A month working in London... (illegally)...

I was 20 years old back then and was ready to do whatever it took to push forward with my plan to be abroad for a year... and it was time for me to start taking things seriously...

After having spent half of my funds I was beginning to worry about how long my money would last in the real world...

My first 5 months of having a good time and living without any financial worries in a Kibbutz in Israel had come to an end and I was ready to start bringing in some cash to replenish my wallet.

I was quite fortunate to get a job right away in the Youth Hostel working in the kitchen...even though I had no working permit, and it also was 'cash in hand'... (Pictured below)

However, I had no idea how little the pay was...and, what the job entailed, all I can remember is that I was happy to have some form of income...

The job pay included my accommodation and free Breakfast and I made sure that after each breakfast I made myself a takeaway sandwich to eat for lunch.

The main purpose of my visit to London at that time was to restore not only my funds but my confidence that I could make it until the end of the year or thereabouts before my return airfare would expire in December...

I had just arrived in London and it was the middle of May...and I truly tightened up my belt quite a bit... my only expense was food...

Two of my meals were taken care of at the Hostel, so I was left with one more meal to have...and to tell the truth there weren't many practical or economical options and I remember that many times all I ate was a Big Mac at 'Maccas' by Victoria Train Station which was only a 20-minute walk from my Hostel.

I remember clearly that I even had to eat outside the restaurant to save a few Ps (pence)...
I would take my burger out and sit on a bench near the entrance...

I learned that in London if you wanted to eat inside a McDonalds you would have to pay some extra tax, and I also learned that if you wanted some extra ketchup for your burger or fries you had to pay extra!...
What!? Got to be kidding me...Welcome to the real world...

My job in the kitchen with the breakfast crew was rather easy, all I had to do was get the breakfast stuff ready for all the guests staying at the Hostel. It was a continental breakfast so...that meant boiling lots of eggs and placing fresh bread on trays and jams and marmalades.
Then of course clearing and cleaning tables and doing the dishes...It was only a couple of us working that shift.

It was an easy job though quite boring and it paid very little...only about 40 British pounds a week!
Which at that time was around $70- $80 USD... 

I was practically working 6 hours a day, from 6 am to 12 pm roughly, 6 days a week...
My plan was to save $400 in one month and that type of income didn't quite help me reach my target, but it was enough to keep me going.

My daily expense was literally the one Big Mac or sandwich I bought each day for dinner...which was around 1 pound a day...approx. $2 USD

Every day after finishing work I'd take a 'sightseeing walk'...
I walked everywhere, most of my walking area was around the beautiful Chelsea and South Kensington area and also around Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park a few times...so pretty...and then when it was around 6 pm I'd go to get my burger for dinner and then it'd be time to go back to the Youth Hostel to chill for a while...

There was a common room where there was a TV and where you could play cards or backgammon...there were always many backpackers to meet from everywhere staying there for a few nights and then heading off in different directions. 

Later on, at night some of the guys would play some good music to dance and it was a great night just about every night!

They used to play a lot of Reggae music, which to me was rather new, I'd never heard that music in Mexico and only heard a bit while I was in my kibbutz but at this Hostel, they were really into it!

So I learned about Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and other bands and they also played music by UB40 and Dire Straits...pretty cool stuff...and at the end, I really got into that music too!

During that stay in London, I walked and walked...
I hardly ever took any public transportation to get around, it was a bit costly and an unnecessary expense if I could walk, however, I remember that I had to take 'THE TUBE'  a couple of times.

They charge you by the number of stops you travel to...a totally new concept for me, as in Mexico you just buy one inexpensive ticket and you can go anywhere you want for the same fare...

However, I must admit that the first time I got on the 'Tube' I was was quite impressed after I got on board...

I looked around at the benches along the sides, they were upholstered in velvet or something like that...Wow...velvet seats?! ...and it was super clean so I said...Well, at least I'm travelling in some kind of luxury...

Up until then, I'd only been on one underground train/metro and that was in Mexico City... a bit different in many ways.

The Trains in Mexico have a normal train shape, sort of rectangular and run on rubber tires quietly...

'The Tube', is the nickname for the Metropolitan Underground in London, has a unique shape. The trains have a curved top, sort of tubular, and the tunnels they run through are tubular too... I guess that's why they call it 'The Tube'. (Pictured above)

If you are rather tall you must stand in the middle of the car otherwise the door can chop your head off when they close...not that they would, but you get the point.

The trains run on metallic wheels which makes them a bit noisy but not too much.
The underground system in London is much older than the one in Mexico and it is huge...I believe it is the first underground system in the world dating back to 1860...
I wish I'd been able to use it more but walking was cheaper.

I think that on a daily basis I walked around for over 2 - 4 hours, maybe around 10k or more...

During my walks, I went to see the unmissable 'Changing the Guard' at Buckingham Palace, a striking display of British pageantry when the New Guard takes over from the Old Guard... (watch a short video here)

Honestly, it was all I imagined it to be and it was indeed quite impressive, however, my financial worries were rather heavy and I don't think I fully enjoyed the whole thing that much at that time...

All I truly wanted from that month in London was to get the most out of it as I could, moneywise, and then go back to the Netherlands.

Since I left Israel I had been in communication by post with my ex-roommate from my Kibbutz, Arthur. In one of his letters, he said that I should go over to see him in the Netherlands and that I would have a place to stay for as long as I wanted...
WOW! He was indeed a very kind person...

Some people in the Youth Hostel suggested I'd go to the Netherlands to work with the Tulips, it was nearly harvest season and they normally need a lot of people, so I started planning towards that...It sounded like a good idea...

So at the end of my short and rather uneventful stay in London, I headed back to the Netherlands...

I don't remember very well my crossing back over the English Channel but I must've done the same I did to go to London and used the same route through Harwich by bus and ferry onto Hoek van Holland, I was in such a hurry to get to the Netherlands that all that trip is a complete blur...

After arriving in Amsterdam I went up by train to a small town just a few minutes away called Zaandam, that's where Arthur lived...

I do remember that very well...

He went to pick me up at the train station and it was a great feeling seeing my dear roommate again...especially because he was about to give me shelter when I needed it...

We had spent 3 months or so living together in the kibbutz and it had been nearly a couple of months since I saw him last...

I remember seeing him at the station...
Hey Arthur! I said all smiles...and he said...
"Hey Hector, Welcome to the Netherlands, how was your trip?" he was smiling too so that made me feel so much better...

'There's nothing like a friendly smiling face at times of need'...

"It's good to see you," he said... Yeah, it's good to see you too! Thank you for coming to pick me up, I said...
"No problem, I don't have a car but my place is not far from here, we can walk there, you ok to walk?" 
Sure thing, I said...I was only carrying my backpack and he took my hand luggage... and we headed off to his place walking through the friendly streets of Zaandam.

He was staying with his sister at her apartment and he said his sister was ok with my staying there for as long as I needed, so generous indeed. They sort of knew my financial situation so that was very kind indeed.

We walked and talked for a good 20 minutes to his apartment building and we went up to the 12th floor in a small elevator...

Inge, his sister, was waiting for us and said...
"Welcome welcome!! Please make yourself at home"...

It was a small but cute 2 bedroom apartment with 1 bathroom, 1 separate toilet, 1 mini kitchen and 1 small living/dining room with not much furniture apart from a sofa and a coffee table and a couple of ottomans ...there was also a small TV and a sound system to play records and cassette tapes and... Arthur's beautiful guitar sat there too...

Arthur and Inge took the bedrooms and they said I could take the sofa to sleep in...
I actually took the sofa cushions off of the sofa and laid them on the floor to have more room when lying down... and put a sheet over them, they gave me a pillow and I used my sleeping bag to sleep in...it was, in a way, quite comfortable...

It was a warm apartment and it was kept very neatly...
I truly was very grateful for their letting me stay there, absolutely free of charge, it was a time to grow and learn and to be patient …(more on this on my next post)

Thank you, Arthur and Inge...
You did more than give me a place to stay...
Heel erg bedankt, Thank you so much...

Hello Amsterdam!...
After spending around 4 months in Israel and a few days in Egypt I headed back to Europe...

First I had to make a quick 2 day stop in Athens as I had a return ticket from Israel...
I didn't do much in Athens this time, I was just there to find my way north and I heard there were great deals on airfares to Amsterdam, so I went looking for one... in those days you couldn't shop around on the internet...you had to physically walk into several travel agents to get different quotes...and eventually I got a good one!

After 2 days in the same Athens hostel where I stayed my first time, I was ready to fly north...

