By: Rose Snitz, Kibbutznik (Kibbutz camper)
Now that Kibbutz is almost over, it’s finally sinking in that I’m here. Being on the brand new Isaac Mayer Wise Eco-Village has been such an amazing experience. I have learned so much this summer. We’ve learned about; portion control, recycling, composting, eco friendliness and the importance of community. Between our weekly trips, 2 weeks of low ropes and living so closely together our unit has become a big family. Our three work groups (Mazanim, Adama and Avodah) have let us experience and learn new things.
In Mazanim we cook all of kibbutz’s breakfasts and dinners, set up the dining hall (mircaz) for those meals and clean up after breakfast. Cooking at camp is really different because instead of cooking for just yourself and your family, you are cooking for 72-80 people in a hour or two. It’s really cool to cook with your camp peers because you find out who likes to cook, who you never knew did.
In Adama, you help plant things in Kibbutz to beautify our community. You also care for the camp garden. What’s cool is we use some of the food from the garden for cooking. Adama also cleans up after dinner.
In Avodah you get down and dirty. We make things with mud. All session we’ve been working on building our mud oven, which is now finished!
Being one of the first Kibbutzniks in the eco-village has been both amazing and a honor. The facility is so nice and how the domes work is really cool. One of my favorite things is that we can see how much energy we are using. We have two different kinds of solar panels on the top of our Mircaz; one kind that powers the entire Kibbutzs electricity and another that heats our water.
Evey week we go off camp to visit different places. The first week we went to a homestead in Waco to see how they grow their food and make their clothes and blankets which was very interesting. The second week we went to Salvation Army to volunteer for an hour or so and then went to a landfill; I still smell the awful scent every time I think about it. It was jaw-dropping to see how much trash was collected in a few short hours of all the trash they collected 60-70% could have been recycled. I think that the trip made us all think about how much waste we produce. I know that I’m going home this summer and change the things I do.
I know that my experience this summer is much different than my brothers 10 years ago… It is definitely cooler (literally).
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