Early in the morning I was ready for a long day, but the van didn't come. Our driver overslept so all the early waking up for nothing. On the road to the Dead Sea I noticed that building a straight road from one point to another isn't a thing for Israeli's. Arriving at the Dead Sea it was all resorts and hotel. People were walking around covered in mud. We had a quick clothes swap and prepared for stepping in the Sea. The instructions were clear, don't try to fight gravity and don't dive into the water. I stepped in and suddenly I felt being pushed up, I had do try so hard do touch the ground and when I went further in I was floating. The feeling is very cool and you feel just like a astronaut. No gravity and no effort to try keep floating. Together with the Americans we tried out different moves and tricks; Superman, Skydiving, ... I noticed that the mud people waited in the sun to dry up and than went into the Sea, it's very good for the skin. Some of the water touched my mouth and I can't describe the feeling, never tasted water so salty. After a one hour floating excercise the bus was moving.
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| Kibutz Grofit |
We took a good shower first and the next stop was Kibbutz Grofit. Kibbutzes are social communities were people live together and share there wages in the middle of the desert. My image was completely wrong, they were pretty wealthy and the kibbutz was a oasis in the desert. All of the green, there was even a swimming pool. Michael, the principal of the school at one of the Kibbutzes. So for ten Kibbutzes there was one big school were all of the children went. Elementary and high school together. He showed us arround and the people had small houses and some of them worked outside the Kibbutz in Eilat, the others worked at the school, the hospitals and off course the army. On the way to the Dead Sea and Kibbutz (to the south) there was more military and also we had to cross the West Bank. But more about the Kibbutz, they were founded in 1910 and Michael arrived in 1973 for the first time and started living in 1979 at Grofit. Some people worked at the milk farms and the crop fields our dades. They export to US and Europe and it's there main source of income. At the Kibbutz they do everything to make life pleasant in the middel of the desert; lot's of green, swimming pool, AC for the cows and lot's of water for the crops. What I found strange is the gate, If you want to go in a Kibbutz you have to know someone of the Kibbutz to let you in or wait a while. After a quick meal Michael was ready to show us arround in the desert. It was getting colder and the sun was going under, so nice weather for a short hike. Michael showed us arround at Timna mines.They are very old copper mines in the Negev from the prehistory. Michael showed us arround and we actually went into a mine en crawled out. For me it was interesting because I learned about it in books but when you see it in real it's more amazing. We learned about the tools they make and how they mined the area. There are about more than 10 000 mining holes in the area. Hereafter we went to Solomon's Pillars, they are rocks that look like pillars and where you can find a Egyptian drawing because the Egyptians organised the mining here.
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| Mining hole |
With the cover of darkness we arrived at Kibbutz Lotan our sleeping place for the nigt. The Kibbutz is known for the recycling. They make benches out of mud and recycle iron and metals. The rooms were comfortable but the shower water was salty. There was one tap for drinking water and the rest was salty water because it comes straight from the source. After a good sleep we left for Kibbutz Ketura for breakfast. All the people of the Kibbutz had breakfast in the central dining room. This Kibbutz is known for the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. They have students from the Kibbutzes but also from allover Israel including Palestine and the world. Here you can learn about the environment and experiment to find solutions for problems. I noticed that a lot of Americans lived at the Kibbutzes, they all of the rigth to return to there homeland as a Jew (Balfour Declaration) and some of them choose to live in a Kibbutz.
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| The school |
The bus was moving to Kibbutz Yotvata, a very wealthy Kibbutz because of all the milkcows. There ice cream is very famous. The school housed students from 1st grade till 12th grade and they could choose more than 19 subjects to follow. Some of them are fashion, drawing, music and then the general courses. At the school they even had e greenhouse were they do experiments with plants. We met a delegation of students that are going in the summer to the USA for the Friends Forever project. They are gonna sleep with Arab students from Ein Mahel and cook together for 3 weeks. I was suprised by the different nationalities. They were five students and these are there origins: Hungarian, Russian, American, Spanish, English and Polish. We talked with them and how they experience live in the Kibbutz and how they all wanted to proof that Arabs and Jews can live together. Most of them also wanted to leave the Kibbutz after the army and maybe come back, because there's a whole world to explore.
Last stop of the trip: Eilat. We only stayed there for two hours and had a quick bite, some shoarma on a plate. I think it was 40 degrees in Eilat, the heat was were pounding on my. So I was glad that we left and got in the air cooled van. On the way back we mad several stops and one of them at the West Bank so I could say stood on the West Bank. There was a lot of military people but you get used to it. When leaving the West Bank, you got to pass a checkpoint. For a good ending of the trip we ate at the finest restaurant of Ein Mahel, the table was packed with food and we were quiet hungry after a five hour drive. Arriving at home the family was waiting for me, except Ja'ra. She had a recital in Tel Aviv and would come home in the night, she's doing one on thursday so we will be going.
So, I think I managed to say everything of a trip that I will never remember in my whole life!
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