We landed in the famous Schiphol Airport, which was exciting in itself as I wanted to see that Airport which has a famous taxiway for planes that cross over the highway over the cars passing by!
I remember seeing a poster of that before I left Mexico and I wanted to see it with my own eyes...

I thought I was going to be questioned again for a while at passport control as I was in London but the Dutch were friendlier and gave me no trouble on arrival...

I headed towards the city centre by train...and what a train!
I was so impressed by the beautiful yellow trains in the Netherlands.
This was actually the very first European train I'd ever been on...so cool.

It was just a quick 15-20 minute ride to the 'Central Station' in Amsterdam and the YHA Youth Hostel was a fairly short walk from there.

That Youth Hostel was the perfect location...
It was within walking distance of the 3 major sites that I wanted to visit; The Rijksmuseum (The National Museum), the Van Gogh Museum and the Heineken original brewery in Amsterdam's city centre.​

Amsterdam is a beautiful city and I fell in love with it from the moment I set foot on it...
It is an extremely charming and picturesque city and there is something about it and you just can't help but fall in love with it...

​Maybe it is its old narrow houses or its canals or the 'pedestrians only' streets or its trams or its amazing cycle-paths or the flower vendors at every train station...

It is hard to pinpoint what makes Amsterdam one of the most likeable cities in the world...

Here are a few things that stood out for me from this wonderful city...
1- Its charming houses...Absolutely adorable...it is like a toy city...
2- Everyone's on bicycles! ...Yes, rain or shine they get on their bikes to go places. I saw hundreds of people travelling by bicycle, umbrellas in hand if need be, and kids in a child-seat at the back or front of their bikes and only riding on their 'purpose built' cycle-paths and with no helmets!
They signal with their hands if they are going to turn and they stop at their own tiny 'bike traffic lights'...very orderly...
I had never seen anything like that in my life! 

Note: They actually built the 'cycle-path' infrastructure back in the early 70s if I'm not mistaken, due to their transport situation at that time... (something that just recently Auckland City, and other cities around NZ have been working on, probably there hasn't been a real need for that in NZ as it was in the 70s in the Netherlands...) Currently, there are more bikes in the Netherlands than people!

3- Their electric trams... They are just what one needs to move you around the city (if you don't have a bike)...
What?...They are not free?...
For a couple of days, I thought they were free as you can get on board through any of their 4 doors and no one ever charged me until I realised I should've bought a ticket at the ticket station or newsstand and put it in the machine at the door, I honestly had no idea, the system relies on people's honesty to buy their tickets and there may be an occasional inspector that may get on to check, but never saw one....
​
4- Dutch Fries...There's something about their potato chips (Friet/Patat)... so delicious, and they eat them primarily with mayonnaise! 

5- The beautiful canals...I didn't know about the existence of so many canals in any city apart from Venice, Amsterdam has approx. 160 canals covering 100km. No matter where you are walking around the city you are bound to walk by or over some of the 1,500 bridges!

6- Heineken Beer... Amsterdam is the home of the Dutch most famous beer, although there are many other brands. I was lucky to be able to visit the original brewery in Amsterdam when it was still operating as a brewery, it is now only a tourist attraction. I was able to learn about the entire brewing process and then have a beer right there and, of course, buy myself a classic 'Heineken beer t-shirt'...
(Want to learn more about Heineken beer? visit their website here)

7- The Rijksmuseum.... The National Museum in Amsterdam was the very first museum I visited in Europe.
Absolutely amazing! I was blown away by Rembrandt's paintings and had the chance to look closely at the famous 'Night Watch' (pictured below)...
*You can learn more about this extraordinary painting in an amazing online show right now, view the 'Night Watch' Experience here) 

8- The Van Gogh museum... Wow, his artwork is highly renown around the world for many reasons and you simply can't help but be amazed by his works...
(*Learn more about Vincent Van Gogh here)

Frankly speaking, I had never been that interested in artistic paintings or works of art of any form before I left Mexico. I may have liked and been into music to some degree and I may have taken the "Arts workshop" in high school where I drew with pencils and charcoal and painted a couple of pastels and an oil painting...but never really was into it, per se...

I truly wished I had read or learnt something about Rembrandt and his paintings before walking in at the Rijksmuseum and, the same goes for the Van Gogh Museum... I felt a little bit lost during my visit...
TIP: Do take the time to learn more about them through the above links, I wished I'd known all that about them then...

I truly had no idea how to behave inside a museum...
I was simply looking at the paintings and walking around slowly like everyone else, pretending to know what I was doing but I sincerely was faking it...a bit embarrassing but...I figured many people in the museum were feeling the same way too...

Prior to these museums in Amsterdam and the National Museum in Cairo, the only times I had been to a museum had been when I was a kid in a 'school excursion' to a museum in Mexico, which, in retrospect,  may have been a good idea to pay attention at what we were looking at, but I was a kid doing something that was imposed on us as part of our schooling curriculum and they made us take notes and do homework about it, which made the whole experience a boring chore, tedious, and a complete nightmare...thus I never went to any museums after leaving school in Mexico...that is, until I arrived in Europe... then things started to change...

Right at that point of internalised self-embarrassment at the Rijksmuseum, I was somehow, ready to grow and build up my cultural knowledge....

I remember walking around the enormous Rijksmuseum and walking slowly and getting close to some groups which had a guided tour and I would get close to listen in for free, yes it was a bit sneaky but it was an inexpensive way of getting to learn about the things I was looking at and the groups never seemed to mind my tagging along...you have to do this kind of things when you are on a tight budget...

I did the same at the Van Gogh Museum...
I remember hearing in one of the guided tours that I got close to about his cutting off part of his ear!
What!? He cut off his ear?
That somehow made me look at his paintings more intently...
Isn't it weird the things that catch our attention?...

After my first 2 days in Amsterdam and a total induction into real art and museums, I had to have a break and that's when I went to check out the amazing Heineken Brewery and have a 'cold one', as they say...

The whole tour was actually quite interesting...
It was also interesting to learn, for the first time, that there are several kinds of beer... 
Up until then I only knew...Beer!

The Dutch are also quite proud of their beer and they are quite specific about how they must be poured and served at a PUB... It is a bit different to the UK...

It must be cold, unlike the British who like it at cellar temperature, and it must have a head (that is the frothy foam on top of beer after pouring, the perfect beer is considered to have a two-fingers thick foam layer, according to the Dutch) The brits don't really fancy any head on their beer...unless it is, Guinness.
​
After ending my cultural tour I spent one more day in Amsterdam admiring the city, walking around its busy 'pedestrians only' streets. I had some delicious 'Dutch Frites', their extremely popular potato chips, traditionally served in an ingenious cardboard cone contraption, smothered in 'mayo' (Mayonnaise or Fritessaus ), and also stopped to listen to several street performers... and then... it was time to move on...

I was beginning to worry a bit about my financial situation...

I left Mexico with $2,000 USD thinking it was a substantial amount of money, but I had really no idea how much everything was going to cost overseas, I truly was so naïve about that and I had the intention to be abroad for a year or so... and so far up until that moment, I had been spending money, carefully and as strictly as I could....but nonetheless, I had spent some of my funds mostly on travel expenses on buses and planes in Europe, and trains and limo-taxis in the Middle East... and according to my notes on my diary, I was left with about half of my funds and I needed to get some money back in, otherwise I'd have to head back home soon and that was not the plan...
So far I'd been away from Mexico for nearly 5 months, it was now the beginning of May 1981...

I decided then that I would go to London and try to find a job, something that would pay 'cash in hand' and that might take me in not having a working permit...

I was also hoping to get some money that was owed to me from my previous employment in Mexico, I was expecting around $500 USD.... so according to my diary notes, I was fairly confident that if that money arrived and if I could get a job in London for a few weeks I could recoup my capital to my original $2,000 USD by June...
That did not quite happen...however, I managed with some help... more on that in my next story...

Meanwhile, it was time to head back to the UK...
So I took a bus to London, this bus went down to the port of  'Hoek van Holland' where we boarded a ferry across to Harwich, a 6-7 hour overnight nightmarish ride across the 'English Channel'.

It was raining heavily and the sea was so choppy...
We had huge swells and I could feel the boat going up and down the massive swells and could hear the splashing of the waves....It was simply quite a nasty ride!

I remember clearly I was trying to immerse myself in my music, I had my 'Sony Walkman' playing my music and I had the volume at its loudest...primarily trying not to hear the splashing but also trying not to hear the people that were making all kind of scared exclamations.

