LOTAN, ISRAEL

Excerpts from students blogging about their academic and field experience of sustainability

In me I can feel a rising readiness to actively observe my environment, that natural, built, and strange intangible environment we have built through the centuries with our minds; encompassing currency and politics and territory - to find solutions that move the world towards greater unity. -Laura Zuckerman, College of the Atlantic (Fall 2008)

...We can go back from whence we came and realize that gardening is not so different in different climates. Getting to know one's local plants, local soil, weather patterns, and sectors, or energy that flows through the site, are the most important principles and apply no matter where you live. -Macrina Newhouse, Marlboro College (Fall 2008)

We haven't escaped from the pile of homework that generally starts growing around this time of the year. The difference: this homework is empowering. -Erin Katz, Lesley University (Fall 2009)

Storytelling reminds me of what Jodi said during Peace and Social Justice about serving soup to someone in handing them the bowl, you are giving the other student something that will nourish them, but you are also lightening your load. Your hands are now emptied of the weight of the bowl. I think giving our stories to other people is like this. -Lucy Litvak, Stanford University (Fall 2009)

Here is the group at the end of their straw bale house-building day. Each year, after some theory and a classroom seminar on the topic of building with straw bales, the groups start with a pile of bales and turn it into a small house within a few hours.
-Leah Zigmond, Faculty (Fall 2008)

...We were invited to stay in a Bedouin family's house and begin a permaculture project on their land...we gave the family an area for leisure and food production without spending a penny. The resources...were already on site or in proximity to the site...during this process we taught them as much as we could about permaculture and the reasoning behind every aspect of the project. The most amazing aspect of this project was that we gave the family an area for leisure and food production without spending a penny. The resources we were presented with were already on site or in proximity to the site. -Alison Gross, University of Colorado Boulder (Fall 2008)

Two days ago we got to see another kibbutz whose members cherish their independence and creativity and freedom so much that they devote their lives to maintaining a community together. It's a life full of unwritten responsibility and difficult decisions. They construct beautiful homes made out of garbage and mud. One was pink and round and looked like it belonged in Dr. Seuss. Is this a farmer's paradise? -Ellena Baum, Smith College (Fall 2009)

Living in Kibbutz Lotan has not only taught me a lot about creative ecology...but has increased my love of this field and has suffused creative ecology into my thinking. Permaculture is practical ecology that makes logical sense. It challenges conventional (or normal) organic agriculture and makes you think about what is really the most sustainable way to not only grow food, but to live. -Ben Weinberger, Colby College (Fall 2008)

Garden classes last for the first few weeks of the program. The students learn basic gardening skills such as composting, seed sowing, planting, how to create a garden from scratch just about anywhere...as well as topics of basic soil science, methods garden planning and plant classification, and basic plant biology. -Leah Zigmond Faculty (Fall 2008)

With Lotan and Living Routes, the PowerPoints are for reference or to backup a lesson. They are not the sole teachers of the course. We have class in the garden, discuss liquid compost and then make it together, to be used next week on the plants that we previously planted. This is how I learn. I learn by building a mud bench, feeling the differences in the 2nd layer mud vs. the 4th. I learn by going outside to look at the sun and experiment with the placement of windows and overhang to best heat or cool a house. These are the ways I learn best. Even when not in class, I have experimented with various things being taught. -Arielle Aronoff, SUNY Geneseo (Fall 2009)

The end of the program is a special time for us as faculty and for the students as everyone starts to see all the pieces of learning coming together into one big picture... -Leah Zigmond Faculty (Fall 2008)

I met peace activists deeply connected to their religions, and was inspired by their deep compassion in action, their commitment to finding joy in human connection even when their work was arduous. -Lucy Litvak, Stanford University (Fall 2009)

There is something special here on Kibbutz Lotan. Each and every person has a very distinct, strong personality. The way they hold their own shows that this form of communal living has not undermined their individuality. -Arielle Aronoff, SUNY Geneseo (Fall 2009)

If olive branches are symbolic of peace, then our picking olives off their branches that day was a small way of cultivating peace both between Palestinians and Jews, and between the Palestinian's family and the earth that they depend on. It made me think that peace is certainly not the absence of conflict, but something that must be planted, tilled and enjoyed. As we picked green-grey olives one by one from the branches, it seemed that it could have felt like endlessly tedious work, but because so many of us were there together, Jews, Palestinians, and Americans, it felt like we were making noticeable progress constantly. -Lucy Litvak, Stanford University (Fall 2009)