Monday, November 22, 2010

Kibbutz Ramat Yochanan.

This weekend I took what I would like to call a "mini vacation" up North. My friend Molly, whom I lived with during my Ashdod volunteer program, made aliyah and is doing a 5 month Hebrew ulpan program on a kibbutz. I decided this would be the weekend to visit her.


Things do not always go as plan here in Israel so I took every precaution to make sure I could get to her with a little trouble as possible before Shabbat arrived. I knew the bus line 997, which would take me to Kiryat Ata, the closest town to her kibbutz, was a religious line and may be less than reliable but it was my only direct option. I got to the bus stop practually an hour early so I knew there would be no way I could miss it. I told myself I could not get worried about the bus not coming until 12:15 and slowly but surely it was 12:15. I asked some other people and bus drivers about the bus and they said they were not quite sure what I was talking about. Great. It was getting better by the minute. If it did not come I would have to take a bus to Tel Aviv, than to Haifa and somehow from there get to Kiryat Ata or her kibbutz, an adventure I was not prepared for.

A few minutes later the bus pulled up. I ran to make sure I got on it, luckily I did make it aboard but unfortunately there were no seats left and the bus was packed with people, mainly religious families. Wow, this was going to be an interesting ride. Eventually the people around me sat in the aisle so I joined them. All I wanted to do was rest my head somewhere, anywhere, and take a nap. I am not sure what happened but I did eventually manage to fall asleep. I started to get real achy an hour and a half into the trip so I stood up for the last 20 minutes or so. It was a shame I missed the scenic view the whole way up and just sat there starting at religious women's skirts.

We arrived at Kiryat Ata and I took a short cab ride over to the kibbutz. Man, was I happy to finally to see Molly. I put my stuff in her room and we went out for a long stroll. One of the kibbutz dogs, Hannah, loves Molly and her roommate. Hannah joined us everywhere we went throughout the weekend. We started off by walking by the cows and bulls, into the avocado trees and around to a beautiful view where we watched the sunset. You could see alot of the kibbutz with Haifa and the Carmel Mountains in the background.

We went back and rested up for Shabbat dinner. People start to fill into the dining room "chedar ochel" around 7 and there was a mini ceremony. It was typical cafeteria food Israeli style, a change in what I have been used to eating. After dinner we hung out with some of the people on her program and talked with her roommate.

The next morning we went for another walk. This time we checked out the baby cows. Molly insisted I let them suck on my finger, I did not disappoint her. They had all the cages labeled, there were probably 7 cows born in the last week. After wards we walked through the areas where most of the kibbutzniks live. It is amazing how nice some of the housing is. It is all done by seniority. When the kids are around 17 then move out and as they get older and older the housing gets nicer and nicer.

We had shabbat lunch back in the cheder ochel and then went for a walk into the cirtrus fields. They were growing oranges, kumquat look alikes, pomellos and some green orange that I have seen in stores. We just walked up and down the rows of trees trying the fruit and picking some. Overall it was a great mini vacation. For only being there for one day I think I got a true kibbutz experience and a wonderful one at that.

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