I remember a girl sitting next to me saying..."Oh my god... I'm going to puke!! ... oh, my god, I'm feeling so sick"...
And I was telling her...Enough already! Just hearing you I want to puke too...If you need to do it go to the loo and go for it....a bit rough but I just wanted to stop listening to her, even over my loud music!!
She left and never saw her again, thank goodness...

Anyway, after a few hours of that, we arrived at Harwich, and I was not quite ready to face the passport control people, dreading again that I was going to be questioned again for hours and I wasn't feeling up to it but... not this time...It was very early in the morning and probably because I had previously been given a 6-month visa they stamped my passport with a 'ONE MONTH' visitor visa (I've just checked that stamp in my very first passport).

After that, we got back on the bus and headed towards London...
Once we arrived at the bus terminal in central London I headed back to the first Youth Hostel I had stayed at in Chelsea...
It was like coming back home...I'd been there before so I knew my way around...

Then I saw a sign on the notice board...
'Kitchenhand Wanted' for the morning shift...

So I asked the guys at the reception...Hey, can I apply for that job?
"Sure", they said....When can you start?...Tomorrow, I said...
"Deal! please show up at the kitchen at 6 am" they said...
They didn't ask me any more questions...so...I took it!...
Lucky me...
​
Well well well, Hello London!!
It's good to see you again...cup of tea?

Camping by the Red Sea...
After returning from Egypt I was left with one more month in Israel and in my Kibbutz...
So, it was time to do a few more things before heading north to Europe and the UK...

One thing I wanted to do was to visit the Red Sea...

I heard about a place called Nuweibaa...which at that time was still part of Israel in the Sinai, just a few kilometres south from Eilat...
From Tel-Aviv, I took a bus to Eilat, which is a highly touristic spot in the 'Gulf of Aqaba or Gulf of Eilat' in Israel so I didn't want to stay there at all, so as soon as I got to Eilat I took a bus to Nuweibaa.

That gulf is a very interesting spot, Its coastline is divided among four countries; Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. You can literally stand on the beach and look at all 4 countries from that spot.

I heard about that place on the beach through a friend of mine at my kibbutz. He said he'd been there and that many backpackers went there to spend some time camping on the beach for free and that it was amazing!

He said..."All you need to bring is your sleeping bag and you can crash right on the beach for free".
So, I thought...that sounds like me!

Once again I left most of my gear in the kibbutz and headed for the beach for 4 days, once again I had no idea what to expect...and when I got there ...he was right!

It was an amazing place and there were lots of backpackers from everywhere, most of them were also volunteers from different kibbutzim...

There was only a small shop run by a Kibbutz nearby and there seemed to be some 'public toilets'...
There were probably 5 palm trees and nothing else...

On one side of the beach it was the Red Sea, and behind us on the beach the desert...
Temperatures there got really high, 40+ Degrees Celsius!
So... it was really really HOT!

I met some of the guys there and right away we hit it off. As soon as I was all set on a spot on the beach I left my gear with some of the guys and went in for a dip in the beautiful warmish tranquil waters of this unusual place...

Later that day I headed over to the shop to buy a sandwich and a drink and other bits and pieces, that's mostly what I ate every day... then, when it was time to use the loo...so I went to the public toilets and I walked in and...
​OMG...are these the only loos? ...I asked some of the guys standing nearby... they said, "Yup"...

They were the 'squatting type' of loos and they were as filthy as hell, it seemed like nobody had aimed right and there was simply no clean spot to even place your feet on!

So, from that moment onward I refrained from using the loo at all, and do any 'number ones' in the sea... fish do it there anyway...
Not sure how I managed to hold it in but...I did manage... (Mind over matter I guess)
However, I wasn't going to let that ruin my stay...
​
I spent most of my days going in and out of the water, swimming and snorkelling and sunbathing a lot...

Every night we sat by a bonfire under the stars and there was always someone playing a guitar... just like in one of those scenes you only see in movies...
There was a certain 'unreal peacefulness' about the whole place and floating in the air amongst the people there...absolutely magical...

I slept, like everyone else, in my sleeping bag alongside a bunch of them...it was quite a sight to see on the beach...
There were hundreds of people in their own sleeping bags, all in one line...one after the other like Dominos as if it was an organized thing, but it wasn't. I guess everyone was just doing what the others were doing...

Every night I'd put all my belongings inside my sleeping bag while sleeping and I was using my recently purchased 'Onitsuka Tiger Sneakers' as a pillow wrapped in a towel...
Unfortunately, on my last night there I must've moved away from my sneakers while sleeping and someone stole them!
Bugger! Not my new sneakers! I had just bought them in Athens...never mind...

Well, now I was shoeless...and had to buy a pair of plastic sandals at the shop to have something to wear...

After those 4 days went by I headed back home to my kibbutz...
I was really looking forward to being back 'home', having a good meal, and taking a shower, hadn't done that in 4 days, and.... going to the loo!!!

I remember clearly walking into my kibbutz and seeing some of my friends, they were asking me...
"How did it go?" Did you have a good time?
I kept walking fast and said...Yup, it was awesome, I said, I'll tell you all about it later, got to do something first...and I locked myself in the clean conventional loo for a wee while!

It is hard to believe that of all the things in the world all I wanted at that moment more than anything else was a *clean loo...
(*We do take clean toilets for granted, and from that trip onwards, I've always paid attention to the availability and cleanliness of public toilets everywhere I go and, here in New Zealand, they excel at it!)

When I told my friends about my adventure, some wanted to get out there camping too and most of them had a good laugh about my loo ordeal...others just felt sorry for me...

The next day I went back to work in the chicken-house with Julio...my Argentinian boss...
He was so happy to see me and so was I...
He and his wife Fanny were good hard-working people and they treated me well...

I was quite aware that my days in my kibbutz were coming to an end and the time for me to carry on with my journey was approaching fast...I somehow didn't want it to end...and deep inside I didn't really want to leave my kibbutz...
​
You've heard me refer to my kibbutz as 'Home' and it totally was...
​It was my very first 'home away from home' and I had developed new friendships with people who didn't care about your background, social status, money, education, religious interests or anything else...they simply took you in at 'face value'...and I reciprocated with the same respect towards everyone else...

My experience in my kibbutz was simply unimaginable and taught me more than the work skills I learned... It taught me how to value people and life in an entirely different way and it triggered an insatiable desire to continue living in such a world...

During my stay on my kibbutz I forged some great friendships, and some of them I would go on to visit in their own towns after leaving...

I also picked up a couple of new habits in my kibbutz, some good ones and others not so much...

I started smoking cigarettes there, not sure if I did it because everyone else was doing so or because they were given to us for free in the kibbutz, as long as they were the 'Noblesse' brand (Israeli brand). we could get about 7 packs a week...
I also began drinking beer and wine on Friday nights after Shabbat dinner when we were partying in the bomb shelter and, the occasional beer during the week after work...
Not sure why either, again it may have been due to the people around me...and as they say...'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'...
I didn't use to do any of the above before I left Mexico... (I gave them up in Israel...6 years later)

A couple of the good habits that I picked up were reading and writing...

Yup, my first, non-school-text-book I ever read was in my kibbutz, and it was in English!
There was a wonderful library in my kibbutz and we could go in and grab whatever books we wanted to read and I got into it...primarily novels...
That was something that I would never do back in Mexico...and then...
I also started writing...

I started doing some journaling or keeping a diary (my journals are pictured below)...
I started writing every day what had taken place each day and how I was feeling about things...

Reading through some of my diaries now I realise that I was also a constant writer of letters, to my parents and to some of my friends back home in Mexico... and some of them wrote back...

In those days there was no internet or anything like that, so one of those things that I used to look forward to was getting a letter from anyone, especially from mum and dad...
Dad was always short of words but would write at the bottom of each long letter my mum would write, like a footnote, he'd write a couple of lines like "Glad all's going well, take good care, my son, Dad"... that was enough 'man to man talk'...I'd say... we never did quite have any long conversations... not a thing between us I guess...

I remember when someone would collect the mail for all volunteers and bring them to the dining room at dinnertime and call out to those who had got something... It was like waiting for your lottery number to be called out...I used to love hearing... Hector, you've got mail! or Hector, you got a letter!

Through those letters, I had deeper conversations with everyone...
I frankly don't think I'd ever communicated that much with my parents in particular...
Before I left Mexico I guess I was just a teenage boy...communicating with them with short words and not saying or disclosing much...typical teenager I guess...

