A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words: Kibbutz Ketura

Kibbutz Ketura is in the middle of the Negev Desert in Israel.

More affectionally known as "the middle of absolutely nowhere".

Need to go to a doctor? You're looking at a 45 minute drive. Need flour or sugar (the Kibbutz store sells neither)? Then you need to travel about 15 miles up the road. Heaven forbid you need to clothes shopping, because you're in for an hour plus excursion down to Eilat. For the most part, life is contained within this small oasis in the desert, surrounded by rows of barbed and razor wire. 

Why do I bring this up? To give you a hint at the life we lead. Options of things to do are *very* limited on the kibbutz (the pub is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays only), and we are also limited on how often we can get off the kibbutz (busses do not run on Shabbat, and we are not allowed to use the kibbutz cars). Visitors to the kibbutz come to see what a Jewish socialist institution is like. They come to see what Shabbat dinner is like, how the work is divided up among the people, and to see if this process "really works". The tourists stay one or two nights in the guest house on the kibbutz, and mostly hang out in the cafe that is set up specifically for them, and never see how we (either as the kibbutz or as the institute) live. Visitors aren't able to see how we spend our non-working hours, and how this place really isn't a lot different than Small Town USA.

Like many small town areas, here on the kibbutz we spend our free nights building bonfires and hanging out. I can't even recall when the above picture was taken, as this is a nearly-every-other night occurance. Volunteers from the kibbutz come up to campus and we all hang out, make pitas on the fire, play music, and sing along. It's a beautiful melody of Arabs, Palestinians, Israelis, Jews, Christians, and Seculars who chose to be together rather than let differences divide us. If only visitors were able to see this, I feel they would have a whole new perspective of how Kibbutz Ketura is really like no place else on Earth, and how much more beautiful it is for its uniqueness.