Travels in the South.

 I took the train to Sderot (after buying an almond croissant). A delightful man named Eitan picked me up and took me to Nahal Oz. He invited me to accompany him to Ein Gedi kibbutz where he would be giving a talk. I agreed.

It turns out my volunteer gig was in the dining room, not the kitchen. The kibbutz only does a hot lunch ( not breakfast or supper), and about 50 people come for lunch. We prepped the tables, brought plates, trays and silverware out. It's self-serve, and there was little to do during lunch. The participants all have to wash their dishes, which means we have to check the quality of the dish cleaning (not many had to be rewashed ( by us)).

I went with Eitan, who is a funny guy. We stopped at a scenic overlook on our way down (yes, down) to the Dead Sea. The mountains always get me.

 

Kibbutz Ein Gedi is at  -840 ft from sea level. The Dead Sea is about -1000 ft.  His talk was teaching the commonalities of Arabic to Hebrew which included a bunch of songs that everyone in the audience knew except me.