Somehow, the distance and taking the time to choose my words before writing gave me the courage to open up more and be more relaxed about it...

I was definitely growing up...
Towards my last days in my kibbutz I promised a few people I'd go visit them, Arthur, my roommate from  Holland, said... "Yeah, come and stay a while" and others said similar things... and I said, I'll be there...and I was....(More on that on future stories)...

It was definitely a very sad day when I left my kibbutz Neve-Eitan ...
However, just before leaving in my Kibbutz, I did say to my *Kibbutznik friends (*the Israeli members) and to my Argentinian boss, Julio
I'll be back...I promise... (which I did 4 years later in 1985, more on that on future posts)

After leaving the kibbutz I headed back to Tel-Aviv to catch a plane back to Athens...and from there fly up to Holland and the UK, where my European adventure started...
​
Shalom Israel, L'hitraot לְהִתְרָאוֹת
I've learnt so much from you...

My trip to Egypt by road...
An unbelievable and nearly deadly experience...

One of those things that you 'must do' if you are in the Middle East is to visit Egypt, and while I was living in my Kibbutz in Israel I was able to take a few days off to head over to Egypt.

One of the good things about that was that I could leave most of my gear in my room and travel light!

Well, this trip was, in just about every way, quite unique and unpredictable.

As usual, for this trip, I was following other people's tips and guidance from a 'Let's Go Egypt' book...
To begin with, after arriving in Tel-Aviv I got on a bus with a friend of mine from Mexico and we headed towards Gaza...
Yes, in those days the Gaza Strip was part of Israel, it was actually a gained/occupied territory after the '6 day war' of *1967.
(*Israel captured and occupied the Golan Heights, the West Bank (incl. East Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula)...

I was oblivious to all this history, as I had never read anything about it and back then there was no internet or google to look up information fast...
After we got there we had to locate the place where we could catch a 'Collective TAXI' to take us to the Suez Canal...

There were a few 'modified like a limo' Mercedes Benz taxis, all lined up at the sort of 'taxi terminal'.
Each one could carry up to 10 budget-travelers, primarily backpackers, to the Suez Canal. 

We were all packed in like sardines...
2 people could travel in the front seat next to the driver and there were 2 rows of seats, more like benches at the back which could fit 4 passengers in each one, it was a bit of a squeeze but we fitted in just fine...
All our backpacks were sitting on the roof-rack and were tied up with some kind of bungy rope, they seemed quite secure up there.
Anyway, after paying our fees we got on our way, not quite sure exactly how many hours it took to get to the Suez Canal but I guess it was roughly 4 to 5 hours...

The drive was pretty much through a well-built road with the desert on both sides!!
There was nothing by the road apart from sand dunes and a few rock formations. So it was definitely not an intriguing view, maybe at first we were like...."wow... check out this road"....but after an hour of the same, most of us were sleeping...
The driver had his Arab music blaring on the radio and he seemed to know his way around...

As soon as we got to the Suez Canal we saw a few people gathered by a Ferry terminal...so we went there and got our tickets to get across, it was a quick ride...

Now, I must mention that up until that point we were travelling on Israeli territory, still in Asia, and by crossing the Canal we were entering Egypt and...Africa!
(I was stepping onto another continent...so, thus far on this trip, I had just walked on Europe, Asia and Africa! I even did a bit of a dance after crossing, I couldn't believe where I was!...)

Note: This backpackers' road trip, through this road, does not exist anymore, as The Gaza Strip and the Sinai have now been returned to the Palestinians and Egypt. (The Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1982 and The Gaza Strip to Palestine in 2005)

After crossing the Canal we went through 'border control' and then...guess what? 
We had to take a similar 'Collective TAXI' ride into Cairo, which only took a couple of hours...not too bad..

I had no idea what to expect of Cairo, all I could imagine was an ancient city, like from the pharaohs time, like Tutankhamun, with majestic temples, pyramids and the Nile, the largest river in Africa and, to some, the largest in the world, I guess I was being a bit naïve, but I am sure that what I saw right from our arrival was completely beyond my imagination...

It was like a slap on the face...
After the tranquility of the desert and the Suez Canal to a massive metropolis full of people (20+ million), There were cars everywhere and the noise was coming at us like... how to describe this... It was like waking up, after a peaceful sound sleep, in the middle of the night in the middle of a nightclub where everybody was moving frantically, dancing, jumping, talking, yelling and... and, for no apparent reason...they were blowing their car horns non-stop...
It was like stepping out of a peaceful dream and rushing into a nightmare … I'd say...

This reminded me somehow of my beloved Mexico City, which is also a bustling gigantic metropolis, and made me think of the unaware tourists when they arrive in Mexico City not knowing what to expect and how they too...must get a slap on the face at first sight...
​
The traffic in Cairo was twice as bad as in Mexico City, in my opinion, I even began thinking how well organised the traffic was in my home town, in comparison...at least back in 1981...

Anyhow, after seeing this, I truly just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and travel south down to Aswan...

However, we had to do the 'MUST DO' in Cairo first, and that was to pay a visit to the remarkable 'Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx'...which date back to the 26th century BC...

I didn't know what to expect...but somehow I had envisioned the Pyramids to be sitting in the middle of the desert...out there looking like an unworldly mystical sight...just as you see them in the pictures or postcards or history books...

No one warns you about the actual reality and that you could be in for a true and sad disappointment...
Don't get me wrong...The monuments are, just as you have pictured them and as remarkable and captivating as you imagine them to be...

It is the location of this site that has a bit of a cringe factor...

The day we arrived we got a room in a budget guest house/hotel, we spent the night there and we got ready to go to the pyramids, nice and early in the morning...
We asked the hotel staff how to get there... I truly was expecting it'd be like an hour or 2 out of the city on a special 'tour bus'...
But they said, "Take the 'local bus 355' from downtown and you'll be there in 25-40 minutes depending on the traffic"...cool I said, that's a bit odd I thought, but it was going to be a quick and inexpensive ride for sure...

Well, it did take us over an hour but not because of the distance, it is only about 25 km from the city.. but we primarily sat on traffic for quite some time...

It was a plain local bus, overcrowded and we were standing most of the way, the bus made a lot of stops, just like any other local bus would, picking up and dropping off people along the way through the busy city streets...we stayed close to the driver and asked him to let us know when to get off....and then after a long and tedious ride... all of a sudden...he said... "There they are! You get off here"... 
He was pointing at …'The Pyramids!'
What?! It can't be, I thought...
I hunched over to see through the bus window and...he was right!

There they were, right there across the road!
We got off the bus and walked across...

We walked up a pretty busy street, there were people everywhere, tourists and merchants alike and several vendors started approaching us... "Want to get a guided tour? Want to get a camel ride? Where are you from?"
We kept walking towards the entrance...

​I remember seeing a couple of kids playing 'pretend football' (soccer) with a Coke can (instead of a ball) right there on the street as we were walking up to the majestic Giza Pyramids...

I wasn't sure what to make of this initial experience thus far... All I knew was that it wasn't what I had imagined...
We paid our entrance fee and walked in towards the pyramids...they are absolutely breathtaking and one cannot help but be in awe...

I remember just standing there looking at these majestic man made structures...and just like everyone else, I started wondering...How did they build them?...
I think there are many theories about their construction but I think there's still some mystery around them...

I wish I'd had a smartphone back then, I would've taken a thousand pictures of that place, unfortunately, they didn't exist. I had in my hand a practical 110mm Kodak camera, and with a small budget I didn't want to risk taking too many pictures, and whatever few pictures I took there came out blurry and they are not that great, a bit sad but no problem...
Regardless of that, those images will remain in my mind for the rest of my life...

We even got on a camel and had a wee walk around and got our picture...a classic tourist moment...

We also went inside one of the pyramids, though exciting as it may sound it isn't really, as you need to go into a narrow tunnel to get into the tomb, once we were in the big tomb chamber we were able to stretch and look around...all that was on the walls was graffiti from previous visitors, I couldn't believe my eyes... there was nothing else historical inside or on the walls... 'sigh' …
What?! Yup...never mind...

I climbed out of that place and revelled for a moment in the minor thrill of being in a king’s giant tomb.

After that unsavoury experience inside the tomb, we went to check out the Sphinx, which was getting some restoration work done and was in some parts covered by scaffolding...nonetheless a quite impressive gigantic sculpture/monument.
We wrapped up our day in Giza and headed back to our hotel and got ready to travel down to Aswan...
We spent the next day in Cairo and went to the national museum for the day and then decided to take an overnight train, as it is a 12-hour ride to Aswan, so we figured it'd be a night's accommodation taken care of...

