Coreyoria World Tour

As you all probably know, things have been escalating quite a bit here in my neck of the woods, err ... desert. Many people from the north, over 500,000, have been migrating south, a handful of those families landing right here on Kibbutz Ketura. Israelis I've befriended since my arrival here are forced to wait in anticipation, to find out if they will be called up for reserve duty. It's such a scary thing, that all of these people my age are fighting this war, without consent - a war that everyone else can view complacently from their television sets at home. It's disturbing. If Israel was my home, this would be my fate as well.

So Ketura has been a bit more crowded as of late. You can feel it in the dining hall mostly, wading through a packed line just to get some grub. Simultaneously, however, the influx of student groups coming here on trips is dwindling down due to the unsafe nature of traveling around at this moment, particularly in the north.

Anyway, I have decided to cut my trip short and I will be returning to the US in 2 weeks, on the 7 of August. My reasons are as follows:
1) First and foremost, being in a country where was is escalating and the intensity worsening.
2) Taking up space and resources while not really doing much to contribute during a time of crisis.
3) Feeling a bit guilty about "having fun" right now ...
4) I feel like I've gotten the "Kibbutz experience" & cutting it short 2 weeks ain't gonna change that.
5) It's no longer feasibly safe to travel to Jordan and Egypt after my stint here.
6) This seems to be when all of the other volunteers are departing as well.

So you want to know what I've been up to lately?

Well my roommate, Martina, has been teaching me some Swedish phrases while we're cleaning the hotel in the mornings. Apparently Americans aren't that adept at pronouncing Swedish. Is there anything we're good at, I ask you?! Anyway, I've been enjoying her company and the company of others, having some seriously goofy and fun times, trying to incorporate sayings such as "Chimpanzee that!" into our everyday vernacular (meant to be used like - "Fancy that."), climbing huge-ass mountains and stupidly waiting until nightfall to climb down (don't fret, we had us some flashlights, however dull they were ...), singing and dancing more than necessary, and generally trying to take life one day at a time.

... Until you're innocently lying in the grass, searching for constellations in the night sky with 2 of your buddies, when a huge ball of fire, bright blue with a glowing tail, lights up the entire sky with it's apparent descent. And the potential exists that it's a rocket. Or a missile. I don't know because it's not like I've actually seen these things before. But it's definitely NOT a shooting star. And then you all look at each other like, "Did you just see what I saw???" Yup. That happened on Friday and as much as we tried to convince ourselves that a UFO had just flown overhead, I couldn't quite shake the wall of reality I had just slammed into. Too close to home. Like the needle popping my little bubble of safety and security. I still don't know what this flying thing was, but I pray tell it's the last one I ever set eyes on.

So in 2 weeks I'll be saying good-bye to sleeping on a foam cot, to all of the cockroaches living in my bathroom drain, to my favorite cats - Sweedy, Skinny Binny, Mr. Rogers, Moo Moo & Flavio, to the great, bizarre, & interesting folks I met, to the virtual Mars in my backyard ... that never seizes to amaze me every morning, to the piercing blue skies and perpetual heat, to sand finding its way into everything, to the gossip and giggles, to treasure hunts, pub nights, and to spending waaay too much time a the pool. Life here will continue on, volunteers will come and go, and I'll make my way back home, a little less sure of where home is, how is should feel, and what it means to me.

Love you all,
Corey

This entry was posted on 24 July 2006 at 11:43. You can skip to the end and leave a response.