Here I am at the Arava Institute. A place to learn about environment and society in Israel. A month has already passed! unbelievable- so much has happened, so much is happening and i can see much more will.
We just spent a couple of days touring around the Negev as a class learning about land and people. Bedouins, Jews, governments officials, Arabs, army, Palestinians.... land owners, land livers, "squatters"..... trying to create a picture of what is going on in the desert where it seems on the surface to be a barren landscape... yet on deeper investigation quite full of a diverse set of rules and regulations, feelings and pain, confusion and lies, progress and future.
Overall my feelings are about the people I am with in this adventure- we are a big group- the largest so far for this institute- 43 students. On one hand this is wonderful to have the opportunity to meet so many different and special people. On the other side it is a challenge to meet everyone in an intimate way.
At the moment we have many projects going on with kibbutz life, school life, activism life, and social interactions between all the students.
The most pressing event at the moment is about a protest against the building a HUGE hotel in the middle of a beautiful park called Timna located close to where we are studying. We hope to go and make noise in opposition to this disastrous plan!
We are starting a garden here on campus, with the help of all the students- a community place- we are calling Happy Garden.
We are also starting a gray water system and designing a garden to capture its water- with native wild herbs from the desert around here.
The most inspiring work is realizing that we all come from different backgrounds and stories. AND we all want to be here together to learn more about the issues of land and people- how we can get involved and how we can be more understanding.
and so we are off to a good start. starting to have deeper conversations about Palestine and Israel, people and place..... everyday little by little I am opening more voids and filling them in with stories creating a better picture of our world and this little place we are in right now.