We got on our 2nd class car and sat in a long seat/bench for about 3-4 people...
We sat next to a couple of Egyptians, who after a while on the train took out some cheese, it looked like feta cheese, which was wrapped in newspaper... they had some Arab flatbread with them and started eating... and immediately they offered us some of their food, they said "take take" with a big smile on their faces, and we certainly did, we were quite hungry by then, somehow we started a conversation and they started teaching us how to count in Arabic, this went on for hours and it was quite a fantastic experience...
That experience right there made our entire trip worthwhile!…
​
I don't remember exactly when but we must've fallen asleep at some stage...

I woke up just before arriving at Aswan and it was a magnificent sight....
On one side of the railway, it was the desert and on the other side it was lush green pastures... we could see this contrast just as the train was dashing towards Aswan...all the greenery was simply lining the amazing Nile river...which was glowing in a bright blue colour...

After getting there, we got settled in a guest house and had something to eat at the markets...then we headed towards the waterfront to get on a felucca to go over to the other side of the river to see some of the sights there, it was without a doubt a fantastic experience crossing the river at a slow pace on that wonderful felucca for just a few dollars...

​The old fellow that was sailing it was quite friendly and slightly toothless...which showed only when he smiled...
Being on that felucca over the Nile river was also a true highlight of that trip...It was an...'I can't believe I'm here moment'...

We returned to the guest house at the end of the day and we were going to plan the rest of our visit there and then go up to Luxor, however, my Mexican friend started experiencing a tremendous rash all over his body and was feverish, and he started feeling quite ill...

So we decided to cut our trip short and head back to Israel pronto!
We simply backtracked the same way we got there, I don't even remember the train ride or anything else, we just wanted to get back 'home' to our respective Kibbutz, as we had medical cover by the kibbutz organization insurance and they would be able to help my friend right away...

One thing I do remember though is that after crossing back through the Suez Canal we got on another 'Collective TAXI' and we headed back towards the Gaza Strip...and this was a bit of a terrifying experience...

The desert road was practically empty and I was unaware that there had been a sandstorm the day before... 

The driver was speeding and had his Arab music going real loud, most of the passengers were sleeping and I just happened to wake up halfway to Gaza, for whatever reason...

I was admiring the amazing sand dunes until I saw that some of them were covering most of the road and the driver would need to drive through the bit of road that wasn't covered, he was not slowing down, he just kept on speeding, and then as we were heading towards another dune I was watching it with some fear, as we could not see if there were any other cars coming towards us and then... it happened!

A car appeared out of nowhere from the other side, another Taxi, driving over the same bit of road we were on and we nearly collided head-on, they both swerved fortunately in opposite directions and both cars ended up in the sand on top of a dune!!
We must've missed each other by a few inches but I was sure, for a second, that that was going to be it...

Fortunately, no one was injured and some didn't even realise what had happened as they were sleeping...
The driver laughed it off and we helped him get the car back on the road...
I must add that those taxis had no safety standards whatsoever, no seat belts or anything else...

WOW, what a real near-miss head-on collision...
That might've been the end of my adventure and probably my life as well, right there in the middle of the Sinai desert and no one around...I get the shivers just to look back...

After that incident, I don't think anybody slept any longer...
Back in Tel-Aviv, we took a bus back to our respective Kibbutz... and fortunately they were able to look after my friend and he recovered after a few days...he had contracted some infection when working on the 'date trees' in his Kibbutz but the symptoms, the rash, the high temperature and all that, didn't show until a few days later...

Well, that was an adventure and a half...
One day I shall return to Egypt and finalise my trip there, so much to see and learn...

Shukran, Egypt...
It was indeed, an unforgettable experience...

Walking on Holy Land...Jerusalem, Israel...

While I was living in my Kibbutz I was given a few days off after each month, it was part of the deal so that all volunteers could get a chance to travel a bit and explore the country and all its magical historical places...

So, at the first chance I had I took a bus to the historical city of Jerusalem...one of the oldest cities in the world (3500 BC). It is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

There is something highly captivating and mysterious about this place that is hard to describe...

I'm obviously talking about the 'Old city'...which is by now completely surrounded by a modern city...

As soon as I arrived there I was in awe...
It is truly breathtaking...and as you approach the gate you get a sense that you are about to step into the past, nearly like in a 'time tunnel' episode...and, all of a sudden, you are transported into thousands of years back!...

I walked in slowly through the 'Damascus Gate' (Shechem Gate) at the north side of the city...taking my time, breathing it all in...letting all my senses realise I was walking on 'Holy Land'...
​
The streets in the old city are quite narrow and in the market area, the walls are cluttered, left and right, from wall to wall, with goods, merchants and shops of all kinds of stuff...

Many of them, inevitably, are meant for the tourists with all kinds of souvenirs, but once you get past that you see all the local merchants with goods, produce and foods that the locals buy...and right within that area I found a small 'guest house' where I could spend the night, not exactly a youth hostel, but it was similar in price …probably about $5 for the night...

The fact that it was right in the 'old city', it was much more than a place to crash in, I was in fact, about to spend a night in the 'holiest of holiest cities' for many Jews, Christians and Muslims alike...

The sounds and noises from within the city were not of cars or any other motorised vehicle, it was only from the chatter of the vendors and the shoppers and of people carting things in and out of the old city...

After I got there I got myself settled and started wandering around the streets, looking at all the things they sell and started interacting with some of the local vendors who have a very loud and voiceful way of marketing their goods.

"Shalom Shalom" they said..."Come in, have a look inside" in a commanding voice, loudly and quite shamelessly, some looked at me and said things like..."You!.. where are you from? " What you want? Want to get a nice souvenir?"...I'd keep walking ignoring them...
You may even interpret that as being rude or impolite or something like that at first, but after a while, you realise that...that's the way they are...
Then another one asked again loudly  "Where are you from?!"… Mexico, I gave in...
"Oh...Mexico!" He said, "I have a friend who lives there, come in, I'll give you good price my friend!"

I was looking at a beautiful "Passport holder bag", one that you could hang around your neck and wear it inside your t-shirt when you wanted to keep it out of sight... and he said...

"Look, this one is beautiful, give you a good price...10 shekel!" What?!..I said, thinking it was too much...I said no, thank you...then he said, "ok, ok, give me 8 shekel and we got a deal" …no, thank you I said again... then he said, "What are you doing to me? I have a family to feed, you know? ok, ok, only because you are my friend, I'll let you have it for 5 shekel, deal?"...Deal! I said, and promptly he took my 5 shekel note and smiled, we shook hands, and he said..."thank you my friend" putting the item in a plastic bag for me...and I left feeling pleased with my first purchase...
I had just bought myself my first piece of merchandise in one of the oldest cities in the world!...

I was quite excited about the whole experience...it was more than just about buying the bag, it was about having haggled with one of the merchants and having connected with someone within those walls, just like you would have thousands of years back...

Soon after that, I found a small place to grab something to eat, an Arab/Palestinian looking fellow had a little stand that sold 'falafel' and I went to get myself one of those...they looked so delicious...

I watched him patiently and curiously while he prepared it...
He opened up the fresh pita bread, the nicest pita bread I've ever had, and he put some hummus in it and 3 large falafel balls, then he added a bit of salad, some tahini sauce and he asked..."You like spicy?"...Yup a bit , not too much, I said...He nodded and added some kind of spicy salsa... and he said, "2 shekel", no haggling there...
I paid and grabbed a bite of that falafel....wow...it was out of this world!

The following day I had a wander around the 'old city' and went to the holiest spots for each religion...

I went to the 'Dome of the Rock' (Islam) and onto the 'Western wall/Wailing wall' (Judaism) and went to the '*Holy Sepulchre' church, walked through the 'Via Dolorosa' (Christianity), and then just outside the gates I went up to the 'Mount of Olives', where you can also have a magnificent view of the 'Old City of Jerusalem'.
*The site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is identified as the place of both, the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth.

That day I gathered a lot of information about all the sites, and quite frankly, I'd never looked into any of those religions too deeply and...I ended up with more questions than answers...

Nonetheless, it was without a doubt, an unforgettable and unique experience that you could never have anywhere else in the world... All 3 main religious sites sitting within the walls of this old magnificent city, a small and divided city, that sits in just under 1 square kilometre... 

Jerusalem has been one of the most controversial and fought over places on earth for thousands of years...
What will its future be? Who knows...

