I am leaving for Israel in one week from today. About now is when travel anxiety normally hits-dreams about missing flights or forgetting my computer at the center of these worries-but this time, the anxiety is balanced by my excitement and anticipation for the upcoming semester. It is time to start a hands-on exploration of community, environment and social justice in the ecovillage, Kibbutz Lotan, in Israel!!

One of the first questions I am asked when people hear that I am from Kansas City, Missouri is, “Do you live on a farm?” The question may vary to include questions pertaining to ownership of cattle or my experience with corn fields, but my answer is always the same: “I have only visited farms on school field trips.” Working in a community built around sustainable farming, especially in the environmentally hostile Negev, will be a challenge; a challenge into which I am ready to jump. I am looking forward to learning about how to nurture and cultivate a garden despite the Negev climate’s best efforts to create unhealthy growing conditions.

The difficulty these plants have at surviving in such a hostile environment seems like an allegory for those working to fix the social conflict seen in Israel. Individuals who want to find ways to mend the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are the plants trying to thrive in a desert with very little water. I am hoping that while on this trip I learn from, and work towards becoming, one of the agents of social change who have begun to grow despite the tremendous adversity they face on a very regular basis.

Through the Living Routes study abroad in Israel, I look forward to gaining a better understanding and appreciation for gardening and sustainability, something I hope to bring back to the United States. While I cannot pack the exact Kibbutz Lotan sustainable way of life in my bag and bring it from Israel to school in Boston, I plan on finding aspects of sustainability throughout this semester that I can translate into a city, school and ecologically friendly lifestyle. I also anticipate exploring the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from different points of view rather than from only an American or Jewish approach. Hopefully, the courses, seminars and trips that will be taken to help my fellow students and me understand the situation on a deeper level will widen my perspective and help me formulate a goal for my future as an agent of social change.

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