In the days prior, we left the Negev and met up with the Israeli sister camp of ours. We were together for a few days at their camp, doing the regular sort of camp activities we’d normally do and learning about their camp life. Nothing too much to note from these few days, it was just the usually sort of camp life – chilling and learning and desperately trying to get over how tired I was from the previous 18 days. We spent four days together.
On the fourth day, it was time to move on and go spend a few days living on a kibbutz.
This was a very interesting experience, to see how life worked on a kibbutz. To those who don’t know what a kibbutz is, the best way I can describe it is like living on a farm. It’s very community focused, with everyone having their own job to do to contribute to the group. The kids would go to school there usually, and most things would be done within the community. There’s usually orchards. I’m sure Google can much more eloquently explain what a kibbutz is than me.
The days we spent on the kibbutz felt much more chill. We got to enjoy a slower pace, and just learn about and interact with the community. I was in such a mellowed out mood, I didn’t even bother taking many photos, hence the lack thereof. The kibbutz we stayed at, which was called Ein Gev, was gorgeous. It was near to the Kinneret, so we spent a lot of time on the beach and in the water. Our first night we had a bonfire on the beach, something we would never be allowed to do back at home, so that was pretty cool.
We were each placed into a host family, and I luckily got paired into my host family with my BFF of the trip, Lilly, so I didn’t have to feel awkward about being around people I didn’t know. Our host family was really nice and fed us constantly.
Our second night we were taken to a pool, and had a dance party on the bus on the way over. When we were heading back, we stopped for ice cream – yummmm, it’d been so long since I’d had ice cream.
On the third day we were taken to an observation deck, where we could see the entire Kinneret, which was, surprise surprise, gorgeous and sparkling, but I sadly didn’t have my camera with me. We camped out that night with the kids from the kibbutz.
My favourite day on the kibbutz was day number four, and it was jam-full of things to do, so I’ll save that for a separate post. I’ll give you a hint – part of it was a bit like riding the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, only it was real.
violetsams 