Hava v'adam

So I've been here in Israel on the farm for 3 weeks already. And even though the days feel really long, waking up at 5:30am and doing stuff all day until after dinner at 7pm, I already feel like the time is flying. We took a lot of time the first 2 weeks getting acquainted with how everything works on the farm. Everything here is about permaculture and sustainable living, which is so drastically different from what I came from in China. The only things that come into the farm is water and a little bit of food that we buy until our fields start producing enough for all of us to eat. And the only thing that leaves the farm is a very small amount of trash that can't be recycled and some recycling that is too much that we can't use it all here on the farm our selves. That means that everything else that we need to live is delt with here on the farm. All electricity is harnessed from the sun, we have some solarpanels and solar water heaters. Then all human/animal waste and kitchen waste is composted and used to fertilize the soil. All plastics, papers, glass and so on is recycled and used for art or building. For example; we stuff all of our small trash into plastic bottles then use them in the walls of our mud buildings for insulation, we recycle plastic bags by weaving them into shapes for bowls, plates or any other art, we recycle broken mugs by making mosaics in the mud walls or on the pathways in the garden. Everything here is natural and/or recycled. All the furniture was found around Israel, recycled and rebuild into useful stuff here on the farm not bought at the store. It takes some getting used to, like the Grey Water System filters the kitchen water through a straw filtration and then the water goes to some tropical plants here that need a lot of water.

This is where I live, Domeville! Our very cool semi-permanent tent domes. 2 people in each dome and very comfortable, or well for living outside that is. My 'dommie' Joy is from New York. There are 6 domes, but as Eco-Israel has grown over the years they added 2 new 'yherts' (you can see behind the domes). They're a bit bigger and cooler (literally) so 4 people are in each. Outside each dome we have our own gardens where we can grow anything we want except that there isn't too much space in them. I almost feel like I'm back in university or camp living so close to the people I'm working next to.

Next, since we basically live outside. This was just one place we had class one day under a fig tree. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, class, work almost all outside.






This is what we call our classroom, ketah in Hebrew. A 'yhert'! If only I had had a yhert in China to teach my students all sitting around in a circle.






Our outside dinning room was a bit too small for the 21 of us so we spent a week digging the ground and expanding it to fit all of us. And just in time for Sukkot! So we decorated it by making the 4 walls the 4 directions with their corresponding energies. East-wind for the spring and morning, south-fire for the summer and noon, west-earth for the fall and evening, and last south-water for the winter and night time. We call it our Zoolah, I have no idea how it got that name but already had the name when we got here.

And the best thing about all the work we put into it was that we got to have the first night celebration of Sukkot in our new Zoolah! Yumm, we spent a whole day cooking and getting ready. I baked challah and helped make goat cheese, barley and sweet potato stuffed peppers. Who knew a vegitarian farm could still have good food. And that's another great thing about life here is that we take turns cooking for everyone which usually means we have some pretty interesting meals. :)