Advertisement
Published: January 11th 2010
So I'm not actually in Eilat, I'm on Grofit, one of the kibbutzim along highway 90, that cuts through the Arava valley of the Negev. The kibbutz itself is only where I live/sleep. I work at the Hai Bar חי בר which means "wildlife" in Hebrew. It is part wildlife refuge, part national park, and part zoo. But all the animals there (except for this one random specie of parakeet) are from the region of the Negev, which is pretty cool. There are Fennecs, Sand Foxes, Jackals, Ostriches, turtles, Spiny mice, snakes, owls, leopards, hyenas, hiraxes, bats... I could mention more but I think this gives the idea. Working in a zoo is a dirty job. It involves a lot of cutting up/preparing food for the animals, feeding them, cleaning crap and cleaning old food and food bowls, some of which contain animal remains (that's from the carnivores). It's really nice to know that all of the animals we feed to our fuzzy friends at the Hai Bar die naturally (they come from dairy farms and other various places - they die naturally which means they can't be consumed by humans, but for animals it's ok; they are quarantines to make sure there are no diseases before they get eaten, for example, by a leopard). The workers (thankfully not the volunteers) slaughter cows or sheep about every other day. I am on the verge of making a rating scale for how bad the carcasses smell. And then there's the "feeding station". It's a random square of sand in the middle of the desert where we dump the carcasses that are too rotten for even our vultures to eat. Apparently they are trying to attract some wild vultures. It hasn't worked. It smells like death. Literally. And there are tons and tons of carcasses in various stages of decay and mummification.
So it might sound to you like I'd be miserable, right? WRONG. I am having a great time. The staff and the other volunteers are really fun. And working with smelly animals has its upsides: feeding parakeets out of my hand, petting wolves, watching turtles devour lettuce, being one foot from a leopard (on the other side of a fence of course), holding a tiny baby turtle on my hand... And somehow all the stink and poop and dead animals end up being funny when you have other people to joke about them with. We were laughing about the feeding station late into the night...
My flat-mates are Adi (21 from Israel), Mazal (33 from England), and Josh (29 from the US but made Aliyah to Israel 2 years ago). They are all nice and definitely interesting. We're like a little dysfunctional family. With lots of adventures. Like this morning, the bus to work came on time for once, but I had taken a couple minutes too long and made us miss the bus. So we hitch-hiked to work. Don't worry, I'm careful when I hitchhike in Israel - we ended up getting a ride from a kibbutz-member who had come down the hill anyway. And then I had left in such a hurry that I hadn't put on my work boots and was only wearing my keen sandals that I wear around the flat. Which given the nature of our work is not so great. But I realized too late. And then on the way into the reserve I forgot to shut my door when I got out of the car to open the gate, and when Omri (one of the staff) drove through it my door got a nice dent. I felt like an idiot. But I was also laughing like an idiot because the whole comedy of errors was just too much. It was kind of an FML morning for anyone who knows what that is. But I made it through the day, and we spend most of it working on the fence (another project we work on - lacing date palm fronds through the chain-link fences to make them look nicer and add some shade and protection) anyway, which is about the cleanest job there. So work life is good.
Life on the kibbutz sometimes seems non-existant. The kibbutzniks on Grofit mainly keep to themselves, and the few kids I've had the luck of meeting aren't exactly my bunch of bananas. So it's good I get along with my flat-mates. But even then we can get kind of bored on the weekends. But this past Saturday we hitched (yup, again, no buses on Shabbat) to Eilat and went snorkeling (for free thanks to being Hai Bar volunteers) at חף אלמוג, coral beach. It's a gorgeous reef with a ton of beautiful fish. It was one of the highlights of my trip so far. And I found Nemo! Clownfish, these swordfish-looking things, and a bunch more that I can't even describe. It was a really nice day, but I came home quite tired.
So that's the last week in a very large rambling nutshell. This weekend I am going to visit my cousin Sarah in Chadera, stopping in Jerusalem to see Sharone and Joe on the way up. Life is good. A good mix of relaxing, entertaining, challenging, and hilarious. I still have a pip dream to see Egypt or Jordan, but the border-crossing is a little bit of a production, and I'd like a travel companion, which right now I don't have. But even if I don't get there this leg of my trip has been great. I have learned a ton at the Hai Bar, although i have no idea when I'll use it... and I keep finding that I can adapt and enjoy pretty much any situation (my appartment looks like a bachelor pad by the way: there is one bedroom, one bathroom, one common space with a bunkbed (where me and Josh sleep), a sink, a minifridge, and a hotplate. But it's not really that bad.)
So enjoy life and shake it up a bit when you have the chance. It makes life a little more fun.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.119s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0951s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
HENI AND DICK
non-member comment
we are so proud of you!!!!
Hi Maddy; We are thrilled and delighted to read your blogs and are so proud of you for doing all that you are experiencing! We loved Israel and are so glad that you decided to go there and now your Mom is coming out on March 6th which will be great for you! Enjoy your self, but Please be safe. Love and miss you, Grandma Heni and Grandpa Dick