The Cast of Characters

Me

The Esther's = "Esther Holland" (left - 30, on personal sabitcle) and "Esther German" (right - 23, student and traveling)

Kyle, Johannesburg (a.k.a. Jo-burg), South African, 19, traveling - Apparently, S.A. is where drunken bush diving is a popular past time

Johathan, 18, Cape Town, S.A. - traveling before beginning university. Left kibbutz after 4 months to lifeguard at Jewish Youth Camp in U.S. Hope all the Jewish mothers out there packed their daughters tennis skirts...

Gemma, England, 24 - instead of meeting some hot Israeli to bring home to meet the parents, she will be bringing home Cookie. Sort of fits criteria - Israeli and a boy, and yet, a dog

Smadar our volunteer leader

Justin, Port Elizabeth (P.E.), SA, 21. Traveling with brother. Both learned from their grandmother 3 days before they left, that they are Jewish. He moved out of his home when he was 18 because his mother minded coming home at 4am (she is a strip club owner) to he and his mates still partying - he thought she was unreasonable

Claude, 23, P.E., S.A. - brother of Justin. Hobbies are smoking E mixed with vicks vapor rub thru Nargila (hookah) with mom

Wendy, England, 34 - Quit job to come to kibbutz. Here seen with age inappropriate kibbutznic boyfriend of 21 years of age...tee hee, tee hee

Hannah (left), Sweden, 21 - we refered to her as "The Depressed Swede". She was my roommate when she first arrived and wasn't sure when I would come home if I would see her feet dangling from the ceiling

Gail, 23, Cape Town, SA - First stop kibbutz, next to work in London

Mud Wrestling - yeah, thats right

Jacob, Sweden, 19

Ashish, India, 27 - Smadar (our volunteer leader) was uncomfortable with his name (sounds like HASHish) so unbeknownst to us we were calling him "Dave" for about 3 months before we learned otherwise. As a Hindu, before his arrival to kibbutz, he never ate meat, smoked, drank alcohol, etc...hmmm...again, before he arrived to kibbutz

Bridget, American, 34 - very very left wing, Peace Corp, the whole nine, will pretty much wipe the floor with any Bush supporter - naturally for Senior too

James, England, 25 - bit of a touch-a-phobe, so this captured moment was not only momentous but an honour. As I enjoyed teasing him of his androgynous nature (but later have concluded it's a Brit thing), his parting words to me were that he is "a straight asexual gay"

Jackie, Brazil, 24 and Gil, South Korea, 23

Juan-Time - Equadore, 27 - student studying agricultural engineering, works in dairy (the cows) - he refers to them as his girlfriends - 400 cows, 1600 nipples

Vol conference

Kim, South Korea, 30 - We don't normally cart our South Koreans in baby carts...except this night

Dave & Jo, the managers of the "laundry bitches" - Brits who were volunteers years ago, married kibbutznic's and now have life sentences on Ein Gev

Tim, Wales, 27 - A puff from North Wales and my roommate. Visited Israel 3 years ago and discovered his calling, he's now enrolled in university studying theology and has returned to Ein Gev to volunteer.

Where else but kibbutz can you meet a Welsh, devote Catholic, homosexual who lives right near Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch ?

The Mexican Embassy

Katherine 23, Germany - technically she could be considered a student but has been traveling in and out of Israel for the past 15 months

Oded, (left) 27, Israel - raised on the kibbutz but now lives in Montreal to earn his first million (in NIS New Israeli Shekel) and retire at an early age - he spends his winters at home

Gail (center from SA) and Nodev, (right) 24, synical Israeli

"Rods My Boy" - 31, Capetown, S.A. - Basically he cashed in his 401k to travel a good portion of the world and scuba dive a bit of it too

Smadar (vol leader) and the South Africans - and then there's Gaby, 34, Argentina, she didn't get the memo re: S.A.'s only

Manuel, 19, Guatamala

Volunteer 80's party - one of the vols (Marlene, 21, Germany - in the back row) actually told me how to dress for the party and I wondered to myself if she was even around in the 80's

Zoe & Gili - Zoe, 24, Switzerland - left home at 18 and has been traveling and living throughout Europe, she speaks 5 languages. She has left and returned (from Switzerland) to kibbutz 4x since I've been here - Israel does that to some people

Marcel, 19, S.A. - what can I say...when opportunity knocks...who am I to miss out

Gavin, 19, Denmark - used to refer to him as "Space Cadet" - he hitched to Tiberias (our neighboring city) barefoot and was suprised when shop keepers refused him entry, plus he had to buy a bottle of water to cool off his feet

The French Embassy

Andreaus, 25, Sweden - wasn't the stud of the volunteers until this night

Paul, 37, S.A. - Father was Israeli, so has come to Israel to find himself, maybe to save himself from the moral corruption of S.A. or bring it with him

Rachel, 19, American - whenever I regain my statys as a professional tycoon, I hope to employ her. Presently studying Poli Sci at Georgetown and is full of spark, ambition and envyable confidence

Avikai, 21, Israeli - returned to the kibbutz after the army and has been working his way thru the women volunteers - waiting for my turn