Lessons From Study Away: Kibbutz Ketura

Friends: living together, working together, all looking ridiculous together. 

The two stories shared with me, about me were:

1) From a British friend who works in Ketura's dinning hall: Like last week we were all swamped in the dinning hall due to the upcoming holiday which brought so many more people around. The salad bar was barely filled, and I was busy trying to fill in the hot foods. I turn around and there you are, helping to fill the salad, cucumbers, and tomatoes. You kept going until one of the volunteers (whose job it was to fill the salad bar) came back from God-knows where and began doing it again. You just smiled and walked off to your lunch. You're always being helpful like that around the Kibbutz.


2) From an Israeli soldier friend: I don't think I've ever run into you without a smile on your face. You're quick to laugh, you say hello or smile to anyone who crosses your path, and you just seem to have this warm (here he couldn't find the word so I offered up 'aura' which he agreed to). Like the one time we were walking from Shabbat dinner, and we crossed paths with Mike. I have never seen Mike smile to a Mohanian (nickname for the students at the institute) before, but as soon as you said "Shabbat Shalom" his face cracked into a grin. I almost walked into that light pole I was so shocked.

Rereading-and relaughing at-these stories, I find it comforting to know that the stories I was told by my friends here are stories very similar to the ones my friends at home would tell. I am often described as using these adjectives, which leads me to believe there is some validity to that. It is interesting, however, to see that the attributes my friends listed are very 'American' traits: being helpful, warm, very friendly. Not only are they the 'American' traits, but they are the 'positive' traits associated with Americans. I wonder if these attributes stick out in their minds as they associate them with 'Americans' and, as I am nearly as stereotypical American as one can get, if it's the association that brings 'warm, helpful, and friendly' to mind rather than actually who I am. Even so, as an Allegheny, and in essence a on-the-ground American Ambassador, I am pleased that it is this connotation of Americans I have given off and that my friends think so kindly of me.