Big Brother Kibbutz Tzuba
I know, I know... It's been a long, long time... Punch a hole through my head, will ya? I'm sorry, and I sincerely apologize. I haven't been getting down to this, but I have brilliant reasons for it, promise. This blog should sort-of explain it.
I'm not sure if I've explained the programme in detail to you, but I'm going to do that right about now. The Kibbutz Ulpan programme was originally designed for New Immigrants for them to learn Hebrew before getting out into the real world of Israel. Soon, this programme was also opened to people who simply wanted to learn Hebrew, spend some time in Israel and then, maybe move here.
I still intend on coming back. Don't get me wrong or anything, Israel is great! I love the place, the people, and most parts of the culture, but I'm just too much in love with Mumbai, even with all that has happened, I still love the city and it's people. Speaking of which, I think the time I felt home sick the most was when this happened. I was online talking with one of my friends from school and she says, "Oh my God! There was a blast right now..." And the rest followed. I can imagine how terrifying it was for everyone back home because even my heart was in my mouth, and all I wanted to do was be home. I wanted to be around everyone I know and love, and know that they are alright. I never missed home as much as I did that night. I called my dad about thrice that night (once must have been about 3 am IST), and my dad sensed my paranoia and calmed me down, but I still didn't get any sleep that night.
But I am fine now. I hate what happened there, and I hope that it never happens again. I've always taken pride in how safe I feel in Mumbai, and I hope that I'll continue feeling that way. I feel terrible about all those who lost their lives, and for their families, especially Rabbi Gavi and his wife, but I know that our city will get back together and keep pushing forward still keeping in mind the past, and learning from it.
Back to the programme: Sometimes it's great, sometimes not so much. It feels like "Big Boss" or "Big Brother" whichever one you are more familiar with. The whole Kibbutz, this includes people that permanently live on the Kibbutz, and poeple who come for programmes like us Ulpanim, gets to know of all the gossip. It can get pretty crazy, mind you. And since you're kind of confined to this place and see the same people everyday, you tend to get a little over emotional and dramatic, and over react to everything. Believe you me, this even beats our gossip loving little Indian Jewish Community. An example:
David is one of my close friends here, we tend to hang out a lot since we enjoy doing similar things. David happens to be into ceramics, and he found out that there was a ceramics studio here. I thought that it was a great way to pass time, and learning to make pots would be another thing I would never have a chance to do again, so why not, nakhon? So we start going for these classes together, but the manager of the Ulpan, and the Ceramics guy asked us not to tell anyone about it because he didn't want more people to want to join the class. And to top it off, the class began at 5 pm, and here that is like night time (it gets as dark as 8 pm). So David and I would go off about twice a week on our own, just telling people that we were going for a walk, and making it like so no one else would invite themselves with us. One day after two classes of ceramics:
My Class Teacher (in Hebrew): Natasha!!! Where is David (who happens to be in the other class which she doesn't even teach)?
Me (in broken Hebrew): Sorry Teacher, I don't know. Why? (and it isn't so ridiculous to say "Teacher" in Hebrew, plus it is good practice)
Her: Why not? If you don't then who will? (I raise my eye brow and give her a questioning look. She laughs) You like each other, right? Ahh... I like seeing love happen between different cultures.
The class laughs leading to an interval to our lovely play.
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Back to our play...
The same evening at the Kibbutz pub. Yes, the Kibbutz has it's own pub which is open on Thursdays and Fridays from 11 pm.
Aviram (the bar tender for the day): What do you want today, Natasha? (smiles)
David: Forget her, she won't drink anything. Half Gold star for me.
Me: I'll have an Iced Tea. 7, yeah?
Aviram: What rubbish! Now that your boy friend is with you, he should pay for you!
End of play... Applause!!!
See what I mean? And believe me, this story doesn't even show half of the kind of rumors that spread, even crazier rumors are spread. Here, from my teacher, who doesn't even know who David is, to the bar tender! That weekend, my Kibbutz family asked me about him too, and they too have no idea who he is. And poor, poor David has a girlfriend back home!!!
Reason two for this place being Big Brother like: The dropping out of people, or as it is called on TV, "eliminations".
Only 2 people have been kicked out of the programme, but about 6 more have quit. Some of my friends and I, who are sure that we're staying, were wondering how many would actually last. We heard that the last Uplan had about 7 people remaining. From 35 to 7... Hell yeah, that's a HUGE number of drop outs!!!
Why do people drop out you ask? The work is tough, and as are the rules. Once you are assigned to a job, there's no changing it, unless you're kicked off of it. The factory is crazy tiring. It is a lot of physical work and it is monotonous, loud and involves no usage of any brain cells... Believe me, that can make you want to kill yourself after a while.
The people working at the dining room call their boss "Hitler". He not only tortures the people from my programme, but also others who work for him. Unto this day, I don't know his real name. Just for the record, he hates Europeans and Americans, he loves me though (I think it has to do with the fact that I'm not white... Racist, I know{wait! him, not me... he is racist}).
The people working at the hotel have to make beds and clean rooms. There are only girls from the Ulpan doing this job. It isn't the most fun job, but it's much better than having to work at the factory or at the dining hall. The sad part of this job is, that most of the girls working here are American, and they clean rooms of other American kids who are here for another programme. They are sometimes watched by these other kids while cleaning the rooms, and it is really awkward for them, socially. Plus, apparently, these kids leave their rooms really unclean (I'm not going to go into the details of that).
Then, there's the laundry job where you sit folding clothes all day. Boring a shell, but manageable.
Working at KifTzuba, an amusement park for kids is probably the best job you could have here. It's fun, you get to socialise and play with kinds, and even sit on the rides! I love that place, but I don't work there.
I'm not sure that my last email told you what I do. Solely me. Nope, no one else from the programme, except for yours truly, got her hands on probably what is considered the craziest job here, at the Chicken Pen, the lool. My friends here too, think it's crazy. It's basically my boss, and me, and on Fridays few kids come help out and we do some gardening. It's a disgusting job, but I can't complain because I asked for it. A friend did the same job when he was here, and told me that I'd be MUCH happier if I took it up. And I did. My next blog post will describe my job in detail, and you guys can then envy my life here, for now, hole on to all this, but hold on, don't go anywhere...