Whatever it may be...
It'll never lose its strong religious roots and unmatched mystical charm and magic...
Shalom, and long live Jerusalem!

My Kibbutz Experience - Part 2
"Our social life in my kibbutz revolved around the 'Dining Room' and other interesting places..."

Somehow, just like in many homes all over the world, the Kibbutz family life and social life revolve around the 'dining room', where families gather to eat and talk about the happenings of the day and many other things.

At least in my case, that's the way it was back home where I grew up in Mexico, although not in the main dining room, which was only used for special occasions, but in the smaller dining area/breakfast table by the kitchen. That was the place where we'd eat all our meals, did our homework, talk about our day and, were told what chores to do and also... where we were told off when not behaving...that was mom's domain!

The 'communal dining room' in my kibbutz was a similar thing...
Apart from having our meals there, our jobs were assigned there, and working rosters and any other announcements were placed on a noticeboard at the entrance. It was the place where we could meet all the members and celebrate whatever festivities were taking place...
It was a massive room (see picture above) that could house about 300 seated people to have a meal at one time.

I was assigned several jobs, right there!..
After working in the cotton fields I went to work in the fish-ponds, catching fish at 3 o'clock in the morning in the freezing water! Not necessarily 'my cup of tea', I'd say...I also did about 3 days in the night-shift, from 10 pm to 6 am at the fibre-glass factory (most boring job ever!) and then I spent most of the rest of my working time in the chicken-house, gathering thousands of eggs daily and putting them up in cartons!...
They simply put me there because the manager of the chicken-house was Argentinian and needed someone who spoke Spanish...THAT'S ME! I can help, I said...
Julio, was his name, (top right picture) an interesting fellow, who rode his pushbike to work and who gave us beer for our coffee break...Cool guy! ... most of the jobs were something I had never imagined I'd ever do in my life​...

However...Life in the kibbutz was more than just work...

We also had some social activities after working hours...
As volunteers, we had our own 'hang-outs'.
One of the Volunteers' houses was used as our 'common room' where we could go to after work and 'watch a bit of telly while having a cuppa', (learned to say that there from my English friends).
We'd only turned the TV on if there was something in English and cool to watch, like "Fawlty Towers' …that program was my introduction to 'English sense of humour.'

There was also a "record player' so we could play some of the vinyl records that were there... (yup, vinyl LP records, not even CDs and no internet or Netflix back then).

I remember clearly one of the girls' favourite songs was one by Eric Clapton 'Let it grow'...
At first, I was taken aback a bit when I saw the girls singing along...and dancing and swaying to the tune...but after a couple of times of seeing that...I was singing along too!!... "Let it grow, let it grow, let it blossom, let it flow..."(music clip below)

We also had a sort of disco/nightclub inside our kibbutz...it was inside a 'bomb shelter'!
Yup, a BOMB SHELTER!
There were several bomb shelters scattered all over the living grounds of the kibbutz in case of an attack...most of them were kept clean, prepared for any incident, and... closed!

We, the volunteers, had one to ourselves, to party in!
Yes! Every Friday night, after 'Shabbat Dinner' we all went home for a bit, and soon after that we'd head down to the 'bomb shelter'...
I remember the first time they told me about it, I thought they were kidding...
A "bomb shelter"? I said...Really? what for? ...and they looked up at the sky...

It was a spacious room a few meters underground, there was a narrow entrance, above ground that led you down the stairs, it was a very dark room with colour lights like in a disco/nightclub....it was about 70 square meters (a rough guess, about 7mt by 10mt)…there were some chairs and a couple of old sofas by the walls and a couple of small tables and... there was a tiny room, I guess what may have been at some stage a toilet, it was used as a DJ room, they had a record player and some other music equipment in there.

There were a couple of large loudspeakers at each end of the room and the sound wasn't bad at all.

There was usually a young 'kibbutznik' (a kibbutz member) in charge of the place, who was also the DJ and he played the records we'd request or what he felt like.

It wasn't disco music at all but... we'd dance to music by Led Zeppelin, Janice Joplin, Dire Straits, Bob Marley, and some others. I had never thought it was possible to dance to some of that music, especially Led Zeppelin but... I recall clearly that we'd all go nuts and danced like crazy when they played 'Black Dog' by Led Zeppelin...that was really something! (music clip below).
We'd all bring down a few beers and danced and talked till late at night...we had Saturday off...

I was also introduced there to the unfamiliar concept of 'dancing by yourself'!

When I was a teenager in Mexico, prior to my trip, I was sold on the idea that in order to dance you'd need a girl to dance with, and if you didn't get a girl to dance with you were not to dance at all! You'd just sit or stand there watching others dance...
I even remember the embarrassing moments of asking girls to dance, only to be rejected by a mere "not now thank you" or "maybe later"...

Well, in my kibbutz I learned from my European friends, that if you heard a tune that resonated with you …you just got up and danced no matter what, and ... everybody did exactly that!
So liberating and it felt so right! Then others would join you and, all of a sudden, there were a few more people dancing all over the place, jumping and making all kinds of unorthodox movements which they called dancing...
I'm sure I'd never seen that before in my life and at first, I thought....'Bunch of weirdos'! ...
But then, before I knew it, I was doing exactly the same and it felt so good... there goes the saying...
"Dance like nobody is watching..."

Every Friday night, was somehow different and we'd sometimes come out of the shelter to find my roommate Arthur, out there sitting on the grass, with some people singing along to the tunes he was playing on his guitar (he wasn't much of a dancer)…so, we'd go along and join them and start singing with them, or in my case 'sort of singing', as I barely knew any song, let alone the lyrics! 

Things were changing in me...
I was beginning to understand that paradigms can be broken...like the one of 'not being able to dance without a girl'....
Breaking that paradigm meant much more than just that...
I was beginning to understand that there was a different world out there...outside of the social system I grew up in...and that there would be a lot of paradigms that were about to be broken in my life's journey...

I was beginning to realize that this adventure was much more than just a trip...
It was the beginning of an entire journey that was to transform my entire life...and, I understood that many more unplanned experiences were just ahead...

While I was in Israel, I did not only stay in my kibbutz, I also visited some unreal and beautiful historical places...more about this on my next story...

In the meantime...
​Play the "black dog" song below and... 
"Dance like nobody is watching"!
"Hey hey, mama said the way you move...Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove"

My Kibbutz Experience - Part 1
(Note: I've decided to break down this story into several parts as there's so much to tell...)

Where to begin?...
Well, if you read my previous story you may recall that on arrival at my Kibbutz, I was allocated a room and I had the room to myself and no roommate yet, right?...

Well, things started to change and evolve quite rapidly from that afternoon onwards... 
Firstly, I met up with Dudda, the volunteers' leader, in the dining room and she started showing me around...she explained what time the meals were, and showed me the way to go about things...

Then we went to the laundry room, well, not exactly a room, it was a massive industrial size laundry, like in a hotel or resort, as they wash everyone's clothes there, everything must be labeled with your name and in laundry bags, except sheets and towels.
I was given the opportunity to select a few working clothes there, they were used clothes but recently washed and impeccably folded...from trousers to shirts, t-shirts, shorts, socks, a couple of jumpers, a hat, and a winter jacket, I was even given working shoes and wellingtons! (gumboots)

I was definitely ready to go to work but... what work?

Well, I got back to my room to drop off my clothes and I headed back to the dining room to meet with the guy that allocated the different jobs to the volunteers and others..
We met and he said... "Shalom, Hector, welcome to Neve-Eitan, I understand you are all set and that you are ready to start working, right?"
Yup, sure am!
"Well, we are currently working on our 'cotton fields' and we need a hand, you think you can help us there for a couple of days?"
Sure!...I had no idea what I was saying "sure" to, but I was sure I was going to find out all about it the next day...
Then he said, "perfect, we'll meet at the 'fields office' at 5:30 am, we'll have a coffee and then we'll head out there." He explained where the 'fields office' was and he said "I'll see you there, make sure you are on time!"
No problem, I had also been given an alarm clock, of course!

I went back to my room and started seeing people walking around, they were getting back from work and there were other volunteers heading back to their homes, and I seem to recall meeting a couple of girls first... and they said... "Hey, you are new, right? Welcome! where are you from?"...
One was Josie...a tall redhead girl from Holland, and the other a blond girl, Anna, a bit shorter than Josie, from Sweden....
They were returning from their jobs...and they said, “see you at the dining room for our evening meal at around 7 pm...ok?”
They were wearing their working clothes and were all smiles...so obviously they seemed to be enjoying themselves...
I had still no idea what to expect but things were beginning to evolve...

