ʼOr

the long version

They come from all over the world, with the most varied reasons, to work on an Israeli kibbutz. The author, who worked as a volunteer in the kibbutz Beit Oren in the Carmel mountains for a number of months, tells of the work in the kibbutz and of the relationships to the kibbutzniks and the other volunteers as well as of her experience in a foreign landscape and culture. She lives there to a great extent at peace with herself and nature surrounded by fascinating landscapes, taking part in a largely self-sufficient society. Although she must overcome a crisis, she reaps a huge personal gain from her exposure to the “simple life”, which is often more many-sided than life in the western world can be. Uta M. Haubold, born in 1966 in Hamburg, worked for a number of months as a volunteer in the Beit Oren kibbutz, Carmel mountains in Israel following her high school graduation in 1986. She then studied English, educational theory and German for 2 semesters in Heidelberg, where she afterwards graduated as translator. From 1991 on she worked in the newspaper production department of a Heidelberg scientific publisher.