Animals

Once again, I am very sorry that I have not written in such a long time.

On Lotan there are goats and cows that they milk. They sell the cow milk to a nearby kibbutz and they use the goat milk to make and sell goat cheese and yogurt all over Israel. The goats happen to behind the eco-village where I reside, and I have milked them before (under the supervision of the volunteers working at the time of course). I have also gone to visit the cows and made some cow friends who would follow me and try to eat my clothes and my skin because of all the sweat and saltiness I suppose.

Ryuu (from Japan) and (American) Josh during their shift

It's tough work...well they do have to test them by hand before hooking them up to the machine.

LolKID says"Greeteenz interwebbbbaaahh!"

At a neighboring kibbutz called Ketura, I had a meeting with this guy to discuss some aspects of my project and on my return trip I saw (and petted) some horses and camels, and when I went to their date plantation I encountered donkeys at a distance.

Hungry hungry camel

I know, this isn't an animal, it's a date tree but I liked the photo

Another wide-spread animal on the kibbutz (and all over Israel) is the stray cat. This majestic creature lurks and stares from a distance, and there are occasional stray kittens. The eco-village has this particularly crazy-looking cat that eats our food scraps and we call him/her Compost Kitty. A less seen animal in Israel but greatly represented on kibbutzim is the dog. These mammals are very friendly and seem to understand Hebrew, very smart for that is no easy feat.

Kitty (not Compost Kitty though)

Insects. There are a lot of insects (duh, right), but many of them are relaly cool looking and I have never seen or heard of them before. Just shows you the vastness of the insect class. I have also been told that there are "really huge spiders! bigger than your hand!!" and deadly scorpions, but I have not encountered these awesome arachnids. Don't they know that my room is an arachnid sanctuary (safe from scary humans who think they can take over their desert).

On the kibbutz there is also a Bird Sanctuary, since millions of birds fly through the Lotan area, traveling from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Even though I am not an avid bird-watcher or know much about birds, there are definitely different and unique types of birds that I have seen and am able to distinguish.

Some other wild-life encounters include seeing a desert fox while visiting a friend in the Negev Desert and seeing/following a hedgehog that lives in our neighborhood on my way to shower one starry night. Both of these sightings have occured at night, so I do not have pictures of them, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless.

Next Post: MISTI-Israel retreat