Early Days In Tzukim

            Well I’m writing this from my motel/hostel room in Eilat. I came here with Lizzy from Boston and Waleska from Honduras to visit on the weekend. now I have have worked really two and a half days at the Negev Eco Lodge Desert Days. Its been pretty cold these first few days to be honest. I spent the most of the first day with a shovel sifting earth to put in the cement mixer to make the mud mixture. I spent most of that day with Uri an awesome Israeli hippie who has been everywhere and loves Arak. He told me he believes in aliens and once met one in Yosemite National Park or at least he is almost positive he did. I also helped him make some of the mix which I still find a bit tricky. Nina  from the Czech Republic makes me laugh. She is just negative about everything in the funniest way to me. She is super nice and is brutally honest but not in a mean way. Her and Uri offset each other great and makes more fun and funny conversations after long days of work with our tiny fire in our little community room. 

            My second day of work I got to make a lot of mud mix because we were working on scaffolding putting a second layer of mud on the art room. I was not so good at doing that part and Rinat (one of the owners) said boys always have trouble with that part. So I just made mud and lifted up buckets to people on the scaffolding. A few of the families and their kids came over to where we were working to watch and the kids wanted of course to help and play with the mud. The families are mostly Israeli and have been very nice so far. We also made some mud bricks to which turned out not so bad. At the end of the first day we went to the top of this hill where they put a couch to watch sunsets which is really nice. I will take a lot of pictures of where I am and am working and I plan to make some walks and hikes into the wilderness in most directions except for towards Jordan cuz the border is like 1 mile away.

          We worked a half day today moving hay bales to make a makeshift fence and I went with Uri and Yair (the other owner) to grab rocks and boulders to line an entry road and to mark out some areas by one of the huts. I am doing lots of physical work which is good and I will probably be a bit stronger when I leave without too much effort. We have the next two days off and we are in Eilat and might meet up with some of the other volunteers we met in Jerusalem. Its nice to have internet now so I want to respond to people as much as I can now. Well thats it for now more to come soon and I promise pictures of my desert oasis...