This is just a quick update before Purim in Israel, which I hope will be amazing!

 

My school took us to see Eilat last week. The days we were there were some of the few cold days that Eilat ever gets. This was quite a disappointment. Due to the cold, we weren’t even able to do the water sports that Eilat is famous for on one of the days of the trip.

 

We slept at Kibbutz Ketura, a Kibbutz about fourty minutes from Eilat. Ketura was founded by a small group of young North Americans, at the end of the Yom Kippur War in November 1973. The woman who was in charge of our group was actually from Saint Louis! She had come to the Kibbutz over 40 years ago.

 

The Kibbutz was gorgeous. It’s a traditional kibbutz, where each person’s income, no matter what they do or how much they make, goes fully into the Kibbutz treasury. The Kibbutz has outside income from a few different partnerships and activities they have or run on their kibbutz. They have a date farm that many Kibbutz members worked on. They work with Algatechnologies, a rapidly growing biotechnology company, specializing in the commercial cultivation of microalgae. Founded in 1998, Algatechnologies is a world leader in the production and supply of AstaPure® – a premium natural astaxanthin – one of the world’s most powerful antioxidants. They also work with Arava Power Companym, which supplies hundreds of megawatts of green energy to Israel through alliances with kibbutzim, Negev Bedouin, and other leaders in green energy. It was really an amazing thing to see. Every member of the kibbutz has a regular day job and extra work (called toranut, shibutz, and avodat lila) that helps the community function. Many members of the kibbutz were working in the dining hall as we ate breakfast. Two woman from the kibbutz spoke to us and allowed us to ask any questions we wanted about life on the kibbutz. It was truly phenomenal. They have a completely different lifestyle, it was a very hard concept to grasp. It was a really special place to stay.

 

In Eilat we did a few hikes and water sports! It was really beautiful. I also got the opportunity to go snorkeling! It took be a bit to learn how to do it, but as soon as I figured it out, I was able to see the jellyfish and coral underneath the water. It was breathtaking. When we got out of the water, my friend had a sea horse caught in her hair, it was so cool! We quickly took it out and put it back in the water, but it was really amazing to see. 

 

I had two “only in Israel” experiences, as I call them, this past week. The first one was when I was walking on the sidewalk I noticed two little Israeli boys holding hands standing on side of road. They brightened up when they saw my friend and me. They must have noticed that we were speaking in English because they asked us in broken English, “can you…?” As they walked closer to the road, my friend and I looked at each other and together said, “help you cross the road?” They nodded smiling, as we took their hands and helped them cross the road. Only in Israel would young boys at age of probably 6 & 8 ask total strangers to help them cross the road. 

 

The other experience was in a coffee shop. The woman in front of my friend and me in line got a delicious looking drink. We asked her what it was so we too could order it, she said ״אייס קפה,״ “Israeli ice coffee.” We asked her if it was good. She then noticed we spoke English, and said “Want to try it, I really don’t mind?” We politely declined. But once again, I feel like only in Israel would that happen, a complete stranger offering you to taste her drink, to make sure you like it before you buy it. Israel is a beautiful country, with all her landscapes and all her people, each person caring and looking out for each other, and each person knowing that someone else, even a stranger has their back.