Kenyans and chatted with a few of the Indians. We danced all night long. Another special night came at the time of the super, blue, full, red, harvest, uber big, eclipse, special moon, or something like that. Apparently, it only happens once an eon. Anyway, we were already being treated to gigantic orange moonrises over the deep purple Jordanian mountains, unlike anything I’ve ever seen, so we were very excited. Everyone stayed up, then, realizing the event didn’t start until like 5:00 am, set alarms and went to sleep. It was gorgeous for the five seconds we saw it before it got covered by clouds and then set. But it was a wonderful night nonetheless because everyone shared this massive let down about something we had been counting down to for a week and it turned out outrageously funny. A final highlight was my birthday. I was awoken by the entire GA in my dome singing happy birthday as they delivered a delicious chocolate cake. I was given a super useful straw hat, homemade sage incense and a box of chocolates on top of all that. It was a perfect birthday in an unimaginable setting with just the right people. Thanks guys! There were a couple places I felt were extra cool at Lotan. An old watch tower stood high above the trees on the edge of the kibbutz center. There, in the gently swaying tower, you could see for miles during the day and watch the distant lights at night. A bird reserve had been built by the kibbutzniks just outside of the southern fence. There was a small pond, some bird watching camouflaged structures and the most dense foliage for miles. I also found a lot of joy in the dirt road that encircled the kibbutz right inside the fence. I started running at night and it was a special feeling to see everything going on inside and to find your own place just on the fringe of the property. Then of course there was the Papachanga, the metal geodesic frame I had found my first day there. I loved to go climb it and set up my hammock ten meters up in the enclosing structure. Our last night at the kibbutz I organized a bonfire for the whole group in the Papachanga and we cooked poike (stew with everything left in the kitchen) over the fire. It was such a perfect end to see the entire group together one last time in that beautiful dome in the desert.
Commentaires