Kibbutz Israel

The five of us Brits met up at Heathrow airport, having never met before, and wearing our little Kibbutz badges we all managed to meet up with each other before the flight. When we arrived, we were shown our living quarters. Myself and an English girl, Louise were allocated a room in a volunteer house with a Danish guy called Peter in the room next to us.
Louise was to start work in the cows (milking and cleaning etc) while myself and Mandy were on the gardens. We would be up early in the mornings to start work with Uri (another volunteer) and two kibbutzniks.
Other jobs that I had on the Kibbutz were cleaning, kitchen (mindless chopping of carrots or peeling potatoes), the diaper factory (brand name: Willy and Jenny) and my favorite, working in a picture framing shop. I was working with an American Jewish lady, Yvette, who was wonderful to work with and I really appreciated being in the shop where I could actually learn something that I enjoyed.
Life on the Kibbutz was easy, early mornings meant a mid afternoon finish, and as volunteers, we spent the time socializing and getting to know each other. We were lucky enough to be on a Kibbutz that had two others so close. This gave us as volunteers to meet even more people, although we generally stayed in our own groups.
We also took a few day trips out of the kibitz, led by Haggai a Kibbutznik. Our first one was when he took us to out and we did this wonderful walk from waterfall to waterfall in this totally impressive gorge.
Some solid relationships have come out of Kibbutz Amir. Louise married her Kibbutz boyfriend Haggai, and the me and the Danish lot still occasionally see each other. We recently had Louise and Laura over from the UK to visit, so it was a great chance for us all to catch up.