Working the land

It’s been a very relaxing weekend for me, here in Israel.
I think I last left off on last week Thursday. That night, we went to a concert featuring Ehud Bani and Shalom Hanoch. The concert started at 9:30 and ended around 3:30 in the morning. It was a lot of fun, because the stadium wasn’t far from the kibbutz and was also built into the side of mountain.
Even though I only got 4 hours of sleep, it was a very awesome concert and I would do it again in a hart beat.
In the morning, we went to Afula to give out apples and honey to soldiers and people at the bus station. It was a very moving experience and while most of the soldiers did not take, the ones who did were very grateful and we were overcome with joy.
From there it was off to our free weekend. It is amazing all the different walks of life that one can find in Israel. An example of this was when I was on the bus going to Jerusalem. There, I met some women who were from New Zealand and were here because they wanted to see Israel. I believe that they were evangelical Christians and on the 1 1/2 hour bus ride, we got to know each other well. As I’m getting off, the women wanted to know my name, so that they could pray for me. In return, they gave me there name and where they live and invited me over to their house when I get out of army.
The free weekend is always fun. There is nothing greater than going to see family and spending time with them.
Once we got back from our relaxing weekend, it was time to get down to business and make some money. Ever since we got here, we haven’t really been working. It’s been a regular schedule of waking up at 8, going to Ulpan and then piulot at night.
Lately however, we had to pull our weight around and help out in the field, by picking olives. It’s a lot of fun to do. Basically you lay down a tarp under a tree and then you rake the tree till all the olives fall down. Then you take the tarp and fallen olives and place them into boxes to be taken back.
Once they get back to the kibbutz, the olive boxes are weighted and placed into a big barrel, filled with water. There they will stay for a month and then they will be eaten by the kibbutz people.
So far we have picked over 400 kilos of olives. The kibbutz buys the 1 kilo for 4.5 shekels or for $1.50 if the exchange rate is good. That means that we have picked over 1,000 Shekels.
We are also in charge of a dinner one night for the whole kibbutz. This included food and entertainment. This is where all our money is going.
We are going to put on a show and a movie that we are making for entertainment. As for food, we are planning to make Mexican food, which included nachos and steak. This is why we have been working so hard for the past few days.