Going on Week Two at Rotem

First entire week of Earthbag house building complete!

In my first week I worked mainly on building a mud floor and a swimming pool. My average work week is Mon-Thurs, 7:00 until 3:and change with a half an hour break for breakfast...and then usually am finished for the day after lunch and dishwashing by 5:00. Luckily I'm enjoying myself, or this would border on exploitation!

We eat wonderfully. No meat (they, as should be the norm in the world, eat meat or fish about 3 times a week,) lots of vegetables, grains, and an abundance of tahini/ hummus.

I took a Moroccan basket weaving class from a neighbor who learned in Morocco to make almost anything from fig branches, which perhaps I will continue this week.


On Thursday evening I went to Tel Aviv for a lovely weekend and returned Sunday with my host Yotam, who is studying Tai Chi at Tel Aviv University. I stayed with a wonderful couch surfer who provided great conversation and a fabulous insider tour of the city, including the best:
- ice cream (Pistacchio and Havla, or a seseme seed dessert
- Yemenite food (Jachnun and Malawach, both doughy, heavy, and delicious!)
- A hole in the wall restaurant with one cook/owner and a daily changing menu
- A live drum circle on the beach
and probably covering at least 10 miles by foot over the course of the weekend. He's Russian and moved to Israel in about '91, during which time large numbers of highly educated Russians moved to Israel, some finding university jobs...and others working as taxi drivers.

I spent ALL DAY outside Saturday, getting a few jellyfish stings and worse, horrible sunburn on my chin. And by horrible I mean big red blistering by Sunday. Upon returning to Rotem, I put honey on it as per a recommendation, and put extra in a cup covered in plastic to use in the morning. When lifted the plastic cover in the morning to reapply, I was greated by a giant cockroach belly-up who must have died a very bittersweet death. I assume he had been the one I saw scurrying across my floor before I turned off the light. Or perhaps the one who I usually see hanging out by the dishes in our kitchen. Either way, I decided to forgo picking around him and got fresh honey to redress my wound.

Today I continued building the pool, which looks wonderful, and am now practicing my Hebrew with renewed enthusiasm. Tomorrow I begin teaching myself the Hebrew alphabet!

First WWOOF Experience 6/21/2010

Brief first description: I do not have so much time. Or much finger patience.

Not because of the rearranged keyboard as is often the case while abroad, no no: but because my hands are absolutely worked raw. Today was my first day of hard manual labor.

After my ADL Campus Leaders Program ended, I spend three days in Tel Aviv staying with a couch surfer. I did not get to experience the city much because he lived outside of Tel Aviv, but I will definitely make it back to dance tango with my Argentina tango partner (an Israeli who happened to be in Buenos Aires at the same time I was;) to see my close high school friend Ruben Rehr from Germany who was an exchange student in Port Clinton the same year my dear sister Julia lived with us; or to meet my new South African friend Siyalo (who I literally just met there)! Sunday morning I left Tel Aviv with Yotem--in a vehicle that had to be older than the first Honda I can remember my mom owning from my childhood and in significantly worse shape--to come to his house in Rotem, outside of Bet She'an. It is a tiny settlement of about 20-30 families in the MIDDLE OF THE DESERT. Quite literally we drove through an hour of desert to arrive, and there is little other life to be seen from where we are, other than Jordan as we look out at the beautiful view to the East. I am staying here to help them build their earthbag house. http://picasaweb.google.com/alisonlebovic7/Israel2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCJrlrK3j4prkDw&feat=content_notification# (here are old pictures; the house is now almost completely constructed and we are working on the inside.)

This week we will be working on the floor, a backbreaking proceedure. I started the morning at 7:00 sifting rocks with a shovel, and continued by laying down a floor of a thick mix of clay, sand, earth, and straw in just one of the numerous rooms. At 10:30 we took a break for breakfast, and after 15:00 we called it a day. You do not realize how pruned your hands become working with wet clay until you wash them, and you do not wash them often. By the end, my hands had been so soft from the water that when I washed them I found at least a dozen cuts and open sores. I am using neosporin like lotion and taking the pain like a soldier. You remember those work gloves I had you help me search for the night before I left, mom? Now I am reminded why, only a day too late. Sometimes my forethought is even better than I am prepared to know how to use!
I think that I will sleep outside tonight; this family also built an earthen community space that is fairly open with a roof and numerous sofas and chairs underneath. I am here with Yotem and Tami, the parents, and four children of about 6, 4, 3, and 1. Moshe and Joshua are also working with us, Moshe from a nearby village and Joshua from Conneticut (but quite uncommunicative, so I may not have much more luck with him than I do with the Hebrew speaking rest of the community.)

Wish me luck on Day 2 of work; hopefully the gloves help!