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Microsoft word - extract from the kibbutz volunteers program center newsletter may 2012

Extract from the Kib
I was absolutely fascinated by the kibbutz and its concept of “give all you can and take what you need”. I really like what British Author Victoria Pybus wrote in her book "Kibbutz Volunteer": “.it is a commitment to an ideal, and experiment in a way of life.It was through the rejection of the old order that the romantically inspired youth movements of central Europe were born.The young pioneers desired to create a way of life through a return to nature and simple values such as loyalty, brotherhood and truth." To me, kibbutz is the last Utopia in reality on this planet. In my opinion, a true Utopia should be a place where race, religion, nationality doesn't define a person, a place where Jewish, Christian, Muslim are working and living together in harmony. And kibbutz is such a place. Take Revivim for example, they have people from Europe, America, Africa, Asia living under the same roof. They have a Bedouin chef, Asian residents and volunteers, and Christian members. If this is not Utopia, where else in the world could it ever be? The fact that Revivim is in the middle of the desert makes it more unique and charming because you cannot take anything for granted. Even a small flower or a tree is something unusual and not easily grown. As one of the Revivim member described to me, when his father was asked by Kibbutz Movement to help build a kibbutz many years ago, his father said he only wanted to do that in the desert because in the north it would be too easy! Sometime, I feel it is fate that brought me to Revivim: The first time I heard about kibbutz volunteering was from one of my friends in New York. And I thought it would be an This country, the people and Revivim, taught me a lot of important lessons for life: courage and positive energy, forgiveness and tolerance, true happiness that simple life can bring, selflessly serve others. No matter what lies ahead in the future, I know where I should turn to when I need advice, courage and inspirations. Revivim will remain my spiritual home Since day one after I arrived in Israel, I have been writing stories of my life here in both English and Chinese. The English update is for facebook. And the Chinese one is for a Chinese equivalent of Twitter called “weibo” (like a mini blog). The stories included the unique communal way of life at the kibbutz (number for each member, dining room, laundry, colbolit, car system.), my life (sandstorm, full moon in the desert, sunsets, flowers in the desert, power outage, Gaza rockets shooting, film festival at Revivim, dancing with seniors. ), my volunteer work (olive factory, kitchen, house cleaning, dish washing), Revivim (history, cow farm, member system, motivation system, kibbutz kids, kindergarten, zoo, library, magic trees garden, sports facilities, moadon, pool bar, moo bar, race, farmer's market.), kibbutzniks and their stories, Ulpan students and other volunteers, Jewish holidays and tradition at Revivim (Shabbat, Purim, Pesach, first cut of wheat, the Holocaust Memorial Day.), Israeli history, Yad Vashem, Sudanese refugees, Bedouins, comparison of kibbutz The people at Revivim have the talents of creating everything out of nothing. There are always some cultural events/activities/ceremonies going on to bring people together as one community. And of course as you can imagine, I have been participating at every single event if possible. Revivim members/residents/ulpan students are really special people: simple, real, sincere, down to earth, warm-hearted and know so much about nature. They totally made my experience here: coffee, cake, special Artemisia and Achillea tea, BBQ, homemade chicken soup, first time making matzah ball and pita, opera and film watching, art studio, volunteer trip to the Dead Sea and Masada, flowers at Tze'elim and Nahal Habesor, Sunset at the Large Crater, Yeroham Lake, Golda Meir Park full moon watching in the desert, gentle dancing, tennis lesson, pool billiards lesson, horseback riding lesson, olive trees field tour and growing technique lesson, Karaoke at nearby Kibbutz, trance party, Neve midbar Spa, volunteer work at Meir Panim.People here answer my questions about Jewish tradition and Hebrew songs. They share their life stories with me. They explain to me what's going on at the holiday ceremony. Between all of these new experience and my volunteer work, I am happily busy running around every day! At the beginning, I was writing the stories in a diary to myself as I know unique experiences like this will never be repeated again in my life. But gradually, my friends on facebook, and weibo readers, kept writing comments telling me how much they love my stories and how much they got inspired by them. Very recently, a short paragraph I wrote about the silent two minutes for the Holocaust Memorial Day on Chinese “weibo” was forwarded by Israeli Consulate in China's “weibo” page. Many people in China read it and wrote their comments, some as follows: “Such a respectable strong nation!”, “Quality of citizen”, “These are the chosen people”, “ The whole nation united as one person.”, “I want to cry”, “solute, Israel”, “Respectable country, respectable people”, “That was why Israel was not defeatable.”, “Israel, I am on your side!”. The Israeli Consulate in China's weibo was interested in forwarding more of my stories to their page, so that more Chinese will get to know the real Israel and learn more about the alternative way of life - “kibbutz”.

Source: http://www.ydp.co.za/documents/Extract%20from%20the%20Kibbutz%20Volunteers%20Program%20Center%20Newsletter%20May%202012.pdf