Nativers Without Borders

I survived!!! Not only did I survive, I flourished like desert flora after the rain! There was no rain though, and there were no toilets, no tents, no showers. Only happiness. And sweat.

We left home at 6:15 am on Sunday morning and drove to Beer Sheva (this ancient city is where Abraham lived, and it is essentially on the border of the Negev Desert) and there we davened at a really pretty shul (thank you, Judah!!) and the service was really long because of Hallel and HoShanas and Mussaf because it is Sukkot! We also did this really weird (if you didn't know we were Jewish, you'd definitely think we were pagan) ritual with the lulav and etrog where we circled around the altar chanting and shaking the plants. Luckily for us, Hallel has some sweet tunes, so it wasn't a bad service. Then we ate in the sukkah and creeped on the preschool children there. Then we had our last potty break for a long, long time!

The drive from Beer Sheva to our drop-off point in Mitzpe Ramon (a large crater as a result of an ancient sea, the remnants of which are now known as the Mediterranean) was very bumpy and nauseating. We were not happy. Our emotions were reversed, however, when we got a good view of the surreal environment we had entered. The crater is breathtaking, vast, and completely, completely void of civilization. We put our overnight bags on jeeps that met us at the campsite at night.

Our tour guide Michal led us on a hike up and down a mountain for about 6 kilometers. It was great bonding time, because we had nothing to do but talk to each other, and sometimes we had to rock climb and we all gave a hand to the people behind us. The boys were especially chivalrous at times, and it was really sweet.

The fun really started once the sun started to set a bit, and we were in a wadi so there was shade. The shade was just delicious and I could have walked there for hours and hours. We got to our campsite about 45 minutes before sunset and the people from the jeeps were already cooking up something fabulous for dinner. We were shown our communal toilet, half a football field of large boulders and sand, and then we used our communal toilet.

It started to get colder as the sun went down, which was a welcome change. We ate and ate and ate for dinner, because the food was so good! I ended up pitching a tent with Debbie, Laura, and David's help, but we had to take it down because we didn't have stakes and it was windy. We weren't planning on sleeping in it, but it would have been nice to put our stuff in. It was a good experience though, because as you may know, I had never before pitched a tent. And these are things a girl must learn.

After a rewarding dinner, we had a campfire complete with Josh on guitar, Jewish cookies (the kind of cookies that aren't actually good but they are the only cookies available at such events as kiddushes or unexpected times so they are actually perceived to be delicious), best friends, good songs, and marshmallows! I deduced that this would be an ideal time for privacy in the communal toilet, because the whole group was mesmerized by a flame and a sing-along, so I set off to find a Jordana-appropriate location. I found a nice place and I was very nervous at first because I still felt rather exposed, but then I just imagined that I was a kitten in a litter box and I was much better.

We didn't go to bed late because we had been up since 5:30 and once the sun sets it feels later than it is. The moon was especially bright because we are right in the middle of the Jewish month, so it was nice when we were walking around but not as nice when we were going to bed and we could not turn off the moon. I didn't have a hard time sleeping on my mat in my bag, but some people didn't sleep very well. I was lucky.

We woke up with the sun and it was cold. We davened Shacharit, Hallel, and Musaf and it was still cold, only by this time, the flies--the BRUTAL, TORTUROUS FLIES--had realized we were there and were on the offensive. After services we had the greatest breakfast of all time; the cereal was made of cookies!

We started hiking early in the morning but it had already turned blistering hot (as I am writing this, I am thinking of Seffi's comment to me yesterday that I always speak in hyperbole-but really, it was blistering hot! and it was the greatest breakfast of all time! and they were really brutal flies!). We each carried about 3 liters of water, a communal food item for lunch, and a mid morning snack of cucumbers, white bread, peanut butter, and chocolate spread.

We hiked up a mountain for a long time and sometimes it was a little uncomfortable because of the heat or the terrain, but the feeling at the top was unbelievable. There was a wide range of ground cover, from sand to gravel to rocks to big flat boulders, and all different combinations of those four things. It made things difficult for the ankles. At every point that we stopped, people found flat rocks and went to sleep (this even happened to me, which I was not expecting!).The hiking went on like this for several hours. To pass the time, we sang and got to know each other and got to know ourselves. I hiked next to Elkana for a bit and he told me about dinosaurs in Israel and about extraterritoriality and about history and I felt a good deal more knowledgeable about everything after our chat.

At some point in the pre-noon hours (the desert and the hiking really took away all of my ability to estimate elapsed time) we met up with the Kibbutz group. They were glad to see us and likewise but we were all really disgusting by that point. This made me realize how very comfortable I had become with my group of 40, the Kehila group, which brings me to the title of this post, Nativers without borders. Literally, no boundaries. We peed together, hiked together, ate together, slept together, washed dishes together, talked about our aches and pains together (regardless of the location and nature of these aches and pains), and spent every waking moment of the day together.

People had talked about Survival as a great bonding experience, and I did not doubt it. Any challenge is bound to bring a group of people together. But the amount that my trust and adoration grew for the people-all of them-with whom I survived was so much more than I ever expected.

I have to sum up the rest of the hike because this post is getting long and the hour is getting late. After resting and seeing Kibbutz, we went on our way and hiked a full 13 kilometers up and down a mountain. We stayed at a very open area for our campsite but it was very nice and it was warm the second night, humid in fact. We woke up at 4:30 and we were on the road by seven at the latest, after davening and breakfast and clearing up the campsite and peeing in the sand several more times. The hike today was really great because there were clouds, so we were in the shade a lot more than we would have been. We also did a trust walk at the top of Har Yahav, during which we held onto the backpack in front of us, closed our eyes, walked in the direction we were pulled, and hoped we weren't led off the cliff. Don't worry, everyone survived.

At the end of a long day, we were taken out of the hiking area by real live jeeps! They were so cool and our driver was super nice and informative, although I was only partly informed because I couldn't understand his accent. We also saw a camel carcass on the ground! And I forgot to say before we saw a real yellow scorpion, many fighter planes because the army likes to practice in the Negev, and a twister!!! We then enjoyed a great lunch of cold cuts, and depending on how well you know me, you'll be excited to learn that I put mysterious tomato paste and pickles on the sandwich, right next to the bread and the meat! Wow! Then we changed into flip flops, thanked God for flip flops, got on a bus, and drove home.

The shower was excellent, let me tell you. Especially since I have three roommates and I was the only person who could even bear to wait past dinner for my shower. Then I sent out my laundry and I can't wait to get everything back so clean tomorrow night! Good night!