One Man's Trash...Another Child's Playground

Over the past weekend, the students of the Overseas Student Program went on an orientation trip to Eilat and Kibbutz Lotan. Eilat is the southern most tip of Israel, and while it is typically extremely hot, the beach is fantastic. Across the water we could see Jordan, and for most of the time we hung out on the mid-water dock soaking up the sun, looking at fish through the clear blue water, simply relaxing after a stressful day of travel (for most people).

We didn't stay on the beach long before heading to Kibbutz Lotan, a completely collectivist Kibbutz in the Arava Valley (aka middle of nowhere desert). In Lotan they focus a lot on sustainability, ecotourism, and being very low waste and low impact on the environment (interested? check out their website! http://www.kibbutzlotan.com/). One of the first things we did once we got to Lotan (after splitting up into our different rooms) was go on a tour of the Kibbutz checking out the volunteer houses, the Eco Park, and even making our own mud bricks at the end of the tour. Throughout this tour we learned all that Lotan is doing to be as environmentally friendly as possible. The volunteer houses were all made by the volunteers from a dome-shaped metal structure, surrounded by hay bales, and covered with  a thick layer of mud. All of the houses are personalized based on the people that live there, and while they are equipped with air conditioning, they are extremely low impact and energy efficient. The coolest area of the Kibbutz by far was the Eco Park.

Everything in the Eco Park was made with recycled or organic materials, aka old rubber tires, filled with glass bottles and aluminum cans, and then covered with a layer of mud. The park was filled with kids play things like a dragon, alligator, a car, all kinds of different things for kids to play on (anyone from Irvine, think the frogs at Woodbridge Village Center). Everything was painted and it seemed like an awesome place to grow up and play on as a kid. If we didn't have to finish the tour, I probably would've played on it right then and there. Another fun part of the Eco Park (the part that I'm pretty sure was our tour guides favorite thing ever) was the fact that the bathrooms in the eco park were not connected to any sewage system but rather connected to large trashcans that stored the waste and after a year of sitting in the trash cans, were essentially converted into human fertilizer that went back into the soil of their gardens. Altogether a pretty cool system, almost completely ridding the area of waste (quite literally).

After the tour the group basically just hung out, playing little get to know you games, and participating in the Kibbutz's Shabbat services. The next morning Abby (one of my new friends who coincidentally is from Denver), a couple other people from the group, and I got up super early to meet for a morning nature hike. The hike was fairly interesting, as we wandered around the 3 different types of desert (sandy, rocky, and salty) around the Kibbutz and saw a bunch of animal tracks fresh in the sand dunes. Since it started so early, it wasn't too hot which was good cause there's not too much shade out in the desert... After 2 and a half hours, and a kilometer and a half of distance covered, the hike was over and we were able to get on with our day, which included a discussion based on the week's Torah portion and various commentaries on the section, a great 2 hour nap, closing Shabbat services, watching the sunset, stargazing, and watching the (almost) full moon rise over the mountains. All in all, a pretty great day and it ended back in the dorms with our ulpan starting the next day.