Hello! I have not forgotten you, nor have I had some horrible experience...other than a lack of easy wireless access. Rest assured that I am having a wonderful time and keeping notes on everything...and will post those notes as soon as my computer can find a signal. (I'm currently typing on a rather slow courtesy computer in one of the hotels we're staying in.)

Qibbutz Lotan

We are happily installed at Qibbuz Lotan. There is internet; huzzah! Yesterday we had two lectures – one on ecovillages and local/global communities and another on the right kind of plants to grow in the desert. We got a tour of the kibbutz. In the nineties, Lotan decided to become an ecologically-friendly community. They compost, they have a playground made of trash, old tires, and mud (that’s awesome and a blast to play on), composting toilets (seriously…no flushing, and the stuff all becomes gorgeous soil), and mud/straw bale dome huts that require very little cooling and heating. It’s all incredibly amazing. We cooked our own pita last night for dinner – very yummy with tomatoes! (Speaking of which…organic garden=fresh tomatoes and basil=Becca is disgustingly happy.) We made seedballs – combine clay, soil, seeds, and water to make a clay ball too big for an animal to want to eat. Throw them on a field and the first big rain will wash the clay away, allowing the seeds to appear and sprout on their own. Unfortunately, those won’t be able to come back to the States.
Today, we started at 6:30 am with a yoga session, “tuning in” (a few moments of silence to acknowledge the fact that you’re alive, and whatever else you’d like to say “hi” to), and some gardening. I picked tomatoes (heehee) and learned how to make sun-dried tomatoes and prep the bad ones for next season’s seeds. Becca is in some major amounts of bliss, folks. (For those of you who don’t know, tomatoes and I have a rather passionate, lifelong love affair.) Breakfast involved more tomatoes and really tasty strawberry jam. We then learned about compost…and the hardcore among us (myself included, of course) started a compost bin. (Involving more than just dumping stuff in a pile – we learned how to make the optimal compost pile that will go fastest and produce the best kind of soil. A favorite moment was watching Zac water cow manure in the desert – seriously. Manure’s a great component, of course, but it’s too dry by the time it gets too compost, so it needs to be watered.) Lunchtime, showertime, and then making clay bricks and building arches. We successfully built structures we could stand on!
Tonight starts Shabbot (Sabbath), so I’m off to a Shabbot service, followed by a wonderful, celebratory meal.

Snorkeling Sites

Thursday morning (after the hike) we went snorkeling again. This session was even cooler. We didn’t have a guide, so it was more of a “free snorkel.” And we found some really awesome stuff – a lionfish, a moray eel that swam with a school of fish for ten meters or so, and a sizable octopus that was moving around a good amount. =AWESOME.

Dawn Hike!

Thursday morning we were treated to a dawn hike up a mountain in the desert overlooking the Red Sea. Talk about a glorious hike and a wonderful view. Saw four countries at once - Israel, Jordan, Egypt (the Sinai Peninsula) and Saudi Arabia.

Off to the Qibbuz!

We're off to Qibbuz (Kibbutz) Lotan, and I'm not sure what the internet status will be like. I will check back in with you as soon as possible!

Off to the Qibbuz!

We're off to Qibbuz (Kibbutz) Lotan, and I'm not sure what the internet status will be like. I will check back in with you as soon as possible!

Snorkeling!

Welcome to Eilat, one of Israel’s southern-most cities. Located on the Red Sea – and actually very close to the Sinai Peninsula, the location of my first coral reef snorkeling experience last year in Egypt. We’re learning about coral reef creation, preservation, and destruction. We snorkeled in a reef reserve. Parts of the reef are roped off, and there’s a line across the entire shelf so that humans don’t travel too close. In non-reserve areas, there is very little to stop tourists and others from walking on the reef, breaking off pieces, etc. We’ve had one lecture thus far, and I’ll be leaving for another soon. It’s been great so far, and I’m not just talking about the swimming!