A Week In Kibbutz Keturah

This week on Try was a Relief! The week started like a normal one with 10 hours of long school on Sunday and Monday, with a really stressful test on Tuesday and a Tiyul (trip) to the Kotel tunnels! I’m not going to lie, the kotel tunnels just looked like tunnels under the kotel which I was not too ecstatic about walking through plus I was a little under the weather. Anyway, there is something special in knowing that you are walking on the very same street that someone like Ravi Akivah may have also walked on, yes, same paving stones and all.

On Wednesday we went to Kibbutz Ketura which is in The Arava in Southern Israel, we got a break from 10 hour school days and horrible plastic food. The whole Experience was amazing, on the first day they gave us a tour of the Kibbutz, from the Dairy farms, to the solar fields.  The Solar fields are the brain child of my dad's very good friend Yossi Abramowitz who was The President Of The World Union of jewish Students when my Dad was The President of The Latin American Union of Jewish Students like 100 years ago.  Then we went to one of the only factories in the world where an algae that slows cancer down is produced. 

After the tour, we climbed a mountain behind the Kibbutz were they have 7 barrels they light on fire which they use as a menorah for Hanukkah. On thursday we went on a hike to Eilat to a mountain were you can see four different countries from (Har Tzfahot) which I remember climbing on a Temple Beth Sholom trip when I was a little kid. It was a two hour hike, and when we came down we went to the red sea and went snorkeling in a coral reef. It was a windy day, so I felt like the water was trying to drown me. 



After I decided that snorkeling was not  my thing, I laid on the beach with friends for about an hour. 

When we came back to the Kibbutz we had some free time, and then learned more about how a Kibbutz works. On Friday, we did not leave the Kibbutz. We signed up for activities and I chose an activity called decoupage which is gluing napkins onto a pot, it was a lot more fun than it actually sounds though. Then it was time for lunch so we helped set the tables in the dining room and helped make Challah for the whole Kibbutz. 

We then had time to get ready for Shabbat, and walk around the Kibbutz. I decided to go pet some cows because I really had nothing better to do. 

Friday Night there was a malfunction on the Kibbutz' emergency signal system and when it started to sound we thought we were under rocket attack so we actually had to run to a shelter.  Everything was fine and had it been a real situation, everyone would have made it to the shelter on time.  It was amazing to see how calm people were and how they help each other in a situation like the one we experienced. 


On saturday we woke up, prayed, and then we had more activities teaching us about the Kibbutz. At night, we had free time on the Board Walk of Eilat. The next day we went on a biking trip to the Choco factory! Although it was supposed to be a biking trip, we got hit by a sand storm so it was more of a midway bike bus trip. It was upsetting to me because I really like Biking. We tried to go to some sand dunes after, but the wind would not let us get close to the sand! After we had our activities, we made our own Pita and had dinner, It was really good! The next day, was the last day. We got up, went on a hike to Timna, were the egyptians mined for copper and then departed for Jerusalem! We were all really sad because it meant that we actually had to do school work now, and a four hour bus ride. Eilat really made me think of Las Vegas because of the mountains and warm weather which is non existent in Jerusalem. Everyone makes fun of me because I am cold in 50 degrees!!