: As a socialist, Lark, I'm sure you'll be fascinated by kibbutz life. The one I was in was called Moran Golan, and it was in the Golan Heights (I recommend if you do it, you go to a kibbutz down south, by Eilat or Tel Aviv or even Haifa -- the Golan Heights are the boondocks of Israel). I lived in pre-fab housing with other volunteers/visitors, and it was an international group: Americans, Danish, English, German, Finnish -- so we learned a lot from each other.Yeah, that's mainly why I'm planning it, I think that if every country had it's varient of kibbutz it'd be great, you'd have the option of socialist living if you wanted it, and everyone should give it a go.
I'm also planning a possible trip to Cuba to work in one of their 'support camps', kinda like a kibbutz, but I might want to give the supervisors gip for supporting totalitarianism as socialism.
I've been unsuccessful in finding out information about US communes or intentional communities to visit, apart from the strollerist twin oaks which might be a bit nasty if everyone was walking around prolestysing about Trotsky.
: Work varied. Each kibbutz has its own industry. Mine was basically a farming kibbutz; they grew apples, primarily, but also potatos and avocados. And (this would warm the cockles of Barry's heart if he ever visited this chat room), we practiced job rotation. Some days I worked in the fields (hard, but rewarding stuff), some days I cooked in the communal kitchen, some days I helped oversea the children, and on some dreaded days I worked in the apple factory sorting apples. If you go to a kibbutz, make sure you bring a walkman; we didn't have any personal music at the factory and had to rely on the occasional radio being brought in -- factory work is tedious beyond imagination.
This is good stuff I was totally unaware of any of this.
: The families on the kibbutz did live in private apartments with private kitchens, but most kibbutzniks ate lunch and dinner together.
That sounds really, really great.
: Since Israel has the draft, there were few older teenagers and young 20 somethings around. This left mostly kids up to age 15 -- and for better or worse, the 15 year old girls were a dangerous group, if you know what I mean.
'Jail-Bait', no doubt, that's a pain in the ass isnt it? (hey it could become an actual pain the ass if you get imprisoned and sodomised by some big inmate).
:Israeli women can be painfully beautiful.
Your telling me, I've always sympathised with Antonio in Shakesphere's 'Merchant of Venice', you know he falls in love with the Jewish girl? I think the actual israeli's have skin tone and all going for them aswell but the regular ones have that nice nose and all anyway.
:Mostly, though, we foreign volunteers socialized amongst ourselves.
Yeah I know all about that, where do you go if your irish when you go abroad? The Irish Bars!! (well it gives me an opportunity for a bit of liberal patriotism, which I cant exercise at all in NI)
:army trucks are a good way to grab a free ride, albeit with very uncomfortable wooden seats.
Are you serious man? With the soldiers? Do you have to be an isreali?
: As a resident of NI, you're probably used to seeing soldiers with weapons everywhere. This took some getting used to for me, though.
Yeah, I'm used to it, I read articles in the British press sometimes wrote by Jornalists who are shocked when they arrive here to see troops crounched about aiming guns at them, nothing new to me, a lot of the troops are gone but the 'paramilitary', I mean militarised, police force remains.
: What else? Don't forget to take a dip in the Dead Sea -- it's so salty, you float on top with no effort at all - in fact, going under is a chore, but you wouldn't want to do that anyway. Climb Masada and spend a night under the stars for a really groovy time.
The Dead Sea, where you can walk on water like JC.
: I took a side trip into the Sinai desert and had a very bad time with the Egyptian soldiers at the border, no doubt because one look at me and my name on the passport told them I was Jewish. Among the other things they told me in rapid-fire Egyptian was "Heil Hitler."
Dick heads, I'd like to see them in a room with a bunch of Hitlerites to find out where their real loyalties lie.
:Fuck 'em. Once I got into the desert, the Bedouins more than made up for the rudeness of those soldiers.
I've had that too, a bunch of guys tore open my wee brothers luggage one year because he was transporting a toy gun headed bought on holidays, very rude, they never found the toy gun I was transporting or the laser pens, or the knives but then it's easy getting through customs when you know how.
: Please let me know if there's anything else I can answer for you.
Sure will, hey you dont know of any good communes or the like in the US if was to stop by there on the way to Chiapas in Mexico?
