Eilat of Fun on Kibbutz Ktura

This was really an incredible weekend.  One of the most meaningful and enjoyable of the whole WUJS experience thus far.  We traveled down South, Thursday through Sunday, to a Kibbutz just north of Eilat.  Kibbutz Ktura was founded by a group of Americans from young Judea, and is still primarily inhabited by immigrants from America and elsewhere who have made aaliyah.  The people were very welcoming and led us in some great workshops.  I'll start from the beginning.

We left Tel Aviv at 6 am, picked up the Jerusalem group, then headed down to Eilat.  We started our adventure, after the 5-6 something hour bus ride, with a 3 hour hike.  Some people opted not to go and just took extra free time in Eilat, but I excitedly put on my hiking boots and hit the trail.  Our guide, Marcello, from the Kibbutz, shared stories and nature facts with us as we hiked a pretty good incline.  We took breaks along the way, as the terrain was pretty tough, but it was worth all the sore muscles when we got to the top of Har Tzfachot.  We could see to one direction, the beaches of Eilat in Israel, to another the city of Aqaba and mountains in Jordan, behind us in the Sinai in Egypt, and far off in the distance stretches of Saudi Arabia.  It was really a great feeling when we exhaustedly reached the top and all of a sudden saw bright blue water and cities below us, not to mention 4 different countries.  We hiked down the mountain, and basically right onto the beach front of Eilat.  The bus met us there, drove us into the center of town, and we had a few hours of free time to walk the boardwalk and stop by the mall.  I finally got ice cream, after talking about it with Mom and Dad, and it was good, better than the mall, but nothing to write home about.  We sat on the beach a bit, then when it started getting cold wandered through the mall.  Nice and relaxing after a strenuous hike.  And the day wasn't even close to over!

From Eilat, we hopped the bus back North a bit to Kibbutz Ktura.  We got our rooms, cute little suites, and settled in.  I shared a room with Amy and Sarah, connecting with Michal, Chelsea and Jaks and a kitchen area to share.  We showered and had a delicious barbecue with the other guests of the kibbutz, a group from an Australian and British program similar to ours.  We also got an introduction to the kibbutz with videos from the opening ceremonies and the 20 year anniversary, and a moonlight tour of the grounds.  We saw the cows (one just about to give birth), milking sheds, baby camel, algae factory, and a ton more.  More on that later.  Tired from a looooong day, we watched a little tv (!!!) and went to bed early.

Day 2 started with a large breakfast in the heder ochel, the a workshop called Duty Free Israel.  We walked around a room with a selection of items and images, and we had to rate them 1 to 10 in terms of their "Israeliness".  We were only allowed six 10s for the most Israeli items.  We all picked up cards from our top 6 and met in small groups to discuss.  On my list was the solider uniform, Herzl, cow chocolate of course, kibbutzim, and some more i can't remember.  I was surprised when we categorized our choices that none of mine fit in the category of religion.  I guess I connect with the cultural aspects more than the religious ones.  In our small groups we all shared our choices and reasoning, then talked about a few of them more in depth; the solider uniform and the holocaust.  We discussed the military society and the positives and negatives, and had a really great debate.  I found myself saying "our army" meaning Israel's, and got kind of emotional catching myself taking ownership like that.  The things that came out of this workshop really were incredible.

After that, there was a coffee break, they never stopped feeding us the entire weekend, then we were given our assignments for the arts workshops.  The choices were sand painting, rock sculptures, desert poetry, making dreamcatchers, and desert filmmaking.  I ended up in the film making group.  We sat down and brainstormed the plot and characters, then our guide helped us find locations to film.  We had to do everything in order as there was no option for editing, so it was hard, but we had a great time.  Our movie was about 2 boys wandering through the desert, dehydrated and tired, having a hallucination of a desert party oasis/mirage, one of them falling in love with one of the women there in a Tony/Maria moment, only to wake up and find out they were dancing with cows...  Strange I know, but entertaining.  All the girls (cows) put on black and white, and I got to play the love interest character.  We filmed some cheesy moments, the lean in for a kiss, then him waking up being licked by a cow.  Awesome.  We finished it off by all dancing in the cow pen.  Yea, it was a little stinky and pretty darn muddy.  But amazing. We managed to film the whole thing in just a few hours, with a nice kibbutz style lunch in between.  Time well spent. After lunch each group presented their projects.  I filmed the screen when we viewed our final product, but I'm not sure how it came out.  I'll post it if its any good. 

We cleaned up, changed for Shabbat, and lit candles outside before Kaballat Shabbat in the synagogue.  My first time in services since I've been in Israel.  Weird.  Dinner that night was a Tu B'Shvat seder, including a presentation by the kids where they all acted out different fruits, a dance from the kindergarten complete with farmer and flower costumes, and lots of plates of delicious fresh dates and dried fruits.  We ate well this weekend, let me tell you. 

I gotta go to bed.  I'll finish this entry tomorrow...