I got myself to the dining room and there were already some people there sitting already and there was a queue forming at the food self-service bar, so I followed them and started getting some food they had there... 

Got some bread, a glass of fresh cold milk, a bit of salad and some ham-like slices, (made of chicken) and made myself a sandwich...I made my way to the volunteer's table, which was quite obvious to find... sat down and everyone started greeting me, "Hi, where are you from? How long are you staying?" and the rest of it...

There were several guys and girls primarily from Europe, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
I asked...is this all there's to eat? 
"For our evening meal yes",  they said, "but don't worry, our main meal is at around 2-3 pm, where you can have a big meal! Cool, I said, just like in Mexico!

I headed back to my room to get some sleep and get ready for my first day at work....
I got up even before the alarm went off, I guess I was anxious to see what was going to happen, and probably had very little sleep.
It was still dark when I started walking towards the 'fields office' and when I got there I was welcomed and was told to make myself a cup of coffee....
There was some kind of coffee in a jar and the water urn was boiling, so I put some of that coffee in my cup, poured some water and added a bit of sugar, gave it a quick stir, and had my first sip... 
What the...?... it was all grainy and I felt like I was drinking sand...What is this?! …I asked...
They were all watching me, smiling, as if it was a rookie prank.... and said..."That is Turkish coffee, you are supposed to let it settle at the bottom of your cup before you drink it, you've never had that before?"
Nope!
"Well, welcome to the morning coffee at the 'fields office'!"
​We all laughed and all of a sudden we were all in high spirits!

At 6 am we headed out to the cotton fields, we all jumped on the back of a 'flatbed trailer' which was being pulled by a tractor and rode to the first cotton field...the sun was just rising and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day and a unique first experience....

We moved several irrigation pipes and did some other stuff moving things around, we had a smoko /coffee break and had some fruit and at around 11 am then at around 2:30 pm we headed back to the dining room... my first 8 hours of work, done!

Everyone was there! There was a great smell coming from the kitchen and we immediately queued up to get our meal, they had vegetable soup, rice, steamed vegetables, and some meatballs with gravy...now, that's what I'm talking about!...a good meal indeed!

We were finished with work as we had started early so I headed back home... I was a bit scratched all over my arms, I'd never walked through a cotton field before and those plants are quite prickly! I looked like I had been in a fight with a crazy cat!...
I was, nonetheless, quite happy with my first workday at my kibbutz...that wasn't bad at all...

And then...I had no idea there was a surprise waiting for me in my room...my roommate had arrived!
I walked in and there he was, sitting on his bed playing his guitar!

I was surprised to see him there, I  introduced myself and he said, “Hi, I'm Arthur, I'm from Holland”
Cool, I said, Welcome to Neve -Eitan!
I asked him the same questions I was asked...How long are you here for? and all that, he said...shrugging his shoulders "I don't know... we'll see how it goes" …he was kind of quiet and humble...

He was a shortish guy with Indonesian background, he wore glasses and spoke perfect English...
and then the obvious question...so you play the guitar, do you? Yeah, he said, is that ok?
Sure is! what kind of music? I asked and he said...“Country-Rock mainly, like Neil Young, Eagles, Crosby Still, and Nash and all that...”
Frankly speaking, I'd never really heard much of that type of music apart from the famed “Hotel California” by 'The Eagles' which was sometimes played on the radio in Mexico...

I had no idea I was not only going to have a roommate but it was also going to be my introduction to that 'Country Rock' music world which, since then, I've loved...

He had a beautiful acoustic guitar and he had laid it in its case when I came in so I looked at it and said, what a cool guitar, why don't you play something?....and he said, "sure thing".

He grabbed his guitar and started. singing... "I wanna live, I wanna give, I've been a miner for a heart of gold"... It was like I was just listening to 'Neil Young' himself...sitting right in my room... (Watch a snippet of  Neil Young's Heart of Gold, live concert 1971, below)

Wow! Arthur that was awesome... I said...
He smiled...
That was to be the beginning of a great friendship that would evolve from then on...

I took a shower and changed and we went to the dining room for our evening meal like 'good ol' buddies' where I introduced him to the gang...
​
Hey guys, this is Arthur...
​"Shalom Arthur, welcome to Neve-Eitan," they said...

My first time in a Kibbutz in Israel, January 1981.

Some time, while I was beginning to plan my first backpacking adventure I heard about the Kibbutz from a friend of mine who had some Jewish friends in Mexico.
I'd never heard anything about them before and had no idea what they were, and probably you hadn't either until now...

So, let me tell you a little bit about what a Kibbutz is...
It is mainly a collective community, traditionally based around agriculture but they also have some other farming projects including commercial fishing from their own artificial fishponds and some have some sort of industrial plants. Many of them also have cows and chickens. (mine did)

A kibbutz is run by its members and some duties are rostered every now and then. There are still around 250 Kibbutzim (plural) operating in Israel quite effectively, though I hear some things are changing lately.

Their production is for their community and the workload and profits are shared. They all work, even the elderly while they still can, they simply want to be of help and continue contributing to their community.
The kids go to school or daycare where some of the ladies look after them while the rest are working out there.
It is nearly like a utopia of a socialist society, you might say, where all have work, duties, responsibilities and modest housing with all the modern commodities you'd have in a 'western world' house...

Within the 'mini village' there are a several houses, scattered throughout the living grounds, where the members live with their families and some other houses are used by the volunteers and some young soldiers who also go to work in a kibbutz as part of their military service for some time.

We even had a great swimming pool, a gym, a basketball court, and a library and once or twice a month we'd all go to the local cinema to watch a movie, together with members and volunteers from other nearby kibbutzim...all free!

You practically don't need any money while you are there, as you get everything you need, food, clothing, entertainment, and you can get a few bits and pieces from the little store within the kibbutz, where you use tokens to buy stuff like chocolates and beer, and you were allowed to have about 7 packs of free 'Noblesse' cigarettes a week (a local brand), maybe that policy has changed by now...

We all had meal breaks and met up in the huge dining room at the same meal-times. They always had great fresh food, primarily from their own produce and from other kibbutzim nearby. It was a self-service buffet where you would gather your meal, as much as you wanted, and take it to your table and afterwards, you'd take your dishes and tray to the massive dishwashing machine.

Everyone goes to work every morning, 6 days a week, from Sunday morning to Friday afternoon when everything stops to celebrate Shabbat. That starts at sunset on Friday and ends on Saturday at sunset...

Friday nights were always very special in my Kibbutz, everyone got cleaned up and dressed up for Shabbat Dinner. Everyone came to the dining room including children, which you rarely see during the week. They set the tables up beautifully with white tablecloths and nice cutlery and, on that night, we all get served dinner at our table. At my kibbutz there was normally some delicious roast beef with gravy and vegies and we got to have some special bread for Shabbat called Challah bread, they even served us wine, although it was a special Shabbat wine, a bit too sweet, but it made that dinner very special.
And, for dessert, we had a delicious cheesecake...Best ever!
They would say a little prayer before dinner and they'd light up the Shabbat candles... It was really quite something every Friday night...
Well, now you have a brief idea of what a kibbutz is, although there's much more to it than that...

Before going there I frankly could not believe such places existed nowadays and I was extremely curious to see one for myself!
Then I was told that they accepted volunteers to go and work there in exchange for food and accommodation, and many people flocked there every year to live a "Kibbutz Experience" and to learn some new skills you'd probably never learn back home.

The only requirement is that you have to be in good health and fit enough to do some physical work, you have to be between 18-30 years old and speak some basic English..
and I said...Hey, that's me! (I was 20 years old then).

After spending that New Year's Eve at the Youth Hostel in Tel-Aviv, watching the 'Blues Brothers' movie, as I mentioned on my previous post, I went the next business day to the Kibbutz Organization Office, where you can apply to volunteer in a kibbutz, it must've been January 2, 1981.

I had to pay a small fee, just a few dollars, and had to take a medical test.
After doing that I was interviewed by a man who asked me a few questions like... "where would you like to go?"...I had no clue, "what kind of work would you like to do?"... no clue there either..."Never mind" he said...
"How long would you like to stay?...It is a minimum of one month"
Yup, one month is good for me, I said (although I ended up staying for 3 months!)
"I have the perfect Kibbutz for you", he said, "it is not too big and not too small, and has a good reputation amongst volunteers, it is called NEVE-EITAN..."

