Today is my 4th day at Kibbutz Lotan. I am living in the Bustan Neighborhood (“Bustan” referring to the fruit trees that were once living in the area) with the six other people on my trip and an advisor, a volunteer from a program called “Go-Eco,” and a few people who participated in Kibbutz Lotan’s Green Apprenticeship (a.k.a. GA) program. The neighborhood is made of geo-domes that are made out of a combination of tires, metal piping, straw and mud. The Bustan neighborhood has its own personal kitchen (completely vegetarian), bathrooms and showers, outdoor clay oven, and a central meeting area that looks like a geo-dome with all of the materials except the metal piping stripped away.

We have been starting class slowly-getting into a rhythm of waking up around seven to journal, eat and do morning stretches/yoga in the sand with the group. Afterwards we have had classes or meetings with our professors, this week mostly getting to know one another and the Kibbutz. We have already created our own mud (did you know clay is negatively charged?) and then packed it into brick molds, starting over if there are too many pockets of air or the mud is too wet to hold its shape… During this lesson we discussed the properties of the Negev soil and how to add water and straw to make building material for the domes such as the ones in which we are living, as well as benches and other small structures.

Yesterday was our first day working in the garden. I came away with a much greater understanding of what goes into compost, the process of how to lay materials in a compost container, and a few nice (and rather painful) sunburn lines. When we arrived in the garden, we met our teacher Leah and discussed the difference between wet and dry materials (wet = rich in nitrogen, dry = rich in carbon). Our discussion led directly into a hands on compost creating process. The seven of us, as well as Josh, an eco volunteer, broke into three groups and discussed what types of compost we wanted to generate. One group decided to make a compost pile comprised of materials one would find in an agricultural community such as Lotan. Another group decided they were going to make a compost pile comprised of materials one would find in an urban environment, and my partner, Jodi, and I decided to do a combination of both-the control of the group. We set to work and while it was difficult at time (scooping goat poop and even worse, rotting food scraps from the Kibbutz kitchen), we were able to complete three compost piles which we will be monitoring about once a week for the next few months.

This morning we had a class about composting toilets. I had never heard of humanure before applying to Living Routes. When I was accepted, I downloaded the student handbook and learned that part of living on Kibbutz Lotan as part of the eco-friendly neighborhood would be utilizing compost toilets for humanure. I was a bit skeptical. The first thing I had to do when stepping off the bus from Tel Aviv was to use the restroom. I eyed the toilet, wondering how similar it was to the outhouse I used while living with Milton and Irma Bluehouse on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. I was pleasantly surprised. There is no smell from the human waste in the bathroom because, once one goes about their business, they add a cup full of straw which soaks up the moisture that would generally cause the smell, allowing the waste to break down into dirt faster. Humanure generally takes about a year to mature enough to be used in a garden and the composting toilets in the Eco Kef (the Kibbutz organic gardens, ecological learning center, and playground made from recycled materials) have just produced their first batch of humanure, ready to be used around trees and maybe even in the vegetable garden.

I am looking forward to getting to know many of my other teachers and the rest of the Kibbutz community. Tomorrow my fellow students and I will be deciding where we all want to work on the Kibbutz on Tuesday mornings. We can work in the dairy making cheese, with the goats during milking, in the date fields, and at the Kibbutz daycare. I am hoping to work in the dairy because I would love to see the process of turning goat’s milk into yogurt and cheese. But who knows! It’s great to finally be at Lotan and I’m having a great time exploring my new home with all of my new friends!!

I will upload pictures in the next few days!