Cool!... and when can I go? ...I asked...thinking I may need to wait a week or so..
and he said promptly, "RIGHT NOW!" with a big grin on his face...
I'll give them a call now and I'm sure they'll be looking forward to seeing you there."
Excellent! 

I went back to the Youth Hostel where I had left my stuff and quickly got on my way...
I first had to go to the Bus Terminal, in order to get on a bus to the nearest town to my Kibbutz, this town is called Beit-Shean, close to the 'Sea of Galilee'. (see map below)

When I got to the terminal it was all a bit confusing, there were lots of "Egged Buses" (the largest transportation company in Israel) they all looked the same, red and white, and I kept wondering , why is it called Egged?... weird name for a bus company...("never mind" as they day in Israel all the time...)
​After a while I found my bus and got on it. 

There were also a lot of young soldiers walking around with their guns over their shoulders, although they looked quite relaxed. I actually sat next to one on the bus and he had his gun, a big rifle next to him..so I asked...

What's the story? How come there are so many soldiers all over the place?
He said, "Oh, we are on leave and going home, we actually get some time off while we are doing our military service..." and why the guns? ...I asked.
"We are all given a gun when we start and we are responsible for it at all times and if we lose it we may go to jail"... 
In Israel, all men have to do 3 years and the women 2 years of compulsory military service.
They do take very seriously their defense duties and there's never a dull moment in Israel.

Anyway, after a 2 hour or so ride I arrived in Beit-Shean, where I had to find out about any buses going to my Kibbutz and there was going to be a long wait for the next one, so I decided to hitchhike to my kibbutz.
In no time at all I got a lift on the back of a small ute, (a small pick up car) and it happened to be a member of my kibbutz, so he drove me all they way in, lucky me!

He suggested I went to the dining room to look for the volunteers' leader, her name was Dudda.
Dudda was a young mum, in her 30s, with extremely curly red hair and a big smile.

I found her in the kitchen and said - Hello, are you Dudda? I'm Hector...and she said... "Yes, Shalom shalom...Welcome to Neve-Eitan! 
I've been waiting for you, where are you from?
I said, Mexico... Oh, Mexikani (Mexican in Hebrew)… glad to have you here, we've never had a Mexican volunteer before...
Let me show you to your house.

We walked through the nicely landscaped gardens, no body was around, they were all working somewhere, then at the end of a path she said, there is your new home!

She walked me into my room, there were 2 beds, and she said "Here's your linen for your bed, you haven't got a roommate yet but you may get one soon... (that story on my next post) 

That door there is the toilet and the shower is over there at the other end, you get to share that with the guys in the other room next to yours...."

Cool, thanks so much! I was truly quite excited about the whole deal!
"Get set up and I'll see you in the dinning room when you are ready so we can talk about work and all that, ok?"
Excellent, no problem I'll be there soon, I said...
I had really no idea what I was in for, but I was really looking forward to this experience whatever it might be.

I immediately made my bed, not sure why, maybe I wanted to make myself at home and claim my bed! Put all my stuff in the small wardrobe and tucked my backpack under the bed, placed my cassette tapes and Walkman on the bedside table and I was all set...
I sat on a chair that we had in the room and had a look around the room, it was fairly spacious and clean enough, and there was a small window at the back of the room between the beds looking towards the back garden and other houses...

Then, I took a deep breath and said to myself...
​Welcome to My First Home Away From Home...

I headed back to the dining room and when I got there I said...
Shalom Dudda, where to from here?
More on this in my next posts...

​NZ Citizenship Anniversary...
On the 20th of August 2012, I officially became a Kiwi (a New Zealander)
or, what I call...a MexiKiwi,  because, even though I have left my homeland, my roots are still there, so I will also be a Mexican forever... 

Prior to getting my NZ citizenship, I had already lived here in NZ for 20 years with a 'Permanent Resident' status, due to the fact that Mexico and NZ didn't have a dual citizenship agreement back then. Eventually, that came about and I started looking at officially taking up NZ Citizenship.

I remember clearly the beauty of the 'New Zealand Citizenship Ceremony' ... it was something special and an unforgettable moment... it took place at the beautiful Auckland City Town Hall. (Pictured below)

In a group of about 500 people from more than 70 countries at the same ceremony, a person from the government welcomed us ...and said to us ... 

"Thank you so much for choosing New Zealand as your second home ...."

Wow, I don't know if that happens in other countries but it was extremely moving and totally unexpected... and my eyes swelled with tears ... 

Since then I feel enormous gratitude for this country, which, although small, has a big heart. It has given me a good life, full of peace, good health, opportunity (my business) and hope ... and as a bonus my partner in my life... my lovely wife Helen. 

Thank you New Zealand, Kia Ora, Aotearoa.

My first New Year's Eve overseas...in Tel-Aviv, Israel...

After having spent Xmas in Athens, Greece, I flew down to Tel-Aviv, right on December 30th, 1980...
So, I celebrated the beginning of 1981 in Tel-Aviv... and I was officially for the first time in the Middle East.
 
An interesting point to make is that I was in a country where their Jewish calendar doesn't mark a New Year the same day as we do...for them 1980 was the year 5,740 and 5,741 wasn't coming until September!...

They do live their daily lives, as most countries do, with the internationally accepted civil calendar the 'Gregorian calendar', however, there are no celebrations on New Year's eve as there are in many countries around the world.

So, it was pretty quiet in town, no decorations, no announcements, no big anything, apart from the 'SALES' at stores, where they do kind of get into the commercial side of it...of course, as it is a very cosmopolitan city.

As soon as I arrived in Tel-Aviv I realised it was going to be a different game there, somehow I learned quickly not to jump into taxis that may overcharge you or unmarked vehicles with drivers saying "Shaaalooom my friend, where are you from? I can take you, where are you going?  I'll give you good price..."
-Yeah, nah... I smiled and caught the local bus to the place I was going to stay at.

I had learned to avoid things like that thanks to a couple of books that many backpackers carried and used to travel with, they are like a travel a guide for backpackers. Yes, a 'hard copy book' that could tell you what to do, what to avoid, where to stay, what to eat, the regular prices for things and all kinds of different tips and ideas...

One of the books was called "Let's go Israel" (there are "Let's go" books for many countries and cities). There was also a book called "Israel on a shoestring", with similar content...Those books were absolute gold in those days before the internet and mobile phones existed.
​
I stayed in a Youth Hostel, as usual, but not as cheap as the one in Athens, I think it was about $5 dollars including continental breakfast, which meant, coffee, cereal, toast, jam, and maybe a hard boiled egg...not great but, ok...

December 31st arrived and ... - what are we going to do to celebrate?

Well, after my experience in Athens at that bar, another one of those was out of the question!
Learned my lesson real fast.

So, what then?...
No one in the Youth Hostel had great plans, and they all seemed to be very excited about the fact that after dinner time, around 8 pm, they were going to show a Video in the dining room of the Youth Hostel, and somehow many thought it was going to be awesome!

I was like... ok, so let's have some dinner and let's get to it...
What is the name of the movie? I asked?
They said, "it's the 'BLUES BROTHERS' man!... Have you watched it?"
and...frankly speaking I'd never heard of it and had no clue why they were so excited about it... nevertheless, I decided to go along with it and pretend to look excited...and said... "Cool!"
I'll be here to watch it...

Well, it was a cool movie, I guess...with lots of music, although I couldn't quite understand why the BIG DEAL...
Maybe it was because I was just beginning to watch something in just English, which I was just beginning to get the hang of, and couldn't quite understand it all and... the subtitles were in Hebrew!... which didn't help....

All those with more advanced English and those guests from English speaking countries were laughing and singing along to some of the catchy tunes, some which I'd never heard before...
I think I might've dozed off a bit, now and then, as all of a sudden the movie was over and people were saying how cool that was!! (*You can view the movie trailer below, hope you know the movie)

We said our "Happy New Years" and "Good nights" and went to bed... I even learned to say both in Hebrew right there ....'Shana Tova'! (Happy New Year) and  'Laila Tov' (Good night)...

We woke up to a New Day and a New Year for my New Adventure, in a fairly New Country as we know it now. (Israel was recognised as a new nation, just 32 years before I got there, the State of Israel was formed on May 14, 1948)...

However, I was quite aware that I was  in a very old land, that has gone through some major upheavals and changes throughout thousands of years of history...
It is a land which is regarded by Jews, Christians and Muslims (the 3 'Abrahamic religions' ) as their Holy Land....and for that reason and many others, it may forever be in some kind of conflict...

More about this incredible place and my adventures in the Middle East in future posts...

​What a start of a year...
Shana Tova!